Hey, what about a player-driven reward? Something that requires a player to signify they're active and gives a bonus as a result. That way, there's no need to retroactively define an active player - they do it themselves. The reward would have to be something that doesn't hamper the normal player experience and isn't as easy as clicking one link. More to illustrate than actually provide a suggestion, maybe something like one of these:
- Player has to perform a set of actions, randomly chosen with a notification each day. (Scout once, send a letter, and visit their regional page.)
- Player gets a mini scavenger hunt where they need to find things randomly embedded on various pages they have access to.
So for 1, the advantage is that they're all common tasks that an active player likely does anyway - automatic reward. But the problem is that someone could easily just go through the motions. For 2, you don't affect how a player does their business, but you add another (essentially mini-game) activity for them to do. Of course the issue here is similar in that if it's easy to find, a more or less inactive character can just go looking. It would be vital to have the right kind of reward, though, to ensure it doesn't become something players feel mandated to do or risk losing a war.
Maybe something like lowering monster/undead spawns a little or increasing the effectiveness of
adventurer actions in the area?
Complete tangent, but I bolded "adventurer" because I just had an off-topic idea: Why not have methods for nobles to affect adventurer capabilities in subtle ways (aka not just arresting them)? I know there's some changes for advys in the works, but something like this could make life easier for them while not breaking anything at the noble level.
