Travian Tales: New Name, New Design & New Writer

Hey,

September has been an interesting month for us and October is gonna be great for us here at Travian Tales. That's right, we've changed our name and our URL. We've done this so that the blog has a more professional feel to it, so the blog recieves better search engine listings and so the blog's URL is easier to remember. Although I still suggest you bookmark us anyway, that's www.traviantale.com. Don't worry about losing any links because they'll all continue to work only the pages will now use the new URL.

As you'll have noticed in the last few days our design has also changed dramatically from the deep, slightly overpowering black colour to the warm but clean blue design we now have in place. This is to allow the blog to be easier to read and much easier to navigate. We've further improved this by placing the 'Pages' navigation bar just under the header so you can easily switch between our pages. Layout and URL wise we are unlikely to be making any significant changes like these again for a very long time, I think our new format can deliver increased readership and I hope that's proved.

Finally we're extremely happy to welcome Eddie to the team here. Me and Bea are very happy to have him on board and he'll be contributing articles on the United States Speed server and anything else which might take his fancy. He's a great writer and an overall great guy and I hope you find him as interesting to read as I find him as great to work with. We might be adding a fourth writer to the team but nothing is decided yet so don't expect anything.

Steve
For more of our posts and to hear about them as soon as they are posted follow us on Twitter, here.

[Any Player] Where Should I Build My Hammer

First Draft: C0unse1
Final Edit: Steve10

This Guide Uses Maths Based On A Normal Server. However the logic can be applied to Speed Servers.

It should be very clear to most people that having multiple small armies is much less useful than having one larger, much stronger army. That’s not to say multiple armies shouldn’t be built, but these smaller armies will usually be considered raiding armies and not hammers. By way of example, with a 25k hammer, you can clear 10k of defense from an idle player with ease, then go on to farm. However if you have 5 x 5k armies, you wouldn’t be able to clear the player. In short, your hammers are for clearing large levels of defense and to be useful your hammer must be as big as possible. The question therefore arises, where is the best place to build your hammer?

There are two possible answers to this problem.

• The Capital Hammer
• The Non-Capital Hammer 

It’s certainly worth taking some time to consider which of these is going to be the most appropriate choice for you as the decision you make cannot be easily undone and the differences between the two are huge.

There are certain factors to take into account when making your decision:

1) Vulnerability:

A non-capital hammer is vulnerable to a chiefing. A capital one isn’t. When a village gets chiefed, all the army units created from there vanish. A capital cannot be chiefed . As one who has spent a server defending a non-capital hammer as well as chiefing no small number myself, I can tell you this is a real, not purely theoretical risk. 

2) Ease of Defense

When the serious wars begin, the primary targets for your enemies will almost certainly be your capital and your hammer village/s. For those of you with non-capital hammers, this will mean having to defend two villages and not just one. That of itself may not appear so tricky, but when one considers that your non-cap hammer will most likely be -100k / hr in crop without any defense in there, you can imagine how much fun it is to also host 100k in defenders as well. Handling a village at -200k crop/hr for any period doesn’t improve your sleep patterns any. However having a capital based hammer will mean that your enemies will only have to target and cause damage to one village to be able to ruin your entire game and take you out as a threat.

3) Feeding
  

When dealing with a capital hammer, feeding is the easiest of the two. Most of the army will be fed from the capital's own crop production, with perhaps a decent supplement coming in from other supply villages. In a non-capital hammer the only word to describe the feeding process is nightmarish and extremely risky. For those without active sitters or duals, forget about it. Likewise if you don’t use gold and so are unable to NPC resources to crop, forget about it. The non-capital hammer is not for the part time Travian player, neither is a strong hammer for that matter. The concept behind feeding it is easy enough. The non-capital hammer receives constant shipments of crop from your capital, as well as all your other villages. When a non-capital army is on the march, it needs to be fed, when it’s at home, it simply reinforces your capital to make the feeding easier. It’s to allow for easier, quicker and constant feeding, that the non-capital hammer will normally be adjacent to your capital.

4) Size:

You may be thinking that there's no reason why you shouldn't build your hammer in a Capital after all I've said, but there is yet another major factor that must be considered when making a decision, and that's size. In almost all cases a non-capital hammer will be larger than a capital hammer. This is because in a non-capital hammer one can build a Great Barracks &Great Stable which effectively doubles your potential troop production (at around 3x cost). 


I use the phrase “almost all cases” advisedly as there are two resources which are King in Travian: Crop and Time. It is these which will ultimately limit the size of your army. Let us, by way of example examine Teutons. In one month a Teuton, with queues carrying on for 24 hours a day, should build:

In A Capital Hammer: 12970 Axemen 5258 TKs and 2162 Catapults

In Non-Capital Hammer: 25939 Axemen 10516 TKs and 2162 Catapults

Now if you are only producing your hammer for 6 months, then your army from a capital will find it self maxed (because of troops training times) at 77820 Axement & 31548 TKs. This on it's own can rightly be considered a World Wonder army on a normal speed server, especially if it consists of more than 10,000 catapults although it won’t be the largest army that the server will see. It will be consuming close to 170,000 of crop per hour, and that's excluding siege. Even this will need some serious crop and time management to deal with on a daily basis.

This contrasts with over 150,000 axe and 60,000 TKs that you could build in the same time period within a non-capital hammer,which would consume upwards of 330,000 Crop per hour. For most players who are able to build unimpeded for this length of time, it will be crop which ultimately limits your army. There comes a point when you simply can’t feed any more troops without a massive network of villages holding and feeding your troops. Given that the troop production is so much more expensive using a Great Barracks/Great Stable, for those who believe they can do 24/7 building for at least 6 months, if you can't afford to keep them all running then I suggest a Capital Hammer. If you can then you'll do well to choose a Non-Capital Hammer.

5) Losses Due To Usage:

So far I've ignored one major factor however, and that’s possible losses due to usage. Given the slow build time, losses from a capital hammer take a longer time to recoup and then they do so slowly. A major loss 3 months in might kill off your World Wonder army, since the catapults being little good without an escort of over 100,000. However that same loss to the escorting troops in a non-capital hammer can be rebuilt within a month, and make your world wonder army usable again.

Overview: 

As a general rule of thumb, for those who are going to be constantly aggressive, and are not seeking to build a monster army for world wonder time but rather, using it to bash enemies constantly then I would suggest a non-capital army. For those who want a monster army (and I mean “OMG! HOW DID HE BUILD THAT SIZE?”), again I’d suggest a non-capital hammer.

For the greater majority, a capital hammer is easier to manage, easier to defend and generally the safer, if smaller option. For the real professionals out there, and with sufficient advance planning, there is no reason why you couldn’t host a capital army of 100k axe and 50k TKs with 15k cats providing you with both size and safety. And finally for the real professionals with good duals, lots of gold, a friendly sitter pool and no real-life (I've never heard of the word.), there is always the option of hosting both capital and non capital hammers.

About Eddie

Hello Everyone,
my name is Eddie and I am now the official writer for the USX section of Bea's blog and want to say I am very glad to do it.
I have been playing travian for about 3/4 years my first ever server was COM3 and I ended up top 400 with about 200 troops in total.lol. I currently spend most of my time as a Party Advisor on the .AU domains but currently don't play and .AU server I only play USX as of now.
If anyone wishes to contact me about anything extra they would like added in please contact me here  rites144@yahoo.com I am looking forward to hear from you all.

[Any Player] 8 Tips For New Players

Number 1: Be Patient, Travian is a game which often takes a while to get into, even if you are being attacked follow guides and other people's suggestions and soon you'll be enjoying the game.

Number 2: Cranny Up, As a new player always build a cranny which can cover the amount your warehouse can hold. This means you'll be able to protect your resources from being stolen.

Number 3: Be Polite, If someone is attacking you, be polite to them, a lot of players are willing to stop raiding or attacking you if you can prove to them that they won't get anything from you. It's also just correct to be polite.

Number 4: Make Friends, This follows on from number 4, making friends who will help you, protect you and give you advice when you need it can be a major part of enjoying the game. Travian although a war game is also a community and making friends will improve your game massively.

Number 5: Be Active, This can be an issue for all levels of players but being active is important. Top accounts are active nearly 24 hours a day. For casual players I still suggest checking and developing your account at least two or three times a day.

Number 6: Join An Alliance, Being part of an alliance that is active, strong and organised is a must for any level of player. A good alliance that values it's members will help them out in any situation. Join an alliance that you value and that values you. 

Number 7: Read Guides, There are a massive number of guides around helping new players and established ones alike learn how to do more in the game. Read as many of these as you need to to become a confident and skillful player.

Number 8: Find A Mentor, A mentor is a player who is experienced in the game and is willing to share their knowledge. Finding a good one is hard but can really help make you a great player.

The Best of the Best Part 2

Here's the second in the series of videos based on some of the best reports from around the world. Enjoy.

The Best of the Best Part 1

Here's the first in the series of videos based on some of the best reports from around the world. Enjoy.

WE NEED REPORTS

Hey Guys,

We're looking for good (or maybe truely terrible ones) reports to go in a video I'm planning on making for the blog.There aren't any requirements as such but it has to fit into one of the following categories:

• Excellent Offensive Reports
• Excellent Defensive Reports
• Biggest Mistakes/Fails (defending with 5000 catapults is one I saw a while ago)

 Anyway, if you have a report (or have access to one) which you think should be included in the video, then please contact send me an email with the report screenshot, name of the account (if you want it included) and any other relevant details, my email is: swimsteveswim@hotmail.co.uk. Also if you have me on Skype feel free to give me your best reports on that.

There's no real deadline as I have a threshold I need to reach to be able to put in the video, and if there are too many for a single video then I'll happily make another. Feel free to send as many reports as possible.

Steve

Travian 4: New Hero System

Hey Guys,

Well I know I promised a blog post about the new Natarian Independent Villages in the next version but when I saw the latest developer post about the new hero system I decided to drop that idea because this is way, way cooler. What you'll immediately notice from my writing today is that it's no where near as critical as normal on the upcoming changes, because this is one I really like so I've kept the negativity at the minimum. Travian have redesigned the hero system from scratch, it's almost as though the original never existed and they've come up with a very new concept for them (although there are similarities you'll notice). For example a hero is no longer trained, it starts the game when you do and is not tied to a unit. Anyway here we go:

Customisable Heroes

Like what you see? Well what you are looking at above is one of the many options for what you can make your hero look like, yep you heard me right, from Travian 4 heroes will come with a number of customisation options. Although currently they are limited and you only have a base choice of a tall, muscular male the options that cane be customised are:

• Head Shape
• Hairstyle
• Ears 
• Eyes
• Nose
• Beard 
• Mouth

With these customisable options for your hero, players will be able to show their individuality through their heroes or, if they prefer, create a group of identical heroes with their friends or alliance members to show how united they are. I think this part of the change is very nice although might just prove a distraction at the beginning and while it isn't the most needed game play change it is rather cute and there's nothing wrong with improving visuals.

Tribe Specific Attributes:

With this addition to heroes, each tribe's hero shall have a different special ability which will help make sure each tribe is still very different from each other. The attributes seem to have been based on what each tribe is already good at in order to help keep the essence of the tribe and help create strategies which can be truly tribe specific. Roman heroes are going to be slightly stronger, Gaul heroes will move faster & Tueton heroes will allow the 20% plunder bonus in raids if they are included. This means that although not all raids will have a Tueton plunder bonus it is now back in the game just with a little bit of a twist and will mean Tuetons will have to think just a little bit harder when deciding to use their hero.

Hero Specifications Upgrades:

Hero upgrades are still here, however for each level the hero will only recieve 4 attribute points. Along with this the specifications that can be upgraded have been changed slightly to give a wider (and potentially more important) range of selection for how to use your hero. The specifications now become:

• Strength - This is now the combination of the hero's offence & defence, each point gives an 80 strength increase, although Romans will get a 100 strength increase.
• Defence Bonus - Like before it goes up to 20%
• Offence Bonus - Also goes up to 20%
• Resource Production Bonus - For the village the hero is in

The production bonus for me is the most major change, supposedly the bonus can be split between all resource types in a village or be set to just one resource type (perfect to boost production in a crop capital). However what we haven't been told is how high the bonus will go, hopefully we will be told in the next chance but there's a chance it's going to be a 'wait & see'. Also we have been told that the Regeneration specification but cannot be upgraded by the player so we've got to hope we'll be told about that soon.

New Heroes Mansion

Well guys, we've been told there will be at least one other post about the hero system, however following the current developer blog posting trend we won't be seeing it for around a week so I hope you've enjoyed this post of mine and just remember to check back regularly to read our other posts.

Steve
For more of our posts and to hear about them as soon as they are posted follow us on Twitter, here.

Coming Soon: Independent Natarian Villages

Ok, so I haven't got a post yet about them. This is just to let you know that there is one coming (maybe tomorrow, maybe over the weekend) about what I think is the most interesting development. The reason it's not coming out now is that I've put some questions about them on the team forum and I'd like to have them answered before I start blurting things out on here. Anyway guys if I don't post tomorrow, enjoy your weekend and remember to read our other posts while you wait.

Steve
For more of our posts and to hear about them as soon as they are posted follow us on Twitter, here.

Ideas For Longer Term Quests

Hey Guys,

 

Everything below is a quote from a post I made in the team forums regarding ideas for longer term quests to guide new players. The beginning but was a reply to another post so it might not make sense to someone who hasn't read the other posts so if you'd like just skip that.

 

Long term tasks would be good but I think they should be quite acheivable as well, artefacts, admins & conquering is something that really depends on ability and play style. We are trying to uncourage new players to play for as long as they are able within the game and I think getting an artefact is something that doesn't happen for most new players even if they are decent (or even good) players. Conquering is another choice, many players choose not to conquer because they either like their villages to have a certain plan, aren't agressive enough or simply have a lack of choice for villages to take. By not allowing some of these tasks to the majority of players you create yet another divide between active simmers and actively agressive people. The same can be said for attacking someone with catapults. Any tasks should really be available for people who choose any route.

Anyway I am assuming the idea

Anyway the ones I like of yours were:

1. Research A Unit
2. Conquer An Oasis
3. Extend Resources Fields to 5

However I think that most of the others aren't great choices for smaller players and some are complicated, and might force people to change their choices for their account. For example I'd include:

Build 10 Troops:

A very simple goal that helps a new player become more able to defend themselves (admittedly at the beginning of the game).

Complete A Marketplace Trade:

I think new players would be well served to get to grips with the marketplace system.

Get 75 Kills:

Now although this may seem like it's catering to the aggressive side of the market I would suggest that this is a war game and at some point combat may occur, however I'd like to see defensive points and kills of animals in oasis count towards this total.

Reinforce An Alliance Member:

I think this will help encourage people to join alliances with players based nearer to them as well as to help build a sense of teamwork. I'd suggest that most players will join an alliance and help other members so there would be the minimum number of people missing out from this idea.

Focus Group 1 Ideas:

Admittedly these ideas aren't mine, it comes from the first focus group I set up because I thought it'd be good to get the ideas from a variety of players both very experienced and some not very experienced, nine people were included. The way they were chosen was random by me going over my online skype list and randomly dragging people into the chat.

All I told the players were told was that the ideas should be:

- Aimed for the longer term
- Available for all play styles (sim/defend/offensive/etc.)
- Helpful for new players

Barracks to Level 5:

Helps new players build up an infrastructure if they need or decide to build troops.

Train 120 Troops:

For any tribe this is a decent short to medium term goal and is available to players of any standard and gameplay style while costly it will help players survive and is not a ridiculus expense.

Build A Residence:

A step on the way to getting a second village.

Train A Settler:

Getting so close to a second village, this is like a guide.

Build A Second Village:

And you're there. A second village is an immense goal and very important for a new player to cement themselves in their area.

Focus Group 2 Ideas:

This was a much larger group made up of close to 25 people, and they came up with all of the ideas above plus a few more new ones.

- Aimed for the longer term
- Available for all play styles (sim/defend/offensive/etc.)
- What Would Have Helped Them

Train A Hero:

I'd say the majority of players who last past the artefacts and are active have a hero, and quite a few new players overlook heroes when they are pretty essential to gameplay and can really help you. They are accessible for all sorts of accounts whether you defend, attack or just sim in peace.

Send Resources to An Alliance Member:

Help another member, I'd probably put a base limit of 100 resources on this and not offer a big reward.

Build A Town Hall:

A building often overlooked by new players and could save them a lot of time and is available to all play styles.

Host A Party:

Links into the task posted above.

Offer A Trade On The Marketplace:

Helps a player get to grips with the economic side of the game rather than just the war heavy side, sometimes both sides will be equally important.

Win A Battle:

Simple really, to win a battle you must kill more of an enemy's troops (or nature's) than they killed of yours.

Message An Alliance Member:

Because communication is a key part of the game.

Refer A Friend:

Quite simple really as it makes use of a framework we already have in the game under the 'Earn Gold' tab but this time it would be a once only quest to get someone to join the game but they wouldn't need to reach the usual target.

Build An Academy:

Goes with the idea of researching a unit which I said earlier.

Not Serious: Hot Pictures

Un-surprisingly this was suggested and became very popular, so instead of pictures of troops have pictures of hot girls. What was more surprising was this idea was more popular within the female portion of the focus group than with the male section. Also the least surprising thing of all was this was suggested by the legendary Surikat.

On thing I started to realise quickly after we began this is that some of the quests seem to be steps on to the next quests and mean that some people can't do certain quests until they've completed others and although I like the idea of people being able to pick and choose it might be good to layer them. So there'd be a certain number of quests available at once and once you've done one of them you get another from that category. Using the examples above I've completed the layers:


- Build An Academy
-- Research A Unit
--- Train A Hero


- Train 10 Troops
-- Win A Battle
--- Barracks to Level 5
---- Build 120 Troops
----- Get 75 Kills
------ Conquer An Oasis


- Message An Alliance Member
-- Reinforce An Alliance Member
--- Send Resources to An Alliance Member


- Build A Residence
-- Residence to Level 10
--- Build A Town Hall
---- Host A Party
----- Train A Settler
------ Settle A New Village

- Complete A Marketplace Offer
-- Make A Marketplace Offer

Steve

Another biggest hammer/ Jeno caught this from the forum

If anyone knew who owns this hammer, pls step up and contact thru skype beaskelly. Thank you!

Com5 WW updates-MDDragon got hit

The MDDragon team was very happy that they were placing to level 100 and there is no hammer came to their World Wonder tried to destroy it. For the last 4 hours and 18 minutes, things were change. They were hoping that there is no attack came but there was....

Rammer came and tried to destroy the wall but it was not completely damage....Battle report below. This is the complete attack after the rammer came... Enjoy!!!!





MDDragon placed an order for level 100 for his WW, it has 4 hours and 18 minutes left and rammer and hammer came. Zajak rammered the wall and delevel it to 17. Gills hammered lowered the World Wonder to level 97.

The Lodm meta missed this two guys hammer and rammer. They escape it.

Another hammer came and hit the Main Building :(


This guy is lucky since the wall got damage...


A little guy wanted to throw his little hammer:


Ouch! Two great warehouse got hit and down to level 17


Plus the natar came and hit.. when we hit level 98. It was a bad timing after they were hitting. Natar came.

New UK Forum Admin

After months of delays and plenty of complaints Travian Games have finally announced the new admin for the UK Forums. Avi, known best for her guides and as a long time crew member will now take over permanently from the temporary forum admin shadowspirrit. The reasoning given behind the large delay seems to be training time although this does not seemed to have caused any issues for previous staff appointed to the position so some people have found that dubious.

From what I can tell Avi will start by trying to fix all the little issues that can be seen on the UK forums like poor thread organisation and an annoying and uninformative infraction system. She seems to have already made a well needed step in the right direction by redifining the thread prefixes for all announcements, rules and competitions in the announcements area of the forum to help organisation. I'm also hoping to see some larger scale changes to improve the forums and make them more accessible and generally easier to use although since admins do not have access to the server addons and mods will most likely not be on the agenda.

Avi does have a tough job a head of her, with many people wondering whether she can do what is needed to be truely welcomed by the communithy. A while ago the UK lost one of their previous forum admins, Tullia, (now FA on the .IN Domain) in the Laikagate and since then all the admins appointed to the role have been compared to her with none (except possibly El Ryano) coming off favourably. Personally I think Avi has the determination and skill to make herself one of the better admins the UK Domain has ever had, with her knowledge of both the game and forum she is going to be able to use her expertise to great affect.

Anyway, if anything does happen just look for it here.

Steve

About August

Hey Guys,

Well It's September now and I thought I'd give you a quick update about how things are progressing. As you might of noticed over the last month me and Bea have been experimenting with the side bars and stuff, adding a country and pageview counter ontop of our feedjit stream. Both were meant to help us find out more about our readers and our popularity. However Google has kindly added an amazing statistics page to the admin panel of blogs which allows us to find everything we need and more on one inbuilt page. Because of this I have now got rid of both the feedjit stream, the following ability and the country pageview counter.

So Google only has statistics starting from June 2010 but I thought I'd put out some interesting ones anyway.

Page Views July 2010: 6017
Page Views August 2010: 8182

Most Viewed Post: Dorian Gray on 10x Speed
Biggest Referrer: www.forum.travian.com
Most Popular Page: WW Hammers & Rammers
Most Post Written July 2010: Bea
Most Posts Written August 2010: Steve

Well I hope you've found those Statistics interesting, I certainly did. Another smaller change is that the number of posts now displayed on the homepage is 2 which I changed to go with the sidebar removals in order to keep the page short and as clear as possible. We're also going to be coming out with some more posts soon but the Summer has caused us some uploading problems with us both going on holiday. Look forward to more posts about Travian 4 and what's it like to be a Supporter from me and I'm sure Bea will be doing her usual posting as well.


Steve