@Harleyyelrah said in [Suggestion] Make cities unable to be self sufficient:
If the point of the game is to have interdependent cities, then these proposals may work. Perhaps that may be useful for inter-city interaction on Arboreus.
Personally, I've always interpreted Fractured's intent as systematically-enforcing cities/regions and guilds to have relationships with one another for commerce, diplomacy, and politics. Otherwise every region/city would have access to the same variety and volume of resources. The fact that resources are disparate in composition and quantity was, to me, clearly intended to deter regions/cities and guilds from trying to be literally self-sufficient. These features seem to drive regions/cities and guilds to interact with other regions/cities and guilds to meet all their needs.
However, I don't think that inter-city cooperation is exactly the intent for Syndesia or Tartaros, especially when city sieges are a main feature. I can say that the PvP groups started this alpha test with the intent to build up their own cities, seeing each other as "enemies" and therefore trying to be as self sufficient as possible is part of the game.
I think Syndesia, in particular, is meant to be a nexus of city cooperation and competition. They're not mutually exclusive on Syndesia, much like the real world. States both rely on other states to meet specific needs for commerce and resources while also seeking to conquer or dominate other states for various reasons. It makes sense that PvP groups would want to be as self-reliant as possible and, if given that option, I think all cities/regions will aggressively pursue that path of least resistance because that's just how people are.
However, if Fractured systematically ensures that no city can meet all of its internal needs as an isolationist state, it will force them to interact with others via commerce or conquest and that's a good thing IMO.
Forcing inter-city reliance would likely just lead to huge guilds absorbing smaller guilds and claiming multiple cities for themselves rather than any cooperation.
Only if Fractured fails to make city management extremely complex and time consuming. If cities run on auto pilot like in Albion Online, then it will definitely incentivize guilds to roll over as much territory as possible. Hopefully, city management will be so challenging and intricate that it will deter most groups from trying to directly conquer the world.