One last CHEAP fix for caravans

[Zombra]

tl;dr: Let caravans stop and generate a map wherever they are standing.

Long explanation:
Caravanning is still far too dangerous.  If anything goes wrong, a simple 1-day journey can turn into a week-long death march.  Forgot to wear a parka?  Frostbite, slowed, crawl to your death.  Didn't quite pack enough food?  Starvation, slowed, crawl to death.  Didn't notice a developing injury or illness?  You guessed it: condition worsens, slowed, crawl to death.  Yet all these problems could be easily solved if the caravan had the sense to simply STOP, build a shelter, tend to wounds, and hunt locally for a day or two.

The "rest" feature is nice enough I guess, but it doesn't seem to solve any of these problems that cause caravan death in the first place.  Foraging berries still seems to have diminishing returns, and you're not going to spontaneously generate parkas or medicine.

It's very silly that there are situations where I PRAY to be ambushed by raiders or attacked by manhunting wolves, simply so a map can be generated, simply so my caravan can stop acting like relentless suicidal robots for a few days.

With this fix, my "caravan anxiety" will finally be gone.

Thanks for reading.

[Nightmyre]

You know that you can create a new colony with the caravan, right? Pretty much anywhere except for right next to another town.

[5thHorseman]

You know that you can create a new colony with the caravan, right? Pretty much anywhere except for right next to another town.

But only if you enable that option, that is by default disabled.

And then, if you do do it enough times, your common pathways will be littered with abandoned settlements.

[Zombra]

You know that you can create a new colony with the caravan, right? Pretty much anywhere except for right next to another town.

But only if you enable that option, that is by default disabled.

Can either of you tell me where this option is enabled?  I can't seem to find it.

And can this be done to INTERRUPT a current route?

And then, if you do do it enough times, your common pathways will be littered with abandoned settlements.

That sounds annoying.  I'd rather be able to activate temporary encounter maps.

But I guess the "new colony litterbug" feature is a good enough workaround if I can figure out how to make it happen.  Assuming that interrupts are allowed.

[5thHorseman]

I don't know exactly where it is but it's in the game options screen. I'm fairly sure if you hit ESC or click Menu in a game, then "Options" it's somewhere on that screen. It's the maximum number of colonies. The default is 1 and the maximum is like 5 or something.

[Limdood]

options menu allows you to set your "max number of colonies."

However, since the colony takes up the hex, and it would be exploit-y to be able to settle 2 tiles away, strip mine it, abandon it, then immediately resettle the same hex...abandoned colonies leave a "ruins" on the map that blocks that tile off from settling on ever again.  You can't return to the ruins or found a new colony there.

It means that isn't really a solution to the gripe of the OP, who wants to be able to generate a small map (like the "Camping" mod did...i had it a few patches ago, not sure if it still does) that disappears when you leave. 

I'd imagine Tynan isn't interested in that for the same reason that those "ruins" exist...so you can't generate endless resources super easily.

That being said, Tynan HAS addressed most functions of those small maps through other means already:
- Rest mode allows you to forage twice as quickly, restores recreation (a BIG problem in B18 and earlier caravans), and bandage wounds...In fact I use that now to make sure prisoners I capture in my attacks don't die, without having to micromanage the fiddly difficulty of setting up tending spots and figuring out who's holding the medicine on the raid maps.
- Long range scanner generates endless resources the same way a renewable map would, but its gated behind a significant time and work investment

I get that there ARE reasons you'd want to be able to make a temp mini map that aren't addressed above, such as emergency food hunting or animal taming a different biome, or...thats it really?  But considering the efforts the developer went to implement the features that he did in the WAY that he did, when (due to raider bases and long range scanner events) the randomized maps clearly already exist should be telling.  It SEEMS that the developer doesn't want temporary maps to be able to be generated by the player at will without some tradeoff (permanently unusable hex, or big time investment on the scanner)

[5thHorseman]

If the visited hexes could get events and had no resources (steel and the like. I'm not talking granite or berry bushes) then allowing you to "camp" there would be a lot less exploity. That'd also possibly remove the need for an eviction timer, which is something I've never been a huge fan of.

[Zombra]

Well ... emergency food hunting alone seems like a huge deal.  Every time a random encounter happens, the map is filled with wildlife, implying that wildlife is everywhere.  No one should be starving to death on a prairie swarming with rabbits and turkeys.

Personally I am fine with the eviction timer, I just want to make a temporary camp so my guys don't starve and freeze to death completely out of my control, all because I told them to go home and they REFUSE TO STOP on the way.

At the end of the day I just can't get over how silly it is that getting randomly attacked by bears is a GOOD thing because it gives you a chance to resupply and make a bearskin coat.  If my enemies can take me to a map filled with milk and honey why can't I just go there?

Agreed that the maps don't need to have gold and steel if that's the issue.

[CthulhuTactical]

Thankfully there's a mod for that.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1470065926

Camps wont litter your map, because they vanish after some time.

[Limdood]

As far as the emergency food goes, it's kind of been addressed already.

You forage double while resting.  It kind of implies that food was already a consideration when redesigning caravans for B19, but the developers CHOSE to not allow hunting everywhere (which would negate the need to bring your own food for the most part)

[Griphaha]

Set up camp is a great and highly recommended, you can make it somewhat vanilla balanced or a cheat.

[Zombra]

Thankfully there's a mod for that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1470065926
Camps wont litter your map, because they vanish after some time.

Much appreciated @CthulhuTactical.  I try to stick close to vanilla but the way vanilla handles this is very silly and annoying.

As far as the emergency food goes, it's kind of been addressed already. You forage double while resting.  It kind of implies that food was already a consideration when redesigning caravans for B19, but the developers CHOSE to not allow hunting everywhere (which would negate the need to bring your own food for the most part)

Maybe so ... but one iteration on a system does not mean that it is done or perfect.  This system may (or may not) be officially "done" but in any case it is far from perfect.

I might not be complaining - I guess I could live with it if all land outside the colony was magically assumed to be a lifeless wasteland with only a few berries - except that random "negative" road events can effectively summon game and shelter.  Getting attacked by raiders is a lucky event, much to be desired, not for combat xp or spoils of war, but because it also means rabbits are summoned.  Am I to believe that rabbits don't exist outside the colony unless bandits are attacking me?  There has to be a better and more consistent mechanism for reconciling these different systems in a sensible way (that doesn't screw over the player if a caravan member stubs his toe).

[Limdood]

If you could effortlessly hunt, because there are infinite rabbits and berries everywhere, then why EVER bring food with in biomes that have animals?

[Ruptga]

If you could effortlessly hunt, because there are infinite rabbits and berries everywhere, then why EVER bring food with in biomes that have animals?

Make it so the caravan has to rest early to cook it, and that there's a significantly higher chance of food poisoning for anything cooked on the road.  Hunting and cooking would require pawns with those skills, and hunting could increase the chance of mad bears or wargs, and ambushes.  Between all that, it would always be quicker to bring food, but one long gypsy caravan to the ship would still be possible.