The Player Headquarters acts as a player owned Shipyard and Equipment Dock.   The Player Headquarters is obtained as a mission reward from the Operation loose Ends (Terran Headquarters) and Headquarters Plot (Commonwealth Headquarters).   The only difference between the two variants of the Player Headquarters is the number of docking points and that the Terran version has an extra 200,000 cargo hold volume enabling it to construct Valhalla M2+ destroyers (require 555652 volume of goods to make) which cannot be built by Commonwealth Headquarters which only have a 500,000 volume cargo hold.   The Player headquarters can also equip docked ships using weapons, shields and equipment from other friendly equipment docks in the sector.

What headquarters the player can obtain is determined by the game starting scenario chosen.   Terran Commander and Aldran Adventurer are the only starting scenarios able to get the Terran Player Headquarters.

Terran Player Headquarters have 700,000 cargo hold volume and can dock 18 TL/M1/M2/M7 ships and unlimited ships of other classes

Commonwealth Player Headquarters have 500,000 cargo hold volume and can dock 10 TL/M1/M2/M7 ships, 15 TM/TP/TS/M6/M8 ships and unlimited fighters 

Player Headquarters can repaint ships (purely aesthetic), recycle unwanted ships to produce wares, reverse engineer ships to add them to the list of buildable ships and construct new ships.

As the player only gets one of these stations without cheats it is advised that it is built far from enemy patrols and preferably in friendly or neutral sectors.   If built in Unknown Sector 8:13 (Xenon Hub) the Player Headquarters is forced to be build in the middle of the sector.   Construction of the Player Headquarters in Getsu Fune allows for the production of ships that are instantly ready for use with exception of the jumpdrive.   Access to jumpdrives and production resources are major factors for deciding where to place this station. 

Spray Shop

Hue:

Saturation: 

Recycle Queue

Destroys a docked ship at the Player Headquarters.   Also destroys any equipment and cargo onboard so be sure to transfer anything off the ship of value before recycling.   No credits are gained from recycling

The wares gained from recycling are ???% of the production cost at the Player Headquarters*(fraction of ship hull).   Kha'ak ships, if obtained, also give Nividium.   The general ratio of wares obtained is listed in the following table.  

Reverse Engineering Queue

Destroys a docked ship at the Player Headquarters to add the blueprint to the list of blueprints able to be added to the production queue.   Equipment on the reverse engineered ship is destroyed but weapons, shields and cargo are transferred to the storage of the Player Headquarters.   You can only reverse engineer each ship type once.   To reverse engineer a ship takes as long as one production cycle for that ship type (this means a Valhalla will take a whopping 11.6 days to reverse engineer and rebuild).

Blueprints can also be obtained from I've Heard You Have Some Interesting Ship Schematics missions that appear once the Player Headquarters is built.   These missions only supply blueprints for M5, M4, M4+, M3, M3+ and M6 ships.

This feature is useful for obtaining blueprints of ships from enemy Races, of unique ships or ships unable to be purchased from shipyards.

In vanilla X3: Albion Prelude you cannot reverse engineer the Xperimental Shuttle (has to be traded in before getting the Player headquarters) and the Acinonix Prototype.

Production Queue

Constructs new ships from owned blueprints.   The time taken to construct new ships is dependent on the credit cost of the ship.   Production of ships at the Player Headquarters costs 33% of the ship value in credits and 66% in wares.   This enables players to get a discount on ship production by buying the wares at low prices or producing them for free from self sufficient complexes.   Kha'ak ships are unique in that they also require Nividium unlike other ships however as weapons for them are equally hard to obtain it is not recommended.   Due to weapon limitations Aldrin ships are also not recommended for mass production. 

The production costs are ultimately determined by the cost of the ship type being constructed but different classes of ships consume defined hourly ratios of material listed below:

Due to player time being more valuable than credits it is advisable to purchase ships at shipyards or obtain them by capping if the production time at the Player Headquarters is too long (with Hyperion Vanguards it is quicker to board one and regain Paranid Rank to max again than the 21 hours needed to build one).   Some ships however are highly economical favouring mass production (especially xenon ships) making the Player Headquarters a choice method for the production of fleets and patrols.

The Logistics of Owning a Player Headquarters

To keep a Player Headquarters operational and to supply the ships produced requires a large supply network.

Ship Production:

1. A credit source of approx. 500,000 credits per hour
   • 3-16 factories (Space Fuel Distilleries need the fewest factories)(missile factories are the most reliable income)
   • 2-5 Universal Trader TS/TS+ ships
   • Stock Market Manipulation
2. A Self Sufficient Complex with the minimal requirements 
   • 1 XL Solar Power Plant (Boron cheapest)
   • 1 M Solar Power Plant (Boron cheapest)(can be larger dependent on size of additional complex elements)
   • 3 L Crystal Fabs (Race of Choice)
   • 5 Bio producing farms (Race of Choice)
   • 5 Food Processing factories (Race of Choice)
   • N Silicon Mine L (Teladi cheapest)(enough for 841 Silicon Wafers/h)(6x with a quality of 18 or 3x with a quality of 37 suffice)
   • 1 Ore Mine L with a quality of >2 (Teladi cheapest)
   • 1 Teladianium Foundry M
   • 1 Wheat Farm M
   • 1 Rimes Fact M (can be hard to obtain if hostile to the Argon)
   • 1 Chelt Space Aquarium M
   • 1 Rastar Refinery M
   • 1 Quantum Tube Fab (Race of Choice)
   • 4 Chip Plants (Race of Choice)
   • 1 Computer Plant (Race of Choice)
3. A TS with Commodity Logistics Software MK1 and a Jumpdrive

   • A Split Caiman is recommended due to fast speed
     Use the self sufficient supply complex as a supplier and the Player Headquarters as a consumer and to leave at least 10% intermediate resources at the supplier
     Set the Player Headquarters Dockware Manager to the following limits (+1 full trip of wares over the amount needed to build the most expensive ship):

     PHQ Type	Energy Cells	Teladiunium	Cloth Rimes	Rastar Oil	Ore	Silicon Wafers	Crystals	Quantum Tubes	Microchips	Computer Components
     Terran	242,151	42,035	9,938	34,628	84,008	138,326	14,876	17345	14876	7469
     Commonwealth	192,505	34,280	8,904	28,424	67,472	110,408	12,808	14760	12808	6952

Equipping New Ships (assuming mass production and weapon preference):

• 1 Shield Production Facility 1GJ  (no frigate is built in less than 19 hours which equates to 11 shields worth of production)
• 4 Shield Production Facility 1MJ  (Valkyrie)
• 2 Shield Production Facility 200MJ (Katana)
• 4 Shield Production Facility 25MJ (Solano)
• 2 Shield Production Facility 2GJ (Xenon J)
• 8 Shield Production Facility 5MJ (Enhanced Pericles)
• 3 Impulse Ray Emitter Forge (Enhanced Pericles)(Xenon N is the runner up)
• 28 Flak Artillery Array Forge (Xenon J)(3 is enough for all other capital ships)
• 14 Ion Shard Railgun Forge (Xenon J)(4 is enough for Dragon/P)
• 18 Phased Repeater Gun Forge (Pirate Buzzard Vanguard)
• 18 Photon Pulse Cannon Forge  (Xenon J)(9 is enough for Xenon K)
• 24 Pulsed Beam Emitter Forge (Pirate Scorpion)
• 4 Starburst Shockwave Cannon Forge (Osaka/Tyr)(Xenon K is the runner up needing 3)
• 3 Point Singularity Projector Forge (all equipping ships take forever to build while Xenon capital ships can mount the superior PPC)
• 9 Cluster Flak Array Forge (Xenon J)(3 suffice for the Astraeus Hauler)
• 3 Incendiary Bomb Launcher Forge (Tiger/Shrike)
• 22 Ion Disruptor Forge (Mako)
• 20 Particle Accelerator Cannon Forge (Enhanced Pericles)(Xenon N is the runner up)
• 3 Phased Shockwave Generator Forge (Paranid M7s)
• 5 Plasma Burst Generator Forge (Nova)
• 173 EM Plasma Cannon Forge (Valkyrie)
• 15 High Energy Plasma Cannon Forge (Pirate Scorpion)
• 92 Fragmentation Bomb Launcher Forge (Enhanced Pericles)
• 12 Matter/Antimatter Launcher Forge (Xenon J)
• 38 Mass Driver Forge (Drone Hauler)
• 17 Concussion Impulse Generator Forge (Xenon J)
• 6 Energy Bolt Chaingun Forge (Nova)(if the player manipulates the stock market using Energy Bolt Chainguns then there will be far more factories) 
• 10 Gauss Cannon Forge (Xenon K)
• 2 Ion Cannon Forge (Thresher)
• 5 Ion Pulse Generator Forge (Medusa)

As can be seen from this list the Valkyrie, Enhanced Pericles and Xenon J are very weapon and shield hungry ships