The Shipping Office

A good shipowner sleeps soundly — his orders are in the Freight Ledger, and the sea knows the way.

TL;DR: The Shipping Office turns your trade routes into routes that think for themselves: more slots, and freight rules that only load when it is worth it. All for routes to your own islands.

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What the Shipping Office is #

The Shipping Office is a late-game building that automates and steers your existing automatic trade routes. It unlocks the Freight Ledger and lets you attach freight rules to routes.

• Prerequisites: harbor level 10 and Trading Post level 5
• It manages what you already know — the automatic routes from the Trade tab
• Freight rules apply only to routes to your own islands

The Shipping Office does not invent new trade. It takes the routes you already run and makes them smarter.

More route slots #

Without a Shipping Office you run up to three automatic routes per island. The Shipping Office lifts that limit: every fourth level grants one more slot — from three up to eight at full expansion.

• Levels 1 to 3: 3 routes
• Levels 4 to 7: 4 routes
• Levels 8 to 11: 5 routes
• Levels 12 to 15: 6 routes
• Levels 16 to 19: 7 routes
• Level 20: 8 routes

The route overview shows how many slots you occupy (Routes: used / maximum).

Freight rules #

A freight rule tells a route when and how much to load. In this first stage there are two rules. You set them when creating or editing a route, under Freight rules (optional). Important: freight rules apply only to routes to your own islands. A route without a rule ships exactly as before.

Reserve minimum #

Reserve at source keeps a minimum stock of a resource at home. The route ships only the surplus above it.

An example: you want to hold back wood for an upcoming upgrade. Set a minimum kept of 2000 for that resource — now the route ships only what sits above 2000. With 3200 in store, 1200 sail; drop to 2000 or below and everything stays home.

Storage pressure #

The Only under storage pressure rule fires a route only once the source island's storehouse is filling toward the brim. You set the fill level at which it kicks in.

An example: your stone keeps overflowing overnight because the warehouse is full. Set a storage-pressure rule so the route only ships once the warehouse is nearly full. When stock is low it waits, and leaves you the stone for your own building.

You can attach both rules to the same route — for instance, ship only under storage pressure while still holding back a minimum.

Load everything #

Instead of fixed amounts you can choose "Load everything" for a route: on every trip the ships take along whatever sits above your reserve -- until their holds are full. If less than half a small shipload is ready, the trip stays at home so that no empty ships sail.

For each resource you tick what should travel and enter the reserve that stays at home next to it. "Load everything" applies only to routes to your own islands and needs no Shipping Office. Below the route you can read what the next trip would load right now -- or that it will not sail because too little is ready.

You can now edit existing routes instead of deleting them -- and with "Copy" create a route for another of your islands in one step.

Circuit routes #

A trade route no longer has to sail straight to a single island. With the Shipping Office you can send it through your own intermediate stations: the fleet leaves the home island, calls at your chosen stations one after another, and finally returns home — that is one run.

• When you plan the route, you assign each station its share of the cargo. The fleet calls at the stations in turn and unloads exactly that share at each one — right where you need it.
• Every unit of cargo has exactly one destination station; there is no cargo without a destination — but outbound freight is not mandatory.
• How many intermediate stations a run may call at depends on your Shipping Office level: up to level 4 a route sails straight to its target, from level 5 the first intermediate station becomes possible — and every fourth level beyond adds one more, up to four from level 17.
• Like the freight rules, circuit routes work only between your own islands.

At each station the route can also take on return freight. This still follows your freight rules — a reserve stays a reserve, and only the surplus sails back home. A run that is only meant to collect sets out even without outbound freight — it is enough that at least one station has something to load; the return freight then follows your freight rules as always.

If a station is lost along the way — say, an island changes hands — the run does not break off. Its cargo stays safely aboard and sails home, and your logbook tells you in one sentence why the station was skipped.

If a run comes home and your home warehouse is already full, it cannot take all of the return freight: whatever finds no room is lost. A message then tells you what no longer fit — so keep space free in your warehouse or expand it.

The Freight Ledger #

The Freight Ledger is your overview of every route on an island. It shows throughput and the storage trend at a glance — and for each route, whether a rule is attached, when the next delivery is due, and what state it is in.

• Which routes carry a freight rule
• When the next departure is scheduled
• Whether a route is active, waiting for condition, or paused

A route waiting on a rule is not paused — it is simply waiting for the right moment. The Freight Ledger keeps the two clearly apart.

Auto-pause #

If you are away for a long time, your routes pause themselves so no ships sail for nothing and nothing is wasted. When you come back, a message points you to the paused route — you simply set it going again. Nothing runs on while you are gone, and nothing is lost in the meantime.