The City honestly is the worst place for rebels to do actual big things. Why? It's the middle of the Combine's stronghold, where they will swat you away with OTA like an annoying fly and move on with their day. The best you get is risking your life for a token attack that in 90% of the cases is forgotten by next week and likely sees you killed. 9% is big attacks that won't be forgotten but are a certain death. 1% are actual good strategic attacks that don't fuck over your expected lifespan.
I believe it is more than normal for actual rebel attacks in the City to be rare. It is how things should be, assuming the resistance is focused on other things.
Good rebels don't do anything on the City. Good rebels get expeditions run for them and fuck shit up where the Combine are weaker. Bigger impact, higher survival chance. And when the stars align, they stick it to the Combine in the City to remind everyone they are still there.
See, the best rebel is someone like Bob. Bob never touches his gear in the City. Bob lives a normal life, works the occasional shift for the CWU. Bob bides his time, plans for his next move. Bob occasionally goes to the outlands with his friends to shoot some stuff or perform some rapid unscheduled disassembly of Combine assets. Bob gets paid, then Bob continues his normal life again, licking his wounds and building up strength again. And one day the vice administrator or some other big figure attends the funeral of some combine traitor outside the nexus. He gets blown up by Bob, who has quietly stashed enough C4 to level half a building during the past six months (surprised adminge faces when they determine this is valid). He will kill the vice admin (or some other big figure), get declared anti-citizen one while being recruited by Civil Protection to put out his own fire because they don't know that Bob is Bob. The OTA will sweep circles in the sewers and slums while Bob sits on a bench in the plaza enjoying his fresh ration. The Combine hate Bob, because they will never see Bob coming, they will never catch Bob, and Bob will fuck shit up when he sees the right opportunity. Be like Bob.
Edit: I wanted to add, I believe it to be wrong to measure a rebel's 'effectiveness' by what he does in the City within only a period of weeks/months just as much as I believe it to be wrong to measure a rebels 'dangerousness' by how much gear/gun he walks around with. The real dangerous ones are those that can blend in while maintaining an ability to strike when they want to. They will pick their battles that they can win and are worth the risk and effort. By the time their strike happens, they likely are gone already. They are aware that no matter how much gun you have, you are always outgunned against the Combine/OTA. They could likely do more, but the Combine has the big propaganda advantage and will vilify them as terrorists. That is the one actual thing the resistance is failing at, and why a lot of people aren't willing to try anything either. What is a victory if your opponent uses it to turn the whole City against you?
You are completely wrong. Every single sentence is incorrect.
1- The city is as unsafe as the slums to do big things thanks to how things are set up (You get a full squad to OTA as if it was an attack on triumph for anything you do anywhere, even the slums)
2-Attacks on the city are rare because any time there is an attack on the city the combine overreacts, activating fucking 100 million resources that somehow arrive in minutes (A full squad of fully armed and ready OTA), and there is no way to win anything from said attack(Even if you say: "OH, you should try destroying combine shit on expeditions, or destroying their railways, or doing this, or doing that. That never happens. Firstly because there is no system that actually makes that work, currently. Second, even if you did do it, OTA would still have their guns, and CP too, so you can't do ANYTHING to weaken combine in or outside the city thanks to how the server is set up.)
3- There are no expeditions. They have disabled a long time ago, and now the only expeditions available are the ones that happen once each month and are carried out by admins, and give shitty rewards (Not only on scripts, but lore-wise too), as they have 0 effect on the main server, and if not 0, then 0,00001 effect.
4-Funny. Really funny.
"Bob doesn't take his gear to the city and occasionally goes to the outlands with his friends to shoot some stuff up or dismantle combine shit"
BUT THEN YOU SAY:
"And one day the vice administrator or some other big figure attends the funeral of some combine traitor outside the nexus. He gets blown up by Bob, who has quietly stashed enough C4 to level half a building during the past six months (surprised adminge faces when they determine this is valid). He will kill the vice admin (or some other big figure), get declared anti-citizen one while being recruited by Civil Protection to put out his own fire because they don't know that Bob is Bob"
What an insane amount of expectance from Willard.
I'll discuss this last part on two different issues:
1- He never carries his stuff to the city, but SOMEHOW he is able to build a bomb in seconds/minutes of seeing a high up in the city, which would require him to go to the slums, get his shit, then makes an auth for the bomb, then builds the bomb, then brings it back to the city (And that if no one gets him). You obviously CAN NOT make an auth for a fucking bomb, take your shit from the slums, build it, and then plant it in so little time. And EVEN IF YOU PLANNED TO MURDER HIM WITH A WEAPON, 1º: YOU AREN'T GUARANTEED A KILL, as they have OTA with them, and the gun that deals the most damage is the SCAR, and that's hard as fuck to get, and requires good aim and 4 shots to the head, and 2º: Once he fires, if he killed the high up, what does he do to survive? Toss the fucking scar that is so hard to get? And even if he did toss it, that doesn't guarantee he won't get found.
2-It is hard as fuck to join civil protection and become a corrupt/rogue, as if you die as that character, you lose your CP whitelist, which makes people not want to be rogue.
And to finish, I'd love it if you could tell me A SINGLE REBEL that does what you said and succeeds in it. A SINGLE ONE (That walks on the city silently, and when he sees something big happen, interferes) You can't just say "Mabre", or "rice" as both of them do not strike on the city ever against anyone to later come back to where they were as normal civvies. That is just insanity.
