So after one of the recent dev posts, I have to say I'm disappointed with the way that cities are turning out.  Granted, we don't know exactly how it will turn out until future betas.  The devs always promised that Elemental would be enveloping and feel like a living growing world.  Having authoritarian control over where to plop every building in your city--- right on down to where "huts" go--- is not very organic. 

I think so far what cities are sorely lacking is some kind of expression of their overall health and vitality.  As of right now, a city is really nothing more than its buildings, and every person has uniform worth throughout your empire.

If I had my way with things, I would scrap the tile placing system alltogether.  Yes, cities would take up more and more tiles as it grew, but the player wouldn't specifically place each building.  The way in which you build structures, too, would be different.  The second change would be the way in which the player gained population.  Instead of simply abstractly having people come roaming in from the country side, they would be in roving, survivalist bands at the beginning which the sovereign must court.  Eventually, these bands run out, and you must rely strictly on fertility rates.

Third (and this is the biggest change) each city would have 3 special values.  Wealth, education, and magical aptitude.  These values would represent how wealthy, educated, and magically learned the citizen are.  Over time, depending on what buildings you have or resources are nearby, these values would grow.  When you build a building in your city, it will not only demand gold, but will use up some of those values.  A library would require some wealth and a good bit of scholarship.  A blacksmith would require a lot of wealth, and some scholarship.  A mage tower would require a lot of magical aptitude and some scholarship, and a lot of wealth.  These values wouldn't be spent like gold, but would be invested into that building.  So let's say your city has 500 wealth, and a blacksmith requires 100 wealth.  If you build 3 blacksmiths, your city would still have 500 wealth, but 300 would be used up with only 200 remaining for investment.  Destroy the blacksmiths, and you'd have 500 wealth again, but not the gold that you spent.  So in other word, most of the wealth of your nation isn't locked up in some abstract treasury, but is instead in the hands of your citizens.  Your tax revenue would come from the wealth score of each city, rather than simply from each citizen.

Now, what this system does is prevent the player from simply spamming specific buildings.  Want a city of scholarship and learning?  You have to cultivate one over time by building up a scholarship score.  Want a city of glitzy magical towers and sorcery?  Gotta grow that one too.  Want a city of great riches and revenue?  Well, you need to make sure you build it near critical wealth building resources.  And what if your wealth begin to collapse from broken trade treaties, incessant war, or enemy raids on your resources?  Well, if these 3 values dip below the necessary wealth to actaully support your city buildings, your buildings suffer penalties, and your city as a whole begins to look ill.  Buildings begin to look decrepid and manor houses turn to huts.  The more these values fall, the less efficient, and more sick looking, your city becomes.

Now, how your city actually appears depends on the per capita rating of each of these scores, represented by small sliders next to the number.  If your wealth is high but your population is low relative to that wealth, the city is filled with well groomed buildings and manor houses.  If your wealth is low relative to your population, then the city is unorganized, choked with filth, and filled with huts.  Likewise, a city with a very high per capita magic rating would be radiating magical energy, and it would show on the strategic map.

Now, let me explain how I would have liked to see resources managed by a city.  You would not build city tiles on resources, as is currently in beta.  Instead, your city would have a zone of influence.  Any resource within that zone of influence would be procurred by your city dwellers and exploited.  Prestige determines your zone of influence, but there are other factors as well.  First, the expansion of a zone is greatly hindered by blighted land, and for a zone to advance quickly it must be healed.  Also, hostile entities that reside on the land and unexplored dungeons exert a very negative influence on such zones as well.      

So this is a general overview which I'll ellaborate on if anyone would like to join the discussion.  I've left out all of the fine balance details for now (like the gradual tapering off of per capita values), as well as the exact role of buildings, but I've gotta get myself to work.