Caravan hitching spot
Caravan hitching spot
Designates a spot for hitching animals and forming caravans. Colonist will hitch animals here while loading a caravan. You can also use these during encounters away from home to keep animals from wandering.
Base Stats
Building
- Size
- 1 × 1
- Minifiable
- False
- Placeable
- True
- Passability
- standable
- Terrain Affordance
- Light
Creation
- Work To Make
- 0 ticks (0 secs)
A caravan hitching spot designates a place for caravans to gather around when forming. Pack animals will be led and roped to the Caravan hitching spot. Other Animals that have been designated to be brought along with the caravan will be tied to the caravan hitching spot to await the finishing of the packing. They may also be used on Event and Caravan Ambush maps to keep animals from wandering.
Acquisition
There is no cost, build time or skill requirements for placing a caravan packing spot, just select them from the Architect/Misc. tab menu and place it.
Placement
Since a hitching spot takes no work and no materials, changing its position is simple - select and "deconstruct" the old one (which is instantaneous) and place the new one (likewise), done. Be aware that having more than one is allowed but could be problematic, if your colonists decide to move animals to the "wrong" location, so be sure to delete the last when you place the next one. Since it can be hard to see, using the Architect/Planning markers to remind you where it currently is (and/or last was) can be a good idea.
Once "hitched", animals have an observed radius of 6 tiles that they can wander from it. They will graze if there is food (grass, dandelions, crops, etc) within reach, or they will start to go hungry if not. Short-term (a day or so, depending on the animal), this is not a problem, but longer without food will start to cause malnutrition and eventually death.
If your colony has no pen for animals, your colonists will automatically tie your animals to the hitching spot. However, keeping the grazing issue in mind, this should only be a short-term solution, until you can provide a pen with appropriate grazing food. Alternately, you could provide nearby hay to feed animals hitched there.
When forming a caravan, to minimize travel time and maximize efficiency, the hitching spot should be placed as near the main stockpile as possible (or even within its area). However, be aware that this location can quickly accumulate animal filth if placed indoors and not over straw matting.
When traveling, such as when entering a quest site, you can form a hitching spot convenient to near where you enter, and then move it later once any immediate danger has been resolved. Be aware that any "unknown threat(s)" can enter from the map edge from any direction, and predator wildlife tends to lurk along the edges of any map, so leaving your animals near the edge long-term could be a bad plan.
Version history
- 1.3.3159 - Renamed from caravan packing spot to caravan hitching spot and functionality significantly expanded. Caravan hitching spot now can be used to keep animals in place on temporary maps. Animals will eat and sleep within their rope area if they're roped to a spot. Added an alert that shows when hungry animals are tied to hitching spot.
Trivia
In the 1.3.3136 unstable build, the caravan packing spot was replaced with a caravan hitching post that required wood and work to be constructed but functioned similarly to the hitching spot. This construction requirement was abandoned in the 1.3.3144 unstable, and spot implementation that would eventually come to the stable was used instead. This is why several entries in the version history refer to the post.
Texture of the original caravan packing spot
- Misc
- Caravan hitching spot • Egg box • Grave • Marriage spot • Party spot • Pen marker • Sarcophagus • Tool cabinet • Meditation spot
• Nature shrine (Large, Small) - (research)
- Comms console • Cryptosleep casket • Firefoam popper • Ground-penetrating scanner • Long-range mineral scanner • Moisture pump • Multi-analyzer • Orbital trade beacon • Pod launcher • Stele (Large, Grand) • Transport pod • Vitals monitor • Ship landing beacon