I am having a similar issue. I and my two kids all started villages at the same time. I'll call them A, B and C. Village A has never been sustainable, and never got more than half the puzzles done before everyone dies off. Villages B and C both have all the puzzles solved, and 90 villagers. We have restarted village A 4 or 5 times. The most recent time, everything seemed to be fine, then 2 hours later (on 2X speed) all dead but one 6 year old. I also noticed my adept farmer didn't seem to be keeping up with the fishing, so the food was always low. Why does this one village have so much trouble, when we had no trouble at all with the other two?

It's always risky to run the game on 2x speed in the beginning. If you're lucky and get a particularly industrious set of starting villagers, it might be OK, but you can't count on that happening.

these bugs are annoying , very annoying, I dont how this game got past the first beta test , seems this forum will be busy with posters until there is an updated version , or a patch!

but I hate baby sitting I want to play , and if the bugs are intentional , then someone has a weird sense of what game players enjoy!

"Babysitting" is "playing". You're supposed to be guiding your little villagers. This isn't the kind of game you ignore for lengths of time before you have all the puzzles solved. It may just be that you're not patient enough for a game of this type.


Tess

baby sitting glitches I meant

I wish i had screen shot Alana.. she was stuck ..wanted to see the old place.. wanted to visit village centre, but she was stuck i watched her... this is a glitch she was trying to move but was stuck? I left her for 3 hours before I HAD enough and moved this child!!! i have played Sim games where you build and peeps get stuck , but this is a glitch, another one, I am so wanting a workable game! you pay your money and ??/ and?? come folks you have my money ?? I wish I was a tester I would have brought this up a long time ago , along with my glitch gallery and list of glitches!!, I hope they enjoy my money!!

My main strategy is to amass as many tech points as fast as possible at the beginning. Of the three initial workers I'll put two on research and one on farming. If I'm lucky and get a food bonus with an island event I'll switch the farmer to research as well temporarily - but don't forget to switch him back to farming if food levels begin to get dangerously low! When the tech points reach 5000 I'll get L2 Engineering and put as many as possible on the building the dam. When the oldest child turns 14 he or she will be trained as a builder and put on the dam unless I still need the points, when they will first become a scientist. Meanwhile I'll be scouring the area for collectibles and mushrooms. The 100 for a duplicate common collectible is useful and the 1500 for a rare one is a great step. I have always managed to complete the dam and have the farmer harvesting crops well before the coming of the algae since I developed this way of playing.

Once the dam is built I can take time off to possibly have a cup of coffee and a cigarette; maybe even to visit the bathroom. While the danger of starvation is not over, it has receded by this time and I can return a scientist to research and make a start on hut-building, etc.

My strategy is very much like Arnie's except I always have a builder with my farmer and researcher. It takes so darn long to get the builder to master that I like to start them out right away, especially if I need another hut (which I try not to because I don't want a huge population and a shortage of food). A runner as a builder is perfect -- it goes much faster.

Also, I only start a new game when I can devote a lot of time at the start up because of the change of starvation.

I quite agree. In fact, reading my post through after posting I was thinking of editing it to add words to that effect, but got sidetracked and forgot.

i try to have all of my people on researching until i get the 5,000 for my first tech or even untili get the dam started with either 1 or 2 villagers

the faster i get those points, the happier i am

i use the kids to collect mushies and shells and butterflies

after that, it is my choice if i want to babysit or not

if not, i understand that things may go very very wrong when i am not watching, and I accept that risk

The point of the game is to define a strategy. After neglecting my first game, I ended up with 4 dead villagers. One was a child. I was able to recover by paying very close attention to when and what the villagers were doing. This game is really not a 'once through' game. The fun of playing is trying new things. How you play depends on how much time you can devote and what your goals are. In the beginning, you must watch the villagers. They are trying to survive, so must you.