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Wetlands can be created by poor drainage of local water sources. They don't require rain at all, they can be fed by springs. There are wetlands in the Mohave desert.

There is a colonist limit but I can't remember what defines the number all I remember is that the higher your colonist count the lower the chances of events that give you colonists (Refugee, escape pod etc) and increases the chance of wounds being fatal, thus crippling your ability to take in prisoners.

Randy dosent seem to care much about his limit. He was still throwing pods, world refugees, and chased refugees even after I hit my limit.

I think they moved it to the world event. Now you just get the one core. No psychic ships give it either.

I have had it sound and quickly get silenced by a colony animal that hunted a wild animal that got salty about it, and then dead. The alarm sounded, but the letter could not drop because it was the killing blow, ending the event.

This sounds like it's probably going to generate some of those challenges people do in between updates, like the ice sheet one.

In my experience, grazing animals like muffalos basically have zero food requirements. I have not paid attention while crossing barren biomes like desert. The only animals you have to worry about eating your food is carnivores, like bears and warg.

As far as priority, I thought they ate in order of spoilage. They do seem to skip incomplete portions until all food is gone through. So like those potatoes your colonists were carrying when they started packing will still be there if there is not enough for a full meal.

the meteor event thing sounds cool, but uh if like 6meters square of uranium hits a planet from orbit shouldnt like... a big ass area around it be reduced to a crater?

I still want to know how a giant block of sandstone not only managed to survive being put in space,  but also reentry.

The meteor drops 9 to 12 squares of a mineral on the map. Can be anything from rock to uranium and silver. All one mineral. If it drops rock, it leaves stone you can smooth. Haven't seen it kill anything, but it doesn't explode on impact.

I caravan quite a lot, but loading everything in is absolutely an unreliable process. Doesn't matter where you put the packing spot, sometimes it's really random and now my muffalos are eating my devilstrand. I'd rather everything be automatically teleported into the pack animals/colonists rather than 1 person hauling 500 things to half a dozen muffalo.

It's almost like the game dislikes the idea of two people and a lot of muffalos making caravan trips. Colonists (from what I see) no longer collapse in exhaustion and actually take their meals, but it's a very cumbersome process. It'd be nice if other colonists help with the packing too.

I haven't figured out the mechanics, but they don't always pack alone in A18. Once all the colonists and animals are at the packing point, they begin to load. However, I have seen some colonists assist with one or two things. It seems to be part of the haul order, but even my researcher who should spend all day researching sometimes jumps in. His bench is right near my packing point.

how are caravans low risk? its like the riskiest thing in game
and for a rly low reward

On randy rough tribal, the only time I have lost a colonist was in my base. I have had raiders and mech at the same time or back to back (and sometimes toback again ). By contrast my two man sniper teams with animal guards (usually muffalo so they can haul too) have defeated several encounter with the only injury to a colonist being a sprint to a cave. So in my experience, as long as they have food, caravans are comparatively safer than my base.

If you don't caravan, there won't be much for you to do. The last two updates were about leaving your base to explore the world. Not caravaning means that you are basically not play half the content of the last two updates.

Caravans are pretty low risk once you know a few tricks. If you are at the point of nothing to do in your base, you should be able to stomp a pirate outpost.

Caravans are totally worth it in A18. From caravans I have obtained an orbital bombardment device, Orbital power beam device, 2 rez serums, an infinite chemfuel reactor, and at least one colonist. Plus enough brick and such from deconstruction and stealing chunks that I haven't had to turn my map into a barren wasteland to pave over the dirt. I also positioned myself about a day away from a modern colony. That means I can drag my extra junk over there, sell it, and make enough scratch to summon the trade caravans I need to buy what I need to complete stuff.

[Compatibility:]

No wipe needed to go from A17 to A18:

Compatibility: Saved games from vanilla Alpha 17 should still be loadable, though some things may change. It'd be great if players could report any bugs with loading A17 maps. Complex mods won't be usable. Very simple mods may still load.

Only problem I noticed with A17 saves so far is that any workbench projects will be frozen (pawn will be working on it infinitely without making progress), and that the geography and town locations will be significantly different (a caravan I sent to a nearby town about 5 days away prior to A18 is now on their way to a town somewhere else entirely, 17 days away, lol). All issues is easily fixed by canceling and/or restarting these tasks however.

A18: Incapacitated Refugees Attack!

Alpha beavers also appear in the heard migration event, if that helps.