HostBlog - incoherent ramblings of a hosting provider.

I’ve recently discovered a MMRPG (Massive Multiplayer Role Paying Game) browser based and free, very reminiscent of the early sim-city type programs. This wonderful gem is called Travian, and available to play right now

It’s been around for a while, with active forums, comprehensive wiki, clans (alliances) and so forth, but takes a bit of planning and forethought to get into “late in the game” as I have - so here is a shortcut guide to getting your Empire up-and-running as quickly and efficiently as possible …

Get a good initial resource base

field workers need feeding, building staff need feeding, an army marches on it’s stomach … etc
so start by producing more food … and don’t forget buildings use clay, weapons are made from wood and iron … so your “fields” and the resources they produce are your lifeblood.

1. Upgrade some fields up to production level 1…
   * food
   * food
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
2. Hide your stash
   now build a cranny to protect produce in case of a raid and to get your tribe resource bonus
3. Upgrade remaining fields up to production level 1
   * food
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
   * food
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
   * food
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
   * food
   so all fields now produce 5 items/hour

Implement rapid resource growth

spend some of your free gold on the 25% wheat production bonus
spend some of your free gold on the 25% clay production bonus
spend some of your free gold on the 25% wood production bonus
spend some of your free gold on the 25% iron production bonus

1. increase one food to level3
2. increase one clay to level3
3. increase one wood to level3
4. increase one iron to level3
5. bring remaining fields to level2
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
   * food
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
   * food
   * clay
   * wood
   * iron
   * food

Get some sleep

you’ll need somewhere to keep your resources when offline (you do sleep ?)

1. Upgrade your main building to level3
2. Build a Warehouse
3. Build a Granary
4. Upgrade Cranny to level3

Note: Your Granary, Warehouse and Cranny should be regularly upgraded to be able to hold as much in resources as you create during your offline time (say 12 hours * hourly production of your *highest* producer - not cumulative)

Get more stuff

1. Bring all remaining fields to level3
   - due to the resource requirements of field workers and upgrades you should always now upgrade your fields as:
   clay - wood - iron - food
2. Take one wheat field all the way to level5 ready for a mill (a permanent wheat production bonus)

Prepare for the unwashed hordes

1. Build rally point
2. Build barracks to level3
3. Get all food production to level4

Need more munchies

1. Build mill
2. Upgrade all Wheat Fields to Level5

Here come the squaddies

1. Upgrade rally point to level3
2. Build blacksmith to level3
3. Build academy
4. Build stables
5. Get making equal numbers of each available type of soldier, and upgrading the academy to research new ones

Now the direction you take for Raiding, War, Farming, etc is entirely down to you …