Aping an idea I got from MamaBear in the Fish Tycoon forums..
I am a newbie to Village Sim and spent a day or so browsing through the posts in this forum. I have not yet found another like it, so I thought it might be nice for other newbies to have a string that just had hints and suggestions. We can post questions in another area.

OK. So here are my tips.
Turn the tutorial on! It's very useful!
Don't get too involved in "Breeding" your villagers right away, or you'll end up with too many mouths to feed.
Also, research "Harvesting" as soon as you can.
In the beginning, train your villagers early to become "adepts" in as many specialty areas as you can..it may come in handy later!
I would love to see links to support sites, helpful hints and such in this string.

I think it would be a good idea to avoid any spoilers in this thread, so that it stays a safe zone for newbies! Otherwise, I'll have to put a spoiler tag on it and it will become less useful!

My favorite strategy is to go after tech points VERY aggressively, and not to worry about food too much in the beginning. Also I try to sqeeze in my 2nd generation breeding at the last possible moment. For more details, see my post in the "the game in general" thread.

Aside from those suggestions already listed, I'd try moving a villager to all of the 'suspicous' areas after each tech upgrade just to see if anything has changed.
-spaceman

but spaceman, how do you know that you don't need to try all the villagers....remember they can only breed after a certain age, so who knows what the conditions may be?!?!?!

How about a way to view past game messages?

No way to view past messages at the moment, but we are hoping that this may be included in a future release

Waiting until the last moment to breed your villagers may accidentally result in having all children of the same gender. That's bad.

Can anyone tell me how to bury dead villagers? They are just sitting out there decomposing...YUCK!

take a wander around the village and see if you notice a place to bury the dead!

I don't see a grave yard anywhere. Is there suppose to be one?

It's there...if your villagers are able to recognise it for what it is...a certain tech level might be useful...

Yes, in building and harvesting. Does that make a difference?

I'm pretty sure you're going to need Level 2 in spirituality... and then you can bury your dead.

spirituality is useful in learning things about the village.....

Sometimes no one wants to bury the dead. I know where to bury them. I have level two spirituality, but it took over a hour of real time to convince my lazy villagers to bury their dead. I had to drag them to the burial site over and over again for them to figure it out. I think I have lead in my well water because I have got the stupidest villagers around. By the time they become adept or masters at anything they are on the edge of the grave. Sigh!

some villagers seem denser than other....sorta like the real world.

I have noticed that if one villager doesn't seem to like a job, they may find something else easier to learn.....or they may be generally slow to learn things, and you need to find a villager who is quicker to pick things up

I try training them on a variety of jobs and even putting them on the job with a more adept professional. Who knows? The programmers are pretty sharp. How else are scientists going to learn if not from another scientist? Maybe it's just the teacher in me coming out.

That's the truth about dense villagers. I had to uninstall my game, then reinstall it & start all over, because of technical difficulties...Now all I have is a village of idiots! I can't get anyone to learn anything!

If you have never done a sim game(other than plant and fish) her are some helpful tips from lots of posts.
This is not a game that is quick; once started, you can't ignore it.
To build your village drag the people to sites, then check the skill you want them to learn. Keep dragging them to site(table, farm, etc.)To change a skill, check another and drag the villager to the new site a few times. Train people in lots of skills as soon as you have food taken care of.
The detail screen shows if your person is learning the skill--all start out "Trained at Nothing, move to "trainee" then "adept" then finally become "masters." It takes a very long time to get to master--watch the blue lines.
The "puzzles" aren't conventional, most solve themselves as you get more tech. points or when "incidents" occur on the island that you have nothing to do with.
You can starve everyone to death. Note, the field yields crops, but eventually (quite a few times),the field will empty so drag "farmers" to the field. Don't panic;the villagers will figure out how to replant; the bush will rebloom.
When they breed, check mark that skill;make sure you have a number of women to breed (of course some men)then drag one male to one female. At first don't get it. Keep dragging if you are in a hurry. Remember to recheck a skill once children leave female.
Breeding females "nurse" for many hours; they eat and (so do the new babies), but do no other skill. Recheck their skill after the baby matures.
There are a number of things that happen that aren't under your control. Not ALL "incidents" occur in every game, in a strict(except some are directly tied to tech. levels.)
The "dead" elders show up at first as gross little skeletons laying about 9disappear in 24 hrs). With more tech. points the villagers will "bury" bodies.
Train a master doctor or two, and train some in healing in case you get sick villagers. Remember, if a nursing woman is your doctor, she will not work, so it's best to train a couple men (kinda a statement about woman's role in here you think?)
Master scientists are the ones who work to give you the most tech points; keep them researching.
Don't give up--ask for help--usually you can save the village. Events unfold even without your making them happen. There you go--Munchie

thanks for the detailed synopsis!! I'm sure it will help future gamers!