When I got to a quest site I made a hitching spot because I understand pen animals like horses (what I brought) may wander off without one. After I undrafted my colonists they hitched them. I dealt with the EMI interference, rejoice! Let's go home.
But they aren't. Turns out the problem was the hitch spot. They wouldn't unhitch the horses to leave. They loaded them but until I manually deconstructed the hitch the horses were wandering and the colonists wandering the edge of the map waiting for the horses. It took a while to figure out what was wrong. Is this a bug/known quirk?
Also, caravans in general are sort of annoying to deal with. It seems tricky to figure out why they aren't leaving. On the way to the site I had a similar problem. Turns out I said to bring 8 meals but someone grabbed one and I only had 7. I think I brought up a screen showing what was loaded and missing but I don't remember how I did. Any clues?
Edit: Okay, so I don't actually know why they didn't unhook the horses, that may still be a bug, but I see now that the intended way to leave a site is to use reform caravan once all threats are neutralized (which includes destroying or shutting down turrets). Then they just magically do everything instead of manually hauling. Also, having done a few more without caravan spots I haven't seen the pack animals wonder off. My best guess is that the game treats them differently or something. But I'm not 100% sure because when I got back home, some tried wandering off before being unloaded. Who knows.
I haven't had problems with caravan animals for quite a while. I hitch my horses on temporary maps to keep them simultaneously near the loot and out of lines of fire, but it shouldn't be necessary if you're only in a place for a short time. The last time I did one of those quests where you hack a holy relic/computer, I didn't bother hitching. As soon as I'd finished the hack, I had my pawns flee the map on foot and my horses followed automatically (ignored by the natives).
When you do use a hitch though, does it prevent you from leaving or is that just me? But yeah, I'll try not hitching them next time. I can see something like the reason they don't unhitch is because they're treated differently than pen animals when "caravaned" off colony and that also prevents them from randomly wandering off.
Asking that way.... Maybe it's been years since I've tried. Thinking back, other than the example I gave, I've only left by entering a shuttle or using the Reform Caravan button. That pops up the inventory screen and I'm pretty sure it includes all your animals and colonists by default. After that, you're instantly traveling on the world map--no exiting the temp map.
Alright. I figured out what may have happened. Having more experience under my belt I went to another site. I cleared it and the button didn't pop-up. Once the turret was neutralized it popped up. It's possible I was fleeing the first site because I didn't want to engage or I didn't kill something the game viewed as a threat that I didn't (like a turret). Also, I'm pretty sure I didn't destroy it, I think the battery and generators got destroyed in a fire so it powered down.