I was talking about preparations to war. Normally there should be plenty of military, recruitment camps foreign armies marching south. There should be refugees, and famine. War also bring economical crisis and people are significantly poorer, many goes on streets.
Also city seems very open, anyone can easily enter there no fee for merchants or guards looking for nilfgardian spies.
Maybe this is only me but city lacks of tension, some fear.
It depends; the war with Nilfgaard has only been going on for six months, so it's still early enough for the area around Novigrad to be unaffected by famines or an economical crisis; also, the occurrence of both would vary with the nature of the city's economical self-sustenance and its role in the war, of which we don't know much yet (correct me if I'm wrong, I might have missed something). In fact, I do get the feeling that Novigrad could be straddling the fence between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms, not actively participating in the conflict - although it would probably be almost forced to follow Redania - and secretly supporting one or the other side, or both. It could surely make for an interesting plot and I definitely look forward to see what intrigues the writers will fill the free city with, but I digress.
About the remaining points, soldiers wouldn't be constantly marching south just at the feet of Novigrad's walls, and in the game we'll probably see the various armies already stationed in No Man's Land. Recruitment camps could be located somewhere else, probably closer to the keep or the barracks, same as for the rest of the military. However, for a free city, unless you rely on mercenaries I doubt you'll be able to recruit much to form a sizable and stable army, especially since almost everything outside your city walls belongs to Redania, which has its own army to maintain and whose capital is not very far from Novigrad itself. It would all depend on the influx of refugees, but I can see the city refusing them entrance and telling them to go straight to another Redanian hold instead. Another simple explanation is that the game is still all just a work in progress, which it is, and especially was back in June.
Of course, this is all just my speculation borne of the very same love for authenticity in games we share, so I hope you won't take it as me trying to systematically dismiss your claims, which I figured is what it could look like. Your opinion is just as valid as mine, and in fact, I do agree on the point that the city looks too open; yes, there are guards on bridges and at the city gates, but the apparent indiscriminate lack of inspection seems a little odd.
