I was wondering whether the quest location could be integrated more into the rest of the game. Currently they just spawn randomly when you aquire certain techs (I know this should simulate you "discovering" them, but the fact that they seldom spawn in the wilds, so their location depends on where you have build cities makes it feel gamey, in contrast to flavorful). Then you visit them with one or more champions and "collect" them. After that  they disappear. I think there goes much wasted potential of integrating them more with the rest of the game elements:

- cities don't interact with them

- monsters don't spawn from them (except when you fail to defeat the guardians, I like that part but need more of that)

- there are no spells affecting them

- etc.

As an example for a good and flavorful integration of a map element with other parts of a game, I really like the native villages in colonization. They interact with all other element in that game in different ways, they are obstacle and resource, danger and potential. It starts with you being able to "collect" them with a scout (like a godey hut in civ) but after that they don't disappear. You can send trade wagons to trade with them, get citizens trained there, conquer them with soldiers or send missionaries to convert them. On the other hand they block the land (ok quest locations do too, but it's not nearly as painful in elemental, as land is of not much value in itself and the only way to get rid of the block is also the only way to profit from the locations anyway, so there is no choice) and they attack you if you take too much of their land. It all makes sense flavorwise and provides choices to the player. And it is not some bloated candy on top of the game but integrated very elegantly.

Of course I don't want a copy of those village, I just think they are a good inspiration for different ways to interact with a map location. So back to elemental, what are the interaction potentials here?

- Quest locations and cities: why do we have lost libraries as resources and lost labs as quest locations? Why can't we enter lost libraries with heroes or integrate the labs into the city? How about having resource/quest location hybrids? Then there would be a choice: If you harvest them you gain over time, but if you quest there you risk to destroy them or awake monsters that attack the city it is located in, etc.

- Quest locations and monsters: Monsters could spawn more regularly in quest locations, instead of in the wilds, so there is a risk in integrating them into your cities and a further incentive to visit them with your heroes to stop the spawning.

- Quest locations and spells: If there is an old battlefield or an old graveyard, I want to be able to raise the dead there Also some locations could have afinities to certain spells, so you would summon a demon in a summoners lab, cast fire spells at fire nodes, create artifacts in an artificers workshop, cast live spells in old temples etc.

- Quest locations and heroes: hiring heroes in inns or sending heroes on an ongoing quest, working in a lab, or using an old fortress for your own military after you conquered them.

In short, I fell like the current systems lacks choices, as you simple collect the quest locations and flavor, as the way the locations appear and disappear feels gamey somehow and just wanted to present some ideas how to change that. What do you think?