I had a few normal crops but now, all anyone wants to do is water the crops. There are single-file lines of crop-waterers - and no planting, no harvesting. Also, I can't get my field to bloom (it bloomed the first game I played). Any ideas on how to break everyone's focus on watering? I think I've tried just about everything - but, then, you never know. (Tungsten C)

You have to move them onto something else. If you want them to research drag them to the table. If their skill is set on farming/fishing, then they will be more inclined to water the field. Try changing their focus skill to something else.

The zombies will not be deterred. They insist on watering crops to the extent that crops cannot be planted or harvested. There are no crops in the crop field - only waterers. When I redirect them, they go back to watering - time and time again. A bug?

Keep trying, we have previous reports of drought conditions on the farms, and as far as I know, they have all cropped again, finally. Do you still have the other food source?

I have also noticed that if my farmers keep insisting on watering, and I want them to plant or harvest, I just keep dragging and droping them on the crops field, until the action reads as I want. They do seem to learn finally.

Savi

It doesn't seem to need planting initially, because I basically let them just water (I maybe planted 5 or 6 times?) and they sprouted. The only start planting after they have harvested. Or so it seemed. Maybe they were planting when my back was turned.

The only time that villagers can harvest is when there are crops actually visible on the farm. When you drag villagers to the farm, they will choose which of the farming activities they want to perform. If you interrupt them and try again, they may choose the same activity, or a different one. All of those activities will improve a farmer's skill, and the farm will replenish in time (regardless of the apparent imbalance of those choices).

I allowed my villagers to water and water and water, until I came to the conclusion that this is going to be a futile task. So, I hunted around, and actually found another, seeming important task, so I diverted them to that. Now, I have zombies doing that, but that's not a bad thing. I do not want to say what "that" is, for fear of spoiling the game for some players.

Unfortunately, I found "that" maybe too late. No crops, no berries, only at stage 2 harvesting, and not enough points to go fishing yet. And, my villagers are starving to death. I have them researching like crazy to make it to 50000 points for harvesting, but I don't think they are going to make it.

Hence, I believe I may have to start my game over. I'll wait until they all die, which isn't going to be much longer now. At least, I'll know what to do in my next iteration of my village life.

Hope this helps.

Di

I posted the anonymous post above, as Di. I am now zuki, and I have started my game completely new. All my villagers died, as I suspected they would. Live and learn, I always say....

Zuki, I'm sorry to say it, but I think you have gone done the very best learning curve. Once you try a strategy and it fails, you start thinking of what could be made better next time. I for one, much prefer this to be told by others how I should play. You learn all sorts of interesting things if you just explore the village, or even just watch some of the villagers for a while

Good luck with the next game

Savi

I played the game until I had solved all but the GC and boulder puzzles, had plenty of food, 65 villagers, all techs maxed out, but had to deal with the zonbie waterers for the last few days. The crops did NOT replenish. I directed the farmers to plant, and they did, but still the crops did not return. Luckily, I had enough fish and crabs to last forever. Then the game totally crashed and is unplayable. I wonder if this is a bug?

My guys are also in the same rut. They just keep watering the crops, nothing has sprouted, and they won't do anything else. I'm on my fourth game: here were the stats:
hours played - about 85-90?
food about 15,000
population 60
tech levels completed 9
puzzels solved 7

Totally frustrated now. I've restarted twice since then and my villagers just seem to go into zombie mode. The Berry bnush is depleted, I'm on level 2 harvesting, but nothing is growing. I think they flooded the field. Have I caught a bug?

Oh, I failed to mention that my first game crashed - apparently my battery died while going home from work.

And I am registered, not Anonymous - I'm pointermom

Okay - Pointermom here again (the website won't recognize me) - everyone is dead. Here are the stats that make NO SENCE at all:
Realtime hours played 885476 (NO WAY!)
tech levels completed 31107
so what happened?

Hi, Pointermom! First, are you saying that the forums won't recognize you when you log in? I have to log in every time because my firewall software blocks a number of types of cookies, and the site won't automatically recognize me.

As for your stats - wacky stats almost always indicate one of two things: the system clock has been moved back in time, or the savegame has become corrupted. The game doesn't necessarily handle either condition very well.

The game can become corrupted in a number of ways, including if the Palm crashes during game play. Arthur and his team are working diligently to resolve the crashing problems, and will release an update to the game. In the meantime, you could reinstall your game (after completely deleting it first) or try starting a new game and see if there are problems.

If you just let them keep watering, eventually, the crops sprout again. It takes a long, long time, but they always do. I simply gave up on them and let them keep watering. I had other villagers who were fishing, and I had plenty of food. Low and behold, many hours later, the crops came back.