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Old Dec 23 2016, 09:00 AM
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Tiger Tiger is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 12 2010
Location: UK but i'd rather be somewhere hot and sunny :) with a swimming pool!
Posts: 9,356
Default How do I Dispatch my Ship?

How do I Dispatch my Ship?

Once you have prepared as many containers as you want for your ship and the progress is done. Click on the ship and "Show Ship Details". Make sure you are in the Ship Containers tab (it should be highlighted orange). If your ship is ready to Dispatch you will see "Dispatch Ship" top right of the box. Click on it to dispatch your Ship.

The following picture shows you a ship with all 10 containers loaded.
At the bottom of the picture it tells you how long you have left to dispatch your ship.



NOTE: Dispatching a Ship uses Fuel!
The fuel consumption when you Dispatch a Ship is calculated with this formula:
Number of containers x 20 x port count in the itinerary.
So if you prepared 5 containers, and the Ship has 30 ports in the itinerary, the total fuel required will be 5 x 20 x 30 = 3000
.

The following is a picture showing you your ship is dispatched, what containers are loaded on it and how many products have been loaded so far. Top right of the box tells you who's Port your ship is docked at. At the bottom of the box it tells you when the ship will be returning.



Once the Ship is Dispatched, you can check the progress of the ship, in the Ships Logbook. It will show you the 30 neighbours it will visit and the order it will visit them in.


Each of those neighbours will have a Port. The Ship will remain on each Port until the neighbour work on it by Loading it with products using the Seaport Manager tool. After that, it will sail automatically to the next Port in the itinerary. The products loaded will not come from the neighbour inventory, but from the Mayor. A Dispatched ship by default will appear semi-transparent in the farm, but unlike the trains, it can be freely moved around the farm like any other item.

- The amount of products Loaded on the Ship at each Port increases with each additional Port visited. As the Ship sails from Port to Port it will be more difficult for you to get that particular neighbour to Load your Ship and send it to the next port, because those neighbours that are farther away in your Ship's itinerary are the ones that play less frequently, and therefore are less active. However when one of those less active neighbours do Load your Ship, the amount of Loaded Products will be higher.

- The Ship will return to its home Port after all the neighbours' Ports in the itinerary have been visited or 7 days have passed since you started the Preparation of the Ship. Then you will be able to Unload the Ship and all the carried Products will be added to your Storage.

- A fully Prepared Ship carrying the 10 containers, which also completes the full voyage throughout the 30 Ports, will bring the same amount of Products as a fully loaded Train that includes all the Freight Cars, however this will be extremely difficult to achieve, so owning the trains will still be a significant advantage because with the trains, the effort and time required is very little. With the Ships, you don't have to spend farm cash, but the effort and time required will be much higher. If you play 1 or 2 hours a day you will be able to prepare 2 or 3 containers per Ship, if you have few active neighbours, the Ship will not travel far and will bring fewer products.

What is the Ship's Logbook?

This sections tells you the status of your ship. When it is dispatched you can see the neighbours your ship will be travelling to by clicking on the "Ships Logbook" tab. It will show you where your ship is, how long it has been there, and who it will travel to next.

The top right of the Ships logbook just tells you what your neighbour needs to do to help you.

Boxes with a White background are the ports your ship will visit.
Boxes with a Green background are the ports already visited and have loaded products.
Boxes with a Grey background are the ports you have skipped. No products were loaded at that port.
Boxes with a Pink Background are ports that have been disabled AFTER your ship was dispatched. This means your neighbour has disabled their port. You will have to ask them if they have done it temporarily, for say a vacation, or that they are not participating in the ships feature of the game. Disabled ports in your Ships Logbook look like this >>



When you hover over that port you will see "This port is out of service"


The ship will automatically skip that port and move to the next port in the itinerary that is currently enabled.


Why am I seeing a Skip Port in the Logbook after I have dispatched my ship?
  • If your 1st port is closed you will see this, you need to manually skip it so the ship can move on to the next port.
  • If you skip a port before a closed port, that closed port will then show up with a red Skip Port button.
This allows you to check if your friend has temporarily closed their port. Click "Skip Port" to skip them. Always check your itinerary for any closed ports just before you dispatch it and then make sure the 1st port is not closed.






Last edited by Tiger; Oct 12 2023 at 08:15 AM.