Thanks for the advice. Actually, the AI said that Gareth gave me a key, but that's not true. I'll try to make more attempts. I can understand why you can't build near other people's houses. It's just strange that this restriction also applies to the map outside of Silverpine. I think the author should have added a separate button for purchasing keys for Gareth. The AI doesn't seem to want to give me keys, even though I have a normal relationship with him.
When asking Gareth about buying the shed there is a specific (in-game)system popup that asks you if you want to buy the shed. If you just give Gareth money he isn't likely to give you anything, unless you use that pop-up to buy the shed key. Though you can totally get the key from him without the system pop-up. Even get it for a good discount or for free if you know how or get lucky like I did a few times.
I believe you can't build structures out in the wild because the world is randomly generated every day. Presumably, anything you could build will be lost. You can only build a camp fire and place items like a tent if you're making a temporary camp out in the wilderness.
I'm actually using Qwen 3.5. I think I need to go back to Gemma 2, because only with this AI i did get yes or no answers in the dialogue. I don't know why, but Gareth just refuses to give me the keys, even though RP says he's giving them to me. I've tried several approaches, but it's not working. By the way, does the house key appear in my inventory if I do get it? I'll try starting a new game with Gemma 2, and maybe he'll sell me the keys.
So, before that, I was using another model that generated text pretty quickly. But as I realized, the problem was with it. So I deleted it and started using Qwen 3.5. But apparently, the previous model was the one that broke the NPCs. As soon as I started a new game, I was able to buy a house from Gareth on the first try. So, everything is fine, and I'm just a dumb person. If you're interested, the fast text model was Tiefighter.