0009593: Invisible caravan arrives, no units listed on units list, trade impossible.

Notes
(0034740) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-02-23 14:04	Oh and my error log shows: Unrecognized Announcement Token: TRAVEL_ADVISORY

(0034746) Button (reporter) 2016-02-24 17:16 edited on: 2016-02-24 17:16	That error is unrelated and has to do with raw changes in 42.06. (The TRAVEL_ADVISORY announcement was removed.) Just had this happen in my game, with the dwarven caravan. I got messages for both the liaison and the caravan, but only the liaison appeared. I suspect it might have something to do with the location where the message says the wagon would have spawned, which is at the base of a mountain which I removed the ramps from. Restarting had no effect. http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=11812 [^]

(0034747) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-02-24 17:48 edited on: 2016-02-24 18:07	Well for some reason the TRAVEL_ADVISORY error is generated in my log each time I get the invisible caravan... Anyway, it might have something to do with the spawn location, I have a habit of forcing the caravan to spawn at certain area with either removing ramps or with constructions, but the thing is that it has worked just fine with previous versions, and occasionally works fine in this too. I seem to get randomly partial caravans, invisible caravans and normal full caravans. One fall I had to restart the game 7 times before the dwarven caravan appeared normally. I got invisible, partial (no wagons), invisble, partial, partial, partial, normal. Though on the last one the liaison was apparently cave adapted and spent his entire time puking or being dizzy at the common area and never met with my duke. Didn't leave unhappy either at spring, just left. I had ravens/kestrels flying on the map when I got buggy caravans, and echidnas near the spawn point once. No animals nearby when I got the non bugged one. I also killed a goblin mercenary leaving my fort 1-2 days prior the supposed caravan arrival when I finally got non-bugged caravan. Maybe those are related to this or completely irrelevant, I don't know. Oh and I had this same happening on a fort which had no vegetation except grass for half of the map, so there should've been plenty of spawn points for the caravan to successfully do so and navigate to the depot.

(0034755) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-02-26 01:59	Does anyone else suffering from this bug built roof that goes all the way to the map edge? I've noticed that in my "forced spawn point" area, which is partially covered, when I get a nonbugged caravan the merchants spawn to the spot that has no roof over them. I suspect both the invisible caravans and the partial caravans (no wagons) are happening because somehow the roof above their head messes things up. I'm too lazy to go and cover my entire embark with a roof to test if that'd make it 100% reproducable, but I'm going to test to remove my roofing in the entry area and see if that ends the problem for me.

(0034756) solumkar (reporter) 2016-02-26 13:44	I hypothesized that this bug could be indirectly caused by: evil weather, travelers getting stuck in ponds, or dwarfs getting stuck in trees. So I embarked in a desert with few trees and no ponds. The first three caravans functioned normally, but the second dwarf caravan is invisible. My error log ends with TRAVEL_ADVISORYs, but I think they are from the last game. I do restrict where merchants can spawn to a 8 square area using channels, and the Depot itself is underground, which has always worked in the past. I'm going to finish building my wall and put the depot where it's more accessible to see if that fixes it.

(0034758) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-02-26 17:33	Removing floors near edge didn't do anything for invisible elves at least. And I get the TRAVEL_ADVISORY generated after each invisible caravan. No such error if the caravan is partial though. I also have underground depot so it might be related to that. It also is 2 z-levels down from the ground level with the spawn point. So I guess either one of those conditions might factor to this. Is your depot also higher/lower level than the spawn area?

(0034773) Button (reporter) 2016-02-29 16:37	I've noticed in the save I linked above that some of the goods from the caravan show up in my Stocks screen (in red, meaning owned-by-visitors). For a specific example check the Bars category - I've only smelted copper, iron, pig iron, steel, and silver on this embark. For this reason I suspect that this issue is related to 0009594 , "Merchants die, but still own their trade goods".

(0034777) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-03-01 16:27	Further playing my fort I've also now gotten one "invisible" diplomat, as in the announcement arrives, game zooms to the diplomat who isn't there and he isn't listed in unit list. Also one super quick siege, where the first wave appeared on the edge of the map, but when I ordered my military to stations and hit space, the siege tag disappeared along with the invaders. Unfortunately I don't have a save from those events.

(0034805) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-03-07 13:10	Looks like enlargening the area where the caravan can spawn helps with the issue. Haven't had these mysterious half or invisible caravans for few years now. I suspect this has something to do with the next merchant/wagon trying to spawn on top of one that just spawned due lack of space. I think it's rather safe to assume you need a space big enough for the entire caravan to exist in map to avoid this bug.

(0034810) solumkar (reporter) 2016-03-07 21:21 edited on: 2016-03-07 21:22	I've also got 4 out of 4 good caravans since making my depot accessible to 95% of the map border. My feeble 1 ghz processor can't churn out a very good sample size, but as I get more caravans I'll keep updating. To answer the question I missed, my depot was at the same z level as about half of the ground, but below the point at which merchants could actually enter.

(0034811) PatrikLundell (reporter) 2016-03-08 01:12	Hello/Goodbye sieges happen to quite a few players for an unknown reason in 0.42.X, but are probably unrelated to the caravan issue. I've had quite a few of the broken sieges, but my caravans work as expected.

(0034826) windyskunk (reporter) 2016-03-10 18:22	I have had invisible migrant wave arrive at a fort. http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=11841 [^]

(0034828) Muumeh (reporter) 2016-03-10 23:13	windyskunk; Oh wow. So this thing seems to happen with caravans, diplomats, siegers and migrants... After several years of successful caravans I got invisible diplomat and invisible caravan again. I do have few narrow spots on the spawn area so that might be it.. I'm thinking this is maybe caused if the caravan spawns on a spot that doesn't have 6 tiles free space from the edge, i.e closest where you can build a wall? Maybe this affects all spawning creatures? I'm running out of ideas how to "fix" this.

(0034966) jjl2357 (reporter) 2016-04-02 21:09	Similar bug that I found - invisible _possibly dead_ merchants: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=9667 [^]

(0035165) solumkar (reporter) 2016-05-14 11:48 edited on: 2016-05-14 12:09	I started a new fort in vanilla 43.02. I didn't build a depot for my first caravan, but for the second one I had an underground depot that was accessible to the entire map. This time, the caravan appeared normally and got to the depot to begin unloading. I looked back a few seconds later and they had vanished. One wagon shows up as missing (with no reports or signs of violence) and the caravan's goods still show up as forbidden in the "z" screen (but aren't visible anywhere on the map). There's nothing interesting in the error log. It's possible one of the merchants was outside and got scared by a giant fly just before disappearing. edit: I just noticed that one merchant and two of their horses are still there (they eventually left), and all of the goods actually ARE visible this time, in a pile at the trade depot.

(0035316) Dwarfu (manager) 2016-05-28 09:54	I get this with ambushes/sieges also. Part of the ambush/siege gets stuck off-map, sometimes leading to perpetual "SIEGE" tags. Occasionally, leaving merchants will lure goblins onto the map and have at them.

(0035363) Toady One (administrator) 2016-06-07 12:23	There was a stale unit occupancy flag where the caravan wanted to enter the map, which blocked them. It's not clear when it happened or how. For now, I've made the game clear up the situation on load and log an error, so hopefully we'll be able to narrow it down over time.

(0035569) Loci (manager) 2016-07-06 22:18	v0.43.04: Murphy posted a save in 0009889: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12230 [^]

(0035574) Murphy (reporter) 2016-07-07 20:38	Worth noting that paving the whole map edge (the map is 1x1) solved the problem for me.

(0035581) A_S00 (reporter) 2016-07-08 18:28	Here is another save demonstrating this issue: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12235 [^] Teleporting the merchants onto the map using dfhack's teleport script fixes the issue, though finding the merchants' unit ID's is a bit of a pain. I've posted a guide here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=159297.0 [^]

(0035582) Murphy (reporter) 2016-07-08 19:36	Update: paving the map edge doesn't solve the problem. Also, after a while the items that were carried by the phantom merchants will reappear in a random place near the edge of the map, along with "wagon wood logs" and they can be unforbidden and collected/dumped. I assume this is Toady's temporary fix at work?

(0035718) Hetairos (reporter) 2016-07-28 13:36	I am almost sure I got this bug in 0.34.11. Save here: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12306 [^] I had already dumped some of the items from the map edge, but some should still be possible to find there. It's been a while since the caravan stopped showing up, so things might be a little muddled up.

(0035893) aTinTeardrop (reporter) 2016-09-25 04:47 edited on: 2016-09-25 04:50	I've reported a similar case: 0010015 Stocks items zooming to empty tiles near map edge. Yours and my report may also be related to 0009438 No caravans after first couple years.

(0035903) Loci (manager) 2016-09-26 11:39	v0.43.03: aTinTeardrop posted a save in 0010015: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12458 [^]

(0037092) HammerDave (reporter) 2017-11-29 00:11 edited on: 2017-11-29 00:16	I currently have this on 44.02, elven caravan. I copied the save directory in case it is useful. Edit: After saving (to capture a copy) and reloading, now the elves appear. I've already received the "leaving soon" message, haha. Don't actually need their stuff this year anyway lol. But will be interesting to see what happens.

(0037690) Kobold6 (reporter) 2018-01-21 20:40	Seems to be related to 0010075, I had invaders with a troll fur clothes invisible at the edge of the map. Much like with this bug and the traders, saving and reloading seems to free them.

(0038072) lethosor (manager) 2018-03-29 08:22 edited on: 2018-03-29 08:23	Per https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack/issues/1246 [^] , this could be due to DFHack's fix/dead-units. Notably, PE's pack runs this frequently. Has anyone produced this without DFHack?

(0038073) PatrikLundell (reporter) 2018-03-29 10:03	Actually, it's probably not due to fix/dead-units, as that script has a check to exclude merchants and diplomats, but invaders can probably be kept out, and visitors groups can be cut, as can critter groups, and probably FB's, if their entry tile is occupied by a critter until the script is run. Also, saving/reloading should not release them. Regardless, a current arc save where the issue is present would be useful.

(0039326) Loci (manager) 2019-04-14 12:27	I have experienced similar problems in v0.44.12 without running DFHack. In one that I recall, an incoming human caravan lost a wagon before all the caravan units were on screen. The caravan units on-site turned around and left, and multiple future caravans from the same entity failed to appear at all. I eventually loaded the save in DFHack and confirmed that there were still human caravan units loitering in the unit list. Dismissing those units using DFHack allowed new caravans to arrive successfully. http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14342 [^] I have also repeatedly experienced a problem where a "partial caravan" arrives. Saving and reloading the game causes the remaining caravan units to appear, as expected given Toady's fix above.

(0039403) hyndis (reporter) 2019-06-30 01:29	I"m still seeing this in 44.12 and I'm not using the fix dead units DFHack plugin. All around the map edge if I use cprobe I'll see several invisible creatures per tile. Just going around randomly on the map edge I'll see anywhere from 0-10 invisible creatures per tile. I embarked on a map with very limited walkable edge space. Due to terrain only the corner edge of the map is walkable so it means all visitors must show up in a relatively small area. On a personal note, I like these maps because I can station my military at the limited walkable space and then greet anyone arriving to my fortress with dwarven steel. I'm seeing other bugs that may be related to this, such as military squads being stuck on returning after a mission. If the squad chooses a tile that is occupied by a phantom creature it too becomes stuck in limbo. I get the notice that the squad has returned, I can zoom in on the tile there, I can see the squad with cprobe, but the squad never actually shows up on the map edge. Its like the squad is waiting for the invisible creature already there to move away. This happens to other creatures if they happen to show up on an already occupied tile, such as a forest titan who also was added to the pile of invisible creatures at the map edge. Not every creature goes invisible. I get traders and sieges and migrants just fine. I have no idea why some creatures get stuck and others move on to the map properly.

(0039404) hyndis (reporter) 2019-06-30 01:38	Oh, and the DFHack teleport command does nothing. I can get the creature ID's using cprobe and I can use the teleport command. The creature is still invisible, except now it shows up on the new tile using cprobe. Its been moved. Its still invisible and still broken but it has been moved. These broken creatures just seem to pile up over time, randomly just getting stuck.

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2016-02-23 13:57	Muumeh	New Issue
2016-02-23 14:04	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034740
2016-02-24 17:16	Button	Note Added: 0034746
2016-02-24 17:16	Button	Note Edited: 0034746	View Revisions
2016-02-24 17:48	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034747
2016-02-24 18:07	Muumeh	Note Edited: 0034747	View Revisions
2016-02-26 01:59	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034755
2016-02-26 13:44	solumkar	Note Added: 0034756
2016-02-26 17:33	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034758
2016-02-29 16:37	Button	Note Added: 0034773
2016-03-01 16:27	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034777
2016-03-07 01:54	Muumeh	Tag Attached: caravan
2016-03-07 13:10	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034805
2016-03-07 21:21	solumkar	Note Added: 0034810
2016-03-07 21:22	solumkar	Note Edited: 0034810	View Revisions
2016-03-08 01:12	PatrikLundell	Note Added: 0034811
2016-03-09 14:56	Button	Issue Monitored: Button
2016-03-09 22:50	windyskunk	Issue Monitored: windyskunk
2016-03-10 18:22	windyskunk	Note Added: 0034826
2016-03-10 23:13	Muumeh	Note Added: 0034828
2016-03-10 23:14	Muumeh	Tag Attached: spawn
2016-03-10 23:15	Muumeh	Issue Monitored: Muumeh
2016-03-26 07:25	bacos666	Issue Monitored: bacos666
2016-04-02 21:09	jjl2357	Note Added: 0034966
2016-05-08 17:37	Dwarfu	Relationship added	has duplicate 0009726
2016-05-14 11:48	solumkar	Note Added: 0035165
2016-05-14 11:52	solumkar	Note Edited: 0035165	View Revisions
2016-05-14 11:58	solumkar	Note Edited: 0035165	View Revisions
2016-05-14 12:00	solumkar	Note Edited: 0035165	View Revisions
2016-05-14 12:09	solumkar	Note Edited: 0035165	View Revisions
2016-05-16 17:40	Dwarfu	Issue Monitored: Dwarfu
2016-05-28 09:53	Dwarfu	Relationship added	related to 0009801
2016-05-28 09:54	Dwarfu	Note Added: 0035316
2016-05-28 09:55	Dwarfu	Assigned To	=> Dwarfu
2016-05-28 09:55	Dwarfu	Status	new => confirmed
2016-06-07 12:23	Toady One	Note Added: 0035363
2016-07-06 22:14	Loci	Relationship added	has duplicate 0009889
2016-07-06 22:18	Loci	Note Added: 0035569
2016-07-07 20:38	Murphy	Note Added: 0035574
2016-07-08 18:28	A_S00	Note Added: 0035581
2016-07-08 19:36	Murphy	Note Added: 0035582
2016-07-28 13:15	Hetairos	Issue Monitored: Hetairos
2016-07-28 13:15	Hetairos	Issue End Monitor: Hetairos
2016-07-28 13:16	Hetairos	Issue Monitored: Hetairos
2016-07-28 13:36	Hetairos	Note Added: 0035718
2016-09-25 04:47	aTinTeardrop	Note Added: 0035893
2016-09-25 04:50	aTinTeardrop	Note Edited: 0035893	View Revisions
2016-09-26 11:38	Loci	Relationship added	has duplicate 0010015
2016-09-26 11:39	Loci	Note Added: 0035903
2017-11-29 00:11	HammerDave	Note Added: 0037092
2017-11-29 00:16	HammerDave	Note Edited: 0037092	View Revisions
2018-01-21 20:40	Kobold6	Note Added: 0037690
2018-03-29 08:22	lethosor	Note Added: 0038072
2018-03-29 08:22	lethosor	Status	confirmed => needs feedback
2018-03-29 08:23	lethosor	Note Edited: 0038072	View Revisions
2018-03-29 08:23	lethosor	Status	needs feedback => assigned
2018-03-29 08:23	lethosor	Assigned To	Dwarfu => lethosor
2018-03-29 08:23	lethosor	Status	assigned => needs feedback
2018-03-29 10:03	PatrikLundell	Note Added: 0038073
2018-05-21 15:43	lethosor	Relationship added	related to 0010075
2019-04-14 11:30	Loci	Relationship added	parent of 0011081
2019-04-14 12:27	Loci	Note Added: 0039326
2019-04-14 12:27	Loci	Status	needs feedback => assigned
2019-04-14 20:13	lethosor	Status	assigned => acknowledged
2019-06-30 01:29	hyndis	Note Added: 0039403
2019-06-30 01:38	hyndis	Note Added: 0039404