Question about doing trade with caravan

[Erenussocrates]

I'm fairly new to the game, there was a trading quest involving 28 bowler hats, so I jumped into it sometime and crafted them. Now 15.5 days remain, and I have only 5 colonists. The distance between my home and the target is as you can see on the screenshot.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/791993107336083119/4A3606E117384EAD65C07FA1F83CDD0D5C5697D2/?imw=1024&imh=576&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=true

Judging by this distance, is it easy/possible for me to do? What should I be prepared for?

[AlP]

You can start a caravan, and it will give you an estimated time to get there. You can cancel the caravan after that.

You might get ambushed on the way. The ambush will depends on the amount of pawns in the caravan (animals count as half colonist).

You might also meet other trader caravans, so you can take some silver with you just in case.

[Erenussocrates]

What about food or other preparations, threat of gettng ambushed by pirates? Or obligation of having mule animals?

[AlP]

The caravan screen will tell you how much food you need. If your pawns have plants skills, they will also forage berries along the way.

Grazing animals can eat grass, other animals will have to be fed.

[Erenussocrates]

Will the food spoilage matter if they are using a caravan?

[believor in Prawn]

yes it will

also animals count as more than a person

[flu007]

It will.
This, too, will be shown when selecting what to take on the caravan. It'll say something like: Days of food: 5.8 (Rot in 2.7)
Pemmican or Survival meals are good caravan foods.

[believor in Prawn]

raw things like berries and corn are good too

[Erenussocrates]

How many corn do NPCs have to consume to become satiated as opposed to 1 simple meal?

[believor in Prawn]

Originally posted by Erenussocrates:

How much corn do NPCs have to consume to become satiated as opposed to 1 simple meal?

you can see in the food time thing while you set up the cara

[AlP]

Originally posted by Erenussocrates:

How many corn do NPCs have to consume to become satiated as opposed to 1 simple meal?

Each colonist has to eat twice per day.

1 meal is 0.9 nutrition. That's equivalent to 18 whatever food. Each colonist eats 1.6 nutrition every day.

[Erenussocrates]

oh god, I guess I'm not prepared for it at all

[Talithmara]

If you can handle the "Ate Raw Food" mood debuff and don't mind gambling on the risk of food poisoning, it's worth noting that Rice takes 40 days to go bad, and Potatoes take 30 days to go bad. (I never checked Corn.) When roofed, at least; I think it might count as unroofed with the caravan, don't quote me on this. This is less than ideal, but that's still SIGNIFICANTLY longer than a cooked meal lasts!

Point being, while Pemmican or Packaged Survival meals may be in short supply depending on the wildlife situation on your map, there IS technically an option. If I desperately need to complete a mission in the earlygame I tend to just load up on raw potatoes - as many as the caravan can hold without rotting, just in case they get slowed down via injury or sickness.

[TwoTonGamer]

Caravans take preparations. Let's see if I can get a checklist:

Inadvisable to travel in winter or winter approaching soon
Bring only healthy colonists so you won't be slowed down
A Medic skill colonist can save a life
Fighting colonists to defend yourself just in case

Items:
Medicine
Bedrolls
Food that doesn't spoil (survival meals or pemmican)
Extra food to make sure you don't run out
Chocolate/Insect Jelly for joy if available
Pack animals to carry the goods
Hay for pack animals Lots of hay
Silver to trade with
Trade goods you want to trade

Before I leave I make sure to change the food policy to a "Caravan" policy that allows all food I want them to eat on the journey (main purpose is allowing them to eat the survival meals as that is forbidden in the colony in order to save them for travel).

I hope I didn't overlook something...

[M.K.]

Temperate forest, it looks like? About 40 squares of that, and maybe 10 squares of small hills.
and NO ROADS!

This is an easy, but long and slow-ish caravan trip.

Of course, one drop-pod could do the delivery in 3 minutes. But i guess you don't have those yet?

[Erenussocrates]

Nah I don't.

The entire corn harvest I have would last one person 4 days until they get there, and traveling will take 3 days. I don't have enough for the return trip. I decided to just botch the entire trade quest. I'll sell 28 bowler hats I guess.

Wait, if I sent drop pods, would they send the traded items with drop pod too?