I noted in my yesterday’s post that a Postscript for this series of posts regarding my Travian experience would be written when the Wonder of the World in the Philippine Server 3 and Speed Server are built. My Travian experience is on going, and apparently my revised strategy on the newest servers are working rather just fine.
Unfortunately, I am currently losing in my Philippine Server 3’s account. The Artifacts were released on 31 October 2009, and the Natars visited Villages to pillage. What with most players busy building their respective Treasury, where the riches of one’s empire are kept, there were simply little else I could do but try to keep up. These riches include construction plans for the Wonder of the World and Travian artifacts. Most of the players are also busy accumulating resources for the construction of the Wonder of the World, and thus raids and attacks are more frequent than even before. Alliances, Non-Aggression Pacts, or Conferacies are disbanded and regrouped. Everyone else is simply hoping to at least survive the Great War against the Natars.
One day in October my S3 Village was attacked. I was online from 1300H to 1530H, to my surprise I was attacked at 16:04H. Although no resources were gained, all troops (reinforcements plus mine) were killed-in-action. Aghast by this recent development, using the Travian War Sim I posted an analysis of the attack in the Alliance X forum, which simply stated:
“The defensive plan would need a minimum of at least 800 Praetorians (the defensive Roman troops) for normal attack; and unfortunately an infinite number of Praetorians against a raid, to kill ALL the attacker’s troops.”
“[E]ven though I remain thankful for all the defensive support you extended to my lone village, I suggest that we should know all our most notorious and persistent enemies to strategically defend our villages against their attacks. ”
“Furthermore, I also suggest that members with huge troops to “scout/spy” on the notorious attackers, [I then listed four attackers and the respective battle logs against four of my colleagues in Alliance X.]”
“We should plan out our attacks on their most vulnerable villages, and they have a number of them already. Scouting/spying on each of ALL their villages for their troop count, would send a message that we mean the business of war, too; and defend our rights for continued existence here in S3.”
“I remember [one of these four attackers] who once [back in July?] cata’d my Palace from level8 to level3 and Academy level9 to level5. That is why I am stuck with only one village and struggling. And now, here he is again, attacking [a co-member], who since had deleted his account.”
Immediately after my biting comments on the defense strategy of my Alliance, the raid on my Village in Server 3 resumed last 28 October 2009 by supposedly a member whose Alliance was suggesting a confederation with Alliance X. Some of the members of our Server 3 Alliance were also wary about the proposed confederation with this particular alliance, hereby referred as Alliance Z, because of its reputation for irregularities, such as notoriously farming other wing members of the Alliance; or kicking out members who failed to deliver what the Alliance wanted.
I was one of the vocal few who opposed a confederacy with Alliance Z because I believe that if its leaders were really serious with such on-going negotiations, then why the hell a particular Alliance Z member started raiding a member of an Alliance which is a party to such negotiations? Subterfuge? But as the Chinese always say:
“In war, there can never be too much deception.” (Lau, 1995: 129).
At least in the Real World, whenever a peace talk is ongoing, it is customary for belligerents to observe a ceasefire or temporary cessation of hostilities. In the event that these talks collapse because of irreconcilable differences of demands from either side, meanwhile in the background beefing up each respective troops throughout, it is rather expected that each respective side could resume whatever what was before—an all-out war. But to engage in sabotage, however small, such as a raid for resources—while the peace talks are ongoing is inexcusable and could ultimately lead to the breakdown of the talks. The perpetrators of such “unsanctioned” disobedience is usually punished with either being ostracized or expulsion from the group.
If the Alliance leaders were talking peace, while some scalawags are waging their personal war albeit still under the protection of that Alliance, then the leadership is either ceremonial: a lame duck, a puppet, or unlikely to be approached for peace talks by other Alliances. In the advent of the Internet, reputation, like gossip, travels fast like a thunderbolt. Are not Alliances formed because of Teamwork? Any team is virtually ruled by its weakest member, not the strongest.
I really wonder now, who really is the leader of Alliance X? Is he a multiple account player whereby knowing an insider fact, he then used the information gathered from my fledging Village, as my sitter, to his personal advantage? Some colleagues and friends have taken the initiative to investigate and there were some obscure hints that my insinuations were quite correct, but it is far too hard to suggest that it is the plausible, yet unprovable, truth.
In the Real World, espionage literatures are full of double-crossers. Some had escaped the capital punishment by defecting to the country they have spied for. The most infamous of them all is Kim Philby who infiltrated the British Secret Service under KGB’s employ; and subsequently defected and died in Moscow. In Tr avian, spies or scouts are designed as part of the game, per se, but players—especially those with multiple accounts under different email addresses—acting as real-time spies are anathemas in any Alliance. When exposed to a Multihunter, their Travian playing time is over for the time being, but they could retry signing up in another server anyway. And the cycle continues. Maybe, Travian could maintain a black list of email addresses for these kind of players; and not allow them to play Travian on any server ever again! They are worst than players with bots! Multiple account players play Travian even without Travian Gold, which is bad for Travian as a business, and they lord over other players because they can legitimately trade resources—at most: one-hour production—among their multiple-account Villages.
Notes:
The Postscript for this series will be posted when the Wonder of the World in the Philippine Server 3 and Speed Server have been built, respectively.
Lau, Theodora (1995). Best-Loved Chinese Proverbs. 2nd ed. New York: HarperCollins, November 2008. pp. 129. back to text.
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Very interesting and amusing subject. I read with great pleasure.
Comment by Crasty — 14.November.2009 @ 22:34 |