Now that you have some docks and a ship depot, it's time to place a few Water Transport Tiles. Buoys serve as waypoints for ships and there are two main reasons to use them:

• The ship Pathfinder might not be able to find a route between two docks;
• Navigating between two locations close to each other reduces the CPU load because there are less possible routes.

A buoy at sea.

Finding a suitable location

It's recommended to place buoys about every 20 tiles along the route that a ship should take. You might want to use a little more around complex bends. Don't overdo it, as you have to place every buoy in the ship's orders.

Placing a buoy

1. Open the Waterways construction toolbar by clicking the button.

The Waterways construction toolbar

2. Click on the Place buoy button . Remember, you can-right click on any button for a description of what it does.

3. A white square indicates where you will place the buoy. Move the cursor to where you want to place the buoy and click to place it.

Indicating where a buoy will be placed - remember to place it on a water tile!

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to place more buoys along the route.

A route between an Oil Rig and an Oil Refinery using two buoys.

That's all there is to placing a few buoys! Now, lets buy a ship.