As it stands, a player is going to make more gold on average in the Sea O' Plenty compared to other regions because of the simplicity of the islands. More sandbars means quicker quests and more chances at easier rewards. This is actually fine, it concentrates players into that region for more pvp which increases the difficulty.
What happens though, is less players in the rest of the map, specifically The Wilds. It's both ugly, hard to navigate, etc.
The map has difference in visual makeup but there really is almost zero difference between each region in the types of challenges you face. I'd really like a more challenging region where less players are prone to quest. The Wilds is the perfect spot to revamp a bit to make it more intimidating and more interesting as part of a play-through narrative.
What the Wilds should be is a dead-zone. A place where only the bravest pirates will go. A place where ships go and never return. In essence, a hardmode. Some quests may be entirely inside of the Sea O Plenty but maybe the final island is in The Wilds. Because of the difficulty hike, it now acts as a higher difficulty crescendo on your journey.
(A reward for higher difficulty could be a small hike in average reward gold/amount)
- Ambiance
Dense fog is missing in this game, it'd be a great way to add ambiance to this region and make it truly a place to escape from a galleon...or...to get lost and run into a rockface.
- Difficulty
Less stable wind direction, choppier seas to slow movement, etc.
- Terror
Higher chance of Kraken spawns. A Kraken spawning in the fog would be terrifying. Unique creatures that only spawn in the fog (maybe a fog version of the dark skeletons that blend in with the fog except their eyes glow)
In the future you could add quite a lot of unique content for these regions in their theme.
Sea o' Plenty should have a social hub, will naturally have more pvp going on (as it already does now), etc. Ancient Seas could be a mix, maybe more monster threats but less environmental hazards, and the islands could have more intensive tribal threats and curses.
I think location should be a gameplay choice with their own pro's and con's and focuses of difficulty. Right now location is meaningless outside of color pallet and the amount of cliffs (really it's just the Sea O Plenty as the only option with less intensive cliffs).
