Solutions for a NO HQ playthrough ?

[Realspace]

I was thinking about creating different starts, specifically for my XRSGE galaxy but they'd work everywhere. I want to make them not simple tutorials that bring to the same outcome and the same "you can do all plots and be friend with everybody".
Argon start for instance having split and paranid plot not accessible (concluded), with reputation very low with those factions, etc. A pirate start that makes impossible to acquire blueprints or buy ships from big factions (in my galaxy I revamped pirates a lot, with their own shipyards), so on.
Everything is quite easy to recreate with the custom start's features, but one thing remains: the HQ. Everything requires it.

I thought about these solutions to make it not the central hub of everything:
1) Making it not owned by the player, so having some basic functions and no productions, hosting Dal and Boso
2) Giving to the player but limiting the nr. of modules one can add. Just a research center, not an industrial hub. And/or maybe only for ship production and personel training
3) Removing it allthogether and placing Boso and Dal on board of a ship? (thou this would remove any research too).

This would require altering md's scripts a lot, which is not realy my daily bread
Any hint what would be the doable solution? Maybe another I did not think about..

[morning_star]

Hi!

I could be wrong on this, buuuuuut....

when I enter the elevaor in my PHQ there is an extra entry saying "science lab" (or something similar) which makes me think it is its own kind of station module
(just whitout a 3d model) - if that is true you could try looking for its data in the core game files and maaaaaaybe maybe make the science lounge a buildable station module the player
has to build in order to have access to it?

Good luck!

[Elairant]

So the Player HQ core building, the ring with the asteroid, IS the research module. If you look at it in the build planner or station info it will show as much. I've been toying around with the idea of trying to learn how to swap the model and collision to look like a Terran hab module or something like that. Not sure if it would break the game at all and I've never modded X4 before. However, there are other mods that edit what the player HQ looks like, and if they aren't .dat filed I can crack them open and see what they do. It could be as simple as just replacing some reference lines.

[magitsu]

I'd just make one or two really unique concepts, because committing to testing them is a big ask given how some bugs appear only dozens of hours or more in.

You could think against the example of Avarice factions. They had scrap as an alternative... and it didn't go far enough to be a worthwhile mechanism to rely on. Luckily phq is less essential than shipyards. Even the main feature of teleport (through reseach) isn't necessary to play full X4 experience. So since no HQ play is already viable in vanilla, you could just spice it up or fabricate some lore justification around it for a new start.

[Privata]

Recently this very issue has become my number one problem with the game.

Its a big counter to the whole design of the core game. a pure sandbox that lives with or without the player.
Yet the player has to essentially become the most powerful entity in the galaxy in order for the galaxy to reach its full potential.

The fact you can skip the plots in custom game is fine, but the PHQ requirement and the way it will still reward you with massive loads of cash is somewhat of a issue.

Recently I have been wanting to play in a full galaxy, Reunited Boron, Terran Conflict raging on and a Reunifed Paranid Empire etc, just without me being the center of it. and that is kind of impossible.

[magitsu]

Recently I have been wanting to play in a full galaxy, Reunited Boron, Terran Conflict raging on and a Reunifed Paranid Empire etc, just without me being the center of it. and that is kind of impossible.

True. That's a massive plausibility problem.

In the big picture it ties into overall theme park design instead of pure sandbox.

[rusky]

I wish Egosoft would add a proper no hq start, but in the meantime my approach is to use the custom start, give myself all the techs, set all the plots to whatever i want them to be, then start the game and potentially just use a script to delete the hq.

It's not ideal but works well enough for now.

[Realspace]

I wish Egosoft would add a proper no hq start, but in the meantime my approach is to use the custom start, give myself all the techs, set all the plots to whatever i want them to be, then start the game and potentially just use a script to delete the hq.

It's not ideal but works well enough for now.

This seems doable by creating various starts: pirate, argon patriot, teladi trader etc each with its peculiar techs, research and blueprints and removing the hq. Interesting..but what happens in your game if you don't set all plots completed? When a mission requiring an update in the phq is activated? Do you face crashes? If you have the required research (but not the hq) does it progress?

An example would be: say an argon pilot, that can buy blueprints but not use the emp (so that research disabled) while in another start a pirate, that has low rep with all, can only use the emp bombs to acquire blueprints, so there the research is known from the start. These should work. But what about plots where the php is needed per se?

[user1679]

The idea of a playthrough without a player HQ was talked about back in 2020. This post talks about deleting the HQ with a blank design plan:

viewtopic.php?t=423305#p4922872

There's also a mod by Shibdib that disables the story but unlocks research:

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/438

Disabled the PHQ/storyline and unlocks all research

Reading the comments indicates that this might be a bit game breaking in game 6.0+ because of terraforming being linked to the PHQ. I've never used it so I don't know if it is still compatible.

[Realspace]

In the meantime I've created this:
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1365

This works as stand alone replacement for vanilla HQ and is the first step for doing custom game starts where the HQ is just a station and the researches will be set at the start, not in the lab. So for instance a pirate start will have all blueprint stealings already researched, the rest will be not (and not reseachable).

I am open to suggestions about what start scenarios and what benefits/cons each can have. I was also thinking of removing some plots from certain starts, any suggestion about is appreciated.