I made three small mods to make Py's caravans less painful, and keeping them on three pages got silly, so here they are together. Everything can be switched off, so take only what you want.

Features

Small hitboxes

Every caravan variant (caravans, flyavans, fluidavans, nukavans and their turd versions) gets a tiny hitbox and turns instantly. They glide through tight spaces and spaghetti without snagging on buildings, so no more stopping mid-job or spinning in place. Bonus: placing poles, inserters and the like around them is much easier.

It doesn't change their AI, health or clickboxes, and it doesn't touch biters or anything else.

Caravan speed, live in the game

Set the speed of ground caravans (caravans and fluidavans), flyavans (flyavans and fluid flyavans) and nukavans, turd versions included. Type a number, press Apply and every caravan in your game gets that speed right away, the ones you already placed too. Caravans you build later get it as well. No restart, no picking anything up. Only the movement speed changes, so the walking animation stays smooth. Everything starts at 1x, so nothing changes until you use it.

Turd speed for older caravans

When you pick the caravan turd in the Creature chamber upgrade, Py only changes the recipe: the caravans you already placed stay slow until you pick each one up, convert it and place it again. With this mod they all walk at the turd speed as soon as your force picks it, and old caravans you place later get it too. Nothing to set. It changes the base speed, so your multiplier stays what you typed (1x stays 1x). The bottom of the Better Caravan settings window says "All caravans adjusted for turd speed" or "Caravan turd not researched".

Idle caravans

Caravans that have nothing to do (just placed, out of food, or couldn't find a path) normally pace around in circles. With this they stand still and get a yellow warning icon, so you can find the ones that glitched and set up new ones easily.

• The icon can show only in alt mode.
• Idle caravans can also show up in the alerts panel next to the minimap (click one to jump to it). It is off by default, and a caravan that Py already alerts about (like "Caravan out of food") doesn't get a second entry.
• Caravans in my Caravan Swarm are left alone while they wait for work.

Caravan Swarm (optional)

If you also use my Caravan Swarm (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/py-caravan-swarm), which runs your outposts' caravans for you, install it next to this one. It is not required, and Better Caravans works fine alone. Idle caravans that belong to the swarm are left alone by the idle check.

Getting started

Click Better Caravan settings in the shortcut bar (the row of buttons at the bottom of the screen). If it isn't there, add it from the shortcut bar's selection menu. The window has the three speed boxes with Apply and Reset to 1x, how many caravans you have and how many are idle, and the idle options, and at the bottom whether your caravans have turd speed. Everything in it changes right away.

The one thing that needs a restart is Small caravan hitboxes (on/off), because it changes the game's data. That one is in Settings > Mod settings > Startup, and the window shows whether it is on.

Coming from the old mods? This replaces Py Caravan Hitbox Fix, Pyanodon's Idle Caravans and Pyanodon's Caravan Speed Multiplier. Their last updates are empty and just pull this one in, so you can remove them after. Speed and the idle options are now set in the Better Caravan settings window, so type your old speed there once.

FAQ

Does it cost UPS?

No UPS cost for the hitbox part, and the speed only costs something for the moment you press Apply. The idle check runs twice a second and is spread over those half seconds, so even hundreds of caravans don't cause a stutter.

A caravan stands still with a warning icon. Why?

It has nothing to do: no schedule, no food, or no path. Give it a schedule or food and it walks again. The icon goes away by itself.

Can I turn the stopping off but keep the icons?

Switch off "Stop idle caravans from pacing". Caravans that already stand still keep their icon until they get a job. Pacing ones are left alone.

Do the speed settings carry over from the old speed mod?

No, speed is set in the game now. Type your old value into the window once.

I picked the caravan turd. Do I have to convert all my caravans?

No. Within 10 seconds of picking the turd every older caravan gets the turd speed, and old caravans you place later get it too. The bottom of the Better Caravan settings window confirms it. Only the speed changes, not health.

Feedback and bug reports

Bug reports and ideas are welcome in the Discussion tab. For a bug, please say which of the parts (hitboxes, speed or idle caravans) it is about and which other caravan mods you run.

Credits

Pyanodon's Alien Life and its caravans are the work of the Pyanodon team. Better Caravans builds on their work and is not an official Pyanodon mod.

AI disclosure

Pyanodon's Better Caravans was made with the help of AI. The code was written with Anthropic's Claude under my direction. I designed how it works, made every decision and tested it in my own Pyanodon game.