I have questions to experienced players of ECO

Because such groups are doing their thing on their own and aren't cooperating with anyone else, but building a secluded community only to their own interest and detrimental to the gameplay experience for everyone else. That is a very valid problem. Other people are not not working towards the goal, just because a premade group with much more time and the organization benefit that comes from game experience and voice chat can rush quickly through content. It's not within the intention of the game and finding solutions to this problem is something we're looking into.

The inspiration for settlements did more come from a mix of Civilization and Settlers than Victoria, but settlement to settlement diplomacy was indeed what we hoped to see on servers.