Travian

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Travian
Developer(s)	Travian Games GmbH
Engine	PHP
Version	3.5
Platform(s)	Interpreted script; platform independent
Release date(s)	September 5, 2004 (2004-09-05) (version 1) March 12, 2005 (version 2) June 30, 2006 (version 3)[1]
Genre(s)	Real-time military strategy City-building
Media	Text and images
System requirements	Internet access, web browser
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse

Travian is an award-winning German massively multiplayer online browser-based strategy game developed by Travian Games GmbH.^[1]

The game's developers drew roughly from Classical antiquity and particularly from the Roman Empire to create a predominantly militaristic real-time strategy. Along with three English versions, and the original German version, the game has been translated into over 40 other languages,^[1][2] and has over 3 million players and over 250 servers worldwide.^[3][4] In 2006, it won the Superbrowsergame Award, in the large games category.^[1][4][5][6]

Travian is programmed in PHP and runs in most modern browsers (such as Camino, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari or Google Chrome). Travian was also the first game of its type to be playable on mobile phones. When played on a mobile phone, it uses Java.^[7]

[edit] The game

Every player enters Travian as a leader of a small village as a Roman, Gaul or Teuton^[8] with two people—a population of two—in their village. The village has only one building, known as the Main Building, around which are spaces for further buildings to be constructed. There are some prerequisites for constructing most buildings.

The outside part of the village in the game Travian. (Click for larger image.)

Around the outside of the village there are 18 resource fields that are level 0 (shown with no number). Every player's first village has the same distribution of resource fields, but additional villages may have a different distribution of fields. Each resource field is either a Woodcutter (produces Wood/Lumber), Clay Pit (produces Clay), Iron Mine (produces Iron) or Wheat Field/Cropland (produces Wheat/Crop). These fields produce a certain amount of resources per hour, depending on their levels. At level 0, each resource field produces two units per hour. There are also oases which increase the production rate of resources, and can be occupied using a Hero when the Hero's mansion has reached a sufficient level. Resources are required to construct buildings, to sustain the population and to train and feed troops. (see below). A player can increase the production rate by upgrading the fields.^[9]

At the start of the game, the selection of buildings a player can construct is very limited. As the village is developed, a wider range of buildings become available for construction.

A greater aspect for the game is its troops. Troops are produced in the Barracks, Stable and Workshop. They allow a player to raid other villages and steal their resources, which will benefit the attacker. When the Barracks have been upgraded to a level three, the player may build an Academy, which allows them to research new types of troops;^[10] the player may also construct new types of buildings (such as the Armoury ^[11] and Blacksmith ^[12]) once the Academy has been upgraded to a sufficient level. A Stable allows cavalry to be trained. These units are faster and more expensive than infantry. The Workshop allows siege engines—rams which destroy walls and catapults which destroy buildings—to be manufactured. These units are slower and more expensive than infantry and cavalry. Administrators, known more commonly as chiefs, are units which persuade enemy villages to join the attacker's realm. Units which gain experience in battle, known as Heroes, can be trained from an existing unit in the Hero's mansion.

[edit] Goal

The goal of Travian is to construct and upgrade a World Wonder to level 100 and achieve a high population. The World Wonder requires millions of resources and takes a large amount of time to complete. Once a World Wonder is upgraded to level 100, the game ends and the winner and his/her alliance is announced. In order to construct a World Wonder, a player must steal an artifact from the Natars.

An appropriate ranking system has been created that determines the players' rank from raiding, attacking, defending and building. Players can earn medals for their profile page by taking a certain place in the ranks. If a player gets themselves into the ranks, and earns a medal, it will contain information about the category, the position they came and of what week in since the start of the server they earned it.

[edit] Factions

From the left are the Teuton, Gaul, and Roman troops as depicted in game.

There are three tribes available to be played, the Romans, the Gauls, and the Teutons. Each has their own characteristics. The Romans complete upgrades faster than other tribes, the Gauls defend better than the others, and the Teutons are geared towards an aggressive style of play.

However, the actual style always comes down to the player, and his/her style of play. The fourth tribe, known as the "Natars", are an NPC tribe who were—according to the game—the enslavers of the Gauls and the Teutons before the Romans invaded Travian. The Natars enjoy many benefits normal tribes do not, but only come into the game as part of the end game sequence, more specifically, 300 days after the start of the server (except if the player is on a speed server, in which case they appear after 100 days).

[edit] Villages

A player is able to found additional villages. These increase total resource production, causes population growth and help support larger armies. To found a second village the player must first create and extend a Residence or Palace to level 10, and also have 2,000 (500 for Speed server) Culture points. Culture points are automatically produced daily and accumulated, based on the buildings in the village(s).

To found another village after the second, 8000 culture points are needed. 20000 for the fourth, 39000 for the fifth 65000 for the sixth, and so on. Almost all buildings made in Travian give the village Culture points. After the amount of culture points are achieved, the player may train 3 Settlers to go and found a new village at any vacant area chosen. Settlers must be given 750 of each resource before they start their journey. A player may also create an Administrator (Senator, Chief or Chieftain) instead. These units need a level 20 Academy first. They allow the player to conquer another player's village and make it their own, but a player's last or only village (i.e. the capital) cannot be conquered this way.

[edit] Alliances

The game is heavily geared towards cooperative play. In fact the only likely way to win the game is through cooperation with an alliance. It's nearly impossible for single players to win, but an alliance can win together.

Resources can be traded between players, and towns can be reinforced with another player's troops. An in-game alliance feature is also available, providing the main catalyst for strategic play within Travian; players join and fight together from mutual benefit. Within an alliance, players can view attack and defense information for all alliance members, and also benefit from improved communication tools such as mass alliance-wide in-game messages.

Since the maximum number of members in an alliance is 60, 'wings' tend to form as an alliance develops. Splitting into wings entitles having multiple sub-alliances, often with similar names, acting as one alliance but in different areas of the game. Wings may not fight and destroy each other due to the friendly fire rules. Players in the same alliance may attack each other, but this would be considered treason. Towards the end of a round, different alliances often join together, resulting in larger coalitions (meta alliances); other diplomatic agreements include non-aggression pacts (NAP) and confederations.

[edit] End game

Each Travian server ends with the "end game" sequence. For normal servers it ends after about 300 days, and for speed (3x) servers,^[13] it ends after about 100 days. After this time has elapsed the Natars, a vicious tribe controlled by the computer, are released. As the players on the server begin to build the Wonder of the World, the plans of which they have captured from the Natars, they meet resistance. With every five levels that the Wonder is built, the Natars attack the villages containing the Wonders until level 95, when they will then attack upon the building of every new level. The first alliance that builds their World Wonder to level 100 wins the server, which stops and restarts after some time. Then a new game begins.

[edit] Version history

Travian 3.5 introduced changes to the navigation bar, which, until then, used images from version 2 for the village views.

Version 3 featured oases which could be annexed, and would supplement the player's hourly resource production, as opposed to the oases in version 2, which were only present for visual appeal. Version 3 also introduced 'heroes', units which gain experience in battles. In version 3, the maximum level buildings can be extended to have been increased; moreover, the resource fields in the player's capital village can be upgraded infinitely, at least theoretically. In practice, crop fields and clay pits can reach level 19 and woodcutters and iron mines can reach level 18. This requires the village center to have 12 warehouses and 7 granaries. An edition of this version where events take place three times faster, known as Travian Speed3x, was released later. Update 3.1 introduced "quests", which players can complete to receive rewards in the form of resources and game Gold from the Questmaster.

On March 16, 2007, an announcement was made about the release of Travian Classic, known as Travian 2.5, which was based on version 3 but had certain features disabled in order to make it similar to version 2.^[15] Version 3.5, an update to the current version, was first implemented on the original .org server (German) in early February, and will be implemented on every following server starting in 2009, until version 4 is released.^{[14][16][17][18][19]}

The full changelog of Travian versions can be found on Travian FAQ.

[edit] Forums

Travian forums enable players to ask questions, recruit, find out about server restarts and much more. The forums use different user names and passwords to the game itself which means that each member has to register to use them.

There are also forums which are only accessible to alliance members. These are used by alliance members to communicate with each other, and are accessed by players using in-game hyperlinks. However, these forums tend to be replaced by external forums if the alliance splits into wings, or becomes a wing of another alliance.

[edit] Financing

Travian was initially financed through players upgrading accounts with Travian Plus and web banners. Later, an option for purchasing 'Gold' replaced the one for buying 'Plus' on most servers. The introduction of 'Gold' allowed players to directly influence the game mechanics: for instance, by increasing resource production, instant completion of building and researches or applying a strength bonus to troops. Accounts upgraded with Plus allowed building queues, larger maps and other functional abilities. These effects are similar to the capabilities of user scripts, but implementing these can result in a banning of the offending account as they are against the general terms and conditions of Travian. Travian has also expanded to include a "Travian Shop" which includes Travian-related items like clothing and mugs.

[edit] Criticism

Travian has been criticized for the in game purchase of ‘Gold’. The selling of Gold pays for the some of the staff (most Travian staff are volunteers), server and bandwidth costs for the game but gives the purchaser an advantage over players who have not purchased Gold, an advantage some feel is unfair.^[20]

[edit] External links

• Travian.com international servers
• Travian.org original server (German)
• Official FAQ

[edit] See also

• Travians

[edit] References