The Kingdoms
Alright, so I already know this sounds completely insane right off the bat.
“The grand navy hasn’t even been added yet, why are you suggesting to remove/replace it???”
That’s simple, its literally the AG from AA and everybody hated the AG, even positive reps, not to mention that their concept is boring and has already been done before when there’s a way better solution that fits the game’s setting way better.
Instead of just having a joinable single governmental force that would rapidly become the exact same toxic cesspool the AG was (and the GN will inevitably become), every kingdom should be its own governing force.
How would this work? Instead of committing a crime and having the exact same copy-paste soldiers show up from thin air or whatever, the soldiers you encounter are based on whatever kingdom you’re within the boarders of. If you’re not within the boarders of a kingdom, then the soldiers that respond are dependent on the NPC’s/Player’s affiliation.
If they are a part of a kingdom, that kingdom’s soldiers will arrive to arrest/kill you.
As for the soldiers, every kingdom would have its own soldiers that would behave differently from the other kingdoms, for example, lets say that a kingdom that replaced the GN would be focused around melee weapons with only higher ranking units using magic.
Another kingdom with a style fitting closer to the existing MC would be entirely focused on magic.
There’s most certainly enough possibilites to make up for all of the kingdoms vetex plans to add and keep them unique unless he plans to add an absolutely obnoxious amount of kingdoms.
Low ranks use magic; high ranks use weapons and vise versa.
Everybody can use anything.
Melee soldiers that get up close with magic soldiers that bombard you at range, ect ect.
There’s all sorts of potential here with this setting that having a single governing force doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Lore-wise
This makes much more sense than a single governing force too, with all these powerful curse users around warring against each other, how the heck would anybody even try to step up to become a ‘unifying force’ when the only thing anybody ends up unified on is destroying them?
These are the War Seas. Emphasis on War. There is no central government that’s going to protect literally everybody. That makes no sense.
Gameplay-wise
This would add more NPC factions/guilds to join/fight and provide much more enemy variety while also making it so that you don’t encounter the exact same singular NPC faction repetitively from the start to the end to try and stop you from doing whatever the heck you’re doing.
As for joining each kingdom, as no NPC faction in WoM has been made joinable yet, I have no idea what the benefits/downsides would be nor do I know how exactly it would work.
Most likely by talking to a recruiter.
You would only get infamy (or whatever its kingdom equal would be called) from killing players belonging to a different kingdom or players that are enemies to your kingdom (explained later).
The Reputation System
Every kingdom should have its own reputation bar that shows when you are within the boarders of that kingdom, each kingdom could also interact with you differently depending on your standings with the other kingdoms later on when all of the kingdoms actually exist.
This would make it so that you could walk into one kingdom and cause utter chaos and then walk into another one and be friendly specifically because they’re completely different kingdoms.
Having a negative rep for a kingdom makes you an enemy of that kingdom, meaning that players who are a part of that kingdom can kill you for rewards even if you’re not part of a guild or enemy kingdom.
It’d basically be the exact same thing we have right now except split between kingdoms for the sake of logic.
Tl;Dr :
1: Give each kingdom its own governing force and soldiers rather than the exact same enemy faction repetitively.
2: Separate the reputation stat between each kingdom, as they’re warring against eachother and wouldn’t be angry if you attacked their enemy for them.
Feedback is appreciated.
Edit1: Condensed some text and fixed a couple errors.