Caravan

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Caravans are a group of one or more colonists who gather together for two purposes: as goods transport carrying supplies on animals of burden and prisoners as well as a raid squad to attack other establishments. Each caravan is represented on the world map by a yellow icon.

Creation

In the World map, select the colony icon and click 'Form caravan' (you can create multiple caravans).

People and Animals

Choose the colonists who will take part of the convoy, the animals (dromedary or muffalo) that will carry the items for sale as well as prisoners . At least one colonist must be chosen.

Items

Use the Items tab to select supplies. Food is vital, just like the living necessity within your colony. Estimated the amount needed based on the roundtrip journey days.

Carrying capacity:

Colonists/prisoners: 35 kilograms (kg). This capacity includes clothing, gear and inventory they already have.
Muffalo: 70 kg
Dromedary: 66.5 kg

The combined carrying capacity and mass of selected items is listed at the top. Buttons are used to select items/amounts. A double arrow [>>] will take the full quantity of an item. The arrow [>M] indicates you cannot carry the full quantity, but it will automatically take the maximum amount. When over capacity, the arrow [M<] will return some or all of those items so that the mass total does not exceed the caravan's carrying capacity.

Formation

Once the order to form the caravan is given, colonists will gather around a randomly chosen spot within your home area and wait for any animals or other colonists to assemble. Afterwards, they will gather any needed supplies, preferring to put them on pack animals if available. When they finish, they will proceed to head out to the map edges and wait for the whole caravan to assemble. Afterwards, they will exit the colony map and enter the world map.

Notice the loading process as colonist start to take items towards the animals of burden.

Colonists will ignore any needs during the formation, except food. With pack animals and large amount of resources, the colonists often take so long to gather supplies that they are prone to collapsing due to exhaustion.

Currently the game has a party spot, a marriage spot but does not have a caravan departure spot yet. So it's likely that the animals may be loading at one end of the map and everybody else gathering items from your storage on the opposite side of the map. Because of this, ensure everybody's mood is highly positive before starting a caravan as you may spend a full day this way.

Caravan loading after the third attempt from after breakfast still preparing with muffaloes on the south and everybody picking items on the norther side of the map, extensive day.

Any mental break of its members will cause the process to be paused until that member recovers. Downing or killing that member will interrupt the process causing it to be cancelled.

Ufff...

Sometimes, even when the player has made a proper set-up, the caravan may fail to set-up. There are two common behaviors that can be used to identify the problem:

Party members just wander around in circles.
Party member keeps repeatedly picking up and dropping a same item non-stop.

The reasons bugging the gathering can vary, but one common issue is that the assigned number of a certain item had been reduced. For example: the caravan was meant to carry 100 pemmican, but during the process, a non-caravan colonist ate some, causing the requested number to not meet.

If the formation was successful, the character roster on top of the screen will split those who stayed at home and those who left with the caravan by greying them on a different "box".

Caravan pathing

Once items have been loaded, party members will proceed separate ways according to their own classifications made by the player

Caravan clear division between colonist path and buffaloes path.
The apparent reason behind is the animal area drawn to prevent them from eating your plantations.

Config

Use the Config tab to choose an exit direction. It's possible to have no available exit direction, such as when on a single-tile island, thus a caravan cannot be launched.

A caravan can:

Move - Right-click to select destination. A line indicates the optimal route (accounting for terrain speed and elevation changes).
Settle - Click Settle to create a new colony. You may not settle a new colony when already at maximum. The default maximum is one. This can increased to up to five in Menu - Options.
Enter back into the colony - Right-click the colony.
Split - Click the Split button. Each caravan must consist of at least one colonist.
Merge - Select two or more caravans in the same tile and click Merge to form a single caravan.
Trade - When a caravan has reached a friendly faction outpost, click the trade button to open the trade dialog window.
Attack - A caravan can attack any faction outpost, regardless of relations status, though attacking will worsen relations.

Status box

Movement status:

Traveling - moving to destination.
Resting - caravan automatically stops between hours 22 and 6 to sleep.
Waiting - no destination selected.
Stopped - stopped moving with reason given.

Estimated time to destination - time to destination based on the current tile movement time. Days of food - compare this to 'estimated time to destination' to determine if your caravan has enough food for the journey.

Movement speed is greatly influenced by the slowest member of the caravan. Incapacitated colonists will seriously hamper your movement. Colonists are generally faster than pack animals, who are faster than pregnant animals, who are faster than prisoners, who are faster than juvenile and infant animals.

If inventory mass exceeds carrying capacity the caravan will become immobilized until the mass is reduced, such as by eating food, discarding goods or having another caravan join up.

Base movement time: Movement speed based on the average speed of all the pawns in the caravan.

Current tile movement time: Current movement speed based on the terrain, biome, and weather (only affected during winter). (See table on this page for details.)

A caravan may stop for various reasons, such as when;

All colonists are downed.
Any member is having an extreme mental break.
Between hours 22 and 6 while the members sleep.

Movement Speed Table

Last updated for A16.1393

The following table lists the base caravan movement speed in hours per tile for an unencumbered human. Flat terrain is naturally easiest to travel. Hills and mountains will worsen travel speed for that biome. Biomes with cold winters have reduced movement speed during the winter. It appears to be interpolated based on the current season and temperature with the worst case values listed in the table below.

It is unlikely that your caravan will travel at the speed listed here. Clothing, armor, traits, and health conditions all affect a pawn's movement speed. A caravan's movement speed is determined by the average speed of all of the members of the caravan across colonists and animals. Some example of things that may slow you down:

Clothing and armor (varies; e.g. Parkas and Power Armor have non-trivial movement penalties)
Injured colonists
Traits (e.g. Slowpoke)
Slower animals, including both Muffalo and Dromedaries (the two animals that can haul goods in caravans)
- Animals can be injured too. A Muffalo missing a leg or two will slow down your caravan even more.
- Middle-stage pregnant animals move at 85% speed.
- Late-stage pregnant animals move at 70% speed.
- Juvenile animals move at 90% speed.
- Baby animals move at 50% speed.

While the slower Muffalo and Dromedary speeds compared to the human base speed won't significantly affect shorter distances, baby animals and seriously injured colonists can have a significant impact, increasing travel time by 30% or more.

Terrain	Biome	Flat	Small Hills	Large Hills	Mountains
Easy	Arid Shrubland	0.99	1.8	3.4	13
	Desert	0.99	1.8	3.4	13
	Extreme Desert	0.99	1.8	3.4	13
	Tundra (summer)	0.99	1.8	3.4	13
	Tundra (winter)	17	18	19	28
Moderate	Boreal Forest (summer)	1.6	2.4	4	14
	Boreal Forest (winter)	17	18	19	28
	Temperate Forest (summer)	1.6	2.4	4	14
	Temperate Forest (winter)	11	12	13	23
Rough	Ice Sheet	3	3.8	5.4	15
Difficult	Tropical Rainforest	5	5.8	7.4	17
Difficult	Sea Ice	5	--	--	--

Tabs

The inspection pane has tabs to manage the caravan and view details.

By clicking the red X you can drop items or abandon members - and lose them forever. Items carried by a dismissed pawn will be lost. Dropping items may be necessary if the caravan becomes overburdened and unable to move. Depending on the context, abandoning a caravan member will cause their friends and family to have sad thoughts.

In the gear tab you can swap apparel.

Gear & Inventory
Mass carried
Status
Health

Once you arrive to the destination, just click the Trade icon to start negotiations.

Events

Ambush

Your caravan has been ambushed by an enemy faction. Colonists cannot exit the map until the attackers are defeated (killed, downed, or fled). If all are killed, the caravan is considered destroyed and will disappear along with any carried items.

1.- Red envelope alert zooms you tp the battle tile.
2.- You can see the incoming attackers from a long distance but short in time.
3.- World view is a red dot.
4.- Once victories, you have 24 to cure, loot and reform to leave.
Caravan ambushed prisoners.png

5.- No time to make a prison, captured must be rushed to your colony by a healthy survivor.

1.- You have two maps to check, one is where your colony is in normal view and also the World view. The game will notify you when an Ambush is taking place so that you can check on your caravan.

2.- Pause the game to see the enemy information and position yourself by taking cover from terrain features, you are not in your base.

3.- World view red dot to check where is happening, as it is in this case, right next to the colony, its possible to send reinforcements.

4.- After defeating most of them, the remaining few will flee. A 24 hours count down triggers so you can recover, pick up items, strip the dead/downed and any other need.

5.- There is not enough time to treat the wounds of your prisoners, they must be rushed by any survivor who is in optimal conditions to prevent delays. Building a small room is a bad idea.

Manhunter Ambush

Similar to Ambush except with a manhunter pack. The manhunters won't attempt to flee when outnumbered, and colonists can't flee, either.

Encounter

Occasionally another caravan may cross your path giving you an opportunity to trade; or attack them if you wish. You can see who is in the caravan, so you can decide if they're too strong for you to cope with or not. If you attack them you'll damage relations. Your pawns may exit the map while engaging the caravan.

Attacking other settlements

1.- Moving towards target settlement for raid
2.- Generating map for new encounter
3.- Attack begun
4.- Studying enemies
5.- Enemy base layout
6.- Enemy base zoomed out
7.- Enemy positioning and loot
8.- First stampede
9.- Stampede casualty
10.- Using their base as your own
11.- Outpost destroyed 24h countdown
12.- Resting at enemy base
13.- Looting
14.- Caravan back to home
15.- Unloading inventory
16.- Work tab order shift

Walkthrough

Right click to select destination gives approximate travel time and distance.
Once your caravan arrives, the game generates a map with an enemy base.
The "Attack begun" blue envelope opens a message which allows you to see the targeted area.
You can click on individual enemy members to see their character skills, gear and health. This is a good moment to start prioritizing your targets, you will find hostiles holding Personal shield, Assault rifles and so on but, those with such rifles have zero points in Shooting, so they are not a threat as they will miss most of their shots, especially from a distance.
Base layout, nothing tricky.
Note: in Alpha 17 there will be a new and refined base design algorithm.
Enemy base is very simple, nothing too elaborated.
Approaching from the front gate will make enemies line up facing you right away automatically.
Stampede offense tactic to "lighten" their defenses. Train your offensive animals for "Release" command but not those meant to until carry merchandise.
Stampede casualty with animal wounds.
Tactics split and kite allows you to enter their base and use choke points like Defense tactics, using friendly fire safety method. Melee with ranged shooting on his/her shoulder.
After 8 of 11 enemies were killed, the remaining 3 start to flee and the game considers the outpost destroyed and a 24 hours countdown timer begins to treat your wounded, loot and rest. You don't need to destroy the base once you captured their base, just claim their doors and they will open as if they were yours from the beginning.
Since they had two rooms, one can be used as an infirmary and the other as a prison to handle your prisoners to enslave.
You can strip all your killed or downed enemies to take their weapons and armor, items that you cannot manufacture at home such as the shield and armor/helmets. Be careful with the deadman's apparel mood penalty if you took them off the dead, though.
Once those 24 hours had passed, the game automatically kicks you back to World map at which point you can return home and/or visit friendly outposts as well. If you want you can also choose 'Reform Caravan' which allows you to choose what you want to bring, and leave early.
Once you arrive back home, characters will start "Unloading their inventory", which is the inverted process of creating a caravan. They will sort items properly.
Problem to you or maybe not, the work tab order will shift to a different sequence than the original before leaving.

Returning back home

After you arrive back to your colony, you will notice two details must be addressed before continuing the game.

All bedrooms had become unassigned for those who left and you must re-assign them yourself or each character will enter any room randomly.
Cargo animals may go straight to their animal bed or just wander around still with all your items inside their packing gear. If you happen to need something at the moment, you will have to make them drop it. If you can wait until night it's better since they are sleeping inside a room and your belongings will not deteriorate due to exposure.

Gameplay Notes

Double-clicking a caravan will select all caravans on the screen. In this way multiple caravans can be ordered to a single destination.

Colonists, prisoners, and animals in a caravan require food; automatically eating as needed. When food supplies are depleted pawns will start to starve and will die if they reach max malnutrition. Herbivore animals will eat off the land where appropriate.

If a member of a caravan dies in the close up view, they will drop their items. Those items must be reloaded into the caravan. If they die on the global map (such as from bleedout), their items will be lost. If all colonists of a caravan die, then the caravan disappears and everything is lost.

When attacking a faction outpost, a local map is generated with defenders and a simple base storing some items. You can abandon the assault at any time by directing colonists to the map border, shaded in green, and they will form a caravan on the world map. If all enemies on the local map have been eliminated, a 24-hour countdown timer begins. The colonists can settle that location as a new colony (if not at max colonies) or simply reform the caravan and leave. When the timer runs out, the caravan is automatically reformed. Once destroyed, the faction outpost icon is removed from the world map.

The game options let you choose how many colonies (up to 5) you can have active on the globe at once. Note that up close mini maps do not count towards this limit. In order to build beyond the game menu limits you must abandon an existing colony. Abandoned colonies become inaccessible ruins and can never be reused.

When sending a caravan to a friendly outpost to trade, they will have better prices and much more inventory than traders that visit your colony.

Upon giving the command to form caravan, colonists will prioritize caravan formation ahead of everything, completely ignoring their needs. This can become troublesome if time taken to gather supplies is long, for example if you have to load animals.

There are three different major hauling behaviors for forming caravans. A caravan without pack animals forms the fastest, with colonists vacuuming up their allotted resources and collecting at the map edge to leave as a group. Caravans with pack animals will endure a loading phase where colonists do regular hauling to load up the pack animals. This can take a long time if there are lots of materials or if the animals are far away from goods. Caravans in the middle of a map event will instantly reform and not require a hauling phase, even if you collect more items from the map.

Caravans touching your towns may enter your map as a free action, even if they're hideously overweight. Caravans touching an ambush tile may also enter the map immediately (but you can not leave your town directly into an ambush zone).

Caravan Tips

Many low tech options will prove very helpful for long distance travel. Make frequent use of Campfires, Pemmican, Passive coolers and Crafting spots to resupply your caravans and keep healthy on the road.

It is not necessary to carry your raw materials all the way from home base to a new spot. Lighten the load by carrying silver, gold, or briefcases full of premium cut Drugs. A stack of yayo and a trade partner is all you need to get a new colony off on a strong footing.

The act of gathering supplies allows a colonist to carry huge stacks of light weight materials like cloth or food. This can be exploited to perform Super Hauling by having a colonist pick up all the goods on the map, drafting them into the storage room, and cancelling the caravan to unload. They will have hauled a massive number of supplies in one trip.

If you want to load a caravan quickly, form the caravan with extra colonists. Once the caravan exits the map, split the extra colonists from the caravan then have them return back to base. Note that this can mess up calculation on how long your food will last, and possibly cause you to overload your caravans, so add in the extra colonists only after you've loaded everything else.

Getting the Most From Your Caravans

Playing the convoy game isn't only about fleeing from a mechanoid invasion. There's a lot of things a convoy can do to help your existing colonies.

Nearby factions are amazing trade partners. Their inventory is full of every caravan type and has many times the shopping opportunities of an incoming caravan (such as 1000 metal, 500 plasteel and loads of medicine). You also get a 4% price bonus for direct trading over any other method.

Settlement defenders tend to be pretty dumb, making a smash and grab strategy viable. Attack the settlement, break the storage room, steal the goods and leave. Attack maps have a modest sum of resources (nowhere near what they have to trade) but are notable for having high quantities of medicine, including glitterworld medicine. They may have other goods such as drugs, luciferium, and assorted food. Crack the door from a distance, run in your fastest shielded thief and leave the map. Repeat as many times as desired.

Long distance caravans should take advantage of being able to build settlements whenever they run low on food or resources. Generated maps can have forageable food and animals to hunt or even tame into the convoy. Colonists will also need time off to relax and restore their joy.