I'm hoping its ok for me to start this topic...I'm sure someone will let me know if its not!

Carla asked that vv4 suggestions be just that...and I agree, I love to read through other peoples ideas, so I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have a separate place for discussing them.

Ive noticed a lot of people seem to have a problem with the 'inbreeding' thing. I 'marry' my villagers on paper, however, once the children have grown, I forget who their parents are, so I dont overly care. But I like the idea of having to create homes, courtships, death of partners, and families. And I have to agree with the comments of some others, this is game, so it really should be kept in perspective.

I love the idea of seasons. The variables it could create are amazing. Heavy summer rains that create floods....cold winters that kill gardens (why not have a separate food storage, that the villagers have to fill in preparation for winter)...spring when lots of flowers bloom...and watching the island become bare during autumn.

Honestly, I am fine with inbreeding. Its just a game, in my opinion.

We usualy go by the previous chapter before makeing suggestions on the next. So with all due respect, it might be a bit to early to make the suggestions. From what i've seen of VV3! it seems to have gone off the tracks a bit. Like i've seen in other game follow ups. It shoould be in keeping with the prev ver but with a twist. VV2 followed VV1 nicely. There should definately be a VV4 though. I would strongly suggest that it have a map editor and that they could link up with each other. Once you've used the 4 sides, I feel there's no need for a 5th VV. Except to make add on packs and/or _bug_ fixers.

Complexity wrote a great explanation of all the problems involved in the process of breeding.

I don't care about breeding either because I feel the same way you do BritneyBrit, but after reading that of explanation of her's, I'm sure it would be a real long shot before we could ever expect that in a game.

The rain was a wonderful surprise in VV3 but does it actually change from summer on a tropical island? I don't know for a fact because I've never been to one, but not sure that snow......hmmmmmmm.....maybe snow could be used in an event type thing??? Like a once in a lifetime event there?

I think we should wait until we play VV3 also. But I don't like the idea of seasons because islands are to humid and hot to have cold winters.

Where is the post that talks about breeding? I don't really care in the game, but am curious to read.

Complexity's explanation is here. Just scroll down a bit and it will be there.

So sorry, I should have included that in my original post.

T those that are thinking it's too early to be posting VV4 suggestions, LadyC already covered that. In the topic for VV4 Suggestions, she explained that people were making suggestions anyway, so she wanted them to be in a singular place.

MochaJew, that would be easy IF the game wasn't open-ended. The game would have to be extremely limited in nature for that to work. The couples would have to be the same for every single game sold, the same children born to the same couples. LDW would have to restrict the entire game (to the point that there would be NO replay value in it at all) in order to do the kind of family tree that you're speaking of.

But precisely because the game is open-ended it won't work. People play the game differently and also random villagers come up with each individual game, even the names are random each time you play the game.

They would have to limit the spontaneous and individuality of the VV line should they attempt to limit the characters like that and would probably lose an awful lot of customers (me included).

ETA: The situations you're speaking up are across the board in the game. Meaning that ALL ages are prohibited from procreation until the age of 18. And ALL of the women and men are prevented from embracing if they are the same sex. Since it's for every age or every sex it's easy for that code to be added in.......but not individual code for each villager.

Living up to my maiden name Prude, I still believe that there must be a way to pervent a child from matching with it parnet. Game or no, there are those of us who would prefer this type of feature, even if we can turn it on or off like Easy, Normal and Hard.
But it is only a wish; I keep family records and rarely, only if the tribe is in danger of dying off, as in my last story, do I permitt siblings to match.
Just my opinion.

I think that you should get a warning they are related do you wish to proceed? Or She's her mom do you want to continue?

They could just make inbreeding an option!

I got this idea when I was coming home from work on my bike, I saw a group of kids between the ages of 7 and 10ish playing on the footpath and as I went past they called out "Hi" and waved.

So how about the children if they had an action; watching out for people walking by and they could wave at people passing by and the actions they do like in 3 when looking for mommy. Go to a certain part of the village to watch the people walking by.

That would be cute. Did you write that in the suggestion thread?

That would be a wonderful action Ann

The coding issue is not a problem, as many think. What does the game need to know, after all? All it needs to record are the parents of each villager - which it already does, at least up to adulthood. Compare the two villagers in the match you're trying to make and check to see if they share a parent. Not exacting enough? Then check the parent's parents as well. With a couple of other checks, this could provide a complete denial of inbreeding. The game could follow this chain of data as far back as it has data, without ever having to store more information than who the parent of each villager is.

Program complexity is not an issue. Amount of data is not an issue. And as Complexity said himself, (herself?) it's not an issue I want to see in a game. Complexity's own words imply that Complexity wouldn't ever have bothered to think about it if not for posts in the forums, just as I never bothered to before coming here.

Lastly, LDW did not achieve an "E for Everyone" rating on Virtual Villagers due to themes that I suspect are related to their depiction of baby-making - it's for ages 6+ as things stand. Do you really think it would remain suitable for ages 6 and up if they had references to inbreeding right in their options menu?

We already have enough difficulty ensuring a village's survival. I think the suggestion of being able to make exclusive couples - or marrying villagers, if you'd like to put it that way - is more than enough to deny any inbreeding if a player doesn't like it, and also is a tool for those who are trying to breed for certain types of villagers. You also don't have to put an "Inbreeding on/off" switch in the menu.