Failed to send caravan

[Injured Muffalo]

I want to move my base. So I waited until everyone was in a caravan mood (because it's RimWorld and people don't pay attention to their needs during caravan formation) and selected everything to be included in the caravan.

I forgot to pack something I wanted, but I know there is no way to deal with that. Then an animal was born during the packing process. I guess it gets left behind?

Anyway, the packing was completed. Then began the wait. I was expecting an hour or two of delay, but, no. Everyone just wandered around the map aimlessly hour after hour. People fell asleep. Eventually starvation set in: Forming Caravan. Then the mental breaks, and then finally some unidentified caravan member was incapacitated (not that I would have sent it at that point) and the caravan was canceled. I waited over a day with absolutely nothing happening.

So I'm a little confused. Was it something I did? I know it's a "complex" caravan due to the size, but is there a way to make this work? I didn't want to found the new colony first for a couple of reasons, but do I have no choice?

There are 11 colonists, 1 prisoner, 11 animals, and all the stuff everyone can carry. Pretty pissed; I have attempted this like 7 times and it blows up every time. Then when I make every accomodation to make it work, everyone just sits on their asses and it still fails. What is the game doing after packing but before the caravan starts moving? Waiting for everyone to be awake?

[sick puppy]

there are multiple things that the game looks out for before sending the caravan on their way. everyone must be awake (draft and undraft to wake someone up), you have to wait for people that are eating and doing whatever else they could be doing that doesnt involve waiting for the caravan. essentially, all pawns, prisoners and pets have to be wandering and not be suffering of mental breaks.
that said, i still have way more issues generally speaking if i pack a large caravan or any caravan that has prisoners.

[Injured Muffalo]

Are you sure about that? The game awakens colonists in bed when you order the caravan. What about animals asleep?

After a certain size, it's impossible (unless everyone is on the same fixed schedule) to have everyone alert enough to pack the caravan and then still be ready to leave. You can't force people to sleep.

[Canute]

I don't think the sleep status matter, only mental state.

While your pawn's are loading you still can order them to eat and rest (?) just don't cancel their task, that will interrupt the caravan process.

Even when all your colonist and animals left the map, you base is still there.
Basicly you can split your caravan, send 1 colonist back to pickup the new born animal or other stuff you forget.

Don't forget to create your stockpile's close together, and assign the caravan packing spot next to them. So they don't run so much around to pickup stuff from each edge of your base.

[Vlad0mi3r]

Are you packing everything? You will need to consider things like eating food adjusting the amount of food in the stockpile. If the caravan cannot find everything on the inventory it will wait for it. So if you have assigned all the meals to be loaded then you will not finish loading as pawns will eat meals and even take pocket meals for later leaving the Inventory for the caravan incomplete.

I once had a caravan load out interrupted because my warden recruited someone who then went and put on clothes that were assigned to inventory of the caravan. I was in the same position as you WTF is going on.

Canutes suggestion of doing it in stages is not the worst idea either it can save a lot of hassle and you can adjust things as you go, step by step.

[Dashthechinchilla]

Members assigned to the caravan need to be awake for the leaving phase. That includes animals and pawns. In the first phase the assigned pawns go get the animals. Once all animals are touched, they go to the packing point. Then the caravan pawns and haulers load. The game looks to see everyone (animals and pawns) are ready. That means awake, ect. Then they travel to the map edge. When the whole caravan is there, they leave. I've had caravans just sit there because one muffalo decided to take a nap. I assigned him to a pawn and drafted him to wake him.

If you are packing up the whole base,  you may want to do phases like suggested and join them on the world map. Pawns get a mood buff on the world map. There are also mods that fix some caravan stuff.

I dont think taking things matters in the current version. I know I often lose some pemmican before the caravan finishes. Pawns will load restricted items if you have designated them to load. Dedicated haulers and doing things like telling someone to refule a fire will cause them to help load as well, to speed up that phase.

[Injured Muffalo]

Members assigned to the caravan need to be awake for the leaving phase. That includes animals and pawns. In the first phase the assigned pawns go get the animals. Once all animals are touched, they go to the packing point. Then the caravan pawns and haulers load. The game looks to see everyone (animals and pawns) are ready. That means awake, ect. Then they travel to the map edge. When the whole caravan is there, they leave. I've had caravans just sit there because one muffalo decided to take a nap. I assigned him to a pawn and drafted him to wake him.

Mmm, all right. It's too bad we don't at least get feedback about what is holding things up, but it seems like sleep was possibly an issue here. Or maybe I wait until people want to awaken before I start the job.

One more thing. I was planning on abandoning the old base first. Does anything about the new base (like map size) change if it becomes a second colony? I don't really want to split the caravan, but I guess if I have to I will be doing that.

[Dashthechinchilla]

Members assigned to the caravan need to be awake for the leaving phase. That includes animals and pawns. In the first phase the assigned pawns go get the animals. Once all animals are touched, they go to the packing point. Then the caravan pawns and haulers load. The game looks to see everyone (animals and pawns) are ready. That means awake, ect. Then they travel to the map edge. When the whole caravan is there, they leave. I've had caravans just sit there because one muffalo decided to take a nap. I assigned him to a pawn and drafted him to wake him.

Mmm, all right. It's too bad we don't at least get feedback about what is holding things up, but it seems like sleep was possibly an issue here. Or maybe I wait until people want to awaken before I start the job.

One more thing. I was planning on abandoning the old base first. Does anything about the new base (like map size) change if it becomes a second colony? I don't really want to split the caravan, but I guess if I have to I will be doing that.

I haven't tried it, but I have been told if you want to do this method you should use the Set-up camp! mod. It allows you to make a custom sized map. Otherwise you apparently get the tiny map size by game default.

While you are at it, there is a caravan mod that makes the animals go to the loading point without having all your pawns go touch them and have them follow your pawns around the world.

[Injured Muffalo]

So, I gave this another try today, and guess what? You were right, they were waiting for everyone to be awake. So I assigned my animals to a guy (they are usually unassigned) and in moments they were off, like magic. No mental breaks, everyone is loaded with whatever they can carry. Thank you very much.

I did the testing for the map size issue. Fortunately (for me) settling a new colony (in this case before abandoning the first) results in a default map size. Since that's what I use anyway. It's totally not the tiny size you get at a caravan encounter. It is worth knowing that if you play on any other size map, you will need that mod to give you a choice or change the default.