Hmmmm, from what I saw, there were too many naps and too many families going inactive afterwards. It just seems to me that it would be more viable to increase the number of systems and planets so that growth continues. With the way IC is nowadays, there are always going to be only 3-5 fams tops competing ftw. 2-3 alliances top gunning for the top 2-3 spots. Nothing you do will change that.
Increasing the number of systems will make it easier to find targets because as of now, if a family with 1k planets loses a war to a family with 1300 planets, the bigger fam will probably want 200 planets for nap payment. That's only 20% of that fam's planets which isn't a lot tbh, but considering how cores play a large factor in the way a round goes, that will likely end a fam's round because there's nowhere to expand.
Having more systems and more planets promotes smaller fams to keep growing and allows bigger fams to get shares with each other. And it would also be great to go back to 2.5 month rounds but...I don't think that's realistic anymore. Too few players and too many pnaps being made these days.
I would also consider adding a draft or two or make the fam 50% draft. I never really liked the idea of having only a couple of drafts. That was a lot more viable when there were more active players because then superfams get made. These days there are so few active players and families that you are better off having more active guys in active families. For example, look at 5060, h4e's fam. They got hit hard early on and never really recovered. But I bet in a MW with more systems and more drafts they'd probably be right at the top.
But with the current set up, you're going to find more people bored because there's nobody to fight and nowhere to explore and the people that they want to fight, they have no way to get shares with them anymore.
Sex without the e is still SX!