Ambient change to the realms that the player can affect - Law and Progress for example

One of the ways that games keep players playing is having a sink for the rewards of repeating content.

Eg.., In New World, you end up doing hundreds of town board missions in order to level up your Standing with a settlement so that you can get diminishing-return benefits in various categories. There is really no end to how much you can keep going.

If we implement something similar in Nightingale https://playnightingale.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RRFEEDBACK-I-870 we can hopefully keep players playing, but we need to show some tangible effect from the grind, some meaningful progress that continues to change the game for the player.

I feel we can do this with three meters that players can contribute to -- Law and Progress, These occasionally encounter Threats that can lower the rating.

Law measures how much civility versus lawlessness is in the Realms. As Bass Reeves notes, the Realms are basically lawless and only personal ethics and vigilantism keep barbarism at bay. Without the threat of consequence since humans are cut off from Earth, there will inevitably be criminal elements who just take from good people trying to get by.

Law missions establish a presence of elements willing to take a stand and become the consequence of lawlessness. With low Law in the Realms, there will be human enemies who are basically thugs. Or small settlements where people are cautious and as a result unfriendly and selfish. When Law is higher, people are more trusting and helpful. As the player moves deeper into the fey wilds, Law rating decreases. Doing Law missions lets the player see some player-influenced change in the Realms.

Law missions start mostly being vigilantism or protection missions against other humans but in high-Law areas they can be investigation and mediation to help resolve civil disputes.

Although this can lead to a "wild west" ambiance, somehow we should try to retain a Victorian flair to it.

Progress measures how much humans can establish a livelihood in the Realms. Progress missions might initially involve missions to help build homes and farms or collect resources and occasionally defend them against Bound or bring Recruits to settle there. As Progress increases, settlements are larger, building tasks bigger and involve higher-tech. Deeper into the Realms where the enemies are tougher, Progress Rating diminishes.

High Progress and Low Law might result in Law missions against local gangs or corrupt officials. Low progress and Low Law might result in Law missions against raiders.

High Progress settlements can offer not just more traders with a wider variety of cheaper goods but the opportunity to learn new blueprints or accelerate their learning into various blueprints and skills through teachers in settlements. These can randomly appear, so players need to open new portals to see what's in the Realms now.

UPDATE - It occurs to me that most items shouldn't look so "good" without refined and luxury materials, which require more effort and some industry / infrastructure, which in turn could be linked to Progress. So luxurious materials to make outfits look nice would either take a very long time and high skill to craft by the player, or could just be purchased in a high-Progress settlement (in limited quantities, so players have to keep moving through the Realms).

At various Milestones of Law or Progress, new elements can be introduce to the random Realms. E.g., At a high Progress, the settlements the player encounters are larger and more populated, have more resources to trade, or costs are lower at traders. At a high Law, the player may encounter roving Militia near a settlement who can assist if they are close by.