District Crossing

A District Crossing is the structure that connects two Districts and lets goods move between them. It replaced the older District Gate, Distribution Post, and Drop-off Point by combining their functions into one building. Each crossing has two independently selectable sides, and each side belongs to a different District with its own inventory and workers, so it effectively behaves like two separate buildings built as one.

The crossing is central to inter-district logistics. Opening the Distribution window from a crossing lets you configure how each kind of good is handled. For goods that a District should receive, use Import if needed or Import always. Import always tries to keep the 30-slot inventory for that item full, while Import if needed begins importing only when storage runs low. For goods that the District should not receive, use Do not import. This prevents crossing workers from hauling unwanted items and helps avoid goods bouncing back and forth between connected Districts.

Each good also has an export slider that controls how much of that good the District keeps. By default it is set all the way left, meaning the District exports everything it can. Moving the slider to the right increases the amount retained locally. Setting a good to 100% means the District keeps all of it and does not export that resource. This is useful when one District is meant to act as a supplier and another as a consumer, or when you want to prevent connected Districts from draining a resource that is needed locally.

In practice, a well-configured crossing can greatly improve trade efficiency:

• Use Import always for essential goods such as food, water, and basic construction materials.
• Use Do not import for goods the District does not use, or for goods it already produces in excess.
• Build large storage near both sides of the crossing so workers spend less time walking and more time moving cargo.
• If a District is intended to pass goods through to another District, keep sufficient storage on both the import and export sides and use the warehouse options that support inter-warehouse supply and retrieval.
• Multiple District Crossings can be built between the same two Districts, allowing more than 10 crossing workers in total.

When establishing a new District, it is efficient to build a bypass road around the crossing while construction is underway, and delay the new District Center until the crossing is ready. This helps keep expansion moving without blocking traffic during setup.

The crossing’s throughput depends on several factors: the number of crossing workers on the fetching side, the distance they must travel, and how much of the resource is available on both sides relative to total storage. Because of that, crossings can become slow when one District has a large amount of storage and the other has very little.