NPCs not selling pylon (2024)

I've been trying to get the forest pylon for a while, but the merchant, zoologist, and golfer won't sell it. They're in the forest in a town with 3 NPCs so they should be selling it.

Edit: it worked after I killed the zoologist

Edit 2: I heard that the happiness system was changed so that the isolation bonus wasn't nearly as strong, but when I was doing it this seemed like the complete opposite, where I had to isolate the NPC so I could get the pylon, which seems counter-productive. I could have gotten the pylon from this in 1.4, but 1.4.1 just wasn't letting it happen.

This somehow turned out odd and kind of ridicolous...

Yesterday,
I had the merchant's house next to my main house, and moved the nurse and the golfer on the 2nd floor of that building so the merchant would detect them as close neighbors. he commented
he loves the forest, the nurse and the golfer, ...yet no pylon, even though I assumed the other neighbors were far away enough.

Then I realised that when I placed a jackalier (large hanging jack-o-lantern) or whatever in his room, his "reservation point" moved from where it was earlier, it moved under the newly placed light source. I saw this before too, that sometimes, reservation points change, but I'm not sure I get the exact logic behind it.

this reservation point was in the other end of his otherwise quite spacious room, too close to the main house, so he detected having a bunch more neighbors. when I removed that lantern, the reservation flag moved back to the other end of the room, and he had the pylon up for sale.

it's not even that it seems he needed, forest, nurse, golfer, so much space to sell the pylon, but...

? since it can affect things like this...

In these conditions, in 1.4.1, this is not enough to make him happy enough to sell a Pylon.

He only likes the Golfer, not loves, and also likes the Forest. The combined benefit of those two is not enough to sell a pylon.

Leinfors said:

In these conditions, in 1.4.1, this is not enough to make him happy enough to sell a Pylon.

He only likes the Golfer, not loves, and also likes the Forest. The combined benefit of those two is not enough to sell a pylon.

Click to expand...

Em... what?

Leinfors said:

Sorry, I'm going to have to put any kind of comments on this on hold, as there are some rounding bugs with NPC happiness I am discovering that are throwing everything into disarray.

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Okay, then take this as a strange bug report.

Okay, we just sorted out the rounding issues.

As it stands, an NPC with one liked neighbor AND in a liked biome, with the Space bonus, should be able to sell the Pylon.

However, one liked neighbor in a liked biome without the Space bonus will not be enough. However, one loved neighbor + a liked biome or liked neighbor will work even without the Space bonus.

Additionally, there are some rounding issues in the current build which may cause that to not work sometimes. In the next build, this should be more consistent.

Addendum to this bug - I put the Merchant, Guide and Nurse in the Forest biome in order to try for the Pylon - however the Merchant's happiness is currently at 90% based on the discounts he's offering.

I hope this is fixed soon, its breaking a bunch of useful combinations I use.

Merchant + Guide + Nurse in Forest together would not be enough for a Pylon.

Merchant likes Forest, so that gives a bonus, and Merchant likes Nurse, but he does not "love" either. He is neutral on the Guide, and he gains no space bonus with 3 NPCs.

So 2x Likes and no space bonus is not enough to get a Pylon.

The rounding issue (that I mentioned before) is what's making it a 90% discount, as 2x likes SHOULD be more than 90%, but it wouldn't be the required 85% for him to be selling a Pylon anyway.

Yea definitely something is up with the rounding.

I had Stylist in Ocean + space bonus + Pirate NPC (she likes him)
No pylon from Stylist still.

Only worked when i moved Dye Trader in instead Pirate. (she loves Dye Trader) so it was Space bonus + Ocean + Loved npc

On side note before 1.4.1 i think putting her in Ocean + space bonus was eonugh to get the Pylon if i remember correctly.

Space bonus = +1 or -1
Love NPC = +2
Like NPC = +1
Don't like NPC = -1
Hate NPC = -2
Like Biom = +1
Don't like Biom = -1

Pylon in shop only is +3

Right?

I won't lie its a bit more annoying to get Pylons now early on.
Nothing too tragic but still.

Merchant especially is a very stubborn NPC in this regard.

I wouldn't spend too much time analyzing the exact requirements to get it until we fix the rounding issues in the next hotfix.

As stated, there is an issue that is rounding Happiness down (when I say down, I mean towards "neutral"), both positive and negative happiness are slightly less than they should be as a result, and while the impact isn't huge, its enough that it could throw off the percentage enough to prevent a Pylon from being sold. So we can revisit any issues here after the rounding bugs are addressed.

Leinfors said:

I wouldn't spend too much time analyzing the exact requirements to get it until we fix the rounding issues in the next hotfix.

As stated, there is an issue that is rounding Happiness down (when I say down, I mean towards "neutral"), both positive and negative happiness are slightly less than they should be as a result, and while the impact isn't huge, its enough that it could throw off the percentage enough to prevent a Pylon from being sold. So we can revisit any issues here after the rounding bugs are addressed.

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First, you might want to change the tag on this bug to not be "working as desired" if rounding is the primary problem.

It should also be noted that what's being said here doesn't line up with what was in the 1.4.1 reveal. Specifically:

- The boost/penalty for Like/Dislike/Love/Hate factors have been increased by 20%. Everything is worth a little bit more in any direction.
- You can now have up to 3 NPCs in close proximity without any crowding unhappiness. It will now begin when there are 4 NPCs in close proximity. Furthermore, the size of the penalty starts smaller than before (though it will grow faster with each additional NPC)

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The penalty for crowding is the same as it was before, and it doesn't seem to grow with more NPCs (other than the cummulative effect of having more NPCs nearby). And the boost from preferences don't seem to have gotten materially stronger either. Indeed, with rounding, that 20% increase seems meaningless.

So what exactly were these changes supposed to do? And how do they offset the reduction of the isolation bonus (not to mention the detection sizes having quadrupled).

Leinfors said:

In these conditions, in 1.4.1, this is not enough to make him happy enough to sell a Pylon.

He only likes the Golfer, not loves, and also likes the Forest. The combined benefit of those two is not enough to sell a pylon.

Click to expand...

What was wrong with how it was in 1.4? Its so strict now