I simply cannot get an elder.
Training a male in parenting or healing is totally impossible. I read the walkthrough which suggests making people sick with a stew, then having my adept healer heal them to gain experience.
So trying to train a male parent I have him make love with a woman over 50 non stop, about 15 times, the parent skill meter doesnt budge one single mm.

Same thing with the healer, it simply does not go up ever, even after healing 15 people.

whats up?

It takes several hundred successful tasks to fill a villager's experience bar. When I do the "speed breeding" to make a master parent, it can take up to 10 minutes of rapid-fire kissing.

hmm.. it wouldbt be so bad if it was automated.. like im trying to train someone as a builder but nothing left to build. he should just automatically keep repairing, same thing with the breeder, although that requires them going indoors every 5 seconds.

they also changed healer training (for the worst) from vv1 because now the trainee wont continue to study the cactus of his own accord. in fact there seems to be no way to autmatically train a healer.

I am seriously doubting the validity of your last statement, I continue to train by fixing a building... it says their construction skill improves but the barn remains the same exact position 30 + times.

There are two factors at work in what you're seeing. The first is that the bars are made up of "segments" and won't change until the villager has gained enough skill to move to the next segment, even though they are actually gaining skill with each successful task. The second is that the amount of skill a villager gains with each task depends upon how skilled they already are. An untrained villager will show a noticeable change in the skill bar on the first successful attempt. As they become more skilled, the incremental change in their skill decreases as their skill increases. Once a villager becomes adept, the amount of additional skill they gain with each successful completion of a task is much smaller than it was when they were trainees. It can take only 2 or three successes to go from untrained to trainee, and hundreds more successes to make it all the way to master.

Did you set them, in "details" screen as builder (or healer etc)? With a few patience, you'll see the things changing, from "trainee" to "adept" for example.
For the healers, have a look here:
http://www.ldwforums.com/ubbthreads/ubbt...=true#Post74724

Like ladyCFII said it does take several hundred succesful tasks so the best thing you can do is just wait and be patience.

Well said! I have had plenty of master doctors and parents who have gained their skills without my resorting to "speed-kissing" or noxious stews. All it takes is time.

they will be dead or at least too old to breed by the time their elders...

Mine certainly haven't all died. Several female parents don't become masters until a little while after they're 50, admittedly, and a few never make it. That doesn't matter much, though. They've still got 20-odd years of their lives ahead ...

Arnie is wright. Old women can make love, and they may become Elder. They just dont have babies! It could be a good thing if you have not enough food for a great population! Don't be too much worry about Elders

To train doctors you need both patience and patients.

LOL, true.

My villagers usually become master doctors before mastering anything else. You just have to start them young.
See attached photo of a two year old already half way there.

I have 3 villagers that I train to healing: Manuel, 60 y.o, adept doctor very near to become master; Bénédicte (she is my runner) and Paula, the youngest, whom healing is the only skill. And I absolutely want that they become Master Doctor! So I bring them to study the strange plants... but, oups! Manuel makes a baby to Paula and she is "out" for a long time! Then a villager rings the Gong and it takes health! Yippee! I bring quickly Manuel to heal sick villagers but... Bénédicte is already here! I bring him to another one but...she is already here! And Manuel cannot improve his skill! And what a frustration!
The moral is: 1°: take care when you put a male and a female on the same task!
2°: some time, the runners are a little bit annoying! especialy for the other healers

PS: one hour later, studying strange plants, Manuel is Master Doctor!!

I mentioned somewhere else in the forum how funny it is to watch two or three doctors all rushing to be the first to cure a patient. They will bustle self-importantly up, then the ones who are "beaten" will stand around looking bewildered for a little while. You can almost see them thinking, "Why call me when there's nobody ill?" They will usually then wander off on some no-doubt important task such as washing their socks or inspecting the gong encasement.

The worst is when one of your doctors is a runner! He is every time the first on place to heal! The others are left in the lurch. If I was they, I would be upset. And I suppose they are, so I bring them to a strange plant!

Manuel is Esteemed Elder to day! As any self-respecting doctor, he spend his time in the pond! But he deserves it

LOL
I have several Dr.s and I have seen mine bunch up in "Dr." mode and walk around in a circle or pace back and forth for a long while before figuring out the task was already taken care of.

My village has reached the max. capacity of 90, so that's when I take the opportunity to try to up everyone's breeding skills -- the villagers can "go indoors" to their hearts' content and I don't have to worry about too many babies and too many moms out of commission. It's actually rather amusing... I'm constantly running around dragging people away from doing laundry (is there any point to that?) and putting them toward something useful, and all the while I'm hearing *smooch!* *smooch!* *smooch!* Aside from the obvious benefits of not having more babies, the same couples can smooch over and over without the female wandering off to nurse a baby.

And can someone tell me how it's possible for a two year old to be adept at something? Is it possible to have them study that young??

When some villagers are sick, you may bring a child to heal them. At the beginning, he refuses but if you insist he is able to heal and to gain some skills and when you have an epidemic, that child may become "apprentice doctor" (and so adept at 14 years old)!
Eh! No! Doing laundry doesn't give any point! And it's a pity when you see how many times they do that!!

Usually the main skill kids can gain is medicine. They can heal other villagers, although they can't yet study the plants. They can also gain a little additional skill in building by exercising. Otherwise, kids are often born with a little of their parents' skill. Finally, there are several island events that give skills.

I have a few master doctors, sometimes I had events that gave me a master doctor.

Some Adept Doctors seem to become Masters about 60. However, I've had them as young as 16. It just depends on how much patience you have with them. I hold "Doctoring 101" every day for a bit and just pile mine on the black vine over the pool. Some go on to become masters very quickly. However, when I find my adept doctors doing another skill that has them at adept, and they have not moved out of the same place they were when they became adept doctors, I just change their skill to the one they prefer. It's odd how many doctors of my tribe like to build as well.

well when my doctors arent working they enjoys the lagoon and anything unuseful to the tribe

Robert, check their stats often, because they kind of do the other skill on the sly, when you are concerned about something else.

In my tribe, I see that the doctors (trainee, adept or master) tend to their profession and are not interested to gain other skills. When they are not needed to heal, or are not expected to see a villager in the hospital :), they spend their time enjoying the pond, doing laundry or walking down the beach.

But I am about to find out this: when you train a villager at age 14 and get him to gain building and farming skills, and after that you train him to be a doctor, the doctor keeps some interest in faming and building skills, and becomes adept or master in those. My doctors become master-doctors when a lot of villagers catch an illness (darned gong :?).

have a lot of esteemed elders, but so far I have not succeeded in guiding a doctor to be among them: they are spending so much leisure time, that I cannot get them to gain 3 master skills in their life time.

But I love my doctors because the are really conscious about healing, and come rushing whenever they sense one of my villagers is ill.

Have a nice day