Where to put my PHQ ?

[manniac]

Although I played X games for a very long time, only in my current X3AP gameplay I actually got the PHQ. I understand is a very cool piece of gear that allows me to build ships and reverse engineer them.

Anyway, question becomes, where is a good spot to drop this baby ? I already have the hub, but I don't know how to use it properly, reading through different posts, lots of player seem to drop it in the Unknown Sector east of Legends home.

That sounds like a very good idea, except some have warned that the sector is the theater of a battle later, during some plot which I haven't done yet. Any suggestion please ?

[Alan Phipps]

That later plot battle happens wherever your PHQ is located so choose the best location for it that you can but with that future threat in mind perhaps.

[jlehtone]

There are considerations.

• Owner race of the sector. If you ever go to war with the host ...
• Name/location. Do you want to quickly reach the PHQ's sector? Then you want to get to the sector on galaxy map with minimum number of keypresses.
• Location. Who is likely to fly by? Harmless tourists or ships of war?
• Connections. Jumping there and back consumes fuel. That favors central location, but with the Xenon Hub the galaxy map got fancy.
• Resources. Building ships, equipping ships. I prefer to haul with CLS from elsewhere.

[AleksMain]

There are considerations.

• Owner race of the sector. If you ever go to war with the host ...
• Name/location. Do you want to quickly reach the PHQ's sector? Then you want to get to the sector on galaxy map with minimum number of keypresses.
• Location. Who is likely to fly by? Harmless tourists or ships of war?
• Connections. Jumping there and back consumes fuel. That favors central location, but with the Xenon Hub the galaxy map got fancy.
• Resources. Building ships, equipping ships. I prefer to haul with CLS from elsewhere.

I, for example, set my PHQ in the PTNI Headquarters sector.

It belongs to Teladi, which maintain a neutral stance towards all the other races.

The system is guarded by the NMMC's security arm as well as Teladi Company ships.

There is Jump Beacon, which is used by ships, jumping to my Equipment Dock, my PHQ, Teladi Shipyard, etc.

Teladi Shipyard of PTNI Headquarters is very useful as source of capital trash ships, using by me for Recycling purposes.

Teladi Space Equipment Dock can be used to equip ships.

[ancienthighway]

Racial excursions will never attack player owned facilities or ships except in the war zones, so unless you have made an enemy of one of the races or plan to do so, it doesn't matter.

I've always been partial to Light of Heart for my PHQ. I tend to build a lot of complexes in Aladna's Hill with it's plentiful mining opportunity. Besides the shipyard and equipment dock there, 2 more shipyards and a corporate headquarters are located 3 jumps away, and access to Teladi, Split, Boron and Paranid equipment docks is just another jump or two further. The occasional pirate fighter group that may make it that far is quickly destroyed by the Argon Fleet. The Teladi will rarely attack pirates.

[Jimmy C]

Related to the central location thing. Two sectors are close to the central sector of Aladna Hill but not owned by any major races, the unknown sector west of Clarity's End and Hatikvah's Faith.
But the best location in the end would be the player sector that connects Heretic's End and Void of Opportunity. But since it'll take time to get that sector in your hands, another location in the meantime is a good idea.
For myself, I have selected Savage Spur for my primary complex in my next game for various reasons. I am thinking of putting the PHQ there until I can move it to the player sector. This way, all the processor-intensive stuff will be contained to a single sector.

[ajax34i]

Regarding the Hub, once you completely finish its plot, you should "have" it in that all three of its gate pairs can be reconfigured. Each gate pair can be inserted to interrupt the wormhole tunnel that connects regular gates to each other.

So, for example:

Code: Select all

Kingdom End, South gate <---> Three Worlds, North gate.

Insert the Hub:

Code: Select all

Kingdom End, South gate <---> Hub, North gate
                              Hub, South gate <---> Three Worlds, North gate.

Also,

Code: Select all

Queen's Retribution, East gate <---> Hollow Infinity, West gate.

Insert the Hub again:

Code: Select all

Queen's Retribution, East gate <---> Hub, West gate
                                     Hub, East gate <---> Hollow Infinity, West gate.

So now, Boron traffic in the NW corner of the map can enter your Hub, turn West, and exit in Queen's Retribution, crossing from one corner of the map to the other corner with just 1 hop. I believe all the trader NPCs will really like this short route and will use it immediately.

Code: Select all

                   Kingdom End
                          |
Queen's Retribution ---- HUB --- Hollow Infinity
                          |
                     Three Worlds

For another use of the Hub, realize that Xenon warships like to roam from one of the Xenon sectors to another Xenon sector. So if you look at the map, the zones in the east and northeast are somewhat in danger of roaming Xenon ships. However, if you use the Hub to connect the Xenon sectors directly to the other Xenon sectors, all the Xenons will "roam" through your Hub, leaving those regular sectors you've just bypassed more secure than Argon Prime. So you can build industry and factories there and no longer fear periodic destruction by Xenon Q's.

Of course, your Hub facility will be attacked.

[jlehtone]

I currently have that "unite the Boron corners", but the third Hub pair is at Zyarth's, who are otherwise isolated. By reading your description I realized that I have given the Split family two options: reach out through the Xenon (the default) or through the Boron.

[UnknownObject]

I'm playing as a Terran Commander and my PHQ sector is Saturn. One can buy a Jumpdrive, a Transporter device, other needed equipment, repair ships at the Shipyard, load Energy Cells into a big ship (Orbital Supply Station) or a small ship (Solar Power Plant) - not leaving the sector. If there is a Jump Beacon in the sector - it's good, if there isn't - capture it. But it can be laggy in the sector.

Generally, it seems that players' choices are very variable.

Owner race of the sector. If you ever go to war with the host ...

Once I had got a bad Terran rating, and my HQ was safe and sound.

[Jimmy C]

Your stations may be safe in such situations, but getting ships to and from them would be risky.

[MrFiction]

My PHQ is in the unknown sector east of unseen domain. It's nowhere close to anything, even crossing unseen domain to get there takes a long time.

This sector isn't practical if you want a nearby ED, shipyard or other equipment. I still chose it because I like the music, the planets in the background and it's kinda cool to have a secluded part of the universe where no one bothers you.

[jlehtone]

I was forced to wait for something else, so decided to play with:
Dijkstra's algorithm
Graphviz

The latter has the former. Wrote the galaxy map in graphviz's dot-format and then asked questions:
If my HQ is in sector X, how far is everything?
If the Xenon Hub links Y, Z, and W, will it shrink the X-Universe?

Not difficult to do. What is a "segmentation fault"?


I do know segfault, but not what in my new grand plan causes it.

[Astronoid]

In my previous game mine was in Bala Gi' Joy, but it was an unpleasant location, random pirates always spawned in and started tearing it down. This time, when I get there I'd like to put it in the US east of Mists of Elysium. It seems to be a calm place, the background is astonishing imo, I like the music, too. And I'll connect it with the Hub anyways, so being on the edge of the map isn't a big problem.

[phoenix-it]

I do know segfault, but not what in my new grand plan causes it.

How? By someone writing applications in C instead of a higher level language. Using C to write applications is like building a house by starting in the forge to make your own tools first. Seg faults are the sort of thing a Kernel or device driver developer expects to see, not a guy writing a graphing program. But don't worry, it's not your fault, it's theirs for not checking your input if your values are going to cause a pointer to go out of protected bounds.

[hisazul]

Why not player sector?

You also get another "PHQ" in name only tho, it's a unique looking(a few choices) equipment dock. So you get a selling point as well. If you link your hub to races you prefer you can basically set a central meeting zone for lack of better word.

I never get tired of posting this screenshot

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.c ... 083A24D4C/

[Jimmy C]

It takes a while before the Player sector becomes available. In the meantime, you may want to put the PHW to use already, so you'd need a temporary location.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

I normally place the HQ inside the HUB this way I can choose my Neighbourhood on demand, if linking 1 or 2 complex sectors close to the hub you can easily use CLS or CAG to transport anything in you need, just make sure to place the HQ outside the ecliptic as HUB is overfilled with traffic e.g. 0/-10km/0 should do it.
The single disadvantage are paint-jobs, the system is pretty red so you can only see the color on leaving the system.