I used to delete my vilagers once they got all the puzzles because I didn't think any of them could get to be esteemed elders without building.

Reading here I found out that you can get the elders through the doctors.....dunno why I didn't figure that out before? DUH!!

This has happened now with two villagers straight in a row (just started the game off and second "child" available):

I start them off on healing when they're 14. They do fine until they reach Adept Doctor then off they go to check out everything and they never go back to the medical herbs again. Even if I put them on a herb they go right back to being lazy again.

Is this because I'm playing on hard? Has it happened to anyone else?

They won't go to the flowers voluntarily once they are adept doctors (at least I've never seen it happen!) Its tedious work but pick them up and put them on the flower over and over and over and over and over....

Or make a certain stew that makes people sick....

PS. They can become Master builders after everything is built. They fix huts, over and over and over....

Most of my Elders are women, because they get to be Master Parents. In a village that is on the maximum they'll run around kissing their menfolk and only once or twice have to take a couple of years out nursing. I don't set any men to become Parents as the women 14-50 are likely to become mothers when it's inconvenient.

Thanks Shemee! At least now I know to switch them off to another trade rather than thinking they're just tired of "studying". I never tried the builder just to fix stuff. Will have to try that one when this new village is older. I never tried it before because I figured they would die before becoming masters just being fix-it-up people!

I also wondered about that stew to make people sick. Thanks for telling me it has a great purpose! Will use it now for sure.

Some of the women don't need to be set to parenting either Arnie! One of my females decided to leave the research table and get pregnant on me while my back was turned. She was 30 and it was her first child. Guess she felt her biological clock was ticking???

Erm, arnie, don't you mean 18-50?

Pookie, just about every one of my villagers become an esteem elder (or the equivalent after the first 50), including the doctors. In fact, I have several villagers who become master doctors late in life after they've already mastered 3 other skills.

Once one of my villagers masters 3 skills, I change their clothes to a particular outfit (just for fun) and switch them to doctor. I make sure they are trained to be at least a doctor trainee.

I've found a number of these villagers actually do cure sick people, especially when I'm not playing. I've also found when I am playing, frequently it's the older master doctors that come running to cure someone who's sick. Their only drawback is when they're elderly, they run so slow that someone else has already cured the villager before they get there.

I actually start much earlier with my doctors. Each and every villager is trained to be a doctor trainee as their first skill. If possible, I try to use the kids to heal the sick people. That gives them a head start on being a doctor trainee once they're 14.

Unless the kid has another skill inherited from his/her parents, I select the doctor part in the details page. That way, if they turn 14 while I'm not there to train them, they will begin to train themselves. Then, when I get back to them, I switch them to one of the other skills so they can master on those. Once they master 3 of them OR become elderly, whichever comes first, I switch them back to being doctors. That's when some will come running and master the doctor skill while others seem to have not bothered healing anyone (most seem to have healed at least a few villagers).

The times in which I tried to get a young villager to become a master doctor, I get the same response you get. They do great studying the flowers until they gain Adept status. At that point, they really won't do anything other than play in the pond and goof off. I don't try to stop them from goofing off. If a villager does not make any progress for awhile, I switch them to another skill. Then they can go back to being doctors after they've mastered the other skills. When they're older, they much more quick to heal people which is why they can master out as a doctor even if they started that skill very late.

I don't try to force them around to research the flowers because I just don't have the patience to do it. Plus, since every villager is trained as a doctor trainee from the start, I don't really have a huge need for any one villager to become an actual doctor. With 115 villagers, I always have a good 20 villagers who have already mastered their 3 skills and are turned into doctors so anytime an event occurs that make the villagers sick, I have doctors tripping over themselves trying to heal them. Sometimes it's a race to see which doctor will get to the sick villager the fastest (sometimes they're so fast, they beat me when I'm trying to find a kid to heal the sick villager).

Oh, and I never use sick stews to force anyone to become sick so a doctor can heal them. It just works as the game plays out.

Thanks Complexity! The farming and the research I understand, since everyone can max out on those. So the other two are building and parenting. Do you put all of your male villagers on building or parenting to max them out on the third skill?

With all the villagers involved do they all max out on building part since all they're doing is fixing up stuff or do you put the majority as parents and just watch the children multiply?

With the women it's not hard to max them out on parenting. I play the game like Arnie in that respect. None of the men are on parenting and one or very few of the women, especially at first. So I'm getting a little confused on how you max the men out.

For me, I prefer to never put my villagers on parenting. I control their breeding activities very carefully (for example, right now I'm breeding to get blonde haired villagers back). It is very rare that any of my villagers become Master Parents.

The way I do it is to start them off with Farming. I do that one first because they can walk faster than when their older.

Once they've mastered that, I switch them to Research. I put that one in the middle because it's very easy and fast to Master, but they get injured a lot so I prefer to have them master that when they're not too old to recover quickly on their own.

And then, finally, I put them on building. ALL of my villagers build, women included. I make no exceptions for their gender.

I generally won't breed a female until after she's mastered her 3 skills. The exception is when I'm willing to sacrifice her to breed her for a special purpose (such as to get blonde hair children). In that case, I don't let her breed with just anyone, but only a very specific male. Many times the women can still master their 3 skills, but if I breed them too much, they might not make it.

And, as I mentioned before, once they master 3 skills or become elderly, whichever comes first, I switch them to Doctor. That way they can goof off all they want, but when they are needed, I have lots of them all over the place to ensure they can handle a massive health problem like the rats.

I'm playing around with which is better/easier: to train new kids on only one skill at a time or training them on all skills (except parenting) to the point of becoming a trainee on all of them. The advantage of the latter option is when they master a skill, I can just check the box for a new skill, and they'll begin doing that. It's very easy. So I can go through all 115 villagers, and when I see any have mastered a skill, I can just quickly change their skill and move on to the next villager without having to stop for training. This lets me manage them very quickly. That means the only time I have to mess with training is when a child turns 14. And then I train it on them all. The other good thing about that is when I have 3 or so children turning 14 all at once, I do group training. Saves a lot of time.

I don't follow all of this rigidly so sometimes I'll let a villager master in Building before Farming or whatever. I honestly don't think it matters all that much as they seem to do well no matter what you do. They stray off to play in the pond or whatever, but they come back pretty fast. As far as I'm concerned, the rest is good for them. Laundry is the only thing I won't allow unless they've mastered their 3 skills first.

There are only a few villagers that refuse to stop going to the pond or whatever, making it so they get very little work done. I just ignore them after a while. I change their clothes to a specific outfit so I can spot them very quickly and not waste my time on them OR I work extra hard to keep them focused on their jobs. Oddly enough, many of these seemingly lazy ones still master in 3 skills, sometimes faster than other villagers who didn't goof off. I think some villagers get higher points for their work when they do work than others so what they lose in goofing off time, they gain by getting more points when they do work. I'm not positive on that, but I can't figure out any other explanation as to why these loafers end up mastering their 3 skills.

Not all of my villagers master 3 skills, but most do. I'd say probably 95% do. Could be 90%. Somewhere in that range.

I'm sure others have different training methods that work just as well. I think the key is to not get too worried about it. Give them a skill to work on, train them, and let them work. Redirect them if they get too lazy; otherwise, just keep changing their skills until they've got 3 mastered. This includes Building. They master on that one without any problems. It's the harder skill to master, but they master it without too much difficulty. Just make sure they learn to fix the huts and not just examine them.

Thanks Complexity! It's interesting to find out how others play the game. People like me may find something they'd like to incorporate into their game(s) too. Like I never thought a villager would max out on building after all the buildings and stuff were done. That explains why I'd delete that game and start over with different tribes.

Now with VV3 coming soon, I know better and will keep my tribe(s) going. I'm also going to TRY to complete all the puzzles without sneaking a peek at the strategy guides, but I'm not sure how long that idea will last!!

Whoops! Yes! Sorry about that!