The topics of the last few days were all regarding one particular category each. This won’t be possible for today’s topic. Today, I will write about the map, beginners’ protection and daily quest changes.
Where are my friends and enemies
How many times did we get angry with the T4 map and its functionality?! How many times did we wish for T2 or T3.6 graphics to return?!
Well, unfortunately there’s no good news on that front today.
The new map will be the one adopted from the birthday server. This makes it easier to see the population of a player’s village. Depending on the population, the village will appear larger or smaller. This allows for a better overview and you don’t have to click on every single village to find out its population. Furthermore, the graphics of forests, lakes and mountain ranges have been improved.
But let’s be honest, we’re not on a nice Sunday afternoon walk, but we’re trying to find new targets to beat. Those who are still using the map to find farms will of course have it easier, as they can see more quickly, which farms are worth their while. Another good thing about the map is that it’s easier to keep an eye on your surroundings and identify potential competitors early on.
Silence before the storm
In the second part, I’d like to inform you about the changes to the beginners’ protection. Here we have three important changes, which will change the start of the game!
For one, players can no longer exit the beginners’ protection on their own terms. This was adopted from the birthday version. During the protection time, they can also not attack, reinforce or scout another player. What is new, is that players in beginners’ protection can not send out merchants and can only place 1:1 offers on the marketplace. Offense players will be happy to hear that in Travian 4.4. the 200 population limit to end the protection time has been removed. Inactive accounts can now be attacked after a certain time. Each player will now have five days of beginners’ protection by default, with the option to extend it for another three days.
These changes turn the whole start of the game on its head. In my opinion, each player now has to decide for themselves: Do they want to farm and actively work together with other players, with the risk of becoming a farm themselves? Or, do they prefer safety, but play alone for the first eight days, without being able to help other players or receive help in form or resources themselves. It will be interesting to see, which strategy players will choose and whether farmers will be the only players without protection after five days, or if many others will follow. Barring merchants during beginners’ protection makes pushing or multi-accounting of the fastest settlers impossible. Now only the account development strategy, how it is implemented and the ability of players will matter. This topic in particular has been often discussed in the past and was the source of many reproofs.
The additional daily reward
With the birthday version, the “daily quest” system was introduced. It gives us the option to complete a range of different quests every day in order to collect points. These in turn gave us rewards at particular thresholds in the form of items, resources, culture points, silver, adventures or hero experience. Your feedback revealed that many of you were not happy with the 200 silver reward and that it was widely seen as a loss, rather than a win. This reward has now been replaced by 20,000 resources of one particular kind. Secondly, the way the rewards are awarded was changed. Up until now, it was completely random, which meant that players could be awarded the same reward at any given level for 4 days in a row. This has been adjusted to a system that only gives out a reward once. That same reward can then only be won again after all other rewards of a level have also been awarded. Following the wishes of our players, this ensures a level playing field for all, without the chance of giving a great advantage to a player, who might receive four times 50 culture points in a row at the start of a server.
What do you think of these changes? I’m very interested in your opinions on the changes to newbie protection! Write me a comment!
Yours, Maxi
Feature summary:
- Map of the birthday server adopted
- Beginners’ protection lasting 5 days with the option to extend it by another 3 days
- No attacking, reinforcing or scouting of other players during the beginners’ protection and no way to exit it on your own terms
- Settler or offense player pushing during the beginners’ protection prevented by limited trading opportunities and marketplace offers limited to 1:1 ratio
