This is a break-away from the ferry discussion, because the more I thought on it the more it bugged me.
The comment has already been made that the instant-travel ferries will be replaced with vardo caravan-style boat rooms so there will be more of an impact on travel time. This is great. I am all for that. What I'd love to see, though, is a carriage that would take you from Vallaki to the crossroads between VoB and the Tser pool.
"Wait wait wait, we don't want more fast travel!"
I hear you say. GOOD. I'm not suggesting fast travel. I'm suggesting slow travel. In fact, feel free to make it the same wait-time as running the same distance. Feel free to make it slower even. The speed is not the point.
Instead, what I'd love to see is a vardo-style carriage ride that will take you from one point to the other, during the day, for a fee.
"For what purpose?"
I do a ton of travel on J'qarr. For DM plots, various factions, meeting people in different places for RP, exploring different content, and so on. The road between Vallaki and the Tser pool might have been interesting to explore and tinker with the first little while.. but at this point I don't even see it when I run it anymore. My brain is on autopilot, zoning out while I repeat the motion for the thousandth time. It's not an adventure anymore, it's just a hassle. Tedious and exhausting. The blind sprint across the distance adds nothing to the player experience as a solo venture.
The primary reason, however, is that this situation is far worse when you're traveling with other players. Even if you're choosing to walk the entire distance, walking while talking is a pain in the butt. If you actually want to traverse the distance in a reasonable amount of time, you're running the whole way instead. In almost every group with which I've ever made the trip, once you get out of vallaki people just stop RPing until they make it to the Tser Pool or VoB. They'll trade a quip or two as they go, but most people are just waiting to get to wherever so they can go back to the actual conversation they wanted to have.
A vardo-like carriage ride between the two would allow players to use the travel time to more easily RP the travel, as well as serving as another minor gold sink. And if people wanted to get there faster, they could always do what most people do now anyway - expeditious retreat and sprint the whole way.
"Wouldn't this bypass the dangers on the road?"
Let's be real here for a moment. During the day, there's nothing on the route that's going to pose a problem to anyone who is paying attention. I've had level 2 characters who have made the run to the Tser Pool and back. The wolf spawns can be avoided and the Ogres can be sprinted past. You'll get away before their AI finishes the buffing routine. The only place that poses any real threat is that one bit just before midway of which I forget the name. The ruined tower in the narrow pass with bandits/ogres/hob goblins. Even that can usually be sprinted past in most situations, though the bandit archers can be nasty.
At night, it's a different story. That route can be nasty at night.. But that's fine. The carriage doesn't need to run at night. The ferries don't run at night either. Good Barovians are at home with their doors locked and garlic lining every possible crack of the structure. Eating their turnips, or whatever they do.
As a weird side-effect, this would actually mean that the spawns along that road were visited less often. Thus, when someone did want to take an adventure cross-country, they'd be more likely to face actual danger. Win win for everyone.
I want to reiterate again. It's not about making travel faster or easier. My main is a sorcerer. I can invis and extended haste the entire way on a single rest cycle. I already have it about as easy-mode as I can get. What I would want is to be able to have the kind of travel-RP I get out of the short caravan trips through the mists on the long-road I find myself crossing the most frequently.