We'll tone down the power of night spawns in Vallaki itself but we won't remove them altogether. It should make it easier to navigate through the city at night but not to linger there (which goes against curfew and setting themes).
I'm not sure I like this. Most people traveling through the city at night will continue to be sewer jumpers but a little less to worry about.
I don't think Vallaki isn't an attraction because of the rats, is what I'm trying to say. A hostile game environment does nurture roleplay.
I think where we're really going wrong in the general tone of this thread is that from the very beginning, there's this idea that just because the prancing nymph or tigan's rest are near the outskirts, people will want to RP in those places. But these places do not have a thriving RP scene, activity is sporadic and typically event-centric.
When it comes to expectations vs. reality, the reality is players don't want to RP in those places because most of the idle RP happening in the outskirts revolves around player merchants dropping chests on the floor for an hour or two at a time, which is something you might get in trouble for at a tavern. It's long been recognised both by staff and the rest of the playerbase that outskirts RP isn't "Barovian RP" except in the case of the grumbling guards. The "solution" to this "problem" does, in my eyes, require a more committed change in location than the curfew.
There should be a push to incentivise people to RP in Vallaki and engage with the themes Barovia is all about, rather than making night travel safer for the few people who ignore every warning to go out after dark. I'm not saying I want to see Deep City Alpha Rats invade Vallaki, but I can't see where further defanging Barovia helps.
