Help on caravan time and management

[Hem]

Hey guys,

First time I try something in this fabulous game: there was this NPC 10 hexes away from my base, the quest said she was injured and would join my colony if we rescued her, I sent 2 guys and a donkey, took them 1.5 day to go there, offered her help, she agreed, she is not dying but completely injured so she has something like 3% in Moving, i formed the caravan and sent them back home hoping/thinking the donkey would automatically carry her (no other items to carry except for a few meals)... and now the returning time is 3.2 days! how come? does it take into account the donkey? do I have to click somewhere so that the donkey actually carries her? is there something I am missing?

cheers!

[Astasia]

You don't have to do anything, in essence she is being "carried" which is why the travel time is only 3.2 days and not 50 days which it would be if she was moving on her own at 3%.

Caravan movement speed is an average of all member's movement speeds so adding fast animals to a caravan makes your colonists move faster on the map. There is an extra penalty to movement speed if a member is incapacitated and incapable of walking and I believe a capacity/manipulation requirement for that caravan to move at all (to simulate carrying them). There is no throwing an injured colonist on an animal and moving at full speed, at least not without mods.

What you are probably expecting is something you'd need the Giddy-up mod to accomplish.

[Aurian]

Seconding the giddy-up mods, highly recommended.

[Hem]

Hey Astasia, appreciate your fast and neat answer! thanks mate. I never installed any mod because I am more of a vanilla kind of guy, but you (and Aurian! thanks) reckon it is an essential? it does seem weird to me it would take double time to come back when I can throw the broken lady on the donkey and rush back home...

[Astasia]

I would not call it an "essential" mod and it's one I usually do not use. It's designed fairly well if mounting animals is what you want to do though. The vanilla methods of solving it later in the game are transport pods and shuttles, you can transport resources to the map to build pods and transport back extra loot and injured members, or call in a shuttle with the DLC. I tend to use mods that expand on that area rather than adding functionality to pack animals.

[_SoMe]

if you want to keep it vanilla, i prefer to take some bedrolls with me, build or claim a small room on the map and make a healer patch up the injured. you might also harvest some berries or hunt some animals meanwhile (should give a little training to low skilled pawns too), maybe build a campfire and cook some simple meals, play horseshoes or deconstruct stuff like sandbags if you want to bring some leather back home :)

when your pawn(s) are healthy enough to travel on you just reform the caravan and off you go.

[Hem]

Thanks guys! appreciate it :)

[Aurian]

It takes a looooong time to research shuttles and transport pods are one-way only, your colonists will still have to walk back. I personally couldn't imagine playing without the Giddy-up mods. Rimworld just doesn't feel complete without animal riding.

Originally posted by _SoMe:

if you want to keep it vanilla, i prefer to take some bedrolls with me, build or claim a small room on the map and make a healer patch up the injured. you might also harvest some berries or hunt some animals meanwhile (should give a little training to low skilled pawns too), maybe build a campfire and cook some simple meals, play horseshoes or deconstruct stuff like sandbags if you want to bring some leather back home :)

when your pawn(s) are healthy enough to travel on you just reform the caravan and off you go.

Does vanilla offer a way to just rest on a map tile without forming a new colony? I'm 95% sure the 'set up camp' mod is required for this?

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Aurian:

It takes a looooong time to research shuttles and transport pods are one-way only, your colonists will still have to walk back. I personally couldn't imagine playing without the Giddy-up mods. Rimworld just doesn't feel complete without animal riding.

Does vanilla offer a way to just rest on a map tile without forming a new colony? I'm 95% sure the 'set up camp' mod is required for this?

You don't have to walk back, you can build new pods on the mission map after you clear out the enemies. They are pretty cheap, you can often get the materials on site by deconstructing some stuff, and you can send in the chemfuel or any steel you couldn't gather in another pod.

You can also rest up on the mission map before leaving, you don't need to settle a new tile or use a mod.

As for early game caravans being slow, if I plan to do any caravan stuff I build my base in easy to travel terrain along a road. That way my colonists can get to most quest locations in well under a day, often just a few hours.

[Aurian]

Originally posted by Astasia:

You don't have to walk back, you can build new pods on the mission map after you clear out the enemies. They are pretty cheap, you can often get the materials on site by deconstructing some stuff, and you can send in the chemfuel or any steel you couldn't gather in another pod.

You can also rest up on the mission map before leaving, you don't need to settle a new tile or use a mod.

As for early game caravans being slow, if I plan to do any caravan stuff I build my base in easy to travel terrain along a road. That way my colonists can get to most quest locations in well under a day, often just a few hours.

When doing trade runs, there is no mission map though ... :) Which is a shame, I wish Vanilla added an option to actually visit settlements we trade with.