Dispatch centers

By default, stations within 4 km of each other share their units. Stations farther apart stand alone. A dispatch center lets you decide.

How range works

Every building has a call radius of 4 km. Calls appear within 4 km of a building. A call that needs several services, such as a car fire that needs fire and police, only appears if the units are in range of each other.

Build a center

A Dispatch Center is free, and you can own one for every 10 buildings. It has no vehicles and no range of its own.

A dispatch center is a group, not a place. You choose which stations belong to it, at any distance. The units of every station in the group count for a call around any of those stations. A fire station and a police station on opposite sides of the city can answer car fires together. A station that is not in the group is out of range, even if it is next door.

Put a station in a group

New stations start with None. Open a station's panel and pick its dispatch center. The Build menu has a Dispatch center field at the top and remembers the last one you used, so new stations go straight into that group.

When you select a center, a dashed circle on the map shows where new calls can appear around each of its stations.

Pause new calls

A center's panel has a Pause new calls switch. Open calls carry on, but no new ones appear around the stations of that group. This is useful when you want to take a break in one part of the map.

Show call areas on the map closes the panel and draws the areas where the group's stations get calls.

Selling a center

Selling a center removes its stations from the group. The stations stay.