So the factions are already a thing, what if they were consequential. What if your patrol missions were for the faction that you choose to be a part of? What if doing those missions had an actual effect on the strength of your faction, and weakened the others? What if the players had a constant universal battle of trying to make their faction dominant? And what if, periodically, the devs did something, like inserted a story twist, or landscape change, etc. based on the dominant faction at the time. Or, one step farther (and just a pipe dream). A faction vs. faction map, with strongholds, and very difficult to take control points. And it could have massive amounts of players battling, representing their faction, to hold as much land, or towers, etc. as possible. Similar to world vs. world in other MMO's. Any of these, would give a more long term tension to the game, and would be a huge draw, as well as community building experience. Right now, the community only faces a small sample of eachother for about 15 minutes, then you reset what you have done, and play another match. But a long term, entire community based struggle... Now that would be epic.