I played the first Virtual Villagers and really enjoyed it, but I'm having a very frustrating time trying to play The Lost Children. Here's how my first 3 games went -
In my first game, I set one villager to fishing, one to research, and one to building. The next time I play (less than 24 hours later), the ocean is covered in algae and everyone is dead except two children. There's no way to continue, so I restart. This time, I start the same, but I level up Farming, and set a villager to harvest coconuts. I also make the stew with the cauldron, and figure I'm set with food, even if the algae appears. Nope - next time I go to play (again, less than 24 hours later), I'm out of food, and all but two children are dead - restart. BTW, I have the speed set to Normal.

This time, I set two villagers to harvesting coconuts, but the next time I play, I'm out of food again, the coconut trees are empty, and everyone's dead. I didn't have to restart once in the first game, and only consulted hints on how to solve the last few puzzles. With VV2, it seems like the only way to get started is to know exactly what upgrades to take so that you can get to the irrigated fields and removing the algae. If you do anything else, you'll run out of food and be forced to restart in less than a day. I don't see why they'd make the game this difficult and restrictive, but I can't imagine what I could possibly be doing wrong.

Did I just have some really bad luck or is this the way things are supposed to go? I don't see the fun in having to restart over and over again until you hit on the one stategy that works or being forced to consult a walkthrough before even starting the game.