What Travian Got Right, and Ikariam Got Wrong

Travian and Ikariam are both browser games on the internet. Although both are direct competitors of each other, they share almost identical game play, with Travian having more aggressive game play, and Ikariam having a more passive game play. However, even though they are direct competitors, Ikariam has been lagging behind in game play features which Travian has. These features serve to enhance the user experience and due to the absence of these features, Ikariam does have a more complicated user experience than Travian. This article will serve to list those missing (F2P) game features, which Travian implemented, but Ikariam ignored.

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  Simple In-game message system:

  • Travian has a far superior in-game message system than Ikariam. Using a simple entry box system, where you input the username of the player you want to receive the message, input a subject, type up the message, and click send. With a recent update, Travian also included an address book system, where a simple click on a box displays a list of user entered user names. Displayed along the usernames is an indicator of their online status, and a simple click of the username will place the username into the “Recipient” field.

  • Ikariam: Has a much more complicated in-game message system. There is no “Recipient” field when sending a message. Instead, you are required to click a link next to the username, a process made more difficult if you do not have easy access to the username. Or, if you have memorized the long and random player ID of the player you wish to say hi to, you can input the user-ID into the URL, a complicated process which is not usually worth the message you are sending. Granted, there are more complicated types of messages which are part of the game, such as requests for “cultural treaties” or requests for a “garrison right”. However this could easily be solved by separating the in-game message system from the diplomacy system. However with recent updates, there has been more emphasis on individual islands working together as a community. Now included on islands is a message board, where individuals on the island are able to post messages for all other members of the island to see.

• Simple Multi-Message/Circular system:

  • Travian has an extremely simple and efficient alliance wide message system, where a player (provided that he has the privilege to, usually the leaders) can set the recipient of a message as [ally] and have copies of the message sent to the entire alliance.

  • Ikariam sadly has failed at providing such a simple system. As mentioned in the previous problem, Ikariam users are required to click on a link to send a message to a player. This limits contact with players unless the player chooses to search up the recipient on the high score list, and click the message link next to their name. Communicating with members in the same alliance is easier though, as those with the privilege of messaging the entire alliance, are able to view a message link next to the name of somebody in the same alliance. However, without the privilege of messaging the entire alliance, members are forced to search up a fellow member’s name on the high scores in order to message that member. This has forced alliances to give the privilege of entire alliance messaging to every alliance member, which has resulted in very few of the messages being important alliance announcements, unless the alliance enacts rules against unimportant entire alliance messaging.

• Maps:

  • Travian has excelled in it’s Map system, which displays the location of players and other locations within the game. It’s Map system easily loads, and is easy to navigate. Mousing over a square on the map results in a nearby box displaying basic information on the location.

  • Ikariam has a much more complicated map system, which is mostly due to it’s game play. There are two types of maps, maps of an island and maps of the game world. The static island maps are perfect, with the map displaying the island, it’s resource producing locations, and all towns located on the map. However the world map, proves to be the opposite. Instead of a static map, Ikariam has a more interactive map, with the user being able to click and drag the map left or right to change the view. Extra visual effects involve aquatic animals showing themselves within the empty sea squares. Although more interactive and visually pleasing, it does pose a problem to players with lower connection speeds, as they are only able to view the zone of the map they are located in, with neighbor zones requiring a long loading time.

• Transporting resources:

  • Travian: Transporting resources couldn’t be more simple within Travian. In order to transport resources, a user requires a building called a market place within their town. With each subsequent level of the marketplace, players gain an extra merchant, whose resource carrying capacity varies according to the player’s race, and if the player has a certain building called a “trade office”, which increases the carrying capacity of the merchants of that village by up to 300%. By visiting the marketplace, a player has several options on how to transport resources. If the player reaches the marketplace through a town view, the target has been pre-configured, and all that is required is for the player to input a number of resources to transport. Otherwise, the player can enter the coordinates of a town, or the name of a town, in order to set the destination of the resources. If the player only knows the user name of the player who will receive the resources, a simple search on the high scores to turn up the profile of the player, will also provide the player with a list of towns owned by the receiving player. Also, during the process of sending resources, the player is provided with information of exactly how long the resources will take to reach the target. However, the merchant is required to make a return trip, which makes long distance transportation extremely time consuming.

  • Ikariam has a complicated resource transportation system, mostly due to the game’s structure. Due to there being two maps, one for the island of a town, and one for the world, simply sending resources to a town is made much more complicated. However the system excels in sending resources between a player’s own towns, with links being provided to send resources to one’s town. The amount of resources a player can send in a single trip is limited by the amount of trade ships purchased by the player. Each trade ship has a higher cost than the previous purchased trade ship. And each player is limited to 160 trade ships maximum. However, all the trade ships a player owns can be accessed from any village. In order to send resources to another player, the sending player is required to visit the town which requires the goods. This is further made difficult if the player doesn’t know the world coordinates of the town. Transportation to another town if the location of the town on the game world is unknown is virtually impossible. Another issue is that the player is not given any information on the total transport time. They are just given the loading time of the resources onto the ships. This problem can easily be corrected however by use of a greasemonkey script (approved by Game Forge)which calculates both loading and transport time, and displays them both.

• Server Rounds:

  • Travian follows a round based game system, due to the nature of it’s game play. Due to this, rounds usually never enter a state of boredom, and there is always a large amount of activity on the server. However, it does require players to have a lot of determination, as whatever work they achieve through the round, is lost when the server resets.

  • Ikariam follows a permanent server system, where once a round has been created, it lasts forever. This allows players to continuously build their accounts, however it also has a downside. If the multiple alliances on a server manage to establish server-wide peace, the server can enter a perpetual state of tranquility.

• War:

  • Travian wars are supported within the game. There is an option for alliances to register a war against another alliance and declare war. Once an alliance has declared war on another alliance, members of the declaring alliance are able to view highlighted enemy targets. This allows for better coordination in wars. Also due to the game’s mechanics, wars can be extremely costly and damaging. Defeated players in wars, usually have so much damage done to their villages, that after the war many decide to quit or join a different alliance for shelter.

  • Ikariam: Within Ikariam, wars are not supported within the game. Instead, wars are a community activity, and are usually declared on the forums. Upon declaration of a war, players within the participating alliances are able to preform multiple attacks without breaking the game’s “no-bashing” rule. And because of the game mechanics, wars do not cause direct damage, other than resulting in a loss of time in a village’s development. The only damage received in a war are a loss of resources and troops. And possibly morale.

• Sitters/Same Computer Usage:

  • Travian: Setting somebody as a sitter (a person who has permission to log into your account and manage it) is extremely easy within Travian. A simple navigation to the Travian account preferences reveals a text box where you can input the usernames of up to two sitters to watch over your account. Setting somebody as a sitter will allow them to log into your account using your username and their password. Sitters have minor limitations within your account, they are not allowed to change your profile or access your account controls. Nor are they allowed to access your alliance settings. However, they are allowed access to do just about everything else, including accessing your messages, and launching raid attack to gain resources on your behalf. This allows sitters to easily communicate with you by sending a message to themselves on your account, a process which is made possible by Travian’s in-game messaging system. However, simple discussion with your sitters is possible if you wish for your messages to not be read by your sitter. Informing the Travian admins that you use the same computer as somebody else is also possible. Within the same page, there is a similar text box titled “Same computer usage”. Entering the username of the person who uses the same computer as you to play Travian ensures that you will not be accidentally punished by the game admins for “multi-accounting”. Sitters are not allowed to make one-way trades, and have to act only in the best interests of the account being sat.

  • Ikariam: There is no built in way to inform the Ikariam admins that you wish to have a sitter or that you share the same computer as somebody else. Instead, you are required to send a message to your server’s admin, informing them of the sitting action or of a same connection usage (not a same computer usage). There are also more stringent rules for sitters within Ikariam. Sitters may not sit an account for more than 12 continuous hours, the sitting period is nullified if the actual owner logs in, an admin must be notified before the sitting process begins, sitters are not able to initiate attacks or move forces unless the village is about to be attacked, and numerous other rules which must be obeyed.

• Account Switching:

  • Travian: Account switching is fully supported within Travian, and is a simple process to preform. If you are transferring your account to somebody else who doesn’t have an account on the same server, a simple e-mail change within the game’s control panel is all the is needed. If transferring an account to somebody with an account on the same server, a simple e-mail containing basic information on the transfer is required to be sent to the server’s admin. And both players are required to use the “recover password” function after the transfer.

  • Ikariam: Account transfers are allowed and supported in Ikariam. If transferring to a player within the same server, a message is required to be sent to the server admin, informing him or her of the transfer. However, after an account has been transferred, 28 days are required before the account can be transferred again. Also, both players are required to change their e-mail address after the transfer.

• Looting Capacity:

  • Travian: The amount of loot which can be taken varies according to the carrying capacity of the troops participating in the raid. Also the amount of resources which can be taken is dependent on the protection of the village’s defending cranny, which defends resources from attacks. Due to game mechanics, you are required to send many troops or several waves in order to retrieve many resources from a target.

  • Ikariam: In Ikariam, the amount of resources which can be taken is dependent on the protection capacity of the warehouse, as well as the amount of trade ships which you send on the journey. Because of the game mechanics, it is possible to send an extremely small force, along with many trade ships to gain thousands of resources.

• Action Points:

  • Travian: There is no action limiting value within Travian which limits the amount of actions a player can preform withing a given time. Instead some actions are not able to be canceled, others can only be canceled during a certain period, and some can be canceled whenever it is necessary. An example is troop attacks. During the first 90 seconds of the attack, troops can be recalled from the attack. However, after 90 seconds have passed, the troops will continue their original objective and cannot be recalled.

  • Ikariam: In Ikariam, there are action limiting values. Towns are limited in the amount of actions they can preform by the amount of “action points” they have. These action points are required in order to send trade fleets or armies. Every town starts up with two action points, and are awarded another action point at every 5th level of the town hall. Canceling a fleet from an attack doesn’t free up the action point until the troops return to the town.

• Learning systems:

  • Travian: With the implementation of a quest system to provide resources to starting accounts, there are very few cases of players who do not comprehend the game play of Travian. The quest system rewards players with resources for learning and preforming basic actions essential for game play. These actions vary from checking a message, to building up a resource field, to modifying your profile. Players are even awarded with 3 days of “Travian plus” during this quest period. More experienced players are able to forgo the quest system and begin playing according to their own playing style. To supplement the quest system’s educational purpose, there is also a visible link which opens a pop-up manual containing basic information on the game, as well as links to more detailed guides and the Travian help website. The Travian help site is separate from the game site and includes more information on game mechanics, as well as graphs on costs to upgrade a building depending on the level.

  • Ikariam: Recently Ikariam has implemented a tutorial system into the game. Their tutorial system is very interactive, with a floating advisor box which presents itself whenever enter your town. Clicking on the advisor will yield an information box which will give you instructions on what to do, from building buildings to assigning scientists to research new technology. Like Travian’s tutorial system, more experienced players are able to opt out from the begining, and start their new town according to their play style. However the system requires players to refresh the town page, instead of being present at all times, which can confuse some new players unfamiliar with navigation.

• Profiles:

  • Travian: Individual user profiles are supported within game, which users are able to personalize to better express themselves within the game. These profiles are usually filled with information about the player’s game style (such as aggressiveness or not), art, medals received, favorite war quotes, community status, and other information. These profiles allow users to better interact with each other, as a lot can be learned from reading another user’s profile.

  • Ikariam: Individual user profiles are not supported within the game. Only alliances are able to have profiles.

• Alliance Sizes:

  • Travian: Alliances are limited in size by the host player’s embassy level. At level 20, the alliance can hold a maximum of 60 players. This limit of only 60 players can be seen as a challenge for alliance leaders to coordinate their alliance effectively, and ensure a proper chain of command and communication. The game supports official NAPs (Non Aggression Pacts), declarations of war, and confederacy. Because of this, it is easier for alliance leaders to form multi-wing alliances. An extra feature supported within the game is alliance forums. These message boards can be made available to all the alliance wings, which aids alliance leaders in their coordination of multi-wing alliances.

  • Ikariam: Alliances are limited in size by the amount of embassy the host player has as well as the level of these embassy. This allows alliances to grow to 100+ members or higher. However, forming multi-wing alliances is a much larger feat, due to here being no supported NAP or confederacy system. Also, forums are not provided in game, which forces alliances to utilize external message boards.

• Alliance Pages:

  • Travian: Alliance pages within Travian have more functionality built in. The alliance leaders are able to easily display the names of alliance officers such as the general, or diplomat. However there are no official ranks within alliances. Generally, alliance leaders are able to assign special alliance actions such as accepting a player or editing the profile, to as many officers as they choose. This allows for there to be multiple generals, alliance recruiters, or diplomats. Alliance pages give more functionality for members in the alliance however. From the alliance page, members are able to view any attacks on the alliance, the online status of the entire alliance (represented by a colored dot next to the name), the alliance forums, and any recent alliance news (players who joined/left, new NAPs/Confederacy, new wars). Alliances are able to also display any medals they have won.

  • Ikariam: The Ikariam alliance pages offer very limited functionality. Alliance pages are usually composed of an external page which can be viewed by the public, and internal pages which can be viewed by the members. Unlike Travian, these pages have the unique ability of supporting HTML coding. However this does very little other than providing graphics support. Ikariam supports official positions and gives these positions (and only these positions) special privileges in the alliance. Thus, the general position is the only one allowed to view attacks, and the home secretary is the only one who can edit the internal alliance page. However this system prevents the ability of other users to preform these special actions (including the leader, ex. The leader is unable to view incoming attacks). Another thing to take into account is that the general is able to view all the troops every member has, the home secretary is able to view every resource in every member’s town, and the leader receives a resource bonus depending on the size of the alliance. Also, because Ikariam doesn’t support NAPs, confederacy, or wars, alliances are required to list them manually on their external profiles.

• Plus Accounts:

  • Travian: Every Travian player is given 35 gold, which they can use to purchase and try out plus features. This allows players to try out Travian plus before purchasing gold. Purchasing Travian plus gives them access to extra information in their Travian account (including account overviews, and advanced graphs), and extra features (such as a task list to schedule upgrades, and a notepad). Gold also allows players to purchase features which alter the game mechanic’s slightly. These include a 25% boost to a resource production, a 10% boost to a village’s troops attack or defense, instantly completing an upgrade of a building (with the exception of a few special buildings), and access to a NPC trader who will trade instantly at a 1:1 ratio any resource for another of your resources.

  • Ikariam: Ikariam Plus gives players access to much more information such as account overviews, and also allows players to schedule building tasks. Using ambrosia, players are also able to access a NPC trader, resource production bonuses of 20%, as well as hiring mercenary trade ships which can boost the carrying capacity of your trade fleets, and viewing the composition of troops in incoming attacks.

• High Scores:

  • Travian: The high scores in Travian are easy to navigate and use. Players can gain offensive or defensive points, and the lists can be re-ordered to reflect these values. The scores are arranged by a player’s total score, the alliance scores , the population of individual villages, and the level and experience of heroes (upgraded individual units). The player and alliance scores can further be organized by attack points, defense points, and top ten scores overall. For players and alliances the top ten contains the attackers of the week, the defenders of the week, the climbers of the week, and the raiders of the week. Reaching the top ten of a week will award a player or alliance with a medal which they can prominently display on their profiles.

  • Ikariam:The high scores in Ikariam are also easy to navigate and use. Alliances and players are separated into different score lists. The player score lists can be further organized into the total score, the building score, the level of buildings, the amount of research points, the levels of research, the military score, the gold score, the offensive and defensive points, and the trading score. The alliance score list can be organized into the average score of the members, and the total score of the alliance. However, Ikariam doesn’t support a medal system, to reward players/alliances for reaching the top 10.

• Time Zones:

  • Travian: Changing the server time to display your time zone is supported in Travian. It simply requires a quick navigation over to your preferences to select the time zone you live in.

  • Ikariam: Changing the server time to display your time zone is not supported.

• Building cost reducer:

  • Travian: Buildings or other methods to reduce the cost of building upgrades are not supported by the game.

  • Ikariam: It is possible to build certain buildings which reduce the amount of a need a village has for a certain resource. However, these buildings are almost always replaced for their production boosting counterparts.

• Occupation:

  • Travian: Occupying/Conquering a village results in the ownership of the village being transferred to the conqueror, along with any buildings which were not destroyed in the process.

  • Ikariam: Occupying/Conquering a town in Ikariam results in the conqueror being able to use the town as a base for troops, from where the occupier can launch further attacks at other towns.

• Greasemonkey:

  • Travian: Excerpt from the Travian rules. “The use of scripts or bots which automate actions (such as building upgrades, building troops, sending troops, trading, developing researches, attacking alerts or crop finders) or modify the game interface (for example, grease monkey scripts) are against the rules. The game must be played with an unmodified internet browser. All scripts which excessively tax the server are also forbidden.”

  • Ikariam: Greasemonkey scripts are allowed to be used in Ikariam, as long as they are Game Forge approved, and do not replicate plus in-game features.

• Direct Server log-in:

  • Travian supports direct server log in. Users are able to type in the server’s URL (ex. s1.travian.us) in order to directly log into that server. Links to the servers of a country are provided in the country home page (ex. www.travian.com).

  • Ikariam: Ikariam doesn’t support direct server log-ins. Instead, players are required to go to the home page, select the server they play from a list, and then enter their username and password.

• Reputation System:In general both games feature well designed forums, with a very active user community. However only Travian supports the use of a reputation system, where users gain reputation from well thought out posts. By gaining reputation, posters are able to receive new features such as the ability to include an image in their signature, give reputation to other users, and gain an increased in box size.

• Attacks:
  • Travian: Attacks in Travian are conducted through one player sending an army to attack another player’s town. Usually once the army arrives, the game server will calculate the result of the battle, along with factors such as the level of the town wall, and the use of siege weapons. This makes battles a 1 shot chance, as the battle is concluded immediately after the army arrives. However players are able to send scouting parties to scout out the composition of the defending army, and then decide on how they should plan their attacks. Should the player intend to damage the defending town, he or she would send multiple “clearing” waves” to remove all resistance from the defending town, so that the siege weapons are able to carry out their destruction of the town’s buildings. This system of game play, has resulted in “wave” based battles, where multiple waves are sent out, and a successful attack or defense requires precision timing, and general multi-tasking. Because of siege weapons and special conquering units having little attack power, battles are usually focused on the clearing wave and the siege wave. With these waves arriving seperately, a defender would be able to “dodge” the attacks by sending their troops elsewhere, since battles are calculated based on the troops defending at the time. This wave based attack system, has required players to focus on account activity and precision timing, which helps to emphasize Travian’s role of being an agressive war game.
  • Ikariam: After undergoing a overhaul of the attack system, Travian has begun focus on a more “strategical” type of attack. Unlike Travian, attacks are focused more on a “single” attack gameplay, where the attacker and defender place all their resources into a single battle. And battles can last for long periods of time, unlike the instant-calcuation used by Travian servers. Once an army arrives on the battlefield, players begin to experience a battle-field style gameplay. Troops are organized into groups, depending on their type and purpose, and are organized around the battlefield. And unlike Travian, the size of the army does not guarantee the outcome of the battle, as players are able to utilize strategy to overcome their enemies. After a battle has been calculated, players are able to send ammunition to ranged units, send medics to individual groups, as well as sending units to attack individual units. Because of this, players have to focus more on strategy inorder to be successful in attacks.