Flipping the HQ in AP

[Bill Huntington]

I haven't seen it discussed for a long time. I got the HQ in AP. I put it in the Gate Hub Sector. With the Hub on top, it was smart to put it in the bottom of the sector. I put it at ( -7) altitude to keep it out of the traffic lanes. For the most efficient access and use I flipped the station upside down. That allows easiest access between the HQ and the traffic lanes. Otherwise your ships would start 5 or more altitude points deeper in the Sector.

It's tricky to get the flip done right. I save before I do it . I'm in another ship facing the target area. I deploy the HQ to the right coordinates. Then I use the 7 and 9 keys to turn it on its axis. I save again before I press the return key. Then I check my work. It usually takes me a few tries to get it right. You're seeing the image of the station 'behind' the sector screen, not directly. If you can't see it you could just do it blind until you get lucky.

What sectors do pilots put the HQ in ?

Do pilots flip the HQ upside down or leave it in its usual orientation?

[Timsup2nothin]

I have a couple favorite places. Deciding between them is a coin toss.

[RAVEN.myst]

Having an advanced satellite in the sector where you deploy the HQ (or anything, for that matter; in fact, I keep AdvSats everywhere - but I digress), allows you to enable the map video mode, which I find most helpful for seeing what I'm doing when it comes to station alignment.

As for where I my HQ goes... For starters, I never put it in the Hub - it's simply too crowded, especially the way I use the Hub: I use it as a trade centre hosting a fleet of freighters - in my current X3TC game I have 70+ CAGs and about 15 CLS2s, and by the time I'm done that will likely grow by a few more CLS2s and a dozen or two more CAGs (though at some point part of the operation gets shifted elsewhere) - the last thing I want to do is spend any time IS in that sactor, as then the multitude of freighters spend more time in collision avoidance than actually docking (in any case, I don't like how much strain the Hub sector puts on the graphics card, so I also avoid spending time there on those grounds even before my Hub gets developed and becomes a mass transit hub.)

As far as "crowded" goes, also, I like to have far more space around the HQ (or any station or plex that I build) than what is left around it when placed in the Hub (I once tried it just to see how tight it would be - waaaaaay too snug for my tastes ) Incidentally, that was with the Commonwealth HQ - I'm pretty sure the Terran one wouldn't even come close to fitting.

OK, that takes care of where I *don't* put it, now for the opposite. Here are my criteria:
-PLENTY of room around it, so it needs to have a quadrant of a sector that is vacant and free of traffic
- Ideally, equipment dock in the same sector, for rapid upgrading of built ships (I tend to use the HQ as a fighter production line more than anything else - I only bother with capital ships if they are Xenon ones.)
- Shipyard of my race access, not necessarily in same sector but neighbouring at the very least.
- Jumpdrive purchase access is highly desirable, though almost never is it in the same sector itself - however I tend to make it moderately accessible via the Hub, so it's not uncommon for me to build near a gate connected to my Hub.
- In X3AP, ideally a jump beacon in the same sector and fairly close by, for fast recalling of wings and fleets (this criterion makes Core sectors desirable - space and traffic considerations, on the other hand, make them less favourable.)
- Placement (uncluttered, as covered above) near a gate, so that trips by returning CAGs/CLSs are short.
- Always completely upright, and very seldom do I bother to rotate at all (there's only a point to this with the Terran model, as it has some partial asymmetry). I typically place somewhat above the level of the nearest gate, for access reasons.
- Role-play considerations weigh heavily on the placement decision.
- Aesthetic placement is quite important to me: consequently, I tend to avoid placing where it will be at an edge or corner of the screen upon sector entry (as objects are distorted there), and I take into account placement relative to backdrops and local lighting - so, for example, I might go with a silhouette effect at times, or frame the HQ in a planet or moon, or bisect it with a horizon.
- I used to consider access to some shipbuilding resources, and especially ECs, but since my HQ tends to get some experienced pilots from the Hub reassigned to it, that's not necessary.
- I used to build in my own sector, but for a long time now I've been preferring to industrialize (lightly) in my game-start's race's space, and my HQ tends to go somewhere near (there's a conflict here, because I don't want to have to be IS where I have high traffic of my own ships, but on the other hand I try to keep my holdings in as few separate sectors as possible, otherwise the property list becomes a mess and harder to read.)

When I play as Terran, no matter how much I try to vary things, I always end up industrializing modestly in Althes, and my HQ usually ends up in the same sector - lots of space, ready access to ECs, access to gates (VERY important, especially for a Terran), and an Orbital Defense Station (EqD equivalent) that sells jumpdrives. This means that newly built ships can go straight there and from there jump to a Military Base for full outfitting.

When I play as Commonwealth it's a lot more diverse, due to the choices of races. As mentioned, I will usually build in my race's space; failing that, some sort of "unknown" space or my own, but never on foreign soil. This doesn't exactly narrow it down and especially with Argon, which have so many different starts, in so many different locations, with so many role-play possibilities. So for CW more than Terran, the previous criteria apply. Most recently in X3AP I played a Teladi start and ended up building my HQ in New Income - I liked the name of the sector and what it represented for my character, and was the only somewhat eligible sector in my desired area, and breaks a few of the criteria, but was the most suitable. I've on previous occasions built in Argon Prime, in Home of Light, in The Wall, in Light of Heart, in Lucky Planets, and too many that I can't even remember

Oh, and oddly enough, in many of my X3AP games I actually leave my HQ on my TL or stash it in my Hub (I mean IN the Hub itself, not the sector...) for a long time, before I decide to deploy it. I find that it comes a bit too early and too easy, and on those occasions I'm either not ready to make adequate use of it yet (if I'm in the early Hub start-up phase, that gets my full attention), or I simply can't yet make up my mind where to put it. The same goes for the Corporate HQ, not uncommonly, which quite often ends up stored in the my HQ.

[Timsup2nothin]

I frequently build a "power coupler" in the bottom part of the HUB early on, before I get much traffic going to it. It's just an MSPP with a couple cheap L fabs stuck on it for storage capacity. Setting up e-cell distribution to run through that reduces the traffic at the HUB docks substantially. Traffic still has to run in and out of the sector, but it frees up docking space.

[RAVEN.myst]

Setting up e-cell distribution to run through that reduces the traffic at the HUB docks substantially.

Although I run some energy distribution through the Hub initially, I eventually break it off and place it in an industrial sector - in large part for the sake of reducing docking traffic. What I do is I set up a SPP-XL in an adjacent sector, with CLS2s harvesting energy from NPC SPPs universe-wide, and CAGs buying crystals and selling off the ECs. At some later stage, if I find the market is still hungry for energy (which it invariably is), I then build an SPP plex next to it, and have CLS ship/s hauling crystals to it and energy back from it for distribution at the "energy exchange" SPP-XL. I do this on account of the fact that the SPP-XL has more docking capacity than a complex hub (which I know that you already know ) In essence, a factory (the plex) with a semi-detached goods-receiving/dispatch/front desk, if you will... This "front desk" handles all actual transactions and thus all monies - the plex itself runs without any credits of its own. Oh, and this "non-contiguous complex" of course takes over the task of fuelling my fleet of CAGs hosted at the Hub, as well as powering any production of my own, should I so choose...

Anyhow, I digress (how unusual for me! ) The long and short of it is that I am far too claustrophobic, I have too high elbow-room/personal space requirements, my need for lebensraum (this is getting worse and worse! ) is too great, for me to comfortably build anything in the Hub (it's happened, once or twice, though - didn't like it, hence haven't done it since.) That being said, no matter how eccentric my build habits/practices, I never have ship navigation/pathfinding accidents, friendly fire/collision events, or anything of the sort, at least not from the placement of my stations, so I might be doing at least something right... Somewhere... Sometimes. Maybe.

I have, however, often pondered that not using the other hemisphere is a bit of a waste (well, not really, so long as there's abundant room elsewhere) and that it would be thematically nice to place something related and auxiliary to the Hub itself there - your "power coupling" certainly fits that bill.


In other news: while I don't tilt or flip the HQ, if it were possible to have it rotating around its vertical axis ("spin like a top!" - well, perhaps a little more stately and dignified...), I would certainly opt for that! In fact, in that case I might look for tilted deployment prospects, based on the surrounding scenery - that could look quite good, methinks.

[Timsup2nothin]

I find that by standing it on edge it makes a nice backdrop behind a gate, and by pointing the docking side towards the gate it is actually very efficient for getting ships in and out.

[RainerPrem]

I find that by standing it on edge it makes a nice backdrop behind a gate, and by pointing the docking side towards the gate it is actually very efficient for getting ships in and out.

Hi,

second that. Especially the Terran style HQ can extend its docking arms to above the gate, while the station resides safely away from through traffic.

cu
Rainer

[jlehtone]

No, no turning.

I have only one game of AP, and in it the PHQ (and Corp HQ) is in the sector that I unambiguously get by typing 'AP' on the galaxy map. Near the first gate (East), 8 clicks above eplictic.

[patient zero]

No tilting or flipping for me. I usually put it at 0, 9km, 0 and spin the docking port toward gate #1. That keeps it out of traffic and makes jumping easier because I don't have to scroll through the gate list.