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Since the game has apparently moved to more 1v1v1v1 kind of model, theoretically throwing in another smaller organization of players wouldn't be too difficult, particularly if it was a faction that could throw support behind whoever it wanted or pledged its loyalty to the highest bigger.

Several people have mentioned this, or things like this, and it comes down to the fact that if there is a choice to be made at a group level, leadership and politics WILL happen. If you're not in a city, you shouldn't get the group benefits of a guild; on the other hand, what benefits could we give rogues as an ALTERNATIVE to make up for what they lack? I think there are probably some creative and thematic options out there that aren't just copied from cities. I'm not referencing ylem benefits here because I think @Damonicus 's suggestion of a quest line to buy into a (perhaps more limited) supply of ylem-based wares in Delve is a great idea.

As a side note, the entire learning system is absolutely ridiculous. There is no reason you should have to wait so long to learn a batch of lessons, even at 60 per. Selling an artifact to combat something that shouldn't exist in the first place is just balls. If you like the messages for RP, then have the long draw showing them the first time you learn that specific skill, then from there on out it becomes insta-learn. Alternatively, allow an amount of lessons all the way to max to be specified. I get that learning is supposed to be slow and tedious for a sense of realism, but I don't think anyone actually feels enriched by waiting for endless messages to pass.

So, I've not played regularly in a long time, but when I was still playing, I made the choice to go cityless, and I did so for a number of reasons, as painful of an experience as it was. If you want to understand the plight of rogues and how to make things more enjoyable, you need to consider WHY players/characters choose to go cityless in the first place.

* Character/city politics can be stressful and a huge headache. For me personally, this was a large reason why I went cityless, but I'd heard from other people that had gone rogue over the years that had this reasoning too. Real life is sucky and stressful enough with having to navigate the minefield that is social niceties, or all the wheeling and dealing that comes with politics. Piss off the wrong people in-character (or if players just happen to not like you), you might find your advancement in a city stunted or halted entirely. Rather than deal with it, some people might find it more preferable or healthier to just distance themselves from it or separate themselves from it entirely.

* The ideologies/RP of the existing cities are unappealing. As weird as it might sound, some people might not gel with the themes or RP of a given city or none of the options fit the character concept a player might have, and they don't want to try and shoehorn their character into a city too hard. Some people might just want to play an unaffiliated drifter. It's an RP game, people having freedom and options should be a good thing.

* 'Switching sides' had an extremely prohibitive and punishing lesson cost. I don't know if this still applies now that mirror classes are a thing, but before if you wanted to go to a different city but didn't want or couldn't join the other city on the same side you were on, the only option was to swap sides, but doing so meant you'd lose lessons and access to a lot of the classes you had before. If you can't afford that cost, you're kind of SOL, and the only other option is to just go cityless. You keep all you classes and skills, but you're still kind of cut off from everything else.


Things that made being a rogue an unenjoyable experience:

* Losing access to ylem stuff. If you enjoy bashing, this one hurts the most. No access to pylon manipulations, a lot of ylem artifacts become useless, you can't turn in mists, you can't get orbs. Giving up participating in leyline conflicts isn't as hard a pill to swallow as giving up the PvE benefits.

* Losing the extra lesson learning from tutors. You wouldn't think this would be so bad to lose, but you don't realize how convenient it is until you no longer have access to it.

* RP can be tougher to find. This is something you kind of accept with the territory of going rogue, and it forces you to be more acting in seeking out interaction. Unfortunately, you putting in the effort to stay relevant doesn't always mean other people will extend the same amount of effort to you. It's not reasonable to expect gods and other players to interact with you on a major, story-impacting level on a regular basis. For some people, that's fine, but for others it can be a slog.


* Some systems and mechanics are locked to city membership. When Farming and the other production skills came out, I was extremely excited. Being a major crafter, it meant that I could produce my own resources and not really have to worry about relying on a bigger org for stuff... And then I discovered that Farms, and later mines, could only be owned by people in a city. That really sucked, and when I went cityless some time after that, it made crafting extremely difficult. To add salt to the wound, at the time it didn't feel like that such a system really needed to be tied to citizenship.

* The attitude towards rogues over the years has generally been extremely hostile. This has been a problem from both players and administration for a long time, and would probably be the biggest one in need of changing. Let's face it: players that play rogue characters are the minority of the game's population. Always have been. But the attitude towards them has always been disproportionately hostile. 'The game isn't made to cater to rogues', 'We have no plans to cater to rogues', 'The game is designed for players to have to pick a side'. The general attitude has always felt like if you chose to be a rogue, you were disengaging with the game and its players and there was something wrong with you. I dunno - have you tried RPing with someone who spends like 6 hours a day bashing? An activity that kind of demands a lot of attention and requires you to disregard everything else for long periods of time? A lot of stuff caters towards bashing, so why not cater just a tiny bit to rogues?


Things that might make being rogue more enjoyable:

I do agree with the whole creating a 'neutral' or pseudo-organizational hub, maybe as something that could be opted into. It could be a mercenary faction, an NPC city, or whatever the heck. Something that'd provide some benefits of a city, but not full benefits. Characters wouldn't be able to get leadership positions (if you're a rogue, you probably wouldn't care for politics anyway), but still get little things like limited ylem benefits, tutors, access to production things like farming/mining/etc. Guard protection? ...enh. Could take it or leave it, honestly. Very limited protection is probably okay as long as it's nothing on the same level as a full city. The other thing about having rogues being part of a faction or NPC-run organization is that it could give players and their characters an in to participating in events if they wanted. Since the game has apparently moved to more 1v1v1v1 kind of model, theoretically throwing in another smaller organization of players wouldn't be too difficult, particularly if it was a faction that could throw support behind whoever it wanted or pledged its loyalty to the highest bigger. Why wouldn't this be an issue? Rogues aren't that numerous to begin with, and if they're part of an NPC organization, including avenues for participation wouldn't be as difficult since you're not catering to individual rogues. And if the org were to happen to become influential or had some strong players in it, it might force cities to try and sway the rogue element a little more by either negotiating incentives to stay out of a conflict or try to win them over to their side. Wishful thinking, but it could happen.


But the main thing is that people really need to stop thinking that rogues are a detriment to the game. It's an RP game - you have your RP, let them have theirs. Having more options isn't necessarily a bad thing. And if you're still worried... Seriously. Of the active players, how many do you think are rogues? It's probably not a lot. Why continue to punish a small group of players that are already having a much less fulfilling playing experience instead of giving them small things that would actually let them ENJOY playing and want to keep logging in?