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

Type

Building – Misc

Building

Size

1 × 1

Minifiable

False

Placeable

True

Passability

standable

Blocks Wind

False

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

Caravan hitching spots do not require a colonist to construct or deconstruct, nor is there a cost, build time, or skill requirements for placing them. Instead, they are simply selected from the menu and placed directly by the player.

Summary

When forming a caravan, colonists will first lead animals to a tile and rope them in. A caravan hitching spot isn't required for this, but placing a spot allows you to control where they park. Once roped, animals have an observed radius of 6 tiles that they can wander and will graze if there is food (grass, dandelions, crops, etc) within reach.

If there is no suitable pen, then handlers will also automatically tie pen animals to the spot.

As the grazing radius is fairly short, extensive periods tied to the spot may cause malnutrition to animals involved.

Multiple hitching spots may exist, where colonists will choose one at random.

Analysis

When forming a caravan with pack animals, you should place the hitching spot as close to the main stockpile as possible, even inside it. This minimizes travel time. However, be aware that this location can quickly accumulate animal filth if placed indoors without straw matting. You should only have one hitching spot at a time, to minimize the case where pawns choose the "wrong" spot; it takes no time to deconstruct the old one and place it where you now want it.

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.

• 

  Texture of the original caravan packing 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.

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Architect

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