I'd love to hear your ideas on how, in a sandbox with complete freedom, including no safe zones, any 'smaller dudes' will be able to gain any power or resources, much less hold on to them. Are you saying as a solo player I should be able to build a keep that a tribe of 100 can't take down? Pretty much a safe zone, then, isn't it? And pretty much what we have in the game, at least for the moment.
For whatever reason, I've been thinking about this for awhile now. Probably my experiences with other pvp games and their inevitable mega-guilds got me started. And I just can't think of a way to have a diversity of tribe sizes (it really doesn't matter if you're talking the minimum 1 against 10 or 10 against 100) when numbers matter, only the ones with numerical superiority will be able to actually play the game. And players know this right from the start. So the will to power players immediately join forces, grow their numbers, organize, form coalitions, then sweep through the game world, conquering. And that's it. The game is pretty much over from that point forward, except for those who enjoy being in the biggest, baddest guild in the game. There's no purpose to it, it's stagnant, there's no life left in a game once this happens.
Well your in the prelude, so a lot of things dont have a function yet, that all comes for the tribal warfare thing.
I agree with you sandbox theory, your spot on with that, and i think some of the arbirary rules and safe zones need to go and never be optional, as who in their right nind would opt for more risk, even if a slight reward is given.
Other than that, your nuts. You will fit in nicely here.