How about slums?

I agree. Having just loaded up the beta for the first time earlier today, the first thing that struck me was the feel... it really wasn't what I expected. Loads of inns, and then somebody asked me to kill some rats for them. I dunno, i was founding a new kingdom/empire after an acapolcaypse, and was one of the few remaining magic users in the world, I doubt I'd be doing cliched fantasy quests.

Maybe the rat quest is meant to be an in-joke? The game felt a lot more King's Bounty than I was expecting. Whereas FfH2 does the whole dark, dangerous fantasy world thing a lot better.

I guess I should probably go back to ignoring the beta, and then wait til a while after release, once some mods and offical patches have sorted it all out.

Look through this if you want to: https://forums.elementalgame.com/384539

Nothing bad about there being survivors, nothing bad about a growing commerce system. Heck, nations appear out of nowhere but still function, merchants work in an instant. Yet inn hints at lengthy travel, something only a few might do before they know of a destination. Not enough to support an inn in every place. My guess is that an inn would appear a few years after a worldwide devastation. And Elemental starts 100 years after the cataclysm. Simply decrease the number of them would solve it for me.

But the bonus of inns is that everyone gets... "Inn? Oh, a questgiver."

What the problem is: There are only inns. No settlements, no forts, no buildings except inns. Somehow pleasant little yellow-tiled inns appear here and there, yet there are no villages. The world isn't devoid of life or civilization, yet all we see are inns. So my solution:

Decrease the number of inns. Make other houses, settlements, and things. A goody hut might very well be a hut, where a family makes a bleak living.

No one is suggesting that there shouldn't be survivors, but as you yourself have said, about a million things would come before inns.  Rudimentary roads, cities, and commerce. 

To be honest, this whole post-Apocalyptic motiff has been nothing but a massive thorn in Elemental's side as a valid and enrapturing game.  The things that Frog is trying to do with the game is counter to what one would realistically expect after an apocalyptic event.  As of now, I don't see how Elemental will possibly feel immersive, but I'm hoping to be proven wrong. 

But then again, I get more irritated with monster locations spawning next to my starting location. Both are things I have taken over for the future.

One other thing that bothers me is that the higher level quest tiles don't feel/look any more grand than the low level ones. I wished that it would be a bit more exciting and be more exotic to find a witch hut than it does to find an inn.

For example, a witch hut should be in a marsh, often surrounded with some monsters.

A Wizard tower should be in a hard to reach area, perhaps in the mountains, in the middle of a large forest or at the edge of the continent. Perhaps a solitary island.

Inns should be paired with at least a couple of pieces of road.

I don't like these sorts of locations to just randomly pop up on any tile wherever. Needs more consistency. Same goes for resource tiles. It's not fun that there's gold deposits, fertile land and lost libraries right next to each other all on plains. Gold deposits should be near mountains or hills. Old growth forests should be near forests. Lost Libraries should be somewhere a bit more remote (wizard tower example).

I agree on the inns should be permanent point. And an indicator would be nice, yes.

One fun idea that came to mind is for inns to have a certain lifespan:

1. Lively inn: quest location. Spawns a new quest every X turns.
2. Worn out inn: quest location, worn out indicates it'll get deserted soon.
3. Deserted inn: level 2 goodie hut. After X turns gets converted to pile of rubble.
4. Pile of rubble: level 1 goodie hut. After X turns disappears altogether.

I came to a similar idea from a different direction, trying to reduce cluttering, take a look.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=171398

A mod for Civ 4, that turns Civ 4 into a fantasy game. It is better than the vanilla game imo, try it if you haven't.

First thing I'd do after an apocalypse is go get a drink.

Excellent ideas.  I would like to see certain resources clustered together in this fashion.  If you have a lot of cities up in the hills, you probably have a lot of iron and gold.  If you have a lot of cities on the "Mystic Planes," homeland of a lost mystical civilization, there should be a lot of lost libraries. 

Well, Definitely Inns (or whatever Quest giving locations) should stick around ... as most Quest giving locations.

While actual "questing" locations are free to pop-up and disappear. Although I would kinda like Persistent Dungeons that could be explored multiple times.

My main problem with the build is that there is just not enough stuff to kill (or the stuff dies too easily)

Therefore, simply give some monsters a LOT more HP, and let the Heroes have the high stats and the combat speed.

I'll admit to feeling the post-apocalyptic setting has felt mostly cosmetic to me. I'm not really complaining, it just does.