Player Headquarters (HQ)

The Player Headquarters (HQ) is the player’s central station — the anchor for HQ research, terraforming, embassy (Mentor Subscriptions), and most major story arc hooks (Paranid Civil War, HQ Discovery, Welfare research, Yaki arc, etc.).

NOT a special engine class — the HQ is a Station with a specific macro and constructionplan. Modders interact with it via that macro identity.

Macro

macro.station_pla_headquarters_base_01_macro

Construction plans (two variants)

Depending on game start / unlock path:

Constructionplan	Used by
x4ep1_playerheadquarters	Default — used in Mentor Subscriptions HQ creation
x4ep1_playerheadquarters_pioneer_configuration	Pioneer variant — used in HQ Discovery when game start is x4ep1_gamestart_terran2

Owner

• Player faction: faction.player (canonical)
• Pioneer variant: faction.pioneers (during HQ Discovery transition; ownership changes to player after arc)

Sector

The HQ’s sector is set per-game-start:

Game start	HQ sector
Wayward Scion / Young Gun / others	Set by Mentor Subscriptions setup
Terran Cadet / Pioneer	cluster_114_sector001 (HQ Sector — Brennan’s Triumph area)
Custom-gamestart skip	Created via Setup_Remember_Boso_HQ mechanism

Identification check (canonical)

To identify a station as the player HQ:

<do_if value="$station.macro.ismacro.{macro.station_pla_headquarters_base_01_macro}">
    <!-- This is the Player HQ -->
</do_if>

This check appears in many vanilla scripts — see npc_itemtrader.xml, npc_shadyguy.xml.

Story arcs anchored to HQ

The HQ is the physical anchor for:

Story arc	Connection
HQ Discovery	How the player finds and claims the HQ
Paranid Civil War	Dal Busta desk at HQ; conversations at HQ
Welfare research	Research entry at HQ
Diplomacy Intro	Dal Busta HQ desk management
Yaki arc	Yaki contacts at HQ
Terran Core / Terraforming	Terraforming projects at HQ
Pirate Welfare 2	Research follow-up at HQ
Tides of Avarice: Unbihexium / Cypher	Sobert agent + research at HQ
Boron Main story	LRS hints + research from HQ
Timelines Epilogue	Boso HQ unlock

Special HQ features

The HQ is a special station with:

• Research system — ware.research_X.research.unlocked properties for tracking research progress
• Terraforming infrastructure — see Terraforming catalog
• Embassy office room — added by md.X4Ep1_Mentor_Subscriptions.Manage_EmbassyOffice_Room when Embassy research unlocks
• Skipper / Boso Ta meeting point — many vanilla NPCs cross-arc at HQ
• Anchored encyclopedia entry — encyclopedia="true" flag

HQ pre-creation example (custom gamestart skip)

From HQ Discovery vanilla code:

<create_station
    name="$HQ"
    macro="macro.station_pla_headquarters_base_01_macro"
    constructionplan="'x4ep1_playerheadquarters_pioneer_configuration'"
    sector="$HQSector"
    owner="faction.pioneers"
    encyclopedia="true">
    <safepos x="-207000" y="-1100" z="-31000" />
</create_station>

Mod conflict risks

• ❌ Mods that replace the HQ macro break ALL story arcs that reference it
• ❌ Mods that change the constructionplan affect initial HQ state
• ❌ Mods that disable research / terraforming systems break HQ functionality
• ❌ HQ-replacement mods incompatible with most story content — especially HQ Discovery
• ⚠ HQ-relocation mods may break sector-bound arcs (Boron LRS, Wayward Scion intro)
• ⚠ Custom HQ macros must match macro.ismacro check — many vanilla scripts hardcode the macro

Related

• Station — HQ inherits from station
• Container — HQ uses container’s build infrastructure
• Faction — faction.player typical owner
• HQ Discovery story — main HQ acquisition arc
• Terraforming catalog — HQ-anchored terraforming
• Architectural overview: Faction economy — economic context

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The Player HQ is the most modder-impacted single station in vanilla. Its macro identity is checked in ~20 vanilla scripts; changing it breaks them all. If your mod adds custom HQ-style stations, use a different macro and integrate via your own story arcs.