Editing Caravan

 

[[File:Form caravan icon.png|right]]

Choose the colonists who will take part in the convoy, any [[pack animal]]s that will carry the items for sale, any prisoners you want to transport, or if you have [[Biotech]], any [[Mechanoid]] your Mechanitor possess. At least one colonist must be chosen. Make sure to select those whose health are in optimal conditions, as wounded and/or sick colonists slow the caravan down.

There are three different arrangements when forming caravans:

* A caravan ''with'' pack animals suffers a loading phase where colonists must load the pack animals. This can take a long time if there are lots of items to pack and/or you don't have many haulers available.

Incapacitated pawns cannot be chosen to be part of the caravan initiation process, but once your caravan is traveling you can pick up incapacitated people to come with you. They will slow down your caravan by a lot, so be warned.

The caravan will take the name of the best negotiator in the caravan.

Mechanoids{{BiotechIcon}} inside a caravan without their overseer Mechanitor cannot be commanded to do anything when drafted as there is no signal for them to move or command to move towards, but can still be brought over as a caravan as long as the Mechanitor in question still has enough bandwidth to maintain their control in anywhere.

* [[Human]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Human|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Elephant]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Elephant|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Bison]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Bison|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Muffalo]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Muffalo|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Horse]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Horse|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Dromedary]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Dromedary|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Yak]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Yak|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Donkey]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Donkey|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

* [[Alpaca]]: {{#expr:35*{{Q|Alpaca|Body Size}} round 0}} kg

Baby or juvenile animals have a reduced carrying capacity.

Modifier keys can be used to change the [>] arrow from +1 to adding more as follows:<br/>

{{Key|CTRL}}: +10 <br/>{{Key|SHIFT}}: +100 <br/>{{Key|CTRL}}+{{Key|SHIFT}}: +1000. <br/>These keys work similarly for the [<] arrow to subtract.

Caravans will feed as needed during the journey, so long as there's enough within the supply. Colonists who are part of a caravan will automatically forage for food while on the way, the speed of which depends on the environment and the colonist's growing skill.

It's vital to bring sufficient food for the journey. If you're bringing pack animals the caravan may be slower so bring more food to compensate.

Food spoils without refrigeration so careful selection is needed:

Supplies that expire soonest will be consumed first.

While traveling, world map events may trigger such as [[manhunter pack]]s, raids, or other traders crossing paths, which can generate mini-maps. After threats have been eliminated, it's possible to scavenge a bit of food and herbal medicine before the map closes down. It is likely that you will have some items scattered in the mini-map; these must be picked up or chosen to take with your reformed caravan or they'll be lost forever.

* If a caravan includes a lot of animals and/or items, the process of gathering those can be ''very'' time consuming - starting a larger caravan at 0400, it's not unusual to leave (well) after 1200, 8+ hours of "Forming Caravan".   To reduce this time, you can add additional pawns to the Caravan roster, dedicating them to the loading process, either when you create the Caravan or after (by selecting a pawn and clicking "Add to Caravan"). You can remove them later the same way. You can even create the caravan with one set of pawns, add others, and remove the original set; this is handy to start the process as soon as possible if your desired travelers are busy early in the morning, or you just want them to get as much sleep as possible before the journey.

:* Once everything is gathered, colonists will lead all the animals to the edge of the map and then wait for everyone to get there, then disappear off to the World Map (with a small note to that effect in the top-left of the screen).  If you remove colonists from the caravan ''before'' leaving, their animals are released to wander and must be re-gathered by the (fewer) remaining caravaners, which might take another hour or more. It may be a good idea to let ''everyone'' keep their animals and leave the map together, then ''immediately'' pause the game and jump to the World Map, select the caravan and click "Split Caravan", sending whichever colonists you wish instantly right back to the base map while the main body continues on. Be sure the "lift" ability of the remaining pawns is enough to carry all the intended items.

* Sometimes you start forming a caravan late in the day, or realize you won't make the 2200 cut-off for traveling that day. If you wait until ''after'' 2200 (when domestic animals sleep), you can create un-owned [[animal sleeping spot]]s around the [[caravan hitching spot]], un-form the caravan, and the (still-packed) animals will bed down there for the night. If you then start early the next morning (''well'' before they start to wake around 0600), they are all still right there and easy to round up when you re-create the caravan. There may be some unpacking/repacking of items, but your colonists won't have to chase the same animals all over the map again.

* 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.

* Split - Click the Split button. Each caravan must consist of at least one colonist.

* Merge - Select two or more caravans in the same tile (by dragging a square zone) 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.

* Offer gifts - If your relations with a faction are not high enough to trade, you can offer them gifts in an attempt to improve relations.

#Movement status:

#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.

#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, weather (only affected during autumn-winter) or roads. (See table on this page for details.)

#Stealthiness: How stealthy your caravan is. Stealthier caravans are less prone to being ambushed.

*Between hours 22 and 6 while the members sleep and rest.

**They still continue to rest even if all members are fully rested.

**Colonists who had been assigned to the night shift in the Restrict tab will still follow this schedule.

*All colonists are downed or having a minor/major mental break.

*Any member is having an extreme mental break.

**Nobody will be harmed even if the colonist is going berserk.

**Minor or major mental breaks won't stop the caravan as long as at least one person is still functional. If a colonist is in the midst of a mental break when you settle or get ambushed, they will still be having it when they appear on the map.

*The player manually pauses the caravan.

**While paused caravans forage faster, members can socialize and the caravan is less likely to be attacked.

Foraging is affected by manipulation (50% importance, 100% max) or sight (90% importance), so giving caravanners [[bionic eye]]s or [[archotech eye]]s can help increase forage and hence let your food stocks last longer.

In addition, having a tribal start grants a 170% multiplier to foraging, as shown by a "Faction Type: 170%" line in the tooltip. This means that in temperate forests or swamps, a level 6 Plants colonist will break even with food consumption when the caravan is resting, and a level 11 Plants colonist can constantly forge more than he eats while traveling. If Tribal colonists with good Plants skills have enough meals or other food to eat during a trip through terrain with good forage, they may return with a nontrivial quantity of berries.

=== Movement speed ===

{{Stub|section=1|reason=This section and its subsidiaries are rough outline only - it needs verification, expansion and clean up. Additionally: confirm [[Genes#Never sleep|Never sleep gene]] allows 24/7 caravaning. If yes, confirm whether [[circadian half-cycler]] does the same.}}

All caravans start moving at 0600 and stop at 2200. It doesn't matter if every pawn is a [[night owl]] or scheduled to sleep during the day. If a newly formed caravan doesn't leave the colony map before 2200, it will enter the world map and stop until 0600 the next morning. Similarly, if they don't reach their destination tile by 2200, they will stop, even if they are moments from it.

| ?Riding Speed

Caravan speed also receives a multiplier based on the ratio of Mass Carried / Mass Capacity. This is between 200% speed for zero mass and 50% (?) for maximum mass.

Caravan speed can be increased by adding more pack animals and thus increasing caravan Mass Capacity. Speed will asymptotically approach the 200% multiplier, thus number of pack animals used has diminishing returns.

=== Visibility ===

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.

 

Same as Ambush except with a manhunter pack. Manhunters won't attempt to flee, and colonists can't either.

 

Pirates approach your caravan and demand that you give them items and hand over members as slaves. If you don't they will proceed to assault the caravan.

 

 

It's nearly always a better choice to fight back as pirates usually come in poor numbers.

You can attack them if you wish, damaging relations. Your pawns may exit the map while engaging the caravan. Since you will be informed of their party composition but cannot clearly see who is in the caravan, you can decide if they're worth robbing.

* See [[Offense_tactics|offense tactics]] for specific tips on how to assault outposts and bases.