Hey there!

I'm new to the VV world and I'm absolutely addicted! . I know that this question is probably because I'm a complete noob, but I've got a problem.

None of my Healing Villagers can progress more than halfway. The blue bar doesn't ever go any higher in spite of the number of sick folks they heal and the number of times they study the herbs.

What am I doing wrong?

It takes doctors a long time to master their skill, because there is far less opportunity for them to practice their profession. They can progress as doctors by studying the herbal plants, too.

More importantly than that, however, are the other factors that determine the career progression of the villagers. The first is that the skill 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 can show a noticeable change in the skill bar on the first successful attempt. As they become more skilled, the incremental change in their skill is smaller 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 a few successes to go from untrained to trainee, and hundreds more successes to make it all the way to master.

Finally, some villagers learn faster than others, and they have innate preferences, just like real people. Some villagers will study on their own, and some won't. Each villager will gain skill at their own pace. Each time they succeed, they are gaining skill, even though you might not see it right away. Just give it some time and your villager will usually make noticeable progress.

Barbara, thank you. That makes things much clearer and more sensical. Especially the bit about the segmented progress bar. I appreciate your time and helpfulness.

It's also like Real Life, too. the village doctors will keep studying the plants until they become adept. In RL doctors go to medical school to study until they become adept. When both sets of doctors start practicing it takes them much longer (often their whole life) to master in the job.

In VV the doctors spend a lot of time "enjoying the pool" and in RL they play golf.