I have been experimenting with the devkit, reading the code, observing the game in experimental setups. Cant really set a standard as to what makes certain places perfectly good for a tavern leaves them with no patrons.
Sometimes you build a tavern in a “Godess-Forsaken” place which no sane person would be, and there patrons show up. I have a tavern in the volcano that patrons show up.
Now, when you put the tavern in some places close to the tundra biome, there are no patrons at all. And they are fairly easy places to walk to and from by the distance patrons “fall”.
There is no reason in the code, or as far as the devkit goes, to that specific places not work.
Other even icy places the tavern works.
Which would be a more “taverny” place than the desert.
Still cant really find what specific features a place must have for the Tavern to work right.
Detail: If I open the devkit and run the Conansandbox map (exiled lands), the same place then works for taverns. In the production game, it does not.