this technique simply doesn't work, i'll get you a proof.

in a server like server 5, the states are crouded in a way that no matter when you send your balliz out npcs are always empty, which made me at some stage giving up on the idea of npc5 and move onto hitting higher level npcs because obvious that less players hit the higher levels.

second, i know players that are online almost 16 hours a day, wether they are at work or at home they have the game on even if they not physically doing anywork in their cities, also some players send balliz constantly and up to 3 hours march, som simply by scouting the npc next to my city will not give you much information about me, when i'm hitting npc's 20 miles away.
complex method and complicated... we need a new tool that can tell who's online and who's not, maybe they can change the game in a way that you can only hit online players instead of taking advantage of someone being asleep, then it might be interesting to see if people can actually take someone down if they are physically fighting the attacks on the ground.