[Fixed- persists in 3.70b] Villagers crowding around dropped lumber for sale

[Galgana]

I encountered this issue while shopping at a village. I picked up a stack of 11 boards from the ground, which made my character unable to move due to becoming overencumbered with other items in my inventory, so I dropped all 11 boards on the same spot. After exploring the buildings for any other available goods, I noticed many villagers were bunching up near the boards as though intending to pick them up but nobody did. I picked up the boards again and dropped them indoors, which made the crowd disperse.

It seems that the villagers' AI wanted to reclaim unpaid boards that were dropped outdoors, but the total weight of the stack may have prevented the NPCs from taking them.

[ineedcords]

I encountered this issue while shopping at a village. I picked up a stack of 11 boards from the ground, which made my character unable to move due to becoming overencumbered with other items in my inventory, so I dropped all 11 boards on the same spot. After exploring the buildings for any other available goods, I noticed many villagers were bunching up near the boards as though intending to pick them up but nobody did. I picked up the boards again and dropped them indoors, which made the crowd disperse.

It seems that the villagers' AI wanted to reclaim unpaid boards that were dropped outdoors, but the total weight of the stack may have prevented the NPCs from taking them.

Interesting. In recent versions trader group single-person-carry-limit issue has been addressed perhaps this would be the next improvement.
Do you know if it is a reproducable issue or a one-off?

[Galgana]

Do you know if it is a reproducable issue or a one-off?

Possibly a rare occurrence. In three separate villages I tried stacks of 10, 11, and 12 boards to leave on the ground and did not manage to attract NPCs in those instances.

[Galgana]

Found another instance of crowding. I got overencumbered after picking up 13 boards, dropped them on the ground, wandered a bit around the buildings, then saw the villagers clumping around the lumber. Here's a screenshot of how it looks:


The crowd begins to disperse when I walk into the clump but when I don't pick up the boards the huddle forms again. They tend to stick together in the nearest approximation of a 3x3 formation centered on the boards, and NPCs outside the 3x3 will walk around while waiting for a vacant tile to become available.

[Sami]

I guess this has been around ever since villagers reclaiming their stuff was introduced.
If the stack is too heavy they just try, and try, and try - and practically never give up.
Now I've adjusted it so that they try to pick up these excess loads in smaller stacks. And if that fails also they will eventually give up.

Fixed/adjusted - persists in 3.70beta3.