I propose to enter a reputation mechanics to (coming?) missions.
For the four factions the player may have a positive, neutral och negative reputation towards the faction. By completing missions the player receives positive or negative reputation towards a faction. Or both but to different faction.
Picture this: As a player receiving a mission from a merchant in Sepermeru. Say, it requires the player to retrieve stolen goods from the Black Ship. Completing the mission will give the player positive reputation in Sepmeru and negative reputation in the Black ship.
A player with high reputation receives no hostility in respective town and vice versa.
The missions done will give different reputation that can be seen in the character biography. Doing a lot of hard missions reputation may also give nicknames or reputation names, like Conan the barbarian and for a lot of easy missions the name might be Conan the mouse killer. In PvP attacking a low lvl character while being high lvl (easy win) would give the reputation Conan the coward (yea, that’s right all you griefers). Helping out a faction will give eventually give the dietyname, like Conan Set’s bane.
Three things with this;
First: Missions will give some variety to the game. Even in PvP the game is pretty static and at least myself would like a sense of purpose to the game since survival is comleted around lvl 20. Mission could also be some kind of season event: Basic event: Attack the Summoning place! Disrupt the summning! - or if a follower of Yog (high enough reputation for that faction) Defend the Summoning Place! At all cost!. On a PvP server that would be followers of Yog agains all other - great fun. On a PvE that would be much easier I guess since it would be sort of like a purge agains the summoning place. What ever the basic event is that road should be the hardest imo.
Second: Reputation will also give some dynamics since a player might change alliances with a faction during game play. Taking too many thralls from a faction will give negative reputation.
Third: Having a reputation name/phrase that is earned is fun. Almost like coloring the clothes. And a character should be able to have at least three of these suffixes. As when creating the character. There are some “deeds” the character is condemed for. Like “stealing of chickens, freeing slaves, taking slaves without a permit”. Seeing that reputation name under the character name would also be awsome.
I acknowledge that this probably is a lot of work since the mission has to randomized is some way to be replayable. Also the reputation counter is also probably a challange since a player may cross the reputation lvl while in a town. I guess that if players belong to a clan it is the clan reputation that matters. All in all, a lot to consider.
Still, reputation based on actions and that factions act towards players based on the reputation lvl towards that faction would be awsome. Think, having a specific hunt party (purge-like) going after the clan. Maybe even having their god with them if angry enough.
Also, in PvP, raiding a, by a faction, unliked clan might give positive reputation towards that faction.
