willhese
15 Apr 2009, 12:30 AM
Hard Times Guide
A short simple guide, donating the simplistic solutions, to problems which give many Travian players alike a reason to quit the game.
Any other points which you think may be helpful to someone reading this guide, please tell me and I will make sure they are added, thank you.
Index
Being Farmed
Preventing Being Conquered
Negative Wheat Production
Being Farmed: Are you constantly being attacked by the same player all day long?
- There are many farmers out there in Travian, whom you will almost certainly come across at one point or another in your Travian life. Their primary objective is to steal your resources and deplete your growth. Some farmers are more lenient than others however and a polite message will persuade them to stop farming you. Although as always there are some ruthless, sadistic farmers who will purposely try to make your life hell, maybe because you are situated in their 7x7 square.
- The easiest, non-violent way to prevent being farmed is to build a helpful and wittingly clever building called the cranny. Able to store up to 2000 resources by the Gauls and 1000 by both the Teutons and Romans when upgraded fully, an attack against you will no longer be profitable. To let the cranny work to its best effect, a tip which works for me and probably many other Travianeers, is to spend all the resources which won't be protected by your cranny before you log off. This way if you are attacked whilst logged off, you won't loose any resources.
- The Downside: The only con with a cranny is the fact that the Teutons have a bonus which allows them to raid 1/3 of your crannies resources, assuming that your cranny is fully filled. With the Teutons being the favored tribe for raiding, this is very bad.
- One of the last remaining defenses is to take to the 'meanie' method; with those dreadful Teutons helping themselves to 1/3 of your resources, the next step is to resort to violence. Having 2/3 of your crannied resources being saved, quickly spend them on troops. Buy as many troops as possible, depending on your farmers army, (usually a farmer will send a relatively small army to attack you, as they will have more villages which they farm so they have to send troops there) hopefully your defending troops will take out the incoming raiding team! Depending on the size of the attacker this could result in an even more devastating effect. After killing the pesky Teutons the attacker may decide to send the full force of their army to you, in a 'I'm making a point' kind of way, just to show what will happen if you oppose him/her. If this does happen call upon your alliance for help.
- Lastly, if all else fails.. Join an alliance- 'There's safety in numbers!' With the protection of a medium-sized alliance, a farmer is far more likely to stop attacking you, because they will be afraid of being smited by a whole alliance. Ask your alliance leader for some protection, and before you can say 'skippy' you'll have the whole cavalry charging to your aid!
Prevent Being Conquered: All's Fair in Love & War!
- In order to conquer a village, you need a senator, chief or chieftan and to have one of these, I'd say you have to be a reasonably sized player with a fair amount of experience under your belt. Any player wanting to conquer a village is most probably going to choose a small, unexperienced victim whom hasn't quite got the hang of the ropes yet. The defender will most probably not know what to do when they see several attacks upon their village around the same time, and so their defense will be unsuccessful.
- The Symptoms: The first sign that someone is eying up your village for a future conquer is being scouted. An attacker planning to conquer your village will first send a scout to see what troops you have in store for them. Now for you to see this scout, you to must have a scout of your own, other wise their scout will go unnoticed and you won't know that someone is planning to attack you.
- The Attacks: Before being conquered your attacked will send several waves of attacks to your village to confuse you as to which one is going to be the heavy and final attack. There will be several 'fake attacks' which will be the first attacks, these will consist of small amounts of troops. Then there will be 'conquering attacks' these are the bad-boys who will deal great damage. The attacks consist of battering rams and catapults, therefore they will be slow, and so will be some of the last attacks upon your village.
- To check the incoming attacks on your village, simply go to your rally point. There's no real way that you can tell which attack is when, so the way in which you can do it is estimate. The first attacks will be fake attacks, and in some cases so will the last attacks, therefore the only place left for the conquering attack is somewhere in the middle. Now that you know when you're going to be attacked, lets do something about it!
- Preventions Cheaper Then The Cure: Firstly, don't panic! I know that when you log into your account and see 5+ attacks on your village that it can be very daunting. You need to upgrade that Wall! Get it upgraded as high as you can, as it gives a defense bonus to your troops. Even if your defending army is relatively small, with a defending bonus it will prove just as strong as the attacker! Next, you need to send your troops to another village or to an alliance members' so that they won't become killed during the 'fake attacks.' However you should time it correctly so that they will arrive back before the other waves. This way your troops will be able to defend your village against the rams and catapults, which will try to clear the way for their chiefs or such...
- Finally, you should call upon your alliance members to help you out with the attacks. At the end of the day, I'm sure that your alliance leader isn't going to want one of their alliance members to loose their village because then alliance won't be as strong. By now, hopefully you've managed to avoid those complicated, confusing waves and have survived the attempted conquering.
Negative Wheat Production: So many mouths to feed, yet so little to feed them with!
- In Travian, one of the main problems which causes players problems is a negative wheat production. Right from the start or half way through the server, players alike are losing wheat at an hourly rate. Instead of making wheat it's like they're owing wheat! The problem which causes this is an excess of troops.
- Whilst building troops you can get carried away and not realize that you're unable to cater for them, and before you know it you will have a negative wheat production which will force all your troops to starve, therefore you've wasted precious resources on buying troops for nothing! To prevent yourself from getting into negative wheat production you have to keep an eye on how many troops you can afford, and set yourself a limit, e.g. Don't let your wheat production get below 30 per hour.
- If somehow your wheat does go into a negative state or gets very low, here's how you can get it back up there. Firstly try and upgrade as many wheat fields as possible, if you're unable to do this because you have no wheat in your granary then you need to buy some wheat and sell some of your other resources. Go to the marketplace and exchange some wood, clay or iron for some wheat. Once you get the wheat delivered upgrade your wheat field and your wheat production will slowly become positive!
Hopefully after reading this guide you've managed to resolve some of those problems which were causing you so much grief. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!
By Willhese
A short simple guide, donating the simplistic solutions, to problems which give many Travian players alike a reason to quit the game.
Any other points which you think may be helpful to someone reading this guide, please tell me and I will make sure they are added, thank you.
Index
Being Farmed
Preventing Being Conquered
Negative Wheat Production
Being Farmed: Are you constantly being attacked by the same player all day long?
- There are many farmers out there in Travian, whom you will almost certainly come across at one point or another in your Travian life. Their primary objective is to steal your resources and deplete your growth. Some farmers are more lenient than others however and a polite message will persuade them to stop farming you. Although as always there are some ruthless, sadistic farmers who will purposely try to make your life hell, maybe because you are situated in their 7x7 square.
- The easiest, non-violent way to prevent being farmed is to build a helpful and wittingly clever building called the cranny. Able to store up to 2000 resources by the Gauls and 1000 by both the Teutons and Romans when upgraded fully, an attack against you will no longer be profitable. To let the cranny work to its best effect, a tip which works for me and probably many other Travianeers, is to spend all the resources which won't be protected by your cranny before you log off. This way if you are attacked whilst logged off, you won't loose any resources.
- The Downside: The only con with a cranny is the fact that the Teutons have a bonus which allows them to raid 1/3 of your crannies resources, assuming that your cranny is fully filled. With the Teutons being the favored tribe for raiding, this is very bad.
- One of the last remaining defenses is to take to the 'meanie' method; with those dreadful Teutons helping themselves to 1/3 of your resources, the next step is to resort to violence. Having 2/3 of your crannied resources being saved, quickly spend them on troops. Buy as many troops as possible, depending on your farmers army, (usually a farmer will send a relatively small army to attack you, as they will have more villages which they farm so they have to send troops there) hopefully your defending troops will take out the incoming raiding team! Depending on the size of the attacker this could result in an even more devastating effect. After killing the pesky Teutons the attacker may decide to send the full force of their army to you, in a 'I'm making a point' kind of way, just to show what will happen if you oppose him/her. If this does happen call upon your alliance for help.
- Lastly, if all else fails.. Join an alliance- 'There's safety in numbers!' With the protection of a medium-sized alliance, a farmer is far more likely to stop attacking you, because they will be afraid of being smited by a whole alliance. Ask your alliance leader for some protection, and before you can say 'skippy' you'll have the whole cavalry charging to your aid!
Prevent Being Conquered: All's Fair in Love & War!
- In order to conquer a village, you need a senator, chief or chieftan and to have one of these, I'd say you have to be a reasonably sized player with a fair amount of experience under your belt. Any player wanting to conquer a village is most probably going to choose a small, unexperienced victim whom hasn't quite got the hang of the ropes yet. The defender will most probably not know what to do when they see several attacks upon their village around the same time, and so their defense will be unsuccessful.
- The Symptoms: The first sign that someone is eying up your village for a future conquer is being scouted. An attacker planning to conquer your village will first send a scout to see what troops you have in store for them. Now for you to see this scout, you to must have a scout of your own, other wise their scout will go unnoticed and you won't know that someone is planning to attack you.
- The Attacks: Before being conquered your attacked will send several waves of attacks to your village to confuse you as to which one is going to be the heavy and final attack. There will be several 'fake attacks' which will be the first attacks, these will consist of small amounts of troops. Then there will be 'conquering attacks' these are the bad-boys who will deal great damage. The attacks consist of battering rams and catapults, therefore they will be slow, and so will be some of the last attacks upon your village.
- To check the incoming attacks on your village, simply go to your rally point. There's no real way that you can tell which attack is when, so the way in which you can do it is estimate. The first attacks will be fake attacks, and in some cases so will the last attacks, therefore the only place left for the conquering attack is somewhere in the middle. Now that you know when you're going to be attacked, lets do something about it!
- Preventions Cheaper Then The Cure: Firstly, don't panic! I know that when you log into your account and see 5+ attacks on your village that it can be very daunting. You need to upgrade that Wall! Get it upgraded as high as you can, as it gives a defense bonus to your troops. Even if your defending army is relatively small, with a defending bonus it will prove just as strong as the attacker! Next, you need to send your troops to another village or to an alliance members' so that they won't become killed during the 'fake attacks.' However you should time it correctly so that they will arrive back before the other waves. This way your troops will be able to defend your village against the rams and catapults, which will try to clear the way for their chiefs or such...
- Finally, you should call upon your alliance members to help you out with the attacks. At the end of the day, I'm sure that your alliance leader isn't going to want one of their alliance members to loose their village because then alliance won't be as strong. By now, hopefully you've managed to avoid those complicated, confusing waves and have survived the attempted conquering.
Negative Wheat Production: So many mouths to feed, yet so little to feed them with!
- In Travian, one of the main problems which causes players problems is a negative wheat production. Right from the start or half way through the server, players alike are losing wheat at an hourly rate. Instead of making wheat it's like they're owing wheat! The problem which causes this is an excess of troops.
- Whilst building troops you can get carried away and not realize that you're unable to cater for them, and before you know it you will have a negative wheat production which will force all your troops to starve, therefore you've wasted precious resources on buying troops for nothing! To prevent yourself from getting into negative wheat production you have to keep an eye on how many troops you can afford, and set yourself a limit, e.g. Don't let your wheat production get below 30 per hour.
- If somehow your wheat does go into a negative state or gets very low, here's how you can get it back up there. Firstly try and upgrade as many wheat fields as possible, if you're unable to do this because you have no wheat in your granary then you need to buy some wheat and sell some of your other resources. Go to the marketplace and exchange some wood, clay or iron for some wheat. Once you get the wheat delivered upgrade your wheat field and your wheat production will slowly become positive!
Hopefully after reading this guide you've managed to resolve some of those problems which were causing you so much grief. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!
By Willhese