Or maybe just an old world map of the area with a loading bar in the shape of the path the adventurers are traveling. Or perhaps just some nice concept art of the terrain you are travelling across that stays on screen just long enough to load the next map.
The point is that if you can shoot an arrow from one edge of a forest and hit a goblin on the other edge of the forest, it isn't really a forest. The solution to having real scale without a boring 2-week real-time march to the next destination is to imply the passage of time and load a new map set 2 weeks later.
Maybe ... but that would be equivalent of loaded dices ...
It solve one problem, sure ... but imediatly create another one. O_o
For one how would you split the curent map?
And for two, wouldnt in bee too small then? :-/
I mean ... for example Blighted Village is actualy quite small, when you think about it. :-/
I wouldn't split up the current map. That would just give you several smaller theme parks.
I would build a to-scale map for the druid grove, and another to-scale map for the blighted village, and another to-scale map for Ethel's swamp, and another to-scale map for the underdark. If something takes place in a forest, there should be trees as far as the eye can see. You shouldn't be able to walk from the middle of the forest to the top of a mountain in two minutes.
I don't imagine that they are going to redesign all the environments for Chapter 1 at this point, but I hold out a little hope that they might make environments for later chapters more to scale.
If nothing else, I would hope that if enough people feel the same as I, that when they go to make Baldur's Gate 4 they will look back on this seamless "open-world" theme park as a failed experiment.
