NN...
I've never experienced the bug and am convinced like a few others that those who do are either keeping their lance too close to the convoy or are unintentionally blocking the pathway at one point or another that triggers this... ...By judiciously positioning this 'escort' slightly behind or off to the side of the last vehicle I can also get them there in a tighter group so the forward elements are minimally exposed to fire while waiting for the stragglers. ...or maybe I've just been lucky.
I’ve been bit by this bug, maybe a dozen times... but then I’ve played over 5,000 hours and counting, so it’s to be expected that I’ve seen such thing a bunch of times.
First off, you are right Good Sir. I got bit most often early on when I stepped on, in and among my convoys. Like you, I discovered Ariosto ways and means to mitigate such disruption. For me it is an LEM Mech “slightly behind and off to the side” of the last vehicle, but in my variant I also keep a second LRM Mech, maybe Long Range Direct Fire Mech, slightly in front but well, well to the side. This second Mech is so it can be easily “seen” by convoy vehicles but NEVER impede them in their race for the Landing Zone.
And you’ve nailed it on the head Good Sor. Just as you, I and others can take steps to mitigate and reduce/eliminate this bug occurring, others might be inadvertently ramping up and dramatically increasing their odds of it occurring.
it is not their fault and I don’t think anyone does this intentionally but to me the message in-game that the convoy “has lost sight” of the Player’s Mechs when clearly they are RIGHT THERE, well... this engenders a large measure of frustration, bordering on rage sometimes (I know this for a stone-cold certainty because precisely this has happened to me maybe three times.)
Any how, I think your lucky too as I would think the bug would have bit you given sufficient time in the game.
But reset assured, with the comprehensive and multi-pronged approach to solving the Convoy AI Problem that HBS is bringing us with Update 1.9, you may soon never get to experience what so much of us have. And that is a good thing. : )