Question, and yes, i finally found where i should ask questions... legally blonde here...

Do the villagers, especially the children, learn anything from the lectures? I have not seen any increase in their learning bars, so i ask, why is the chief only allowed to lecture the childre only once every 24 hours if there is no benefit... Is there one that i cannot find???

Okay, being a newbie to this forum thing, i THINK i am learning the way to go about finding answers... am still wondering if maybe my chief was too young to teach my children new things, or maybe i am just not paying close attention to the meters in the children's skill bars.

AND learned i need to turn the sound on to hear when a collectible shows up. i play late at night and do not like keeping my roommate up with sounds. Guess it is time to pull out the earphones to listen in on what happens. BUT, i DO agree, the children's voices are annoying.

BUT, guys? The music for ALL of VV games is excellent. The compositions are soothing, even when repeated, one rarely notices such. VERY well done. And yes, though i preferred VVI's graphics over VVII's VERY poorly designed interlacing, i have to say, VVIII rules way above and beyond! Kudos to the Creator(s)!!

Overall, i will always say "LDW, please, gimme more!!!"

And as i start my third tribe, i realized more things that i am curious about.... Like what are those three symbols above the rose bush for? ANd why did 1 of my previous games "decompose" though the people all were there yet the second tribe i started 2 days later still has all buildings intact and all puzzles solved, though it has been running almost 2 weeks longer???

Those three symbols above the rose bush are [spoiler]the recipe for the 'light and springy' potion.[/spoiler]

EDIT: Chief's lectures do help kids learn - just not right away. Watch the children closely - sparkles indicate when a child has successfully learned something.

I can try and answer some of OptiTron's questions:
The children do learn from the chief's lectures. The chief in question must be over 18 years old, and have a certain level of leadership. Then, once every 24 hours, drop the chief on a child and he will lecture, and all the kids will come running. When the chief is done, a little light will come over each kid's head, then the kid will run off. Check the skills bars, the kid will have a little skill in something.
There is no sound signal when collectibles appear, except when the chief points out a rare collectible, there is a noise then.
Lastly, the symbols above the rose bush are a recipe for an important potion. I can't guess what went wrong with your game. maybe some more expert player than myself knows that?
My comments about the game:

love these things:
Footprints in the sand
Running to get out of the rain
Building sand castles
The Roster of the Dead
The coral reef - gorgeous!
hand gestures
Playing in the puddles
Thunder and lightning
Children gathering herbs
comments like "Tofu sees Ariki"
seeing the doctor run to help a sick villager
kids gaining skill by listening to chief
coconut-head is gone!
lots of mushrooms and collectibles to gather, in dozens of places around the village

things I wish were different:
everytime I turn on an old game I haven't seen in a day or two, there are bodies laying around
still don't have an ancient elder
miss playing tag
would like to spend my zillion tech points on buying that last elusive collectible

overall, great job LDW. Love it.

Okay, first off, thank you both VERY much. Secondly, are those symbols designating the herbs? i have created all the various potions, retrieved the one that makes the tribespeople jump to the gem. Is that the <spoiler> of which you wrote? Or out of the potions, did i miss one?

And again, thanks, especially for the speedy reply. Oh and Fabala? You only have 1!!!! collectible to find? On both of mine, the awards are all done except the 90 year thing and all puzzles complete but on the magic one i still have 1 of all the collectible categories to find and on the magic, i on all but the seashells which i need 2 more. i am getting bored staring at the game waiting for the bells and finding that it is only a mushroom or an already found collectible. Kudos to you!!!

_________________
OptiTron, formerly lilwoofer

Nope. When that potion is consumed, the villager "Feels light and springy." That's why I called it that.

The shark potion recipe - both of them - also can be found somewhere on the island.

Well, um, yes, my oldest game lacks an ancient elder and one collectible to be finished. Problem is, the collectible is an uncommon feather, so the chief will not point it out for me, and it could be anywhere on the map. And according to advice here on the forums, the best way to get an ancient elder is to leave your game running for several days. So I am going for AA and may never find that last feather.

Really? Clues for both shark repellant potions? Where?

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but maybe in VV4 they could use more tech points for each extra collectible. Say 100 for regular collectibles, 150 for uncommon and 200 for rare. Has anyone got all the tablet collectibles yet? I have 4 games going and none of them have finished the tablet.

Yes, leadership 3 helps with rares, but my sticking points are always uncommons, as well. Which is why I beat my game with the sledgehammer of Lurkily until I solved the collectible problem entirely. Yes, there are clues for the shark repellent, and the potion required for one of the key puzzles, in the game. [spoiler] The recipe for the 'light and springy' potion, to get the pink diamond-shaped key, is on the wall by the rose bush. The shark potion recipes (both of them) are on the wall in the image presented when a villager enters the cave that's hidden under the rubble. [/spoiler]

You already get tech points for excess collectibles, both in VV2 and VV3. In fact, in the early game I get more tech from collectibles than from research.

As for VV4 suggestions, there is a thread for this here: http://www.ldwforums.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=141152.