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| * by Duncan Gough. | * by Duncan Gough. | ||
| * by Chris Chapman. | * by Chris Chapman. | ||
| * by Cristian Barbato. | |||
| * (French, English, Dutch, Italian, etc.) | |||
| == Notes == | == Notes == | ||
Revision as of 12:50, 3 August 2007
Travian is an online multiplayer browser-based game developed by Travian Games GmbH in Germany. For the international market the Gameforge AG is publishing the game.In Travian, players interact simultaneously and compete with thousands of others in a virtual world set roughly in Classical antiquity at the time of the Roman Empire.
Gameplay
Travian is a browser-based game, made in PHP, and is therefore played directly through the internet with a web browser. While Travian is a strategy game, with events occurring and resources accumulated in real time, it should not be confused with other types of real time strategy games where actions occur in a highly interactive and fast paced manner. The player starts with a village but seeks to amass an empire. No downloads, installations or plugins are required, although a graphicpack may be downloaded to ease server stress. After registration, players may start playing Travian immediately, free of charge. Travian provides enhanced access, for example through mobile phones, for a fee. Also, a "Plus" feature which provides additional tools is available for purchase with prices starting at $2.99 per month.
Tribes
A player starts with one village, populated by either Teutons, Gauls, or Romans. Each tribe has different troops, advantages and disadvantages, and different strategies. The Romans are described as the best tribe for beginners because of their easy playability. However, Roman armies are more expensive to train and maintain. Teutons are better at offense and can build armies early on while Gauls are often considered the best at defense and enjoy the fastest troops.
Resources
There are four different types of resources in Travian: wood, clay, iron and crops, all of which are required in various quantities to build and expand. The resources are produced by fields in one's village, producing resources at a preset rate, which may be upgraded (For example, you upgrade your level 5 resource to level 6, so now instead of producing 50 per hour, you produce 55 per hour). Though unusual for an online browser-based game, field tiles continuously generate resources. For example, if 30 units of a resource are to be produced per hour, one unit is generated every 2 minutes, rather than 30 units on the hour.
Variations
The game has game servers running in dozens of languages, each language having its own domain extension, e.g. travian.de in German, travian.fr in French, travian.com and travian.us in English. There are currently seven game servers, at travian.com, running the English version of the game, numbered s1 to s7. Each server represents a separate world. Travian version 2 game is in progress on s6 while version 3 is in use on s1, s2, s3, s4 and s7. Server s3 is a so-called "speed server" and runs at triple speed, so a building which might take 33 minutes to build on s2 will take only 11 minutes on s3.
Alliances
Alliances provide the main catalyst for strategic play within Travian whereby groups of players can band together for mutual benefit. Within an alliance, players can view attack and defence information for all alliance members, and also have improved communication tools such as mass alliance-wide in-game messages. Alliances will typically use an external forum to discuss strategy and tactics, and one of the main hooks of the Travian gameplay experience is in co-ordinating massed defences or attacks with other alliance members.
External links
Official website
- Travian.com - English-language servers
Third party links
- Travian Under the Microscope by David Edery.
- Casual Games =~ Social Software by Duncan Gough.
- Passive Web Gaming: My New Passion by Chris Chapman.
Notes
- Das Spiel Travian
- Gameforge erfreut such über ein neues Projekt: Travian wird Dank Gameforge weiter internationalisiert - Travian Italien online Template:De icon 26.10.2005
- McCauley, Dennis. "Power Up | Child's Play Turns Out to Be Fine, Grown-Up Fun." Philadelphia Inquirer 20 Apr. 2007.
- Travian Plus
- Die Webseiten des Spiels Travian