Virtual Villagers Fans

A little tribe was cast away on a deserted island... With time people learned all secrets of Isola land and explored every inch of their new home.



But one day a pair of sweethearts found a thin recess in the rocks. Curiosity gained the upper hand and a loving couple pressed through. Steep waterfall, unexpected fall and young people landed into a crystal-clear pool. Having looked round, they found themselves in a completely new place - a western side of Isola Island. To their total surprise, they were not alone: dirty, hungry-looking and absolutely helpless children tried to struggle for survival at the west of Isola land.






So the point of this simulator is to teach little villagers the basics of survival.



Teach villagers the basics of survivalHalf-wild villagers need to be taught basic skills: farming, building, researching, healing and parenting. Similar to the first version, all teaching is based on drag-and-drop principle. Start with satisfying tribe's primary needs. Drag a villager to the ocean and make him/her fish, drag him/her to a pile of building materials to build a hut, drag a healthy villager onto the sick one (you'll be given hint that a villager needs to be treated) etc. Mind that mastering certain skills may take your trainees some time.



When training little people, your should mind that some of them inherited from their parents likes and dislikes, and aptitudes. To learn the child's aptitudes, click on him/her and see a profile of the villager in a Detail screen.


In this connection it is worth mentioning that the playfield consists of six screens.



Drag a villager to the table to encourage researching.Main screen is the area where the action takes place. The map reflects the whole Island territory (zoom out to see the entire village, click at any place to zoom in). Villager Detail screen contains information on villagers you choose. There are also Technologies screen, Puzzles and Milestones screen and Collection screen (reflects fun items found by children).



Teach villagers researching and take them exploring island.



With researching, a drag-and-drop mechanics works as well: Once his/her researching skills improve, a villager gains tech points that can be spent (at the Technologies screen) on new technologies necessary for island improvements. Note that not all villagers can succeed in researching (a villager who loves to run around would be hard to place at table). So, before you start training somebody, make sure he or she has the requiresв aptitude. To score additional tech points, take children to gather Mushrooms, Butterflies, Shells, Beetles and Pebbles. The same item collected more than once turns into tech points.


To reveal all mysteries of Isola, island surroundings should be explored and 16 challenging puzzles are to be solved.



Tech points are spent on technologies necessary for island improvementsVirtual Villagers puzzles are a mixture of technology and villager skills. Some puzzles can be completed only when other milestones are already sold. Villagers' curiosity is a key to many puzzles - take a villager to explore area and he is sure to come across Isola milestones.



Our tips and tricks (indicating milestones that need to be completed) can come in handy.



So the villagers have to:

-start fire; - construct the dam; - make a scarecrow to keep the parrots away; - invent cutting tool to clear the vegetation; - get Herb Master degree, - get The Elder Totem, - perform Sustainable Fishing, - Uncover The Vine Wall; - learn Making herb stews; - Uncover the Ancient Ruins, - build a hospital, - discover the Sewing Hut (allowing villagers to change clothing at a cost of 5,000 tech points). Other milestones: - The Sunken Gong Piece, - The Inlaid Gong Piece, - The Boxed Gong Piece, - The Overgrown Gong Piece.



Game features beautiful graphics and pleasant music. And, compared to the first version, Virtual Villagers: The lost Children features some upgrades and new features. All characters are individuals now (the children are born with definite features inherited from their parents). The range of tasks performed by children is wider as well: apart from hunting for food, they gather different collectables that sore tech points. The game is real-time (the trick has already been used in the first version), but now the villagers age visually. New events occur and 16 puzzles are more challenging (one can even say that challenge verges on tangle, still, it's definitely worth trying).

The hints:
You will stop getting Esteemed Elders/totems after reaching 50. But a certain event may allow you to go up to 51.
If you keep trying to breed a male villager with a female villager that is over 50, you can keep making the male villager keep kissing the female villager. This is a good way to help achieve an Esteemed Elder.
After a villager has been buried, you can click on the gravestone and change the comment of the villager's gravestone.
Level 3 exploration allows you to have the ability to see mushrooms and collectibles on the map, but remember to refresh it like very 30 seconds, because it only registers ones that were on the map at that time. And level 3 exploration also seems to have an affect on the rarity of collectibles.
Duplicate common collectibles add 100 tech points.
Duplicate uncommon collectibles add 250 tech points.
Duplicate rare collectibles add 1500 tech points.
If you place an adult villager on a child, the adult villager should tell a story to the child. And the children will listen to the story.
If you put an adept or master parent on a child, the adult will go and "teach the children". And the children will attend lessons.
Villagers need to be 18 to breed, and 14 to work. But females stop having children at 50. But will still go and breed. And when they care for children, they get parenting skill.
To help get an elder quickly, wait until your population is at a halt, then keep making a boy and a girl kiss each other. This soon gets you a master parent too!
Mushrooms and collectibles still appear, even if the game is paused.
These are about all the hints available from the mask:
1. Reaching a milestone can benefit your villagers.
2. Medicine reduces disease and extends longevity.
3. There are many useful spots to which you can drag your villagers.
4. One male villager can farther many children.
5. Pause the game if you go away for very long.
6. Children inherit some skill from there parents.
7. A villager's skill preference can be set on the Detail Screen.
8. A villager prefers the skill type you set.
9. Fish are the only unlimited food source.
10. Building more huts supports a larger population.
11. Your village can grow to a huge population.
12. Sometimes villagers stubbornly do what they want.
13. Time passes whether you're playing the game or not.
14. If your healer is sick, who is healing your villagers?
15. Adult villagers are naturally excellent swimmers.
16. safe and happy villagers attempt new things.
17. Isola is pronounced ee-zoh-lah!
18. It can take several tries to teach something to a villager.
19 Certain herbs on the island can be examined.
20. Success a task may require meeting key requirements first.
21. Sick villagers tend to hang around the fire.
22. Master Scientists generate more tech points than others.
23. Nursing villagers do not work.
24. A master in several skills becomes an elder.
25. Different combinations of herbs make different stews.
26. Add wood to your fire so you don't have to relight it.
27. Keep a fire burning to reduce disease.
28. Research can be hazardous to your villagers.
29. Researching culture helps give kids a head start.
30. Skills can be trained with various tasks.
31. Having children pick up collectibles is optional.
32. Where did the parents go?
33. If your hand gets tired, give it a rest!
34. Different stews have different affects on villagers.
35. Unlimited fishing is available in unpolluted waters.
36. Children tend to look like there parents.
37. Fire assists researchers.
38. Older villagers start to slow down.
39. Medicine improves fertility.
40. You can zip around the island with your keypad.
41. Duplicate collectibles are turned into tech points.

Keypad and and shortcuts:
Shortcuts:
P= Takes you to the puzzle screen.
D= Takes you to the villagers detail screen.
M= Takes you to the map screen.
T= Takes you to the technology screen.
C= Takes you to the collections screen.
Keypad:
To use these, you should have the numb lock on. You can press the numbers from, 1 to 9. You can zip around the island using this. It's especially good for catching collectibles and mushrooms quickly.

Collectibles:
From time to time, little ornaments will appear around the island, if you want to get it, grab a child and drop the child on the collectibles. Adults can't see collectibles. In total, there are 48 unique different collectibles, and 4 gong pieces, so if you want, you could also count it as 52 collectibles. When you complete a set, like getting all the butterflies, you'll earn something special. When you get all of the collectibles, you'll get a really cool reward. This screenshot is from my very first complete game, showing were all of the places collectibles show up, but butterflies show up just about every where, so they are not marked.

Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children FAQ by Charley (with a little help from Terina)

Whats the max population?
The max population is 90, with all the collectables its 115.
How many totems/elders can you get?
You can get 50 max totems/elders. But there is a special island event that you can get which will give you extra elders.
What is the age limit for having babies?
For women the max age is 50, Men its limitless.
After the Grave is full where do the dead villagers go?
The grave will only hold 50 graves and tombstones to match, after that the villagers get buried in a mass unmarked grave.

I can't seem to get my gong peice from the mosaic, whats going on?
Turns out there was a messed up version sold by Reflexive. Please PM LadyCFII on LDW (director of QA and testing, and an administrator for LDW forums) for further information.
Why am I running out of food?
If you havent gotten level 3 farming to solve the algea puzzle, your village is relying on the garden to sustain itself. The garden can only sustain a MAX population of 15 villagers. You need to slow down the baby making and concentrate on tech points.

My ocean is full of algea what do I need to get rid of it?
You need to get Level 3 farming to be able to get a master farmer or scientist to retreive the algea eating fish from the pond. It takes more then one fish and depending on what game level (easy/med/hard) your working at determines how many fish is required. They will not go back on their own you have to do lift them manually and place them into the pond. Once the fish are aquired, you will recieve the algae puzzle completion dialog.

The birds are eating my crops! What can I do to stop them?
You need to get the scarecrow to guard the garden, take a Adept Farmer to the rocky area next to the brairs and they will start building the scarecrow. it takes 2 trips. no special tech level required other then you need the dam and crops done.

How do I get the cutting tools for clearing the brairs?
After purchasing Level 2 of Exploration Tech, drag a master scientist to the northern part of the village where he will see something among the rocks near the twisted pieces of wood and vines (look for things that resemble spear tips that have little sparkles coming from them). Your scientist will need to make a second trip to finish the tools, so take him to the twisted wood and vines (where you got the material for the scarecrow) to get the necessary materials.

How do I open the crate by the ocean, it says one villager is not enough?
You need 3 Master Builders to open this crate together. Once you have the 3 place them on the crate at the same time (pause if you want to) and then they will open it together.

I droped the gong peice, what do I do?
Close your game wait a minute and open it back up, the peice will be there again, try not to disturb the villager this time.

My village died, can I figure out how they most likely died?
Sure! Go to My Documents\LDW\Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children. In this folder (Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children) there should be names of files called Isola23.ldw, Isola21.ldw, Isola22.ldw ect. Just click on the file called ldwlog. The file will open in an txt. document. This log will contain most of what your villagers have done. But if you close your game, and re-open it up again, the last log will delete all of the information, and start recording new information!

What rating is this game? (like E - for everyone)
This game is an E - for everyone rated game.

Can I change a villagers' clothes?
Sure - but you need to have completed puzzle 12. Just drag a villager to the clothing hut and drop them on it. A green pop-up will pop-up, allowing you to cycle through the available clothes.