I've not had the algae problem either. But I've purposely kept my population down, except that one combo of herbs in the stew that made everyone feel..........friendly, lol. But thankfully no babies were made, whew!
I keep seeing people talk about time warping, I just couldnt do that. I am running at 2x speed and sometimes I still think it's going too fast. It's about the journey more than the destination, right? lol.

I dont even know how to time warp, so thats not gonna happen, and no thanks i dont want the explaination lol but i eventually did get the algea, after the coconuts were all gone and the crops were waiting for a recycle,, i sat there and put them back over and over again, and it showed up.

BTW, it is possible to solve the puzzle without getting the algae. I've done it a couple of times now.

I still have no algea...will this effect me solving the puzzles and finishing the game??

Here's what happened: First my tribe fished until they got Coconuts=(level 2 farming). Then they stopped fishing and started harvesting the coconuts (they also started the [censored]=(level 2 construction) while they were still harvesting the coconuts. I had 8 villagers at that time.

Then they finished the [censored] and waited on the crops. At that time I had about 700 food stored. Since the coconuts were getting low, I made my tribe fish when food strage got too low below 300. Once the crops were ready, my tribe harvested the crops(scarecrow was also in place). My food storage is now about 2000.. and still growing, but there is still no algea. Since my tribe is harvesting crops there has been no need to fish anymore.

Is the algea necessary for the prosperity of my villagers?

YB

When your population gets high enough, they'll proably need to start getting into the fish again to supplement their food resources.

I wish i have no algae at the beginning. It always comes too fast and i have food shortage problem.

Yogibear,

Im not sure if the algea is required to solve the puzzle,, i ended up having to restart a new game cause they all died of starvation,*my fault lol* and i let them totally overfish the ocean, when the algea apeared i got level 2 farming and started with the cocnuts and its been wonderfull since, and to top it all off, i am not having the food glitch everyone else seems to be having, they work just fine while im away. But no harm in trying though see if you can get the algea puzzle without the algea acually showing, if it doesnt work, sit there and put them in over and over again till you got it. best of luck

PS ,, i love how you miss spelled dam and LadyCF edited it out lol

I'm just on my second game. On the first I had food difficulties, but the second time 'round I knew much better what I was doing (what to concentrate on, how to solve the necessary puzzles first, etc.), plus I didn't start having babies until the food situation was stable. I had a good store of food (always at least 1000) all the way through the game, like that.

I just got rid of my algae, and I looked in the log file... It keeps saying, for example, "Fish store remaining: -118", and it keeps going down from there.

I've had the same problem...the algae is the last puzzle I need to solve and it's never appeared.

My villagers just constantly water the crops..which never appear unless I'm actually watching it, and they never fish.

The only thing that's keeping them alive at the moment is the stew that heals, or they'd all be dead.

I think my problem is I solved the crop puzzle before the algea appeared and it's caused a glitch or something.

Have you been dragging villagers into the water? They should start fishing on their own once they've been taught to do so. Just because they're trained as farmers, doesn't mean they know how to find all the sources of food. A farmer won't start harvesting coconuts or fishing unless (s)he's been shown to do so (at least, as far as I've noticed).