Ok, here's the story: I have a Zire 72 & level 2 of everything. I have 13 villagers, with only 7 of them adults. All villagers are trained in all areas, but I have all 7 of them set to be farmers for the time being. I only have 113 units of food left, which has been dwindling from over 600...even though I have everyone farming. HELP??

On the villager detail screen, I have everyone checked off to concentrate on farming...but they keep going off in different directions, doing their own thing. It's driving me ! I have to keep dragging the villagers to the crop area, over & over again. Two villagers INSIST on researching, one villager ONLY wants to do LAUNDRY, one villager stays at farming, and the others just walk around...stating that they're 'worried about food'. DUH??

I'm afraid everyone is going to starve & CROAK!

I've tried to run in Normal & Fast speed...doesn't seem to matter either way.

It's been my experience that the food balance can get a little tense in the earlier stages of the game, especially when you have made a bunch of babies (kids seem to eat as much as adults)! As long as your villagers are in relatively good health now, they will probably not starve to death before the crops appear again. You might check the berry bush to see if there are any meager supplies of berries (just in case). Hang in there! After the food crisis is over, you might want to work toward getting that third food source as soon as you can!

The crops are there...I just can't get anyone to stick with the farming. Same way with the berry bush...I drag someone over there, they gather 1 bunch of berries then their off doing something else, like LAUNDRY.

Whew...I hope I make it to that 3rd level of harvesting, I only have 26,000 tech points towards it.

Hang in there, and keep your eye on them. They are crafty little devils, and as soon as you turn your head, they get lazy. So keep draging them to the crops and you will be fine.

Are your farmers all adept? They do take 'breaks' but they should stick with farming pretty well. It always seems worse when there's a looming disaster. I usually just turn into a slave driver when that happens, and make sure that their action shows that they are harvesting before I go on to the next villager!

All farmers are at least adept...with several masters. As long as I keep my game on & keep after them, they're fine...but as soon as my back in turned & my game is off, they all go off in different directions. Then, when I come back I have no food again.

Two more villagers just advanced to adults now, so I'm training them in farming as well. Hopefully they'll get caught up on the food supply.

The villagers don't produce nearly as much food when the game is off - that's a situation that will be corrected when the update is released.

Ahhh...thanks for the info.

Thanks for this post and explanation. I was running into the same situation recently. Although there are plenty of mouths to feed, I find those villagers just going off doing their own thing. It's frustrating!! So I too have taken to being a slavedriver, dragging them away from their laundry if necessary, and put them back where they belong.
I do have one oddity. I have 15 villagers, most of them working at research or harvesting. But then I encountered an island event -- another shipwreck to clean up. So I used the opportunity to train builders. Then one of them went ahead and started building a new hut, got 2% done and then walked away. I can't get anyone to work on the thing now. I recall reading in a recent post that 15 is a magic number for the builders. Does someone have to try to get pregnant before that gets finished?
Thanks,

Have you exited the game since your builder started building the hut? There was a bug that the 'hotspot' isn't active until you leave the game and come back (and it might not be fixed yet). If you just leave the game and come right back into it, you should be able to continue making your builders finish the hut.

Thanks Barbara,
I actually hadn't done so when I wrote the message. Shortly afterward I did exit and come back. Now they're going at it building that little hut. How cute they are!

Now if I could just remember to log into the forum before posting!!

Well, my 15 villagers are completely out of food now...no berries left & the crops haven't grown back yet. AND, I only have 30,000 tech points towards the 3rd level of harvesting.

Everyones health is starting to dwindle too.

It's heartbreaking to watch your villagers go hungry, but about the only thing you can do is keep as many of them watering as possible...often, the crops come back just in time to prevent starvation, so the villagers may be weakened, but alive. Hopefully their health won't deteriorate too much

However, hard it is to hear this, As Ladycfii said earlier part of the balance is to have few enough mouths to feed, such that it isn't a battle all the time......on the other hand, you need enough hands to do the work that needs doing. It's all part of the challenge of the game

good luck

I just had a similiar problem. First it was the men, not the women who didn't wish to work. Yoki, Willow and Sage were awesome, rarely said no. The guys; sweethearts, but i couldn't get tthem to work a bit. It wasn't until it came time to clear the lagoon that Seth and Juno got busy. The ladies had three babies apiece with the men and then I found that Sage and Juno, Willow and Seth preferred each other's company. Yoki jusy wanted be left alone and researh.
Finally the tribe got up to 21. Then all hell broke loose. First the chicken poxes that weaken Seth and Willow. A flock of Parrots wiped out the berry bush and then a balmy summer molded the crops and everyone was sick. We laid first Seth, then Willow to rest. Locusts came and wiped out newly planted crops and stored food. They tribe couldn't work hard enough. Everyone was getting weaker and weaker. We lost Juno to another chicken pox outbreak. The tribe, dispite my best eforts was dying. The next morning, only Spice 46 and her half-brother Mazi, 33 was left. Spice was burying her husband Boaz; they little girl Zippoarah had just died, age 5. I had to decide whether to let the tribe go on since both Spice and Mazi were weak, or go for 3th farming techs points and see what happen. So, I took the Tech points and Spice, a master famer found quickly the magic fish, while Mazi continued to bury their family. Afterwards, crops came in and they were also able to fish. once I had the food bin filled to 1000, I decided it was time for them to mate. The first son was Hope. Their health slowly began to improve. The second son was Promise. One day Mazi began sick and while Mama was nursing, it was 4 year old Promise who healed his daddy. The next child was Blessing, a girl. Then another girl, Simha (Joy). Twin girls were also added to the family; Lily and Jasmine. Two years after the twins birth, a cargobox was found by Blessing. Two twin boys, named Moshe and Joshua. Sadly, with a nursing child, Sage died. But the tribe was saved. Hope and Blessing married, Promise to Simha. Lily to Moshe and Jasimne to Joshua. Mazi played the very happy grandpa. Sage lived to be 65, Mazi 67. Before his death, Mazi passed the tribal leadership to Blessing; it was her birthright. Hope passed away just as the temple was being rebuilded. Promised while the treasure was being dug up. Simha died shortly thereafter. Blessing grieved the deaths of her twin sisters, born together, died together at 79. Blesing lived tto be ninty, passing the leadership to her eldest daughter, Sage. Sage's daughter, Ebony gave birth to the Golden. I told you this story to say this; hang in there. You may be quite surprised what your people come up with.