Tiny Change in the Pathing Delivery Mechanic

[dragonalumni]

Currently a pawn will pick up a stack of inventory to be delivered to a stocking zone, it often will cross the entire empty stock zone to put an item down, way in the back of the room.

When a pawn is on an empty space in the same zone that it is delivering an item to it should put that item down without moving any more spaces. I don't really need my cook/butcher/hauler to put meat/meals in the back of a freezer when just inside will do the trick.

[DanielCoffey]

I wonder if Dirt is having an effect on the desirability of the target stockpile square? How do they behave if the stockpile is scrupulously clean?

[dragonalumni]

After paying more attention to the question you posed, I cannot find any pattern to where they put things down at, just often annoying they cross the zone to do so as stated originally.

[Aerial]

Currently a pawn will pick up a stack of inventory to be delivered to a stocking zone, it often will cross the entire empty stock zone to put an item down, way in the back of the room.

When a pawn is on an empty space in the same zone that it is delivering an item to it should put that item down without moving any more spaces. I don't really need my cook/butcher/hauler to put meat/meals in the back of a freezer when just inside will do the trick.

It would be more efficient for them to consistently fill from the back to the front.  That way they can walk across empty space as much as possible.

[Ark]

Apparently it is deliberately randomized. Strange path to store items in a storage.
I just divide huge catch-all stockpiles into smaller, planned stockpiles. Pile of corpses at the back of the freezer, meats go middle-ish, ready meals close to the dining room, two space high-importance stockpile just for meat next to the stove, another two tiles for vegetables, one or two spots in the dining room just for meals etc.

[dragonalumni]

Apparently it is deliberately randomized. Strange path to store items in a storage.
I just divide huge catch-all stockpiles into smaller, planned stockpiles. Pile of corpses at the back of the freezer, meats go middle-ish, ready meals close to the dining room, two space high-importance stockpile just for meat next to the stove, another two tiles for vegetables, one or two spots in the dining room just for meals etc.

While that doesn't actually make things more efficient, just more organized it does provide the idea for an ideal solution, and that is, in a storage room, divide into 2 or 3 zones -- same stuff in all zones, but make the back zone low priority and highest priority in the front. So, I think this is is a workable solution to my problem as I can at least spare 2 or 3 priority levels for most items to make it happen.