What about the skills held by the villagers who are leaving? Perhaps if, say, a trainee, an adept and a master were to leave, you could get back villagers with the same skill levels, but not necessarily the same skills.

Hmm...that sounds good.

Or, maybe you could lose food or gain a new alchemy plant (maybe make an alchemy 'garden' for this idea in VV4?), etc. besides or instead of new villagers.

The Migration Tech sounds like a logical answer, and fits in with the growing number of techs in VV. Arnie, that addition is a good idea as well. This isn't something we should have to fuss or worry about, or take umbrage over. Concede that the writers, artists, and various techs at LDW understand what is under discussion here, and will find a way to deal with it. The old saying about "you can't please all of the people all of the time" rings true here,

The women stop having children, but the men are still able to...procreate until the day they die. If you stop both @ 50 years old, that will solve part of your problem.

Removed duplicate suggestion.

Hi Mocha! Hey, what are the details of the Marriage vs. Matching idea?

These are really great ideas!!! If there was a vote though, I'd definitely pick the 'Migration Tech' thing.

But maybe, to start off, the villagers should have a more balanced ratio of male-to-female villagers. Later, when a couple of generations down, breeding with one's cousin (or whatever) starts to happen, then they should have built up enough Tech Points for the suggestion of the wharf and raft to come into play.

I think those are good ideas, myself.

I simply like selective breeding, because, in VV2 and VV3, you can actually breed for certain characteristics, like blue eyes, red hair, other hair colors, etc. I like the purple hair and pink hair, and like to breed for that.

"Gifts" (or bribes) for the other village to send recruits? I think that's a cool idea. Or maybe you sacrifice one of your own villagers in a trade with the other village? Like one Adept for two Trainees. Or something. TWO with fresh DNA!

I've heard of many villages in some third-world country who--every third or fourth generation--send some of their people to neighboring villages for this very purpose. To thin out the gene pool. This would be a good way to interconnect the villages of VV1, VV2, VV3 and VV4.