I can't determine if I just made a mistake at some point in playing, or if I'm just really bad at this game, but I need some help. I'm on my first game that has lasted successfully for any amount of time (on the others I left the speed on Fast and forgot to check it for a day or two at a time, so all my villagers died). My problem is that I can't get my food store up to an acceptable level. I have 2-3 people either harvesting or foraging at any given time, yet right now for instance my food level is below 100. Is there anything I can do to get this situation flowing in a positive direction?

As long as you're not at zero, I wouldn't worry too much. If you have at least 3 of them harvesting and you keep at them to make sure that's what they are doing, you should be fine. Make sure you have people researching as well so you can get that level 3 harvesting. Then you won't have anymore food worries. Good luck!!

I have people researching, but the problem is they keep stopping to harvest or forage. Also, because of my lack of food (which I have pretty much had the whole game), I can't get anyone to breed, and my villagers are all in their late 40s - early 50s already.

Quick question. How many villagers do you have? In the beginning I put two villager on harvesting and the remaining three on research until I get level two in harvesting and until I get about 900-1000 in the bin, then I’ll take one villager off harvesting and put him on research. It is all-dependent on how many mouths you have to feed. With five villagers, or even six, one person can keep the food supply pretty level. But of course each mouth you add, they will consume more. With about 20 villagers you will need around 5 or 6 villagers doing food.

That does become a problem. I would keep at least two harvesting constantly and the others researching. They will start breeding easier once you get to about 400 food.

Having at least 500 in the food bin will also keep them healthy. Once food drops below this they start worrying about food, and seem to eat less to help conserve. By doing so their immune system starts to drop.

Right now I have a population of 7, five adults two children. I have three on research, one on harvesting and one on building. 1351 in the food bin. JFWI


Green=Edited

Warren, you keep putting JFWI.....am I being slow in not knowing what this is?

Eric, a few things I have learnt while playing...don't keep the game on fast even overnight when things are not running totally smoothly yet. I have mucked up many games this way. My solution is to pause the game if I am leaving it for an extended period of time. Running it on slow may also help lessen the deaths and disasters

I always try to aim for 300 in the food bin. This seems to be the magic number to stop the villagers complaining quite as much about food....however, there is usually the whiney on who continues to complain, and not look for food

The stage you reported your game at can be saved still, but takes a little bit of attention. I don't bother even trying to breed while food is low. everyone concentrates finding food, and if they seem to go off to do other things, I just drag them back to food gathering. I only set them off reseraching and breeding, when things seem to be going smoother. I think it has been mentioned elsewhere, that if they are highly skilled in another area, they may spend time doing the other task as well

After all that, good luck trying to save your game

Whoa, VillageIdiot... That's a lot of food.

I have 12 villagers (8 adults 4 kids), and i have 3 people on research and 5 on farming, and the food goes up to 400 about, but as soon as the crop dies and they have to water the field for a new crop, the food drops down as low as 50... Then the crop grows and it rises to about 350-400, and the cycle starts again.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm at Level 2 everything except for Medicine and Fertility. And I haven't had any floods to wash the food away, or anything like that. I'd love to keep a minimum of 300 in my bin, but I don't know how.

That's a lot of villagers to support from just the farm. It's usually better to wait to grow your population that much until you have Harvesting Level 3. It's going to be tight until your villagers learn how to fish. It sounds like you should be OK, though, as long as you don't make any more baby villagers until you have that next food source.

Thanks, Barbara Yes, it's a lot of villagers... But at one point my first generation kinda went crazy with the baby making. Right now everyone is young and healthy, so I may make it to the next Harvesting level with them all intact. Just 32000 more tech to go! Agh...