PHQ Design - Boron based Wharf - Self sufficient

[alt3rn1ty]

Its as self sufficient as it can be.
Also you will need lots of Blueprints for Boron station building modules like the big Hex docking module for L/XL traders, and S/M ships/thrusters/weapons/etcetera

Goal with this was to see if a mostly Boron parts PHQ could be :
a) More game performance friendly than my old one
b) Less of a problem for ships landing/taking off

On my laptop, both goals have been achieved. And being a Wharf its a bit of a money spinner (which will also be a good base for terraforming later on).

It has one Wharf, Boron S/M Fabrication.

Expected operating budget is circa 500 million.

I find its now pretty well balanced for Work force needs (and the Bofu/Meds). It also overproduces a little on each resource needed .. maybe needs a bit of tweaking in some areas, have a look at the logical overview when a module is in full flow of Production/Consumption (usually best time is just after a heap of ships have been churned out the Fabrication bays).
It also has 20 Boron disc defence modules, kitted out with Boron weapons/shields, and situated around the outside of the station so as to reduce the occurance of firing through its own modules ( I know it doesnt do any harm, its just a visually annoying thing to me )

The only bad thing is you cant have it entirely Boron, Antimatter Converters etcetera are all the usual standard style, but I placed them all over the place so they are kind of watered down by the station structures style they are appended to.

There are some good places left to expand it if anyone needs to.
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Video ..
https://youtu.be/0RxYQHV8iGM
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I think Boso Ta will be a happy squid on this station now
I mean hes never going to move, so I made his pad better.

Needs :
10x10x10 Plot.
Station Manager.
Ship dealer.
Build drones (set in the Logical overview)
Good L sized miners (I'm now running with 12 x L Rorqual Mineral miners, 3 x L Rorqual Gas miners, and 3 x L Buffalo Traders. This number seems to be a good balance overall for all needs of the station, I never have shortages once the whole setup is established and Miner Captains are 3 Star experience or above, once you have Terraforming projects completed up to the Aerial Maze you can start throwing out 5 Star pilots for all the miners)

Edit : Its Loadout is set to custom too, so that the station manager doesn't go randomly adding loads of additional turrets to storage modules etcetera, reducing game performance, and increasing the eyesore of the station shooting through its own modules.

The station was constructed with game version 6.20 beta installed. And overlaps were not allowed.

Edit 2 : This is the latest version (see posts below for notes on changes since the first version)
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Boron Headquarters.xml

(115.27 KiB) Downloaded 268 times

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Edit 3 : There is a newer version in this post, but you need to be running X4 v7 (currently in beta) or above

[alt3rn1ty]

Just modified it a bit, wasn't happy with the standard S/M Fabrication module being included so it now has two Boron S/M Fabrications instead ..
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Production line running ..
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Workforce and resources needed ..
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Edit : Since posting this I have added a Casino .. Not going to re-upload because I think you have to acquire that from somewhere and I cant remember where
But also note the build as uploaded already has a Gambling Den, so if you still need to acquire that you are going to need it.

[ZeroBoogie]

Thank you, it looks cool

[alt3rn1ty]

Thank you
I wish I could get it more Boron looking instead of a Frankenstein monster of generic modules bolted on, but we can only work with what we have available.
It achieves the aims anyway.

[ZeroBoogie]

No worries you did very good

[alt3rn1ty]

I just decided to tweak mine a bit (not going to re-upload, because you guys may want to do your own thing)

Its always running a bit short on Weapon Components, so added ..

2 x Boron Large Habitat
1 x Bofu production
1 x Med production
4 x Weapon component production (taking it up to 7 in total)

The workforce and food/meds needed increasing for the extra Weapon component modules.

[alt3rn1ty]

After longer running decided it also needed more Advanced electronics modules, I took them also to 7 in total.
I think I also added 1 x Bofu and 1 x Meds plus another L Habitat .. or two, cant remember.

Going to stop there because before long I will be bordering on ruining one of the objectives and make it less and less performance friendly.

The station shores up any further needs with other faction traders anyway. Some of you guys will probably have beastly machines you can expand it to death with production and make it far more self sufficient, but for me this will do now.
Hull parts might need a bit of attention.

I think there is a station calculator somewhere noted in this forum (although it may not have Boron modules yet, idk), but I didn't use one, I just used the Logical Overview and judged the production versus consumption by observation over time for each resource. Its allowing me to kick off buying fleets of Rays to fend off Xenons early game expansion anyway .

Edit : One more thing .. It doesn't need so many solar panels, I have since removed 4 of them (two from each side). Being located in Path to Profit it was really over-producing E Cells (even after all my tweaking since uploading it). Maybe needs them in a sector with less sunlight.

[alt3rn1ty]

I'm uploading my latest changes, MKII ..

.. But be warned its quite a change from previous, although it looks similar I did an overhaul which involved taking out quite a bit of it, before putting it mostly back again. So if you rebuild from this one, expect half the station to be removed before it is rebuilt.

Reason : The 4 x M 14 x S docks, were not ideally placed for landing / taking off. X4 engine could still get you stuck and being thrown out of parts of the station randomly. And why the heck did I put two of them in there .. I dont know

The one remaining 4M14S dock is now situated above the HQ Rock, and its upside down. If you land an M class ship on there .. Look up, and you will see most of the station, erm, below you.

It also doesn't need two S/M Fabrications, so reduced that to just one aswell.

And the Gambling Den plus Casino are now near the end of the build chain, previously the Gambling Den was probably one of the first modules added, which meant if anyone did not want it it would have been a major rebuild to get rid of it.

And after much tweaking I think I have the balance of resources / workforce just right, its also doing well in my game with the first part of terraforming for the SCA right now (reducing Radioactivity).

I think I forgot to mention this needs a plot 10x10x10

I currently have 14 miners working for the station, 3 x Rorqual Gas, and 11 Wyvern Mineral - They all do pretty well at supplying everything the station needs and stand their own against bothersome Kha'ak.

Anyone new to stations, you will also need to recruit a Station Manager, and a Ship Dealer.
And when its built check out the "Logical Overview", and select how many Drones the station should have for cargo transfers, building ships and making repairs, maybe also some defence drones .. up to you.

With MKII I also added a few more Boron Defence disks, they have all been edited to have a full compliment of turrets.

Blueprints : You are going to need everything Boron, all S/M ships / Weapons / Turrets etcetera etcetera, and all the standard / shared production modules.
Beyond those, well anything S/M from all other factions .. But beware buying anything Terran if you dont want to add in Microlattice / Silicon carbide / Computronic substrate production.

MKII has quite a few more modules than the first one I uploaded, but on my laptop I am getting FPS between 50-68 (depends where you are on the station), so compaired with my previous playthrough this self sufficient PHQ Wharf is far better, on my old PHQ it used to be a range of 35-50.
I'm pretty sure Boron stations are a bit more optimal, though they look more complicated models <shrugs>

Edit : Here's a new version - Download is in the first post of this topic.

Its MKII again but the Boron 4M14S dock has been replaced with 2 x 3M6S Luxury docks - Reason; The docks are a bit higher so you see more of the station "below" you, and as much as I love all things Boron, I changed to 3M6S Luxury dock because there are no enclosed S docks. Landing and taking off from enclosed docks in X4 is 90% friggin annoying as you either jiggle at the entrance for ages or the game just fly's you through bulkheads. In testing landing an S ship at the old upside down enclosed docks the games autopilot (me standing in the cockpit while my pilot flew the ship), there were a few times when the ship approached the dock from above the upside down dock, and then proceeded straight through the bottom of the dock, sigh!.

With this version you should get less instances of such problems, hopefully. And you can obviously now use S ships aswell as M ships to land if you want the upside down view of the station. And if the games autopilot decides to land at the enclosed S/M Fabrication docks instead as it sometimes does, just transport to the Traders on the luxury docks ..
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This new build is also a bit more optimal, I realised while doing the Boron Shipyard Construction Plan that Boron L Storage modules have 6 connection points, 1 at the top 1 at the bottom and 4 more near the top.
Its as long as a Boron Vertical connector No.2.
And can also act as one of those small cross connectors.

By using the Boron Storage modules to replace most vertical and cross connectors, I reduced the overall build count of modules.

The download in the first post is the newest build.

[rudi_pioneer]

One big thank you for making this. it's only PHQ blueprint i've found that's 'middle of the road', and been a good base for terraforming as well.

I didn't had welfare modules, but note to other readers that it's enough to remove it from XML (search for welfare)

[alt3rn1ty]

I've got a newer version which is even more optimally built than the latest one in the first post.

This one is less modules, keeps the same overall design, and has been refined quite a lot since my last update, its proved itself as you say to be a good basis for Terraforming (I have now completed Scale Plate Green, and Memory of Profit with this design).

One thing : It needs Version 7 of the game (or at least currently to be participating in the 7 Betas)
I changed the dock layout, because I am finding in 7 betas that those docks I put way above the rock, which were upside down, that idea no longer works well in 7 Beta, my personal ships landing there with an NPC pilot quite often try to go above the docks (which is underneath them as they are inverted) and then drill through the bottom of them to reach the dock. So the docks are now the normal way up ..
But, 7 Beta has brought with it a new Observation module (there are three of them, I used the Conservatory). So I stuck one of those at the end of one of the docks, and inverted it, so we still have somewhere to go to take in the view of the whole station ..
https://i.imgur.com/KXw6j8i.png
Its situated at the end of one of the 3M6S Luxury docks ..
https://i.imgur.com/DpjHxRl.png
.. And inverted, so when you use the station transport teleporter to go to the Conservatory and walk out there .. Looking up is looking down at the rock and the whole station.

You'll also notice in the first screenshot, bottom right, the in-game FPS Counter, on my machine (see signature) I am getting around 54 FPS landed there. That was taken when my fleet of 30 Rays was going past in close proximity to the station.

I recently found out we dont need to have everything connected on a station, so was able to reduce the module count overall without it looking much different.
Having said that, I did then rearrange a load of modules, so re-building with this version is quite an overhaul from the previous.

https://i.imgur.com/Ru1RiOF.png

Anyway, here's the latest and final version - But remember only use this if you have the 7 Betas installed, or wait until the public version of 7 goes live.
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Boron PHQ.xml

(113.38 KiB) Downloaded 2 times

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Also note: In the topic linked above reference all station modules do not need to be connected - There is one exception. Venture Module. If/When Ventures finally makes it into the game, they need to be attached to the main body of the station. So if you were to attach a Venture module to say somewhere near the majority of the Habitats at the front of the station, it would not work because all of those are now not connected to the main body of the station.
I would recommend attaching a Venture module to the Boron Cross Connector here ..
https://i.imgur.com/c9kpMp7.png

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There's nothing wrong with the last one uploaded in the first post, so if you prefer that design stay with it, but this one will help your FPS a little bit more.
Or you could try both and see which you prefer, I named the newest one in this post "Boron PHQ", the last one uploaded in the first post was named "Boron Headquarters".

Tip: A lot of you probably know this already, but if after its built you want to change to doing Terraforming, go into the "Logical Overview", use the drop down for "Boron S/M Ship Fabrication bay", and change the trade rule to one which sells no ships to anyone. Now all the resources your miners/traders bring in will go towards drone building and Terraforming resources. Once done Terraforming, flip it back to making/selling S/M ships.

Untitled2.png (31.5 KiB) Viewed 241 times

[rudi_pioneer]

Tip: A lot of you probably know this already, but if after its built you want to change to doing Terraforming, go into the "Logical Overview", use the drop down for "Boron S/M Ship Fabrication bay", and change the trade rule to one which sells no ships to anyone. Now all the resources your miners/traders bring in will go towards drone building and Terraforming resources. Once done Terraforming, flip it back to making/selling S/M ships.
Untitled2.png

Oh does that mean that setting ship sale to “no ships” changes resource allocation? If so that’s huge!

Thank you for station update! I’m on beta and will check it out

[alt3rn1ty]

Tip: A lot of you probably know this already, but if after its built you want to change to doing Terraforming, go into the "Logical Overview", use the drop down for "Boron S/M Ship Fabrication bay", and change the trade rule to one which sells no ships to anyone. Now all the resources your miners/traders bring in will go towards drone building and Terraforming resources. Once done Terraforming, flip it back to making/selling S/M ships.
Untitled2.png

Oh does that mean that setting ship sale to “no ships” changes resource allocation? If so that’s huge!

Thank you for station update! I’m on beta and will check it out

Personally I created a couple of my own trade rules, in the screenshot "Restrict selling ships all factions" is one of them (click the little pencil icon to go to creating a Trade rule), and the one I use when doing Terraforming. But yeah it helps Terraforming because all resources are not being shared with Shipbuilding aswell as Terraforming. I noticed on my last playthrough trying to do the Boron planet that things worked better when you devoted the station to just Terraforming, making the drones to land the resources on the planet you make them quicker if you are not also making S/M ships for other factions.
Worst cases are when Meds are involved, when those get severely depleted by Terraforming needs, your Workforce starts to degrade and lose numbers. Another is when you need lots of water / Ice for projects, same thing happens. Not so bad if you have lots of miners and / or traders replenishing stocks.

I'm now running with 12 x L Rorqual Mineral miners, 3 x L Rorqual Gas miners, and 3 x L Buffalo Traders. This number seems to be a good balance overall for all needs of the station, I never have shortages once the whole setup is established (and Miner Captains are 3 Star experience or above, once you have Terraforming projects completed up to the Aerial Maze you can start throwing out 5 Star pilots for all the miners, the Competition produces 3 x 5 Star Pilots).