So the map needs some explaining. Please excuse my crappy drawing, I just wanted to illustrate a sketch to show the secret deterrant.
Now successful empires in the past have tended to enslave people, tax them, and conquer more. The romans, and what some people did to the Native Americans. They didn't have to enslave or push people from their land, they could have lived in harmony with them. Or had the option of trying that. This system is based mainly on that.
Kingdoms have varying power, and difficulty to take over based on their inhabitants. Once you take over a kingdom, you're actions result in one of 4 consequences:
1)You enslave the native population.
2)You live in harmony with the native population.
3)You are neutral.
4)Or you are subserviant to the natives.
So say you conquered the land that also houses the giant grasshoppers. If after time, you manage to live in harmony with them, your vassals could possibly use giant grasshopper mounts to jump around fly short distances in battle.
You may be able to use the grasshoppers too if you enslave them. Then you could buy/sell grasshopper mounts to others. At the same time, you would be required to stop grasshopper inssurections of whatever style they feel like manifesting.
Now where the special checks and balances come in: Opposing factional natives will not allow you to live in harmony with both of them.
Some examples:
Treants(f3) may live in harmony with you, but will not also allow you to aquire Trolls/Orcs/Goblins who would like to burn the forest, hunting via forestfire.
Now the Trolls/Orcs/Goblins/Kobolds could band together, as they have no real problems with one another, but they must fortify their land against the powerful flanks around them. Living in harmony with these humanoids is by no means easy, as they would have many aspiring warlords of their own who may make living in harmony drop down into being subservient to them. Enslaving them may be your best route if you don't want to deal with the ebb and tide of 4 kingdoms of evil humanoid's wants.
A nice example of this upper level way of looking at the map's balance is the forest vs swamp fight on the east.
S0- Vampire/Lich high level controlling undead
S3-Lesser undead(close to starter kingdoms, new players want to fight weak stuff)
S2-Vermin kingdom
S1-Naga, snake people, poison attacks
F2-Wolves
F1-Powerul animal with Healing... I ended up with bears as a copout, these could be imagined as Druid of the Claw. I was trying to stay away from anything directly related to Warcraft when drawing this up... But the best I could come up with is wolves + Bears on the flank... And the Bears needed to have defensive spells to counteract the Naga's poisoning.
F0-Forest Elves
F3-Treants/mushroom people
S2 vs F2 The wolves are a much better fight than the vermin on a normal day. If the Vermin powerup by raiding and pillaging the starter kingdoms though, they could use the additional food to make a formidable attack force, which could press the wolves.
S1 vs F1 The bears are more powerful than the Naga if they are prepared. The healing and protection will stop the poisoning and corruption... But if the Naga make a correct attack, they can overwhelm the healing/protection, and make the bears have a tough fight.
S0 vs F0 This is a chess match. Wolves/Bears/Elves have minor faction in that they're proud of self reliance. Naga/Vermin/Undead have minor faction in that they all want control. The Vampires can send bats which would assist in air/land battle. The Elves could have hawks which would not fight land, but strongly counter the bats from the air.
Mud golems are an artificial mecha construction which the elves have some issue with.
The insects need direction, and have faction with swamp empire for various reasons... But in deep warfare they could be called in to fight down the forest empire... The Mud Golems if called could provide a mud coating that could greatly negate the insect's specials, while providing more basic power than the insects would normally bring.
Finally on the side, laying in wait for weakness is the spider kingdom, which would love to see the warring kingdoms weaken, so it can snatch out to enslave them. Naga are resistant to spider poison, and the bears have preventive vs poison as before.
Sure thats just a mach setup, but mainly the fun comes from trying to capture and manage a kingdom you like. Knowing the factions, and your level and your in game friends, where would you try and capture? If you're not powerful enough for the big kingdoms, get a lesser one for the meinwhile. If you're not powerful enough to get a kingdom, find friends, level your guy up, or maybe try and get in a kingdom someone else has established.
Side notes:
*A small history of which side you've been on could be kept. If you were once a harsh oppressive ruler of the Gnomes, they would not later want you as someone to live in harmony.
*Once a month, you could request a commune with the native people's ruler, via talking to an admin(gamemaster). This could drive quests, and roleplay. Rewards could be determined by the gamemaster depending on how well campaigns went.
*More kingdoms who are difficult to control are on the chaos side, while the order side has less kingdoms that can get along, but they would last longer.
------------------------------- Kingdomm descriptions ---------------------------------
This isn't 100% refined, just going over cool stuff.
2x the elemental reward given for contol of champion Kingdom.
Pegasus - Air element's champion Kingdom. The easiest entry to the elemental plane of air lies in this Kingdom. Pegasus special is they will provide a mount.
Water Wizards - Water element's champion Kingdom. The easiest entry to the elemental plane of Water lies in this Kingdom. Water Wizard's special is that they defend their land. The land is made out of mountains of water. Water Wizard's properly taken care for can help imbue equipment, and teach of water spells.
Giants- Earth element's champion Kingdom. The easiest entry to the elemental plane of Earth lies in this Kingdom. Giant's special is that they defend their land.
Fire Salamanders- Fire element's champion Kingdom. The easiest entry to the elemental plane of Fire lies in this Kingdom. Fire Salamander's special is that they're mounts, and immune to fire.
Small colored dots are elemental kingdoms, which provide 1x the elemental bonuses.
Slate Valley is a difficult to defend and generally sucky kingdom, but provides resources to refine and imbue equipment with special properties.
Ooze spawn- On second look, these chaotic spawn pits are like zerg evolutionary chambers. Ooze spawn dopplegang parts of other creatures they take with them into the ooze pits , and come out as a hybrid creature... Sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker... ooze spawn can sometimes be mounts, or just pets.
Water Crafter- Creates weapons forged of various kinds of water.
Water warriors- Skilled humanoid fighters that use weapons of water. Not much faction between crafters and warriors.
Flushing void- Most despicable spot of evil in the land, but continous flow of water into the pit prevents evil from escaping. Late game, if water kingdoms could be enslaved, and the river cut off, major demons could be summoned here, but very difficult to control.
Water golems- Land of water golems, 2x water provide
Astral pillar-2x air, and unknown powers, conquering is difficult, an upwards fight through a single tower.
Fire gnomes-Tinker in chemicals and fire(aoe fire as basic attack)
Wyvern-Eat unicorn/pegasus/harpies, so no one really likes them all that much... Faction is less obvious on other creatures cuz I just slapped this map together fast.
Quicklings-Dodgy inhabitants
Gypsy Elves- Nomadic Desert wanderers and Gamblers
Scorpion Desert-Mounts
Shadow Elves-Looks to form an empire of fire through deception, but must unite several border groups to the cause.
Polar fire bears-Mount 100% resistant to fire, pretty strong in combat
20 Kingdoms in center, all have a heavy faction (and crappy flanks) to the nearby one, if all controlled, person is known as king in the starting zone, and gets 1 of each element bonus.
Tosslings-Weak halfling sized creatures, but have telekenisis that hurl a weak willed enemy away. For some reason Yoda comes to mind.
Beach coast - Special is the hurricane mastery spell. Live in harmony with the weather, and get rewarded with it.
Flat plains - Special is tornado mastery spell.
Sea2- Merfolk and an underwater Kingdom is one side while the enemy kingdom is Giant Sea monsters that guard treasures of an ancient Sunken city.
Sea1- Kinda lame, sharks vs dolphins, somethin better could be made, but 3 islands are in contention, each of which provide 1x water.
Crystal jellies, acidic and poisonous jellies that live off the crystal formations.
Phoenix: Immensely wise and powerful bird(s) who does not convene with weak rulers.
Gremlins: Small furry pets.
Vaccum Demons: Large mount that has a gaping maw that sucks in smaller creatures...
Minor Demon:
*Summoners, pets that summon other pets.
*Slave takers, allow enslaving of other kingdoms easier.
*Mind Control, special attacks in combat
Nympths up north see no need for conquest, so have faction just by not wanting to forge an empire.
Anyway thats just the special "native monster" special thing that would not only be cool to have flavor and diversity in the game, but would prevent players from expanding their kingdoms to multiple areas. Different indigeous people(natives) and lands reward differently on natural resources. Different natives have differnt cultures on what they like developed... Elves would like to see an industry created less than gnomes would. If keeping your natives happy is your goal, you need to be restricted in your empire's development. The factions would always be there, and the admin(gamemaster), could change them on the fly depending on how things are going across the servers, or through convenes.
There are a ton of different monsters mentioned, art work, AI, etc for them would be HUGE. I don't suggest actually implementing this map... Just putting it up for illustrating the factional natives style of kingdom domination.
Lands would likely have the main stronghold for the kingdom, and the stronghold for the natives. Non kingdom goers could destroy the natives as "monsters" like conventional methods, and pillage the kingdom's land... Not everything in the lands has to be the "natives", but they're just the general theme. From outside kingdoms, it'd still be entertaining like any old hack and slash MMORPG out there actually.
The reason I posed this idea is that you can't expect players to regulate themselves, and factions don't pop up from player disagreements. Players like to be cool with one another generally. With artificial factions, and sides taken, you see players fighting faction battles ALA DOAC. This system sets up a framework which players can switch factions, try and form an empire through greed, maybe greed will force some players to switch kingdoms which furthers intrigue. Many people love kingdom builders, some people like to be on the front lines, and internal communication through a monarchy needs to take place to see who deserves the rewards... Limited rewards and people wanting compensation leads to more turmoil. Maybe some player feels he's not getting his fair share, and wants to stake out a kingdom of his own, or overthrow the king. Added turmoil, and uncertainty to player loyalty is necessary for a kingdom system to go, without one kingdom taking control of the map.
The biggest problem with this system I can see is "unwritten alliances" between two kingdoms controlled by friends. A clan of players could forseeably conspire to take kingdoms, switch between monarchies and such, in a way that every one of the players takes a kingdom and then choses: Live in harmony with natives... Instead of trying to conquer nearby kingdoms, the enemy kingdoms then share resourcs the aquire... A large portion of the map could be conquered with these "unwritten alliances", and no warring takes place at all between neighboring groups, because they're controlled by friends. To solve this, certain special rewards could be given, but only one kingdom can claim it through various competitions... Or a special reward is given if a kingdom defeats a nearby kingdom in battle completely(reverting it to neutral control). No quick solutions come to mind.