It might be a technical issue they have to balance when it comes to maps. These are images that need to be downloaded. If you look back on every side-activity, maps have been reduced or removed. On GE we've had the same map and path forever, we've gotten used to it, so it's still played. QI really should follow a different strategy instead of just redoing GE. If you compare the two, Day 2 is simply GE2, same map, higher difficulty. Unlike GE, you're forced into a higher difficulty before you've proven you can even get past the 1st difficulty level. As far as being a QI Officer, no real responsibility there, whoever gets to QI first gets to pick which encounter, past that, nothing to do or choose.
Not too happy with the simple skeleton map either. What would be an interesting twist is something like the GbG buildings on each accomplished sector. Instead of just donating goods, the Officers could choose a bonus building and then the donations would go to that. Not just for the node, but the whole map. Since it is an Incursion, there should be a beachhead building where on DAY 1, everyone could contribute goods, supplies and currency since Fighting is manual anyway (talking your average player which is 95%, not the whales). Allow for those decorations in the town to be built along the route. Consider real life, you need supplies, food, water if you're pushing into unknown territory. So instead of a simple line, you need to add the aqueduct to get to each node. A way to insure guild participation would be to scale these to a players Age when QI starts. That way those players in Iron Age would have the cheapest cost to build out on the map, so they'd be asked to do that, then the whales could come in to farm, etc. Not a stellar suggestion, but it would allow those Jr. players a chance to contribute.
Get back to the basics, it is an Incursion, so follow real world examples. The base camp, supply lines, Arty support from afar to possibly take down walls. I know it's a rework of just the Iron Age, but it would be a change to have opponents that might be inanimate objects. There are already bitmaps for every decoration in the game, just change the color map. So when you attack a fortified position, maybe you'll be destroying an enemy aqueduct that reduces his offensive capabilities, take down a statue or pillar and that hurts him too. Do it up front and not at the backside and possibly allow the whales to contribute in another way. Create a guild resource center that allows cities to share coins & supplies so cities could be built faster. Face it, the whales will do what they do, spend get the max buffs early and fight till they get bored. It's the newer players that don't have anything to contribute that simply don't participate.
One last thing, you've got developers, just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean it can't. Maybe QI is a cMap like Virtual Future. Each sector needs to be completed in order and GbG like, so you have to own a sector to move forward. Anyhow, I digress, just offer more options instead of toast, crispy toast, burnt toast, moldy burnt toast, then the same menu each day.
