About caravans.

[WereCat88]

I set up my base right near (basically touching) a friendly faction's base so i could trade easily in early game, the base was NE but to my surprise my caravan could only form on W and NW and i thought that's okay because the other tiles were impassable mountains or i could't get there because my base's map terrain (mountain map) as the whole N side is a mountain but then i saw that visitors from that base came from exactly that side that i can't form my caravan on, so what's up with that?

My thinking has it that because the faction's base is there you can't form a caravan there, if that's the issue i think its lame and needs to be made right.

[kilgoar]

lol

that is the most constructive and creative idea ever. how did you come up with it?

[WereCat88]

lol

that is the most constructive and creative idea ever. how did you come up with it?

After i put my base right next to a pirate base so i could raid it whenever, wait now that i think about it i think i do remember making a caravan and sending it in the direction of the raider base so???

[sniddy]

they shouldn't take 2 weeks to get together

[WereCat88]

they shouldn't take 2 weeks to get together

That's not the issue, my words may be confusing but what im saying is that i can't send a caravan in the direct direction of a friendly factions base that is touching my tile.

[Limdood]

they shouldn't take 2 weeks to get together

That's not the issue, my words may be confusing but what im saying is that i can't send a caravan in the direct direction of a friendly factions base that is touching my tile.

Yes, this is correct.  caravans cannot be assigned to exit in a direction that is impassable or occupied.  This is because when a caravan exits after being assigned to exit in a direction, it occupies the adjacent hex in that direction...this is in place for obvious reasons in the case of impassable terrain, but probably a balance issue in the case of neighboring towns.

towns and tribes need to be ENTERED completely to trade, so you'll always have SOME travel time to get there, since you can't spawn there.  Interestingly, YOUR base can be entered instantly from an adjacent tile...so can settlements that you are raiding.  This means that while you have to travel TO a friendly town adjacent to you, you can essentially teleport back.  Additionally, when raiding, as long as you form your caravan in a spot touching both your base and your target settlement, you instantly spawn in to attack, and can instantly "teleport" back home.

computer-faction-controlled caravans or visitors visiting YOUR colony do NOT follow these rules.  The game simply generates a visitor or caravan event and picks an empty, visible border tile on your map to spawn in the visiting pawns.  This is why you can get visitors when your colony is on an unreachable island, or from a direction that the world map says is impassable.  You CANNOT get visitors, raids, or caravans spawn into an unrevealed area on the map (some mountain maps have mountains that form what are essentially walls that divide the map into 2 or more open areas that cannot be reached without mining/deconstructing...until you do mine or deconstruct your way over to the "unseen" clearing, no events can generate in those areas)