New colony > next > next > next > Select random site > next > Prepare carefully > Start > Confirm.

Whenever I do this my drop pods at the beginning will vanish and I get an error, if i choose to start with my pawns standing they will sometimes just turn into different pawn than what I selected.

Assuming neither of those things happen, sometimes throughout the game a pawn will just vanish when performing an action like being drafted and whenever I go to the part of the map where they were my hud disappears.