I just wanted your opinions on this matter, as I came to wonder, if it was fully intended from the developers' point. Usually you have to try a lot of times before you hit the right spot afoot. It is however easy, when you have Fly in your spell book - just fly along the edges till you reach the corner and land, when the compass is either straight NW, SW, NE or SE depending on your wanted crossing. Needless to say you want to have a good NPC combo along like a Pathfinder and a Guide to minimize travel time to one day only.

And to those few ppl. who don't know what I'm writing about, it concerns these diagonal map crossings: Castle Ironfist <-> Free Haven Bootleg Bay <-> Mire of the Damned Free Haven <-> Dragonsands Free Haven <-> Kriegspire Mire of the Damned <-> Blackshire Frozen Highlands <-> Blackshire Blackshire <-> Hermit's Isle Blackshire <-> Sweet Water Dragonsands <-> Paradise Valley Kriegspire <-> Paradise Valley

Also worth mentioning is the fact, that watery map corners prevent these travel routes: New Sorpigal >< Bootleg Bay Castle Ironfist >< Misty Islands Bootleg Bay >< Eel Infested Waters Misty Islands >< Silver Cove Bootleg Bay >< Frozen Highlands Free Haven >< Silver Cove

Personally I really like Castle Ironfist to Free Haven and vice versa especially in early game. I once in a game noticed, that I had entered the Castle Ironfist area from two different angles leaving a shroud inbetween the two cleared entry points - just thought it looked funny.

To my memory similar crossings can be done in MM8 as well. MM7 has much more intertwined travel net - can't really remember if any corner crossings can be made - maybe someone can remember that. As for MM9 I have no idea or recollection - and even less for MMX. Never played MM1-5...