controls

A control setup determines which vehicles and mining tasks are linked to a specific Mine Control Tower or Fuel Station. Managing these assignments correctly keeps mines productive and prevents vehicles from idling or queuing at the wrong place.

Mine Control Tower control area

The control area is the region of land where a Mine Control Tower’s mining designations and vehicle assignments apply.

When a tower is first built, it creates a default control area immediately in front of the tower, facing the direction the tower is oriented. You can change this area at any time by opening the tower UI, selecting Edit Area, and then left-click-dragging a new region.

The control area has these rules:

• The maximum size is 49 designations on either side, or 196 tiles.
• It is always rectangular and aligned to the map grid.
• It can extend to any distance from the tower.
• It does not have to stay in front of the tower, even though the default area starts there.

Depending on camera angle and terrain slope, the area may look trapezoidal, but its actual shape is always rectangular.

When the tower UI is open, the selected tower’s control area is shown in yellow, while all other towers’ areas are shown in gray.

Vehicle assignments

Vehicles are assigned through the Mine Control Tower UI by clicking the plus symbol next to the desired vehicle type.

The number shown after the slash indicates how many vehicles of that type are still available for assignment because they are not already assigned elsewhere. A vehicle can only be assigned to one Mine Control Tower, Fuel Station, or other exclusive building assignment at a time.

Mining requirements

A working mine requires at least:

• 1 excavator
• 1 truck

Adding more vehicles increases mine output. Trucks that are not assigned to the tower will not haul ore for its excavators.

Fuel Station access toggle

The Fuel Station has an access toggle that controls whether non-assigned trucks may use that station to refuel.

By default, non-assigned trucks are allowed to refuel there. Since only one vehicle can refuel at a time, it is efficient to split fuel access between stations:

• one station reserved for refueling trucks
• one station open to all vehicles

This helps prevent long queues that can leave excavators short on fuel.