Quick question concerning X3:AP PHQ ship production

[davecessna]

Silly question, but I can't find anything on Google. I've reached the point in my game where I have a self-sufficient PHQ supply complex running and have started a test production run on the first Aamon Prototype.

My question is, do ships out of the PHQ always carry a credit cost on top of the materials?

[Jimmy C]

Yes, that fee is part of the ship's cost.

[patient zero]

The cost of labour adds nothing to the value of a product. If you plan to resell your ships, the M5s will produce a nice profit but anything larger will probably cause you to lose credits.

[Gersidi]

Honestly, aside from building Arans, or the occasional Q or something, save your cash and buy the ships.

I have 5 Arans In my AP game. I cap Zeus's in lasting vengeance and recycle them (takes 3 to build 1 Aran).

[Jimmy C]

The Production capability of the PHQ should be saved for ships that can't be bought or captured practically in the game.

At this point, the only ship type I care enough to build is the Atmospheric Lifter. Useful but too much of a bother to capture.

Everything else? Rarely worth the time to build.

[ancienthighway]

That's one option, but it may not work for everyone for various reasons.

I build the Falcon Hauler in mass to replace losses in my fleets. Sure I could buy them at 2.2 mil credits each. But I can build them at 1.3 mil if I buy all the resources at average prices. Build all the resources at the price drops basically to nothing one the infrastructure is set up. Chances are you are already making the required resources as a cash product anyway.

Big ships on the other hand will be bought. If I need one, I need it right now, not after a lengthy construction time.

[davecessna]

You guys were bang on. The reason I asked was because once I saw the ships also still cost money, the only ships that really made sense to build were ones I couldn't buy.

Thanks!

[hisazul]

Like people say... you aren't really saving much by using PHQ to make ships. Between resources and money you end up paying a bit less but nothing astronomical... well most of the time. Bigger drawback is the time... if you can buy the ship then it's instant... building can take A LONG time and it can't be done in bulk. One at a time is pretty much the biggest fault of the system.

But aside from things you can't buy... some things take almost nothing to produce and they can be built fast. Example would be most of m5's. Some like deca and N take 2 minutes with change. Considering they cost about 10k credits and 2-3 resources... they can be used as cannon fodder or pseudo drones.

Recycling 1 L gives you enough to make 7 or 8 N's and have a bunch of left over resources. Recycling LX gives you enough for a bit over 50 N's. Taking a Pteranodon to a xenon sector gives you so many bailed xenon fighters you will be glad for vast hanger bays that thing sports.


For me... I end up with A LOT of spare materials from all the xenon captures and it all gets used for either repairs or replacing things. The only way I would ever put a damp in my ship resources stash is if I lost one of my Valhallas... but considering my Valhallas roam in packs of 3.... that will never happen.

[Jimmy C]

If you need resources in a hurry for your PHQ, just take combat missions. If you capture the ships for recycling, that will set you up for quite a while.