Wren's FAQ

[Wren]

Are you new to travian? Do you have a question about the way the game works?

The answer is out there, and may be right here! Scroll down and check! I've tried not to repeat too many answers that are already established, so check the links before assuming your question is unanswered.

Questions About Gameplay
New Account

I'm brand-spankin' new, what's going on?
See Woden's Beginner's Guide for the answers to most introductory questions.
Nichts has one too!
Read the rules, check out the official FAQ, and click the Manual link in the left-hand bar in-game.

Why isn't there a manual?
Oh, but there is!

Who's the fat guy at the right of my screen?
That's the questmaster, he runs the quests. He gives you basic tasks to complete, with rewards if you're good!

Dove? What dove? What does [#0] mean?
The dove of peace is a 'medal' for your profile. See here for full information.

The [#0] code goes into either of the two boxes on your Profile. You need to include the brackets for it to work.

What's this rat for?
The rat the questmaster sent you is not very useful, but you can't easily get rid of him. Like any reinforced troop, you cannot control it (send it out on missions), but it does consume 1 wheat/hour. Unlike other reinforcements, you cannot send it home. You can still starve it, by going into negative wheat. As a reinforcement, it will be the first to die. When it does, you'll get a boost of 100 wheat, hopefully enough that you can keep your other troops alive.

What server am I on?
Some people bookmark their game and forget what server they signed up for. That's fine, and easy to confirm. Go to your village overview, which will have an address like this: s?.travian.*/dorf1.php. Your server is a combination of the two unknowns, and will be referred to like this: *?. So if my address is s3.travian.us/dorf1.php, I play on server us3.

What quad am I in?
The Travian map is laid out in accordance with Cartesian coordinates. Your map coordinates correspond to (x|y). So:
(+|+) is North East
(+|-) is South East
(-|+) is North West
(-|-) is South West

Can I play more than one account?
Yes. You may play on as many servers as you'd like. However, you are not allowed to play more than one account on the same server. This is called multi-ing or multi-accounting, and will get you banned. A good way to follow this rule is to use one and only one email address when you register for Travian. If it lets you sign up, you're all good.

Questions About Gameplay
Account Development


Should I build a residence or palace in my first village?
Residence. It is vastly cheaper for the same benefits, and it is unlikely that you will want to keep your spawn village as your capital.

What's the least expensive way to get my next expansion slot?
Depends what you have existing. For 1 slot: Residence level 10 is cheapest. For 2 slots: Palace levels 0-15 is cheaper than Residence 0-20. For 3 slots: only the level 20 Palace allows it, but Palace 15-20 is the single most expensive new slot.

Should I get another village? How do I do that?
Yes, absolutely. An empire consisting of many villages is the surest way to succeed in travian. Many players think that instead of spreading out, they'll just make one amazing village and dominate. However, that cannot work (think wheat production vs. consumption and what would happen if any player broke through and wiped out your wheat fields.
To settle a new village, you need 3 settlers. You may build 3 settlers in your Residence at lvl 10, and 3 more at lvl 20. You may also build sets of settlers in a Palace at levels 10, 15, and 20. As soon as you have the appropriate amount of Culture Points, and 3 settlers, you may send them to an Abandoned valley and create a new village there.

What if someone else sends settlers to the same place I do?
The first settlers to reach the valley will settle it. When the second set arrives, it will turn around and head home. The settlers cannot stop midway, so will make the whole trip both ways.

How should I develop my villages?
Resources fields should be developed in order, all of each level at once. Why?
The best thing to do is to make each village specialized. That means if you build offensive troops in one village, you shouldn't also build defense there. However, all villages should produce resources and CP to the highest level they can. See Starlette's pilfered guide for a complete breakdown of these goals.

What village should I make my capital?
A cropper with good oasis bonuses. Here's why.

How can I change my capital?
Build a palace in the desired village (remember, only one per account!) and click on the "Make this village my capital" link on the building overview page.

Where can I build fields past level 10?
Only in your capital can you push resource fields past level 10. If you ever change which village is your capital, any fields past level 10 will be bumped back down.

Is there an easier way to find 9 or 15 croppers?
There is only one legal method, and it requires the purchase of Gold Club. Once unlocked, there is an easy to use cropper-finder, accessible on the map page.

Ok, but what should I do for my second village.
Every, and I mean every, situation is different. Each is SO different that the best thing I can do is offer up the facts about villages and let you chose. The best thing for a new player is to read up, make a choice, and learn the pros and cons of his/her action. 2nd village is still early enough in your round to even delete and try again.

Can I take someone else's village?
It is possible to conquer a village as long as it is not a player's capital or only village. To do so, you will need an administrator (Roman Senator, Teutonic Chieftain, Gallic Chief), which you can build in a Residence or Palace if you have an available expansion slot and have researched the unit in a level 20 Academy. To set up your chiefing attack, see Nailzz's guide or this one.

How do I build a chief?
Chief(tain)s and Senators (here-on-out just 'chiefs') are expansion units, like settlers. Therefore, once researched, you have to upgrade your Residence or Palace before you can build any there.

How do expansion slots work?
When you found or conquer a new village, the village you acquire it from uses up an expansion slot. They are opened up at each level that you can build settlers/chiefs (Residence @ 10 and 20, Palace and 10, 15, and 20). There is a maximum of 3 per village. They are not tied to the structure, and if you care to tear down the Palace and rebuild it, you may have 3 slots in every village. If you've used up a slot, losing the structure does not eliminate the slot, it just precludes you from opening another.

Can I demolish my own buildings?
Yes. The option becomes available in the Main Building at level 10. You can also send a catapult attack to another one of your own villages.

I built settlers or chiefs, but my Residence or Palace is now gone, do they still work?
Yes. Once trained, settlers and chiefs will work. The only limit on their effectiveness is Culture Points.

What happens if I conquer my own village?
Should you conquer your own village, either by mistake or to move ownership around, you will suffer most of the negative effects of normal conquering. Your wall will disappear, all troops will vanish, all researches are undone, and any queues (building or troop) will be cancelled.

What are these map spaces filled with animals? How can I take an oasis?
The "Abandoned valley" spaces that have Nature's troops in them are Oases. They can be conquered by a hero for resource bonuses. You can raid them (you will need large armies), kill off the defenders, and conquer them with a hero. You will need a Hero Mansion level 10 for one, lvl 15 and 20 for two or three. To conquer an oasis, it must be in the 7x7 of your village. You may have up to 3 oases per village, as long as you have built up the Hero Mansion. Full details here.

[Wren]

Questions About Gameplay
Troops


What are the stats of Nature's troops? Can I play them? Can I get more of them?
Nature's troops (stats here) are computer-controlled. You can neither play as Nature nor get more than the rat that comes in the quests.

I met prereqs for this unit, why can't I build them?
Once prerequisites are met, you then have to research the unit in the Academy. Then you can build them.

I researched a unit, why don't I have them?
Once researched in the academy, you will need to build the unit in the troop producing buildings. Infantry is built in the barracks, cavalry in the stables, chiefs in the residence/palace.

What's a hero?
A hero is one of your own troops, supercharged. You can level it up and increase its strength. It's also the only troop that can change the village that controls it. For full details, see conquerer7's excellent guide.

Which troop should I make my hero?
The fastest your race has. See here for why.

How do I rename my hero?
Go into the Hero Mansion and click on the hero's name. Then simply type in your desired new name.

Can I transfer units to another village's ownership? Can I use my reinforcements as anything but defense? Other reinforcement question?
When you reinforce a village, the troops still belong to the original village. An example to clarify. Village A sends troops as reinforcements to Village B. While they sit in Village B, they eat Village B's wheat. At every other point, they are still consuming Village A's wheat. The owner of Village B can do nothing but feed them, defend with them, and send them home. The owner of Village A can only call them home. It doesn't matter if the two owners are actually the same account. A hero can transfer ownership between two of a player's villages, but that's the only exception. You can only control troops while they are in the village that owns them (for all but a hero, the village that built them).

Do researches stay researched when I demolish a building? Blacksmith/Armory/Academy/Resource bonus question?
As a rule of thumb, if you acquired a benefit by doing something more than upgrading a building, you'll keep the research if you demolish the building. Academy researches, Blacksmith and Armory upgrades, and oasis claims (tied to the Hero Mansion) work this way. The Embassy works like this as well. You may level up the building, research something, then demolish the building, and keep the research. You will have to rebuild the building if you want to research something more later on. If the bonus is an inherent benefit of the building (Brickworks, Iron Foundry, Saw Mill, Flour Mill, Bakery), it will drop if the building level drops.

In what order do my troops starve?
Other people's troops always starve first. Then your own troops starve in this order:
1. Troops from another of your villages
2. Troops built from the village in question
3. Troops owned by the village starving that are on the move to/from another village

The tie-breaker is total wheat consumption of the reinforcement line.

Furthermore, when a set of troops are starving (a particular group as designated as a separate line in your rally point), they starve from left to right, all of each unit set starving before any of the next.


Questions About Gameplay
Battle


Why didn't my troops start to move?
There are two screens between a target village and the attack actually moving. You have a screen to pick troops, then a confirmation screen. You must click 'ok' the second time to actually launch the troops. When you see the rally point screen, THEN you know your troops are away.

Can I cancel troop movement?
Yes, but only for 90 seconds after you send the troops out. There will be a little red X on the rally point information about the troop movement. Click that within 90 seconds to bring the troops home.

What's the difference between raid and normal attack?
Normal attacks are to the death, one side will finish the other off. Raids aren't necessarily so. Both will yield resources if the attackers survive and there are resources available to be taken. Woden worked up the full combat math. For siege, rams, or chiefs to work, you must send a normal attack.

How do I use scouts?
Send them in a party to a target village, without other unit types. Pick between scouting defenses (wall and residence/palace) or resources, and off they go.

Is there a difference between raid and attack with scouts?
No. Full combat information is here.

What resources do I scout?
When you scout resources, the report tells you nothing about crannies. What you see may or may not be protected. The only surefire way to know if you can steal resources is to send an attack.

How should I use catapults?
JD70's good guide to catapulting.

Zero defense killed one or two of my troops? What's going on?
There are three types of defense in travian. Troops, morale, and built-in. Troop defense is clear and accounted for by the defensive stats of the troops in a village. But that's not your problem here. The morale boost deals with population difference. Smaller accounts get a percentage bonus if a larger account is attacking. Built-in defense is reflective of the level of the residence or palace in the city under attack (full stats here). The wall provides its % defense bonus to the troop and built-in defense. It has no defense of its own.

Zero defense killed my attackers? Why did my battle report only show ?'s?
If you attack and get a battle report that tells you "None of your troops returned" and shows ?'s for all the defender's troops, it's simply because your attack did not do enough damage. Unless your attack kills at least 25% of the defense, you will get a report that does not show defense troops.

Why did that battle turn out how it did? Is there a good way to simulate a battle?
You can run a combat simulator to figure out how a battle may turn out. There's one built into the rally point, but this one's better.

I just trapped some troops, what does that mean? Other Gaul trap question?
So you built some traps, a player attacked you, and now you've got troops stuck in your traps. Congratulations, you used the traps properly. While the troops sit in your traps, they eat the owner's wheat, not yours. They can only be freed if you let them go, or if the owner or his/her ally normal attacks you successfully. If you let them go, all of those traps will be freely, but not instantly, rebuilt. If the enemy rescues them, 1/3 of your traps will be rebuilt.

My troops got trapped, how do I get them back? Other raiding trap question?
To free trapped troops, you must normal attack the village holding them. If you fill the available traps, kill the entire defense, and have at least one surviving troop, you will rescue your forces. You may also negotiate their safe release from the Gaul holding them. Should all go poorly, and it's not worth the effort to do either of those two, you may disband them, releasing them from your army.

While trapped, the troops will still consume your wheat, so it's worth the effort to resolve the issue quickly.

Which of my troops get trapped?
Troops are trapped in equal proportion with how they are sent. If you send 70% Troop A and 30% Troop B, then 70% of the traps filled will be Troop A, and 30% of the traps filled will be Troop B.

How many traps can one village have?
Travian version 3.5 allowed multiple trappers to be built. With this new allowance, you can have 17 level 20 trappers, then demolish your Main Building, Granary, and Warehouse to build 3 more trappers, level 9, for a total of 7468 traps.

Can I hide resources with merchants?
No. All resources being held by merchants as offered (but not yet accepted) trades can be stolen by raiders. The only way to protect resources from being taken is to build a cranny.

[Wren]

Questions About Gameplay
Improve Play


I think I might be a farm, how can I regain control of my own destiny?
If you're being attacked a lot, can't put together any defense against the attacks, and keep losing resources to the raiders, you're a farm. This is not good. In fact, it's really bad. You need to reverse that status, here's how.

I'm ready to play the game at a higher level, what's the best way to go about it?
There are a number of guides stickied here. As an aggressive player, I believe the mindset laid out in Nailzz's guide to be perfect, and applicable to all races.
Roman: Tinasilna, Arúen
Teuton: Nailzz, Evil-Jake (with Nailzz's help), Natwest (speed server focused)
Gaul: Hugglebear, Stupidus, c69

I want to start over or go play a different server, how do I delete my account?
Follow these simple steps. Click on Profile -> Account -> At the box, check the yes box next to "Delete account?" -> Enter your password -> Click Save.

What's the newest server? When did x server start?
All important server dates are announced and kept here.

When will the Natars come out? When will x server restart?
Nobody knows when exactly the Natars will arrive or when a server will restart, don't ask. Natars are usually 300 and 100 days after server start on normal and speed servers, respectively. Endgame happens, server ends, server restarts. It will happen, eventually, in that order, be patient and wait for the announcements.

Questions About Gameplay
Interactions with Other Players


What's a sitter? Should I have one?
A sitter is a player who can log on to your account using his/her own password. They will be able to do anything but normal attack or change settings. They can be a huge benefit or unrecoverable detriment. You MUST trust your sitter. A good sitter will give you a huge lift, allowing you to spend a little bit more time in the real world while also having your account running. Having an in-alliance sitter is usually required for any alliance.

What's a dual?
A dual (not duel) is another person with full access to your account. The game then becomes a joint venture, and you have another person (or more people) to help your account be the best it can. A dual account can succeed massively or be a horrible clash of personalities. If you play with someone else, pick that person carefully. It's like picking a boyfriend or girlfriend, you two are going to be CLOSE. Many of the top ranked accounts on most servers get there because they have at least 2 people playing on the account.

How can I join/create an alliance? What do I need an embassy for?
Other than being a great source of CP, the role of the embassy is limited. You need a level 1 embassy to join an alliance or a level 3 embassy to create an alliance (allowed 3 members per level (3 at 9, max. 60 at lvl 20)). The maximum number of members in an alliance is determined by the highest level embassy in the alliance, no matter who holds it. You will stay in your alliance if you lose your embassy, losing the alliance's largest embassy doesn't kick any members out.

How do I get into a good alliance? How do I know which one suits me?
Nailzz includes the type-A way to pick alliances in the second header here. However, there are many factors that go into a decision. Proximity, average population, and alliance profile are good things to check first, but there are many more things to consider. Mr. Sim lists a couple big factors to look for. Much of your game will go toward helping the other players in your alliance, make sure you respect what they're trying to do.

How are alliances ranked?
The alliance rank in Travian version 3 is simply the combined population of all its members. Travian 3.5 has promised more thorough scoring.

Questions About Gameplay
Miscellaneous


Why is my wheat production so low?
Your wheat fields produce wheat, just like the other 3 resource types. That number is shown with the "raw" production number. However, wheat is consumed by villagers and troops. Each building level and unit consumes a certain amount of wheat (indicated by the "consumption" number). Through a quick bit of subtraction, the "final" production number is what goes into your granary each hour.

Woden made a pretty picture to go along with the explanation.


Can I cancel merchant movements?
No.

How does the NPC Merchant work?
The NPC Merchant allows you to redistribute your resources into any combination you desire, for 3 gold per use. You can see its use, and all the other market functions, here.

Can I change the email address my account is tied to?
Indeed you can. Here's how.

What's this endgame I keep hearing about? Natars?!?!?!
The endgame is when players battle the computer controlled Natar race for control and completion of the Wonders of the World (WWs). See The Beginners Guide to the End Game and The Complete Guide to the Endgame for all the juicy details. Also, no you can't play as a Natar, and nobody knows exactly how strong their troops/defenses are.

[Wren]

Questions About The Forum

First, use these forums properly.
Please take a minute, learn what each forum is about and how to search. Also, if you don't see your answer here or in any of the links, make sure you keep the mods happy. And don't forget to follow the rules.

Keep yourself safe.
Unless you're comfortable about your strength in the game/cocky as hell, do not let people know who you are in game! Big time farmers will often patrol these forums looking to pick up new farms. If you prove yourself to be an easy target AND give out your name and/or coordinates, you can be pretty well guaranteed that unwelcome visitors will come knocking. Again, DON'T GIVE OUT YOUR IN-GAME NAME OR COORDINATES.

How do I create a signature?
At the top left, click on "User CP" then on the left hand side, Edit Signature.

What are the green bars and titles under usernames on the forums?
They bars are reputation, given by other users and the titles are ranks, determined by set guidelines. All the details are here.

How does the rep-system work?


How can I check how much rep I have?
At the top left, click on "User CP" then scroll down.

How is my rep power calculated?
The formula that calculates how much reputation you give with each act is secret. However, it is known that -rep is 1/2 the strength of +rep.

I have met the requirements for the next rank, but haven't gotten it yet. What gives?
The forum usergroups are what displays your rank and controls your permissions. They are automatically updated near the bottom of each hour.

How can I quote a locked thread?
From Woden:

Originally Posted by Woden You can actually get around that; I do it all the time. Copy and paste the text you want to quote over to the Post Reply box where you are going to use it. Then put the standard "[quote=UserName]" tags in place. Now, to get the green arrow, you go to the locked thread's post, and copy the URL of the little box to the upper-left of the post ( or , next to the post time). The last part of it will be "#post" and some number. Copy the number, and add it after the username, with a semicolon ";" separating them. It should look like this (using your post as an example): [quote=Tifforo Can't Resist;1703820] It's a bit of a pain in the butt, but it works.

What does newb mean?
Urbandictionary to the rescue! "A term used to describe a inexperienced gamer/person/etc. Unlike a n00b, a newb is someone who actually wants to get better." Here, it's used as a friendly cajoler.

Are the moderators and administrators as scary as they look?
Yes. They also tend to be extremely helpful. Ask them questions, at the peril of being called a helpless n00b.

Are lolcats actually funny?

Yes

[Shima zhao]

Seems useful, why not sticky this. They will know what to do.

[Ichabod_Crane]

Nice Wren

Noticed you said to make your capital a cropper, maybe a line or link about 9c and 15c?

Also:
What are scouts and how do you use them?

How do I get a new village? and what is the best way to do it?

[Goku]

Hey nice Faq Ask a modeerator to sticky it

[Wren]

Originally Posted by Ichabod_Crane Nice Wren Noticed you said to make your capital a cropper, maybe a line or link about 9c and 15c? Also: What are scouts and how do you use them? How do I get a new village? and what is the best way to do it?

I'm trying not to step on too many toes, but I think I'll probably have to add something about scouts. The breakdown of each capital type is something that Brahma's post does a great job of, so I'll leave it to people to peruse that topic.

I think I'll call out some advice on new villages too, that seems to be in demand.

[Wren]

-self-bump-

more questions added

[Sleeping Bear]

-Explain how to know which server you are on (s8, s4, etc.)

-In the forum subsection, make sure to tell them when asking for an alliance don't put coords or in-game name. (explain other learned safeties in the server forums).