Okay, I have no tech points, 9 villagers (reproducing like rabbits. . .) and am almost out of food. I've built another hut, because building was the only thing they could do after they finished foraging. What is my next step? I can't do anything

I'm just starting out too, and you need to have one or two people researching -- that's how you earn tech points.

At the beginning of a new game, consider carefully the long range effects of training your villagers in the different skill areas. I know, at first, the instinct is to get food, food, food, but that is more of a short-term survival goal.

Research is very important, as it helps your villagers find better ways to survive...

I have everyone set with research as their preference. Maybe I'm missing something. Is there any other way to get them to research, other than setting it as their preference?

You have to physically get them to research by dragging them to the large table in front of the hut.

If you drag them to research and they are successful at least once, AND set their skill preference to research, they will pretty much research most of the time.

Right. You can set them to a specific preference, but they won't actually do that task until you drag them over and teach them.

To teach one of them research, for example, drag him onto the table. Now, watch him for a few moments. If he understands what you are teaching him, you'll get a note saying that he has improved. If not, he will shrug his shoulders and go do something else. You will need to drag him back to the table again and again until he improves at least one notch in research (check the details page).

After that, he'll happily do research on his own.

This also goes for farming, breeding, building and healing.

With the construction skill you'll have to check your villager's details screen to see if they've improved. For some reason, the messages telling you that a villager has improved in building don't appear.

I'm the one who started the thread. I'm all registered now. . .

Okay, so I'm stupid. I started a new game last night, and I discovered the huge table was for research. I'm at 14 hours of realtime, and I have researched Harvesting, and am getting ready to research Science. Thanks for all the help.

I just go my game too, how do I do the puzzels? Thanks.....Buny