In virtual villagers 3, can you train builders without having anything left to build?

Question

i have built every thing, then my builders all died and i havent finished the statue!!

Answer 1

Yes - get them to repair houses. It takes longer to train them that way, but it's possible. Also, if you have other puzzles, etc to finish, you can get them to train in other areas and come back to the statue.

Answer 2

You can have them repair huts. They won't do this on their own, so you have to babysit them the whole time.

You can also make a potion that makes them exercise, and believe it or not this will get them some building skill. The potion recipe is Black Orchid, Tiger Lily, Cactus.

The tribe chief can lecture children once a day. If playing on slow speed it is possible that a child will reach Trainee status by the time he or she is 14, but obviously the skills they gain are random so it's just luck.

There are events that can give skills. To see a list of events, go to the official forums at http://www.ldwforums.com  You can manipulate events to get what you need. To do this, do not close the orange event box, and then go into windows Task Manager and end the Virtual Villagers process. This shuts the game down. When you start it again you'll get a different event, Keep doing it until you get what you need.

One event gives you an already-trained builder. Most of the time he's just a trainee but I've had a few adept ones. The event is called Canoe From The Other Side.

The statue doesn't need more than Trainee Builders, so you should be able to get some Trainees and finish it. That is, as long as you already drew the plans. If you didn't draw the plans, you're going to need a Master Builder, and I don't envy you the task of trying to get one.

You will also need a Master Builder for the Pearl Key puzzle, so I suggest not putting too many builders on your statue project, to give at least one of them a chance to get to Master while pushing it. Choose a YOUNG villager, not some old geezer!

Next time, leave some building projects for last. The rubble pile is a good one to leave, and so is a clothing hut.