in vv2, the the little buggers cannot walk on water

put the children on the little island, and they cannot leave until they are 14 and can swim

Healing

1. I agree that it’s too difficult to get Master Doctor. I never did make one despite hours of dropping my villager on the “rare rose.” The “Healing” skill should be more integrated into village life. If you leave a villager set on “Healing,” I like the idea of doing research at the hospital, bringing herbs back to the table to study, and healing the sick.

2. Along the same lines, it should take different amounts of time to heal someone who is “Sick,” “Very Sick,” “Extremely Sick,” or “Injured.” It’s too easy to just cure them in 5 seconds. An adept doctor would heal faster than a trainee. And a master doctor would heal faster than an adept. Also only a master doctor could heal villagers hit with certain serious illnesses or “Extremely Injured” villagers. Another option would be to make Elderly villagers walk faster bought with a lot of tech points and a Master Doctor.


Survival

1. I love the idea of having to chop lumber or continue to collect firewood for a bit to keep the fire going. This could be important not only in reducing sickness, but also for light during the night-time cycles, or for the Night-watch Villagers who keep the wild animals away with fire, spears, or by putting up fences (that get damaged and require fixing over time). This would add a much-needed dimension to the game since after you have enough Farming Tech and a few Master Farmers, the game starts to get too one-dimensional as you just rack up tech points and solve the rest of the puzzles.

2. Someone mentioned sending villagers into the woods to hunt and returning with food, returning injured, or not returning at all. Along those lines, I’d like to suggest a sign in the village center that lists all the “Missing Villagers” from hunting or island events. They could even get injured or go missing while swimming/fishing from sting rays, sharks, getting caught in the marine vegetation, or getting injured by the rough waves.

3. Shooting those annoying birds with bow and arrow could be another food source. Just make it look like they’re shooting, the bird flips upside-down, and they go pick it up with the same crouching motion they use for everything else.

4. I second the natural disasters (rain, storms, etc.) that damage the huts substantially so builders can develop their skill. If the huts get too damaged, the villagers now get sick from inadequate shelter. Similarly, the builders should also be able to upgrade the huts and make them slightly bigger as the population grows. This adds yet another dimension of survival on the island.


Parenting

1. I love the idea of showing who the mom and dad are, but I think you should keep it up even into adulthood. I like seeing who the parents are. I don’t think too many restrictions should be implemented with regard to breeding (with the exception of parent and child) b/c it can be really difficult to make more babies when you get 4 boys in a row.

2. I second the idea of dropping the mom onto the dad and "giving the baby to dad" so that the mom is free to do some work or teach the kids. Likewise, you could "give the baby to back to mom." I don’t think nursing time should be shortened too much (maybe by 1/3 at most with the daycare center) b/c it’s rewarding to see a child running around after waiting so long for the mom to “drop the baby.”

3. The “Parenting” with “Breeding” active or inactive button is a good idea. The blue/pink blanket on the baby depending on the gender idea is also top-notch!


Children

1. I think the children should ONLY auto-pick mushrooms or collectibles after about 15 or so of the same type (you can even add a gauge for this). That way, we still have to actively keep an eye out for them. But at the same time, this also solves the idea of giving the children a “skill/reward” for all the collecting that they do.

2. Children should be born with a bit of skill if both their parents were skilled.

3. If the children are taught by an “Esteemed Elder” or a “Teacher” at the school, then they should only improve up to some “Apprentice” level. I don’t want to make the game easy and have a bunch of 14 year-old Esteemed Elders walking around.

4. Children could be dropped in the schoolyard/garden to keep them in one place for a time before they start to run around again.


Miscellaneous

1. Label the villagers as "Lead” scientist or “Lead” farmer for the villager who does the most in that particular skill. That way, there will be a sort of mini-competition that we could check up on every now and then for fun to see who is currently doing the most.

2. Have the YELLOW check to make the villager prefer a certain skill, but also a RED check to make the villager REALLY prefer a skill (activated with another click). That way a villager could be set to farming 2/3 of the time and building 1/3 of the time for example.

3. Make sure all the signs that reference our villagers reflect their names even if we decide to change them. For example, in VV2 the names on the totems don't reflect the names of the villagers if you change their name from their original one.

4. There should be an option to scroll with the arrow keys on the keyboard. Dragging and pulling the screen gets annoying on the bigger VV2 map, especially when you are searching for mushrooms b/c your villagers are starving.

5. Likewise, there should be an option to scroll through the different villagers on the "Detail" screen with the arrow keys on the keyboard.

6. Instead of pausing the game when an island event occurs, just let the villagers continue and have the events queued up so we can choose what to do when we load the game back up.

7. Don't pause what is happening in one game just b/c someone else on the same computer is currently playing on their own tribe's game.

8. I love Sharon's idea about branching the “Tech” tree.

9. Don't make the coconuts just regenerate with each harvest. Have them growing back slowly over time like the berry bush from VV1.

10. Putting more villagers on planting/watering the crops should actually increase the harvest or decrease the time b/w harvests. As is, I get 800 crops no matter what I do or how many people I put working the field.

Hi - I'm not sure if I'm doing this right so I apologise if I end up in the wrong place.

I love the suggestions I have seen so far and I especially like the idea of having a place where you can put a villager and have them relax - like by the fire. Great for the elderly.

I also think it's a good idea to be able to go inside the huts - at the very least, the villagers should be seen going into various buildings.

Also I would like to see some other action for the parents. At present when you set a villager to "parent" they just keep "going indoors" unless you pick them up and move them onto the kids. Even then, when they've finished telling stories they go back to the kissing thing. I would like them do other things to gain parenting skills like teaching children and doing laundry without having to make them do it.

An idea for the builders - perhaps they could make toys for the children - which would make the children happier and more inclined to help out with collectibles without being told. Of course, being children, they will constantly lose or break their toys so the builders will be kept busy.

I'm kind of in two minds about the outhouse issue. I used my totems to create a more private area for the kids to go so maybe just a wall or something.

How about a few facial expressions when you pick up the villagers. Maybe their likes and dislikes could include being picked up. Or maybe if you pick them up when they are in the middle of a task they could be grumpy with you but if they're doing nothing then they could giggle a bit.

Other than that - more puzzles, longer game, lots more pop up events.

i have an idea to expand the clothing variability on the villagers. i'm not sure how easy the implementation would be, but it shouldn't be too terribly difficult.

in vv1 and 2, the villager is made up of several peices that work together to make a whole villager. Currently the villager has a body, and a head, two different images on transparent backgrounds. my idea is to make the villager 3 peices - head, torso, and legs.

there could be 15 torsos, and 15 sets of legs per gender.
even tho here are only 15 tops and 15 bottoms, it creates the possibility of 225 different outfits-per gender. women's dresses could have belts to help hide the bisection.

the clothing hut could charge per top and per bottom, leaving it still expensive to reoutfit a villager, but making it much more interesting and worth the tech points.

Wow, that's a great idea...and solution, even better!

Definitely like all these ideas. Love the games!! Of course I started on VV2 and didn't find out about VV1 until after, but now I'm working on my first village on VV1.

I would like to see after completing all the puzzles a new section of island open up so you could continue exploring, making your village grow and thrive. So people won't lose interest after they've solved all the puzzles/gained all collections, etc.

Keep it up - Can't wait for VV3!!!!

My suggestion for VV3 is about when the graveyard gets full.

(cross-posted from VV2 forum)

Would it be possible in the next incarnation of the game to make a "Memorial Stone" or something you can click and see the names of those who died after it got full? My cemetary is full now but I would like to still be able to keep track of who comes and goes. I hate seeing someone carrying a skeleton and knowing I have to play "Guess Who Kicked the Bucket".

Just a thought.

I would like to see the kids talk to each other, I would also like to see the parents hug their childern from time to time. How about letting my little VV's take a nap every once in awhile. How about the dads become more involved with the little ones they helped produced. When the message says a little lonely, make it where others can come & sooth that lonely Villager.Let the nursing mom's talk to one another when nursing their little ones. Give the kids better games than just playing tagg, or playing in the pond. Just some thoughts on the new VV3.

I like the idea of changing weather patterns, having spring, fall and winter. I don't like the idea of bars over the villagers' heads, it would be distracting. The display button gives you a view to each villagers and their progress, health, etc. It would be nice if the children could pick up some mushrooms on their own.

I'll have to ditto the ideas for nighttime, weather (but not snow - this is a tropical island after all), bad weather damaging huts and generally causing other setbacks (similar to the wave washing junk back onto the beach in VV1), parenting points while taking care of children, men taking care of infants as well, a school with dedicated teachers to raise the skill sets of the children, and others.

My suggestions:

More collectibles! Flowers, feathers, and whatever various pretty things people could find on a big tropical island. Not only can they find them and get points as in VV2, but they could be used to make art and jewelry. It'd be fun to be able to decorate the huts, have elders wear special headdresses or necklaces (using tech points and collectibles), make displays, etc. It'd be something to do at the end of the game once the puzzles are all solved, the population is maxed out, the cemetery is full, and so on. There could even be dedicated artists. There wouldn't be many at the beginning of the game when people are more interested in food and general survival, but when everyone is full and comfortable and the population is large and stable, why not?

Boats! The villagers in VV1 came over in boats. The villagers falling into VV2 carried the tale with them and the lost children's parents sailed away in boats. They have the resources to make boats, especially at the end of the game with all those tech points that have nowhere to go. The villagers have probably passed down the legend of how their original home was destroyed, and they'd want to have boats to be able to flee, just in case. It also opens up a lot of other possibilities, such as the villages of VV1 and VV2 communicating and trading, people sailing out for extended periods to go fishing (with varied results, including feasting and partying if the boats return laden with food), and even other story lines. It'd also be something to do at the end of the game when everything else is done. The builders can always keep busy building new boats.

I have some other suggestions, but most of them fit more into the "ideas" thread rather than this one so I'll put them there.

EDIT: How could I forget musicians? I play clarinet and I forgot. That's another thing, though. They could make musician instruments and play them in their artistic little villages.