My suggestion is that if you do, add things like regional building and upgrades that are only available in Steppe regions, or sand regions, forest regions etc. Examples of this could be the found by using the animal lore skill. Lets assume there is a wide variety of animals in the MMO (which i think there should be, it adds a sense of adventure) and two of these animals being Elephants, and Steppe horses. So whats the difference you may ask? (we'll stick to one example for simplicity) Well the ability to train elephants for riding or hauling material can be available to animal lore players in the sand region, and constructors(possibly even blue prints) for those that are crafting and have a claim within the sand regions. This building would allow for people to store and possibly train war elephants. Same thing with steppe horses, Certain buildings within the region allows them to be trained into horse archers, or maybe they are just a better horse that is more viable for horse archery. Keep in mind that elephants is just an example so it helps clearly outline the regional advantages that could be available if implemented.
For balance, You could make certain regional strengths for where you build, or it could be unique to your kingdom. A way to make it unique to your kingdom or region (that way its universally easier to balance since all steppe or mainland etc will have the same upgrade tree) is by adding another tab in the monument with an upgrade tree, an example is one from Rome 2: total war( http://imgur.com/a/mcrdW ).
Now lets say the upgrade unlocks a certain building, or gives a small percentage bonus to spear damage (5%). How would the upgrade work? Well It could work exactly like a monument, you select it, it consumes support points to feed into the progress of the upgrade. Lets say you are researching 5% spear damage early on, because your region, or your kingdom, is known for spear armed warriors who rek plateys on the reg. That progress bar fills, and it requires that you craft 25 Spears, 25 Boar spears, and 25 Pikes(Just an example). This now fully unlocks the 5% spear bonus, and can be listed in the regional or kingdom info tab.
Keep in mind the upgrades themselves could unlock the buildings AND the perks, or you could separate them, and only have the upgrades give perks, while possibly having a separate building tree, or just have the buildings be passively available for all specific regions(steppe region building tree all universal for steppes). If there was a separate building tree though, I think it would be neat to be able to 'Upgrade' the current building you have. For example, We are back in the sand region, because we are in love with regional diversity and having an eastern kingdom is something that this group of players has decided to do. I have a regular old stable from 90 construction that breeds regular horses, which i then turn into warhorses which have these stats(insert stats here). My region however allows me to walk up to my monument, and click on the building tab, and see that I have a stables within my claim that i can use support to upgrade to a elephant breeding stables. However I'll need a high level animal lore guy to help tame the elephant, let alone feed and clean the poop of (if cow poop gives alot, imagine elephants coinciding with a region that already has ridiculous crop growth
). Now if needed, this elephant taming process can be unlocked through a monument upgrade, or just have all animal lore players able to tame things across the board, but you can only store them and train them if you have a building in the sand regions. I realize elephants is a huge stretch, but if taming training one is as expensive as sophisticated siege equipment like trebuchets, it will just be another strategy route for guilds to contemplate when they pick their building spot. However, give major debuffs when the animals are not in their normal region (Elephant in the snow mountains = berserk elephants killing all your troops perhaps).
I think this is a good route to go to encourage places like sand, snow regional building and steppe region building etc. The only thing they both need are regional trees etc, but doesn't have to be too abundant. However, you will see groups from other medieval games coming in to play as a bunch of Mongolians, or be pagans in the far north. It adds a sense of adventure to players traveling around the map, seeing different styled kingdoms with different buildings and strengths. It adds the ability for some guilds to actually act as mercenaries since they can directly counter troops that the guild paying them is fighting against. Or maybe they just need strong shield troops, which your kingdom or region is well known(dont know how you could strengthen shield users, perhaps speed while blocking). The point is it will add a sense of wonder and adventure to the game, just like skins do, but it will feel more personal to each kingdom if they had something unique to them. At the moment everyone is the same more or less, and I hope that can be changed to help this game blow up as much as it can. There are not a lot of medieval games out there, and what made the medieval world so awesome was the diversity of different nations
