Travian

**Zoraster** · 03-06-2008, 10:43 PM

Travian is a browser based strategy game in sort of a civilization/sim-city way. It's a fairly slow paced game on the regular speed servers, and the games tend to last about a year. It takes an incredible amount of diplomacy (the kind where you actually talk to people, not just built in diplomacy functions) in order to succeed. it requires teamwork to win.

There are about 10,000 active players on server 1 which just restarted. Now's the time to get in to that server if you'd like to play. The website is www.travian.us (there is a .com server, but you want the .us servers).

A helpful beginner's guide: http://forum.travian.us/showpost.php...77&postcount=1

If you do decide you like the looks of it, give me an in-game message at zorastersab and i'll try and help you out with advice and the like.

**UnDeaD** · 03-17-2008, 04:12 PM

Just registered, but looking at this, I'm wondering how much better or worse this is than Ikariam. I can tell, Ikariam definably has a much cleaner, and nicer look to it though.

**Ashenhart** · 03-18-2008, 11:40 PM

I have been looking at several browser based games and Travian was given several awards for content from the development community. I however really do not like the graphics of this game at all. Ikariam is simplistic compared to Travian but still has plenty of depth to keep us glued to our monitors waiting for our next upgrade or shipment.. etc etc.

I am now looking at Ogame.org. It is also put out by gameforge and has a huge following. Maybe this will be something for us to do while we wait for our next item to be ready

**UnDeaD** · 03-18-2008, 11:47 PM

I think I could really get into a lot of those games.

I'm going to swing this thread back over to the strategy forums though, been wanting to do that.

**Zoraster** · 03-23-2008, 09:21 PM

sorry for the delay in response. It's your preference, of course, but I wouldn't say that Travian's strength are its graphics. Then again, I don't think you should play web-based games for their graphical content. When turning to browser games, I think that one of the signs of a strong one is managing to simultaneously make the game very simple in terms of mechanics, units, etc. and yet very deep in terms of game play. Travian has accomplished that far and beyond any of the other games I've tried.

Travian is clearly one of the most successful browser games ever created (2 million or so internationally... .us has only 7 servers, but countries like turkey have 17 servers). Check out the drop box on the left hand side of http://travian.ws/analyser.pl?s=us1 . That said, popularity isn't a precise indicator of quality. Still, I don't think the game could thrive like this if it didn't have some pretty universally appealing traits.

Anyway, if you're still trying it out, give me an IGM to Zorastersab

**Gambit7** · 03-30-2008, 03:05 PM

Not to put down any other ideas anyone has, but IMO Ikariam is the best webgame strat MMO I've seen. It's simpicity and friendly UI and graphics is what gets it for me. It's REAL easy to sit there staring at the map. The other thing: it's totally free.

OGame has me interested, but the dreaded Paypal link has reared its ugly head. Not to mention, it's largely a text-based game (until you pay for it right?), which turns many people off. If I want text-based, there are many many better ones out there.

-the search continues

**Zoraster** · 03-30-2008, 07:06 PM

what's this have to do with travian? Travian is free too although you can choose to pay for some features, but those aren't unbalanced features, and the price is relatively cheap anyway.

**Gambit7** · 03-30-2008, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Zoraster

what's this have to do with travian? Travian is free too although you can choose to pay for some features, but those aren't unbalanced features, and the price is relatively cheap anyway.

It falls into the same category as many of these other games, that's how. Plus, someone brought up OGame. I'll probably give Travian a gander though too.