automation

Automation is the set of systems that let your island run itself: vehicles can be assigned to jobs, buildings can react to supply and demand, and transport networks can prioritize or route materials without constant micromanagement. Good automation keeps mines, forests, power, recycling, and manufacturing flowing smoothly while reducing idle time and bottlenecks.

Control towers and area-based assignments

Several core automation systems work by defining an area and assigning vehicles to it.

Mine Control Tower

The Mine Control Tower assigns excavators and trucks to designated mine areas. Only mining designations inside the tower’s influence can be worked.

A working mine requires at least one excavator and one truck.
Additional vehicles increase mine output.
Vehicles cannot be assigned to multiple Mine Control Towers at the same time.
Trucks not assigned to the tower will never attempt to haul ore for excavators.
If trucks cannot unload cargo because there is no suitable destination, they return to the tower and idle.
Excavators also return to the tower when no reachable Mining Designations remain in the control area, and their trucks accompany them.

Terrain Leveling

Terrain Leveling combines mining and dumping designations into one tool.

If terrain is above the designation, excavators mine it.
If terrain is below the designation, trucks dump there.
It is useful for flattening land and building ramps.
Mining only works when the designation is inside a Mine Control Tower area.

Forestry Control Tower

The Forestry Control Tower assigns tree planters and tree harvesters to designated forestry areas.

Only designated forest areas within the tower’s influence can be used.
It lets you keep planting and harvesting machines focused on a specific woodland block.

Fuel Station

The Fuel Station lets assigned trucks refuel without manually shuttling them around.

Assigned trucks can be directed to the station for refueling.
The UI includes a toggle that allows or blocks non-assigned trucks from using the station.
Since only one vehicle can refuel at a time, it is efficient to reserve one station for refueling trucks and another for general access to reduce queues.

Fuel Station II

Fuel Station II automatically refuels excavators using assigned trucks.

Assigned trucks will refuel excavators so they do not waste time driving to refuel themselves.
It has a larger internal fuel tank and faster refueling than the earlier station.

Vehicle logistics and assignment

Automation in transportation is often about making sure the right vehicle goes to the right job and stays supplied.

Vehicles management

Vehicles management expands the available vehicle capacity on the island.

Vehicles depot

The Vehicles depot produces and manages vehicles such as trucks and excavators.

Mine and forest work loops

For excavation, forestry, and similar field operations, the main automation pattern is the same:

assign the work area to a control tower,
assign enough vehicles to keep the work moving,
ensure trucks can actually unload at the destination,
keep fuel and maintenance supplied.

Cargo Ship

The Cargo Ship departs automatically when enough cargo is waiting on the world map.

It collects cargo automatically and does not need to be assigned to individual mines or oil rigs.
It can carry multiple product types at the same time.
It leaves whenever any of its products need transport.
Larger ships are more fuel-efficient, and ship size upgrades automatically with Cargo Depot upgrades.

Cargo Depot

Cargo Depot automates the transport of resources located outside the island, such as crude oil.

This is the key logistics building for remote resource collection and off-island supply chains.

Maintenance and support automation

Machines and vehicles also need support products delivered automatically.

Maintenance Depot

The Maintenance Depot converts products into maintenance, which is then distributed to all machines, buildings, and vehicles that need it.

This is essential because insufficient maintenance can cause vehicles and machines to break temporarily.
It turns a general supply input into island-wide servicing.

Maintenance Output

Some facilities provide bonus maintenance production.

Power and turbine automation

Power systems benefit strongly from automated balancing.

Mechanical Power Storage

Mechanical Power Storage provides mechanical power storage and auto-balancing capability for turbines.

It helps smooth out turbine output.
It is especially useful with systems where steam turbines can restart with delay.

Turbine Control

Turbine Control is a manual enablement for steam turbines that prevents steam waste.

It automatically shuts a turbine off when there is a large excess of mechanical power on the shaft.
When shaft power drops, the turbine restarts.
Restarts are not instant, so the shaft should be paired with mechanical power storage for stable energy supply.

Material distribution and balancing

Many factories depend on automatic routing, priority handling, and product splitting.

Balancers

Balancers distribute flow between connected outputs and can apply priorities.

flat_balancer and molten_balancer distribute products using two input and two output ports.
They are used to split and prioritize flow in transport networks.
pipe_balancer distributes liquids and gases between connected pipes with priority handling.
u_shape_balancer distributes transport flow using two input and output ports.
flat_balancer and u_shape_balancer also support optional priority settings.

Sorters

Sorters separate selected products into dedicated outputs.

flat_sorter sends selected products to a separate port.
u_shape_sorter sorts selected products to a separate port.
These are useful for routing specific materials into specialized processing lines.

Stacker

The Stacker drops material from connected conveyor belts directly onto the terrain.

Transports balancing

Transports balancing automatically manages material flow on conveyors.

Recycling and waste automation

Recycling automation reduces raw mining demand and keeps materials in circulation.

Waste Sorting Plant

The Waste Sorting Plant processes recycled waste into reusable scrap.

Recycling can recover part of the raw materials originally used in colony, maintenance, or research products.
It reduces the need for raw mineral extraction and extends the life of deposits.
Recyclable buildings return a recycling product, which can be separated into scrap such as iron or copper waste.
That scrap can be sent to furnaces and melted down.
The recycling ratio is based on the island’s recycling efficiency.

Recycling

Recycling unlocks the ability to recycle reclaimed materials from facilities such as research buildings.

Recycling Edict

Recycling edicts increase the island’s overall recycling efficiency.

Biomass Collection

Biomass Collection gathers organic waste, usually food leftovers.

Without this module, organic waste is sent to general waste.

Shredder

The Shredder breaks products back down into loose material.

Compactor

The Compactor presses bulk items into compact units for easier transport.

The Shredder can restore compacted products to their uncompressed state.

Industrial processing automation

A lot of factories are automation tools themselves: they take one input and produce a more usable intermediate or finished product.

Mixer

The Mixer is a high-power general-purpose material mixer.

Concrete Mixer

The Concrete Mixer is a high-power mixer that produces concrete.

Alloy Mixer

The Alloy Mixer mixes two molten metals into a uniform, high-quality alloy.

Crusher and Crusher Large

The Crusher turns ore into finer material for advanced processing.

Crusher Large is a larger crusher with better efficiency and increased throughput.

Cooled Caster

The Cooled Caster casts molten material into plates and uses water cooling to speed up the process.

Blast Furnace

The Blast Furnace smelts materials such as iron or copper and outputs them in molten form.

Molten output cannot be transported by truck and must be sent through molten transport to a Caster.

Electrolyzer

The Electrolyzer breaks a product into simpler substances using electricity.

Microchip Machine

The Microchip Machine is one of the most sophisticated production processes on the island.

A thin monocrystalline wafer is slowly transformed into a matrix of microchips.
The chips are built from many layers, with each layer placed at nanometer precision.
The process takes place in a special ultraviolet chamber where light-reactive substances form the layers.
Microchips typically pass through many stages, including washing and coating.
Small setups can be connected in a loop with a sorter.

Glass Making

Glass Making provides glass production.

Fermentation Tank

The Fermentation Tank uses microorganisms to convert sugars into useful products such as ethanol.

Anaerobic Digester

The Anaerobic Digester uses microorganisms to break down biomass anaerobically to produce fuel and fertilizer.

Food Processor

The Food Processor can produce different kinds of food from a variety of supplied ingredients.

Fuel and oil processing automation

Fuel systems are often balanced by conversion, cracking, and distillation chains.

Cracking Unit

The Cracking Unit transforms different fuel types into each other to help balance consumption.

Basic Distiller

The Basic Distiller allows distillation of low-grade diesel, but it is inefficient and produces a lot of waste.

Advanced Diesel

Advanced Diesel is an efficient process for diesel production and more.

Distillation Stage II

Distillation Stage II adds an extra distillation step to expand oil processing capabilities.

Basic Diesel

Basic Diesel enables extraction and conversion of the island’s limited oil reserves into fuel, but it is not very efficient.

Oil Rig

The Oil Rig provides crude oil when assigned with workers.

Oil Pump

The Oil Pump pumps crude oil from underground.

Waste gas and byproduct handling

Automation is also used to keep production from stalling when byproducts accumulate.

Exhaust Scrubber

The Exhaust Scrubber filters pollutants from hot exhaust gases and extracts useful resources.

Boiler gas

In petrochemical chains, leftover gases from cracking and rubber production must be removed so refining does not idle when outputs fill.

A common use is to divert them to Steam (High) generation and High-Pressure Turbines.
Flaring is an alternative disposal method.
Flaring produces the same air pollution per unit input as this machine, but it does not produce Steam (High) for use in refining or power generation.

Research, computing, and internet automation

Some automated systems depend on computing or research support.

Research Lab

The Research Lab performs more advanced research but requires a constant supply of lab equipment.

Additional labs increase research speed.
If recycling technology has been researched, the lab can return consumed products as recyclable material.

Mainframe Computer

The Mainframe Computer provides the computing resources needed for automatic production lines, microelectronics facilities, and similar buildings.

Internet Module

The Internet Module connects the settlement to the cloud and consumes computing power to do so.

Office

The Office uses the island population to generate Focus Points, which can be spent on bonuses.

Blueprints and planning

Blueprints

Blueprints allow you to create, import, and use planned layouts.

This is especially useful for repeating automated factory blocks, where exact placement and routing matter.

Support systems for transport layouts

A few additional buildings help shape efficient automation networks.

custom_surfaces allow surfaces such as concrete to be placed, reducing the parts consumption of vehicles moving over them.
mechanical_power_storage and turbine_control form a reliable automatic power loop for steam turbine systems.
cargo_depot and cargo_ship handle remote resource logistics.
balancers and sorters keep conveyor and pipe networks from clogging or starving.

Practical automation principles

A strong automation design in Captain of Industry usually follows a few simple rules:

Keep extraction, transport, and processing tied together.
Use control towers to limit vehicle work to the area that matters.
Make sure trucks can unload before sending more material.
Add maintenance and fuel support early so machines do not stall.
Use balancers and sorters to route byproducts before they fill up a chain.
Pair steam turbines with mechanical power storage so restart delays do not destabilize the grid.
Build recycling into your production chain so waste becomes feedstock instead of landfill.

Automation is what turns isolated buildings into a functioning industrial system. The more your lines can supply, route, balance, and recover materials on their own, the less time you spend rescuing stalled production and the more time you spend expanding.