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 over do 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 buoybutton . Remember, you can right click on any button if you ever want a description of what it does.

3. A white square will indicate the future location of the buoy. Move the mouse around to indicate the location of your choice and then just click with the left mouse button to place the buoy.

Indicating where to place a buoy. Remember that a buoy should be placed on a water tile!

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

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

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