So far I’ve only been unable to complete the quests where they come back in hours or days. This last one said 3 days and it was more like 6 hours. I have the equipment crafted and waiting but… here’s a screen shot.
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Oof, this is my bad. I changed it to ‘h’ instead of ‘d’ in the lua file so I could test faster and forgot to change it back. For a workaround, if you feel like opening the .smod, go to returning_trader.json and make 'max_days_before_return" really high.
Trader quests once again. I did as you suggested. I made the max_days_before_return = 72. But it’s really wildly random. Some times they come back in 1 hour sometimes 193 hours (that’s max so far) but there is a problem with count completion.
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As long as someone takes it out of the carpenters storage and places it in some other storage it counts. If it stays in the original Carpenter drop box it doesn’t count.
If you make storage areas and deselect tools, armor, construction boxes your quest will never complete because no one has picked up the item from original carpenter box and placed it in new storage. -
Absolutely no one can touch the items for the quest or it will no longer count towards the quest.
example; you need 8 picket fences for quest.
you make another storage area for logs.
you make the size you want and the window pops up. workers immediately start moving things to it because the default is all.
you haven’t had the chance to designate you wanted it for supplies only it’s already active.
3 workers have decided that the picket fences you made for the quest didn’t belong in that old dirty storage area and needs to be placed into the new storage you created.
those 3 pieces no longer count towards the quest, and you have to create 3 more and hope they get place into a storage area other than the original carpenters drop point.
That’s a sometimes long and convoluted way to duplicate the issue but it happens enough to cause irritation.
Carpenters seem to have this drive, desire, need, they gotta put their fingers into everyones work because they know they’re better than the other guys. they just absolutely have to touch some elses work.
So the fastest way to duplicate this issue is to make more than one carpenter, or wait for one to come to town.
Have 2 or 3 Carpenters
Only make 1 workbench so only 1 Carpenter is actually doing the work to simplify things:
create a small storage area for carpenter made items close by so it’s easy to watch.
Now make something for quest and watch.
1st carpenter will create the item drop it into carpenters drop off area then usually immediately pick it up (I assume to check it for quality) and place it into the storage area.
Then another Carpenter will go over and pick it up (pow drops off quest completed items list [I’m assuming this is because the system thinks it has been used]) look at it decide that it’s good enough after all and place it back in the storage area, sometimes where he got it sometimes in another spot (probably indicating to the original maker that he doesn’t know how to store things properly).
Rinse and Repeat uncompletable quest in progress. You will be told you don’t have the items needed. Even if the quest was for 8 and you made 20.
Have fun
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thanks for the follow-up @deakon… 
Great repro instructions! I will test it out and let you know what I find.
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Hey @deakon, I tested this out and it looks like the carpenters are no longer obsessively picking up each others’ stuff due to @Ponder’s pathfinder optimizations. So hopefully this one is fixed for now.
I do know though that stuff only counts as “in your inventory” if it’s in a stockpile, whether that’s the carpenter’s outbox or a stockpile. It’s just too expensive, CPU-wise, to keep track of everything in your town’s general radius as stuff that “belongs” to you. This means that if the item is outside a stockpile, the trader won’t be able to see it. It also means that stuff that’s currently being carried doesn’t count as something that is in your stores either, though we may fix this depending on how it plays. 
Anyway, thanks for the detailed repro steps and let us know if you see more issues!
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love the scenario here (as I don’t think I’ve had one where the vendor returned to “wrap up” an event)… 
i’m curious, other than the scenario you described (units carrying items to or from a stockpile), what else would be considered as an item outside your stockpile?
edit: sorry, sleep deprived… i’m sure this would be (for example) lumber you’ve chopped, but haven’t collected yet, etc.
I was trying to envision tables, swords and whatnot mysteriously lying about… 
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Actually tables, swords etc do wind up laying on the ground. Sometimes the carpenter will pick up something from default carpenter box and instead of placing it in storage will drop it on the ground and a worker may not pick it for a full game day and place it in storage.
But the most common situation is a worker will pick it up from the carpenters drop box (because the carpenter is daydreaming about venison and beer) then stop and drop it on the ground because they’ve decided it’s bedtime or they wanted some corn cob. Then proceed to whine because they picked up a plate of turnips instead.
Edit: Almost forgot. When you create a new storage area the default setting is all and the workers will sometimes pick up stuff from one storage area and transfer it to the new one. As soon as you create the new storage area and the window pops up it’s active. Personal opinion here. They shouldn’t touch stuff in one storage area and put it in another unless you change the setting on the original storage area.
Because once they pick it up it no longer counts towards the quest. Even if they put it in the new storage area. At least so far that’s been my experience.
Currently on 2nd month day 4 (we won’t talk about how many hours I’ve put in.)
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This kind of sparked an idea. . . What if there was a special “Trading Stockpile” that workers can place items in while a trading scenario is active? The stockpile could take a lease out on the items until they are taken by the merchant or the trade is failed. Could also be a hub that the merchant can visit if you decide to put a visual merchant NPC in the game.
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i love the idea, if for no other reason than to see this implemented…
sure, it may slow down the process a bit (having to wait for the merchant to schlep over to the “trading depot”), but the immersion level would increase by a factor of 1.04…
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Not to mention the extreme danger of a Cthulu curb stomping the poor guy before he gets to your depot… Which would be awesome.
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hey, a Titan’s gotta eat too, right?
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So this issue seems to be a month old and fixed, but I’m seeing it again in the most recent alpha 4 patch.
This was the second time it happened. The first was with 2 picket fence gates, the second was with 5 farmer hoes. The hoes are spread across 2 different stockpiles, but I’m not sure if anyone has moved them, per @deakon’s notes on the issue.
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I hadn’t been accepting these quests because they weren’t worth it to me at the time (19 pickets fences for 2 mean beds; that sort of thing). finally took one for me making 5 chairs and they’d give me 2 comfy beds. no one touched them they sat in the stockpile for 72 hours and it failed. tried again for 3 table for 1 comfy bed 48 hours later it failed also.
They are not fixed The allwes brake the game for me so what i do is save and load that save and it works a lot of the time
I think the 5 hoes was for 2 plushies. I was really hoping that one would work. I would swear that I’ve had some work and others that haven’t, but now I’m wondering if I’m just imagining it (or mixing up the “immediate trade” quests for one of the “after x hours” quests).
Some times they work some times they do not. Just save before accepting anything and if it comes up with errors re load and try until it works or just decline.
Had a similar thing. 5 mean beds for 3 curtains. The beds weren’t touched and still failed.
Still an issue. New users cannot upload pics though?
Had this happen to me earlier too - trader asked for 9 mean beds. They were made & left in the stockpile, but quest was failed regardless. No SS though 
.
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