So how do missions work?

[Sminky]

I've sent two squads off to reclaim an artefact, they have been gone for over a year now and there's no reports, they aren't showing as dead, or basically anything. How long do missions take?

As a side note, can I send out diplomatic missions to increase my trade partners?

Thanks

[Haethei]

missions have frequent issues at the moment. people regularly come here to complain about the same problem; squads never return

not sure how to help, unfortunately. I heard you should make sure to check if every dwarf in the squad has actually left your fort (which is something they are lazy about sometimes) but haven't found a solution otherwise

can't really do diplomatic visits other than going to a site that is economically linked to you and requesting them to send workers over, which gives you some extra people to work with

[TTV.Scrumpetsheep]

Sometimes i have to disband my squads before they show up as "GONE"

Look at the fort you pillaged on the map and see if they are listed as prisoners.

make sure youre looking at the population count and what kind of mission youre sending youre dwarves on.

How far away was the fort?

[C-zom]

It's really a dice roll. At this point I generally don't bother with sending out squads in any capacity. There's numerous issues with it that have been harped about on these forums to death. I've had;

1: Sent 10-20 Steel Dwarves to goblin camps of 600+ and won handily.
2: Sent squads to steal artifacts; they disappear, and very slowly start rejoining naked and upset in migrant waves over the years.
3: Razed or claimed minor camps, squads come back, I gain no loot or territory despite it saying either one has happened.
4: Squad members who go out come back to the fortress with their bedrooms, dining rooms, labors removed, spiraling them into a tantrum if you're not careful to check that.
5: Accidentally issue orders to a squad with no way out of the fortress, the pathfinding bottoms out and they stand in place until they starve to death even if you remove the order / set them to No Orders.

Etc.

[Sminky]

ahh ok, so next fort just leave it all be then? That's a shame, as widening the game to a map level is super interesting. Hopefully down the line it will be implimented better. Thanks for the info.

As my 2 squads all seem to have left, all of the embarked icon, but just no further information for an artifact hunt that was deemed 'close'.