Caravan was lost .. What??

[Trubbles]

I sent a Caravan to clear a nearby bandit camp.

I sent my animal handler with 3 of my strongest attack animals, and 3 other colonists with guns.

When I got there, one of my colonists fell asleep instantly - my mistake for not making her sleep before they left - so I tried to back away a bit. I'm not sure if I walked too close to the edge of the camp, but I got a message that said the quest was failed because the Bandit camp dispersed when they were discovered, and my Caravan was "lost" and all of the animals (the steeds and the attackers) were simply lost. The colonists were all just 4 separate yellow circles, and I was able to merge them back into a Caravan and send them home. They had no items, though, and one of them almost starved.

What did I do wrong? I play permadeath and I am used to things dying, but this felt really cheap. I didn't agree to "flee" or anything.

What happened here? Thanks!!!

[XelNigma]

It's a poorly explained mechanic that should really give you a promp. But when a pawn is drafted on a hostile maps, moving them to the edge will cause them to flee.
This is why they appear on the world map as individual dots.

Now for the Carvan thing. You need at least one non-downed human in a caravan for it to exist. When your humans all fled, the caravan at the bandit camp only comprised of animals at that point and thus, was lost. When you leave locations they also stop existing. Usually by telling you the camp moved, or someone else got the treasure there.

I know returning and recurring pawns where more prevalent in the past, but I think there is still a chance your animals can find there way home.
The rest is a wash tho.

Just remember in the future don't have drafted pawns walk near the edge.

[Trubbles]

Originally posted by XelNigma:

It's a poorly explained mechanic that should really give you a promp. But when a pawn is drafted on a hostile maps, moving them to the edge will cause them to flee.
This is why they appear on the world map as individual dots.

Now for the Carvan thing. You need at least one non-downed human in a caravan for it to exist. When your humans all fled, the caravan at the bandit camp only comprised of animals at that point and thus, was lost. When you leave locations they also stop existing. Usually by telling you the camp moved, or someone else got the treasure there.

I know returning and recurring pawns where more prevalent in the past, but I think there is still a chance your animals can find there way home.
The rest is a wash tho.

Just remember in the future don't have drafted pawns walk near the edge.

Thanks for the explanation. This is incredibly frustrating. I had them all drafted, and I directed them to a corner at the bottom of the map to try to hold off the attach for a few minutes and I honestly wasn't even watching carefully and BOOM all of the sudden I got that message. Very disheartening in a perma death game where my 8 year old daughter helped me name the Bears :(

Thanks again. I will be more careful now that I know this but it still seems ridiculous that there is no prompt or warning! I could have probably taken the enemies easily even with my sniper asleep :(

Oh well ... onward and upward we go.

[sooshon]

Originally posted by XelNigma:

It's a poorly explained mechanic that should really give you a promp. But when a pawn is drafted on a hostile maps, moving them to the edge will cause them to flee.
This is why they appear on the world map as individual dots.

Now for the Carvan thing. You need at least one non-downed human in a caravan for it to exist. When your humans all fled, the caravan at the bandit camp only comprised of animals at that point and thus, was lost. When you leave locations they also stop existing. Usually by telling you the camp moved, or someone else got the treasure there.

I know returning and recurring pawns where more prevalent in the past, but I think there is still a chance your animals can find there way home.
The rest is a wash tho.

Just remember in the future don't have drafted pawns walk near the edge.

I was under impression that when you flee a map, vanilla behavior is for all animals to come along with you, so if that didn't happen it might be mod-caused.