Now you're just being ridiculous. The initial conversation you have with Shadowheart is longer than 2 to 3 minutes. What we're suggesting is that the massive EA map could be broken into a few smaller maps so that there are natural transitions where they make sense.
So, one area would be the entire Beach and crypt including the wreckage of the ship in the area where you meet most of your companions. That is more than a few minutes of gameplay even if skip all of the cutscenes.
As you're heading towards the Grove, there is a transition so that the Grove area is then loaded. The entire Grove area all the way up to the river heading towards the village would be another separate map area. You can't tell me that you can do all of the grove in 2 to 3 minutes. Again, even if you skip all the dialogue, that's a sizable map location.
And, you may not even need a loading screen. A simple blackout for a few seconds while the game transitions to the new area is all you need. This would be just like when you are entering the Dank Crypt. There's no major loading scene when you go through the door into the Crypt. It's a blackout transition as the new area is loaded. Having smaller maps would speed up how long it takes for each area to load, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
This would then allow for a better resting mechanic. If all the map locations were smaller, they could create it so that you can't long rest until you reach the area exit. Thus, it would make more sense from an RPG perspective that you would have to complete an entire area before being allowed to end the day. This would then force you to use your short rest instead of long rest between encounters.
But what if my characters do really badly during certain fights and I can't continue unless I long rest? What's to stop me from going back to a previous area exit so that I can just long rest and return?
Respawn. If you leave the area and spend an entire rest of the day recovering, your enemies should replenish the area. Maybe they wouldn't have as many on the next day to face, but a respawning of enemies resets the game map so that it remains challenging. To be no different from an old school video game where you have to try to meet an entire level in one city or you have to start over on that level from the beginning. But again, maybe subsequent attempts are easier than the initial, or something of that nature.
But this is all pointless talk anyway. It's not really like they're going to do this. They'd have to revamp encounters to make this work, and they're not going to do it. At this point the game is probably what it is, and they're not likely going to make any changes other than minor stupid ones. So it doesn't really matter.
At this point, I don't care if they revamp the map or the resting system. I just kind of hope they at least revamp short rest. As it currently is, I find myself forcing myself to use them because I think they're just so pointless and stupid. There really is no reason to short rest. I get a ton of potions, I can use Arcane recovery at any time, and the only things that get reset are special abilities and warlock spell slots. In this game, warlocks are such a baby class that I hardly even play them. What's the point when the other classes are so much better. Wizards get a ton more spouse lots, and I can long rest whenever I want to replenish them.
Except that I never said how long doing x or y would take? The point was that, depending on how well optimized this is going to be on release, you could wind up with a good chunk of your playtime in a loading screen. No thanks.
