Wtf is wrong with caravans?

[Die Dame des Berges]

I don't recall this problem from before the patches and dlcs, but organizing caravans has become one of the most painful experiences in the game for me

Not only it takes forever to load stuff, but also it appears like characters refuse to behave like normal colonists while they load. They don't eat, they sleep on the floor, don't use the toilet (for the dubs mod), animals are constantly collapsing while waiting for the process to be over. Because of this, the colonists are constantly on extreme low mood and everytime I try to send a caravan I brace for half the colony going insane

[Tiberius Rex]

Add more pawns to caravan to help load, then remove them right before departure. Move as much gear to a central location for caravan load as possible. It's a bit borked, these tips will help your sanity.

[TwoTonGamer]

The pack animals are no longer moving to assist with loading. They are staying inside their pens. This is causing loooong pack ups. Too long. It's kinda' ridiculous at the moment.

I'd like to see caravan members roping multiple pack animals so that the animals follow them while packing up.

In the meantime, stockpiles near the pack animal pens, maybe? Or, construct quick pens near the stockpiles for the pack animals?

[Helios]

Originally posted by TwoTonGamer:

The pack animals are no longer moving to assist with loading. They are staying inside their pens. This is causing loooong pack ups. Too long. It's kinda' ridiculous at the moment.

I'd like to see caravan members roping multiple pack animals so that the animals follow them while packing up.

In the meantime, stockpiles near the pack animal pens, maybe? Or, construct quick pens near the stockpiles for the pack animals?

In my game they rope the animals to the caravan spot so stockpile near that is the best you can do.

[Makeithappen]

Originally posted by Tiberius Rex:

Add more pawns to caravan to help load, then remove them right before departure. Move as much gear to a central location for caravan load as possible. It's a bit borked, these tips will help your sanity.

this is the way.

[ROE]

Open your work tab, check manual selection, and then set haul to 1 for everyone who can haul. Everyone should pitch in to help. Turn off the manual when finished.

[tiagocc0]

I usually make two groups one just with the pack animals and no items, the other with just the items, no animals. So you pick everything really quickly and store on your pawns, both should go quickly out of the map, they join them together and remove the pawns you don't need for the trip.

This usually requires lots of pawns if you need to pack a lot of stuff, since pawns can't carry as much as a horse for example, but made my life a ton easier with this.

[Celgaming]

Originally posted by Tiberius Rex:

Add more pawns to caravan to help load, then remove them right before departure. Move as much gear to a central location for caravan load as possible. It's a bit borked, these tips will help your sanity.

Not a good idea as it can break the pack animals. If a pawn you remove from the caravan post load phase was moving an animal to the edge of the map, they'll leave the animal behind with all it's loot / gear. Another colonist will NOT come back to get it, meaning the animal gets stuck forever with all your gear. Only way to get the animal to go where it is supposed to is to open all doors / gates etc. so it can wander on its' own. This is a temporary solution but annoying micromanagement. We should be able to just set everyone as "caravan haulers" or make caravan hauler an additional schedule or job. Easy solution, but sadly no mods for this exist right now as far as I know.

[soul.storm.fire]

There are animals who not need to be roped and still follow old patterns.

In vanilla it's definitly elephants.

[Celgaming]

Why would you rope an elephant anyway? Pointless. Ever seen elephants in real life roped? Tamed ones obviously. At best they are equipped with saddles but that's not really a rope. Elephants can tear and rip any kind of rope unless it's some super thick industrial rope. Makes sense you can't rope them in this game either.

[Makeithappen]

Originally posted by Celgaming:

Originally posted by Tiberius Rex:

Add more pawns to caravan to help load, then remove them right before departure. Move as much gear to a central location for caravan load as possible. It's a bit borked, these tips will help your sanity.

Not a good idea as it can break the pack animals. If a pawn you remove from the caravan post load phase was moving an animal to the edge of the map, they'll leave the animal behind with all it's loot / gear. Another colonist will NOT come back to get it, meaning the animal gets stuck forever with all your gear. Only way to get the animal to go where it is supposed to is to open all doors / gates etc. so it can wander on its' own. This is a temporary solution but annoying micromanagement. We should be able to just set everyone as "caravan haulers" or make caravan hauler an additional schedule or job. Easy solution, but sadly no mods for this exist right now as far as I know.

This works you just need to cancel the pawns you dont want to go on the caravan before you finish loading. The animals wont separate. they will follow who is going.

[Makeithappen]

Originally posted by tiagocc0:

I usually make two groups one just with the pack animals and no items, the other with just the items, no animals. So you pick everything really quickly and store on your pawns, both should go quickly out of the map, they join them together and remove the pawns you don't need for the trip.

This usually requires lots of pawns if you need to pack a lot of stuff, since pawns can't carry as much as a horse for example, but made my life a ton easier with this.

I've seen this done. But does it actually form a caravan where speed and weight of carrying all those items fall on the pawns and not the animals?

[The Face]

Originally posted by TwoTonGamer:

The pack animals are no longer moving to assist with loading. They are staying inside their pens. This is causing loooong pack ups. Too long. It's kinda' ridiculous at the moment.

What's playtesting, eh?

lol

[Die Dame des Berges]

Originally posted by Tiberius Rex:

Add more pawns to caravan to help load, then remove them right before departure. Move as much gear to a central location for caravan load as possible. It's a bit borked, these tips will help your sanity.

Adding more pawns to load seems to speed up the process, but they still sleep on the floor and need to be manually sent to eat or they starve... something is just broken about this