We are adding some new behaviors to your favorite villagers. Ideas are welcome!

How about some teenage behaviours that kick in at 14 and finish when they hit 17 / 18. Things like "hanging out with their mates", sulking - basically doing anything but working. They could "hang" around the pool and laugh at the older villagers doing their laundry.

(Apologies to any teenagers reading this!)

I like it! Some other behaviors could include:

Napping - villager goes to garden or down in the corner and becomes stationary - possibly sits down in front of a special "napping tree" (using the same sitting graphic)- and naps

Picking flowers - a villager could go to the garden and pick flowers. Once picked they could give the flowers to another villager.

Group activities - I've already suggested group activities like holidays or religious festivals - where everyone honors the idol, the temple, or the dead - and the golden child sometimes calls for a group dance party already, but a group swim might be nice, or a day off where everyone goes into "relaxing" mode: no work is done and everyone defaults to recreational behavior. The possibilities are virtually limitless, here!

Performing - They already tell stories to each other, but it might be fun if occasionally someone would tell a story to the village as a whole, and some or all the villagers would gather around and listen. The story teller could be very animated, periodically defaulting to the dancing graphic and back.

Exploring the cave - a villager would go up to the cave after the boulder is moved for a look around.

Tag - the children could play tag - with one child chasing others around the village until one is caught, who immediately takes up the chase.

Hide and seek - the children could scatter around the village and stand still - some in the garden, some by the lagoon, some hiding among the adults at the science table, some in the graveyard. One child goes around to each in turn, "Finding" them and taking them to where the children always dance. Once all the children are rounded up, play resumes as normal.

Okay - I'll think of more, I'm sure!

Hey they could go into the 'breeding shed' on their own. You don't get much more teenage than that...

I reckon you should have pretty surreal stuff. If you don't want to add lots of animation just change 'doing nothing' into 'counting blessings' or 'pondering the universe' etc.

If you want to add animations how about 'cooking a meal' or 'getting drunk' or 'Telling a joke', or even 'playing soccer' if you can get two villagers to interact.

I think this came up in beta tests - if a villager is telling a joke, how about being able to click on the villager and have them tell you a joke? Surely a brilliant Easter Egg?

Another surreal one which increases interraction with the player might be to have them 'reading your email'. Of course they are not, but just say that they are. If you can manage to have the players outlook open when you click on a villager 'reading your email' then so much the better but I'm guessing that might be a step too far.

How about 'listening to your MP3's' as an activity?

Give these guys a little life of their own within the users PC. If they can tell you your most recent documents, so much the better.

I like the idea of them hacking your email in reading it. That would be *TOO* funny! Maybe they could hack my todo database and do some of my chores ;-)

These are all great ideas. I would like to encourge you to try and incorporate more actual graphics. Watching them actually reach down and pick the flowers then walk away with them is a lot more fun than just a message at the bottom "picking flowers."

Maybe one of the masteres could teach his/her craft to the youngsters. Like 3 or 4 kids would follow the adult around and learn their stuff, then when those kids group up they'd have some skill in the area??

A group yoga or tia chi class would be cute. THey could have little slow movement routines they all go though in sync.

I think building different things would be fun too. Whether or not it was a puzzle, per se. For instance a camp fire in the village center wuold be a good addition for any camp. THey'd have to fetch fire wood, of course. This might be a bit much, but how about every once in a while somebody catches a fish, carries it to the fire, then holds in on the end of a stick over the fire!

Maybe they could build a little water wheel for the creek that would spin (animated). This would create the opportunity for other additions that it would power. Grinding mill? Electric generator?

Maybe they could build a boat and two people could go fishing then (on a good day) bring home 1000 food points-worth or fish.

Walking around (as apposed to through) the vegetable garden when people are working in it would be good.

The last thing I'll add is PLEASE PLEASE have people wander off to the outskirts of the village to pass away. I keep having nursing mothers sit RIGHT NEXT to rotting corpses. That's just creepy!!

I've suggested this before - after the final puzzle has been solved, and the population is maxed, the villagers start to build a boat. Upon completion, five or six villagers climb in, and the user is given the option to start a new game with those villagers.

I think that's brilliant PE. It means you don;t have the pain of having to start a new game with five rubbish villagers. It speeds things up and changes the overall balance of the second game, but this is absolutely right for an experienced player who does not need to learn the ropes anymore.

-For everyone-
Laughing
Napping (second this idea!)
Singing a song

-For the grown-ups-
Taking a bath
Painting the hut

-For the kids-
Building a sand castle (would love to see the sandcastle!)
Hide and seek and tag (also great ideas, PE)
Collecting seashells

-Post-burial funerals-
Missing Yoki (or whoever)
Telling stories about Yoki's life
Blessing Yoki's grave

-Special magical stuff-
Levitating
Walking on water

It would also be cool if they built a campfire and then cooked food on it, told stories around it and stuff like that.

I also really liked the idea that PE had about starting a new game over with a group of existing villagers. It seems like they need something to do at the end of the game. (I'm still sitting here with 11 of 12 puzzles -- my first sucessful game. Almost there!)

They could go to the graveyard sometimes and mourn the dead or take them flowers. I wish they'd have parties, luaus, holidays, etc. They could go to the village center and have village meetings, and they could elect a leader. Although they can't fish until you get to level 3 food, it would be cool if they could go ocean swimming before that and OCCASIONALLY catch something.

Elderly people should engage in eccentric behaviors. Also, if you have elderly people they might be able to take care of babies and free the mothers to get back to work, but there might also be some penalty associated with this. Embracing children should lead to more breeding points for the adults, towards being a master parent. They should also be able to PLAY with or TEACH the kids, giving them more master parent points.

When are they able to build a latrine? (I'm only up to level 2 in everything)

I also would like it if there were some way to tell how much longer a nursing mother has to nurse---something like you can tell what % complete the housing is. Maybe it would say her nursing period is X% complete.