(updated title cos peeps were so helpful)

I've restarted four times now, and I'm having the same thing happen no matter how I try to play it.

I get three trees, then they stop producing food. I can't get the needed amount of tech points when my people won't research cos they're too worried about food. They then die before anymore food is produced. My chief only seems to create around 100 food which doesn't go very far...then I can't do anything for 24 hours.

I can't for the life of me work out what is wrong. I've downloaded the patches...but I'm still having the same issue. I had level 2 on the tech levels in my last restart in case that was the issue..but the same thing happened again. I've also tried just two trees as well.

Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Please.

Lol

first..go to the menu..to options..and select easy level if you haven't done that already.

second..keep a very close eye on your villagers, and keep taking them back to the research table even when they're worried.

third..keep a close eye out for as many mushrooms as you can find and have your children pick them. these have saved many a tribe from starvation.

if you want anything more specific..feel free to pm me.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you must keep your population from growing too large until your villagers have an unlimited food supply. The honey and fruit will support only about 12 villagers. If you grow your tribe beyond that, you will have to find a lot of mushrooms to keep them all alive.

Oops! Posted too slow. Repeated a lot of what was posted above.

Play the game on Easy under Options.

You can still play without food for a while. Just keep moving your "worried" villagers back to the research table. Search for mushrooms all over & have the children pick them while you wait for the fruit trees to ripen.

*SPOILERS*




Make a health potion using Lotus-Lotus-Cactus or Cactus 3x to feed the villagers to get their health back up while you wait for food.

If you're low on food, go for the Nature faction when you have enough Tech points and after you get level 2 Nature, you'll be able to *SPOILERS*



make a potion to chase away the sharks so you can fish.

My experience suggests you need aloooot of patience and practice getting the hang of the game sometimes.

I think putting as many researchers as possible to work helps. Keep a few Masters at the table, they build points faster, put the Chief at the table because it helps them work more effectively and maybe check out the alchemy thread to see if there's anything that moves villagers faster...it may help. Otherwise, just keep trying...you'll get it. Also, look at the tech to strategize...what needs to be purchased first...what can wait.

Hope this helps some. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the help..and for responding so fast

I've tried the 'easy' level, and I do try to keep looking for mushrooms etc, but I think my problem might be because I have limited time that I can spend actually PLAYING the game. I work full time yada yada.

But I loved the first two games...and my VV2 tribe is still thriving after months of playing...

Maybe I just need to play this one as often as I can before I give up.

Something I do that seems helpful in getting tech points is put all but one of my villagers on the reaserch table at the same time, keep the other farming. You should focus mainly on the tasks that need to be done in order to get the unlimited food source (ie, fixing the lift, getting lvl 2 in either faction, etc.) I use the tech points strategy in other areas as well, such as building huts

**edit**
PAUSE the game when you are not actually playing it

I play it in the same style as you, Lisa. Hopping in and out.

Keep your population around 10, not more. Make sure nobody gets sick and keep a fire going (you don't want your farmer to fail the tribe!).

Once you have the full orchard, try to focus hard on research...we wanted the game to be challening, but not frustrating so we will await your results with great interest.

I'm not regreting, persay, but I am going nuts. I would've thought after so many people said "Please make it so moms can work too" you'd do that this time. In a true tribe a woman would be expected to get up and work almost instantly after having a baby. This not working for two years thing would never fly and we all expressed at some point or another that we found that really annoying. Plus having to constantly drag them back to the table and how slowly points accumilate.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game all the same, but I really wish at the very least mom's would do some work. Even if they're restricted to the research table.

Ah, see you're forgiving and willing to keep trying...now I'm sure you'll get it!

Maybe set the game to slow or pause it at first...until the tribe is a bit more stable. It'll be a bit slow-going but you'll make it! Good Luck!

My problem is that I now have a population of 17 because I kept needing kids to find the mushrooms. How do you keep a population of 10 while researching if no-one can collect the mushrooms that are needed to have food?

I have Tech 2 of everything, and only 20,000 points toward my Nature level 2. I keep doing rain dances to get more mushrooms, but they don't go far. My trees grew more fruit twice, but haven't lately.

The reason that Arthur suggested a population of 10 is that the honey and fruit trees will fully support a tribe that size, with a little food to spare (without mushroom hunting).

That makes sense.

That works!!

I kept my population down to 9 and set one to farmer and the rest to researching..

I woke up this morning and not only were my little guys still alive (for the first time LOL) they are thriving!!

Thanks everyone for the help!

Don't forget to get as many collectibles as you can because they help you get more tech points.

I always pause my game when I leave and only play it in fast mode when I am present. I monitor my workers very closely at first to be sure they stay on task. Hunting mushrooms is a great help to keep the food pantry within reasonable levels. I didn't go above 12 tribe members until I got fishing this way I was able to stretch my food sources longer.

It is a slower way to play I would imagine but I enjoy playing with my villagers. I search for collectibles and mushrooms while my techs are researching so it doesn't get boring for me.

this could be a spoiler so highlight here: when you use your chief to create food every day, pause your game till the next day and let the food supply build up end

its slow but effective

If you pause the game before you have over 2000 food points, your villagers will die if you don't get to play as much. I put them on slow with better results.

If you pause the game, your villagers won't die because nothing will be happening to them. I've had one tribe on pause for one week now and they are still fine and still paused. I think you mean if you let the game run on Normal or Fast, then the villagers might die if you don't check in on them often enough.

I haven't had any fatalities yet. My game play may be quite different from yours in that I play the game very slowly and just enjoy chasing after mushrooms, collectibles and training my workers. I find it a very relaxing game for me to play in this manner.

Must have been a bug in my game. I redownloaded and you are correct, the pause actually works.