Ships waiting will sail to any dock that becomes free. If all docks and navigable waiting tiles are occupied ships will not enter the map.
Once a ship arrives, ships will go to the first waiting tile off the second-built dock, and so on.ĭocks have a second waiting tile, so if all the first tiles are occupied ships will head for the second waiting tile (if navigable) off the first-built dock, then off the second-built, and so on. This is not 'reserved', and so multiple ships may be sent to the same waiting tile. If all docks are occupied or reserved they head for the first waiting tile (if it is navigable) off the first-built dock. If the first-built dock is already occupied (or 'reserved' by another incoming ship) the next dock on the list is chosen. This is usually the first one you built, but it may not be if buildings placed before the first dock are deleted (or consumed by house merging) before building a second. Prefect Marty - ships sail to the dock which appears first on the buildings list. However, if you always had lots of furniture in the warehouse near the dock then that's evidence that C3 dockers behave differently (or that my observations of Pharaoh dockers are mistaken). I'd guess that C3 dockers would do the same. In Pharaoh, I'm pretty sure that dockers will get goods from a storage yard (warehouse) close to the dock if the storage yard always has plenty of those export goods.
If necessary, use warehouses set to get to move goods to and from the dock area, since warehouse cart pushers that are getting from another warehouse don't need a road connection (although they will use a road connection if one exists). Great Cornholio's suggestion (of disconnecting the dock area from the rest of the city) is an effective way to prevent dockers from going long distances. My recommendation is to make the trade center the warehouse that you would prefer for caravans (or perhaps dockers) to use, but design the city assuming that they will ignore the trade center designation. I think I observed caravans having a preference for going to the trade center, but caravans will sometimes go to another warehouse even when they could go to (and trade at) the trade center. I don't know if dockers pay attention to which warehouse is the trade center.