My apologies if this is a redundant topic. I was looking for other people's strategies for making elders. Is it best to get a young worker trained on multiple disciplines early, and then just cycle through until master status is achieved, or do you let them become master of something and then start from scratch on something new?

Also, what seem to be the best strategies for making doctors and parents? I have never had a master doctor that I remember, and only two master parents, and they were both pretty old already.

Here's my strategy: Get the Basics (Builder, Farmer, Scientist). When you get crops, harvest til your food is stable enough. By then, one of your villagers will be a master (probably the scientist). Convert them to Building. One or Two of the lost children must have grown up, so one should go to building and the other to research. When there's nothing to build, go back to research. Play the game a while, get tech points, solve some basic puzzles, etc. Soon, you get L3 Farming. Then, you can convert your researcher/builders to farmers and vice versa. Eventually, they'll become 50. If you are an impatient person, you can get a R/B mate like crazy until they become masters. If you're patient or don't have the time (which you SHOULD have the time) wait for them to master whatever.

Later in the game, with all puzzles solved, you can use the gong of wonder to help. Or certain stews. It depends, but it's all up to you.

How do certain stews help with elders?

Check out the tip at the end of our June Newsletter.

I already have about 6 elders, and all my original inhabitants have died, and I'm up to at least 80 villagers now. It gets difficult keeping track of them all, plus with no new huts to build, it seems like building skills go more slowly.

I guess I am looking for suggestions once you have solved all the puzzles and are dealing with lots of villagers. Healing and Parenting are still my weakest areas.

Time is the best method of making Elders.
That, and the oft-suggested Level 3 in Patience.

Yeah, but what if *I* dislike "learning"?

I don't think I ever made it past Level 2.

LOL, stop it you two!! What if I dislike laughing!!!

These tips are good, and that is how I typically make elders early on in the game. But once I have a stable food source I will typically start all new workers on building for several reasons.

1. Teaching a villager to build is the hardest and most time consuming trade.
2. When the villagers are older it takes longer to do one cycle of building as compared to the others.

After they have mastered building I will then move them to farming. Again because there is a lot of walking to do to complete the task.

Then after they have mastered farming I put them at the table. If they are elderly they don't have to walk anyplace, so it seems to speed up the process up.

I stand by my earlier post, even though it was made tongue-in-cheek. It does take time to make elders. Apart from lucky events, there is no quick fix, though it helps a lot if a villager is a runner.

I don't worry too much about developing elders in the mid-to-late game, but concentrate on them once all the puzzles have been solved and my population has risen to the maximum, or close to it. After all, only one Elder and one totem is required to complete the puzzles.

Once the puzzles are out of the way I'll concentrate on getting Elders. My method could be construed as sexist, as I usually end up with a lot more female Elders than male. I'd mention that I normally wind down my involvement with that tribe from now on, only opening the game two or three times a day to guide the villagers into new skills. I'll probably start another game in another slot on which I concentrate most of my time.

When the kids turn 14 I'll put them on researching, although if they've been born with a little of different skill and have made a start for themselves already I'll let them continue. Once they've reached Master scientist (usually by their early 20s) I introduce the sexism. The females I'll set to parenting, the males mostly to farming. A couple of males I'll set to become doctors and I'll look out to see who is the "alpha male" - the one all the girls want to kiss. I'll set him to parenting so that he's not just a passive kissee but can do some kissing of his own. By this time the population should be at the maximum, so those females set to parenting will keep kissing away without much danger of falling pregnant unless an elderly villager has just died. Generally by their mid 30s the girls will have become Master parents. I'll then switch them to farming to complete the third part of their ascent to Elderhood (is that a word?).

Those who had originally inherited farming or building skills should by now have become Masters; I'll switch the girls to parenting and the boys to research. Once they become Masters I'll switch them to the third leg of their Tripos. Once a doctor becomes a Master I'll also switch him to farming until he's an Elder. At the same time I'll train up another doctor or so for safety.

At this stage I don't bother with training in building unless a villager has already got a head start as mentioned earlier. The lack of building projects means they've no real task and they spend their time enjoying the pond as often as they do fixing huts.

Using this method I have no trouble getting 50 Elders in my villages, but, be warned, it does take time!

make them kiss kiss kiss like crazy
it might take 5 mins, but it works