Big ship has no path or will not stop: check these in order
- Is the ship large? Harbors have landing areas in two sizes, and a large ship can only stop at a large one. The manual's vehicle page repeats the same limit for docks. The ship list below shows which ships are large.
- Does every landing sit in the water? A new harbor has three parts: the landing area, which must sit in navigable water; the harbor building and its pier, which can stand partly on land and partly over water; and the street access, which must be on solid ground.
- Can the ship get from its shipyard to the line? A shipyard has to stand near navigable water, and a ship you buy for a line needs a way through navigable water from that shipyard to the line's first stop.
- Was it bought at the right shipyard? Vehicles cannot be moved from one depot to another, so buy each ship at a shipyard that can reach its line. A ship you send back to a depot goes to the nearest shipyard it can reach, not necessarily the one it came from.
- Read the warnings. When a vehicle cannot reach a stop or a terminal, the line gets a problem icon in the line manager, and the warnings at the top of the screen list it. Changing tracks or signals can cause this later.
If the ship gets there but its cargo stays on board, the stop may not take that cargo: see why cargo won't unload.
How harbors work
Harbors can only go along the shore. They snap to the coastline by themselves; hold Shift while you place one to stop the snapping. The three parts of a new harbor are in step 2 of the checks above.
Each landing area is a terminal where ships stop, and one harbor can have several. While you place them, a yellow anchor marks each landing.
The manual lists a single harbor type, the Passenger and Cargo Harbor, available from 1900. Depending on the station type, a terminal can be for passengers only or for cargo only. Harbors make no such split, but large ships can only use large landings. The manual's vehicle page, revised a day earlier, still says that only cargo harbors handle the loading and unloading of cargo. So the manual is not consistent here; the harbor it lists is meant for passengers and cargo alike.
Shipyards and repairs
Ships are bought at a shipyard. Depots and shipyards are the only places that sell vehicles. The manual lists the shipyard from 1900. Where it has to stand and which shipyard to buy from are steps 3 and 4 of the checks above.
A shipyard also repairs ships within a small radius around it. A water maintenance building, also available from 1900, repairs passing ships over a wider radius, but it does not sell ships.
When ships arrive in your game depends on the start year: see when vehicles unlock.
Ship lines and routes
Ships, like trains and road vehicles, always pick the shortest way between two stops. To send a ship another way, add a waypoint to its line: while you edit the line, hold Shift and click a valid spot along the way. The ship has to pass the waypoint but never stops there.
If a ship's line may use other landings as alternatives, the ship chooses one at the waiting point just outside the harbor. The departure options are Load if available, Full load (any) and Full load (all). In the base game only trains and ships tell any from all; every other vehicle waits until it is full with either.
Some ships carry several cargo types at once, others only one type at a time; when the cargo changes, the ship is refitted at the stop. Power sets how fast a ship speeds up and its top speed. The game also works out water resistance from the hull's shape, a value the interface does not show. To plan what a ship should carry, the production chain planner shows which industry needs which cargo.
