Mike Williams wrote:

That's a rather anthropomorphic concept of aliens. I'd guess that most
intelligent civilisations wouldn't build cities.

Cities are quite logical, shorter lines of communication and distribution. However once you have matter transporters (or some such technology) and a good communications system then you might start to abandon cites.

Besides cities have a political dimension. People will want to be near the seat of power. Cities will happen if power is wielded from a given location. Also population pressure will create cities as people simply have less space between them. Then there is the fact that large concentrations of people allow sub cultures to flourish. If 1% of the population like theatre then a town of 1000 people will probably not have much of a theatre scene, now 1% of a multimillion city and you have a vibrant scene.

The Japanese have a saying about ex pat communities. 1000 people per restaurant. There will be no decent Japanese restaurant (that the Japanese would eat at) until you have at least 1000 people (Japanese) in the area to frequent it.

Cities are important for the development of civilizations.