"unpaid" status gets stuck

[flibbo]

This happened several times to me by now, when I pick up items in a village and then drop them again, sometimes the (unpaid) marker gets stuck - the item on the ground will still be marked with (unpaid). This isn't just a cosmetic issue, villagers actually still believe I have the item(s) in question on me and want me to pay. When I leave, they run after me and get mad. I can tell them to take the item(s) back but I lose reputation with that village. Since that in turn appears to ruin trading prices, this is affects my gameplay quite a bit - the village effectively becomes "unusable" in terms of trade for a long time until the rep resets. Alternatively I can try buying the items and then buying them back but this of course only works if I have enough items available for trade and the villager doesn't decide to keep them after the transaction.

I have tried picking up the item again, walking around, waiting a bit and then putting it town again but it didn't help. The item will be marked as unpaid forever, though after they yell at me and I tell them to take it back they stop holding me responsible for having it on me at least. So far I couldn't determine the exact pattern when this happens and when it doesn't.

edit: when noticing it before leaving the village it's also possible to go to a villager and simply hand them the "unpaid" items back to at least avoid the rep loss. This still isn't ideal though because it moves the item(s) into that villagers inventory away from the village's general store of items.

[Sami]

This happened several times to me by now, when I pick up items in a village and then drop them again, sometimes the (unpaid) marker gets stuck.

Hmm. To find the cause we would need to find out how this is situation got triggered. It might be tricky, but lets try.
Can you think (or find) any pattern when this occurred to you? Any save scumming or crash/force quitting in a village.. etc.

edit: when noticing it before leaving the village it's also possible to go to a villager and simply hand them the "unpaid" items back to at least avoid the rep loss. This still isn't ideal though because it moves the item(s) into that villagers inventory away from the village's general store of items.

Yep. This is a normal feature, and an usable workaround, although not a perfect solution to the issue in question.

[flibbo]

Hi Sami,

I was trying to think of what exactly triggered it but nothing comes to mind. I can rule out your three ideas though, I only very rarely save scum and wasn't doing it at the time, I don't think the game has ever crashed on me and I wasn't force quitting either. It hasn't happened to me again so far but I'll try to pay more attention when it does.

I have since come back to a village where this happed and the item in question (it was a sickle) was there on the ground with the unpaid marker, I picked it up again and dropped it but nothing changed. I also tried buying it from them but this time they didn't even charge me for it (as in, they didn't believe I had anything of them in my inventory when I talked to them), I think it might be because when it happened originally I wanted to leave and they ran after me to demand payment, so I just told them to take the item back - at the time it wasn't in my inventory of course but there on the ground where I had left it. Oddly enough, when I now intentionally try to leave with it in my inventory, they still recognize it and come running again. Also when I try to just give it to them (deliver items) they recognize it as not being mine and refuse.

[Sami]

I think it might be because when it happened originally I wanted to leave and they ran after me to demand payment, so I just told them to take the item back - at the time it wasn't in my inventory of course but there on the ground where I had left it.

Yes, this is the key to the issue. But to try reproducing/fixing the exact steps would have to be known very carefully. Where did you leave the item - inside or outside the village - and where did villagers reach you and demanded payment, and so on. However, it's super tricky to explain/recall afterwards, but pay attention to all the steps if it ever happens again.

What probably has happened is that villagers should have gone to pick up the item after you told them "I can't pay, take what is yours.", but for some reason they probably had failed to do so. And as the characters debt list had been cleared already the game now fails to remove unpaid status anymore as the reference to debt list is lost.