Hm but pvp is where people are. And yet there are many PB with no defenders. Current towns are for the most just empty NPC placeholders. Towers smashing is no fun/pvp.
I wish all factions would start with a few colonies, and others current towns are just empty spots players/clans can to colonize and develop, it would make sense to defend and maintain what we create rather than capturing static NPC towns located on the other side of the map. Of course if people like sailing for hours they still could colonize very distant lands
Or, regional capitals could be neutral towns one needs to capture in order to build/access towns of that region. Not something you buy, but something you develop through resources gathering. We need those traders ships sailing, around main hubs, that's some more pvp.
It would be difficult for one large faction to colonize all the towns, for they would have to invest a lot of time and resources, and the larger the empire is the harder it is to defend. It could also be capped at some point: when x amount of towns/regions a faction owns is reached, each additional region it takes adds a national production penalty/tax to all current towns and buildings, let's say, for the upkeep of such a large empire. This way nobody can own it all, and development will be limited to what a faction can afford to lose.