Station habitats

[Rogue]

I'm just getting into station building and I'm looking at habitats.

I believe the habitats increase station efficiency. But the workers need food rations and medical supplies, which obviously means more modules and logistics.

It seems to me- I might as well forget about habitats and simply build more stations? Even if it is less total production, I think I might actually prefer the reduced complexity.

Am I missing something?

I prefer to have lots of small stations. I know it means more logistics but I'm not too bright and it helps me keep track of things lol.

[PegasusJF]

My understanding is the habitats house your workers and are necessary, not optional to run your factory. On the bright side you only need to have some haulers bring in their necessities as they are found in many places. This will cut in your profits but if you played your cards right it will only be a minor cut.

[Rogue]

I think the habitats are optional? My stations are producing..

I think habitats only add +25% productivity.. I can build another station and get +100%, that's the way I understand it.

[Oddible]

Habitats increase your output without adding more input. So the whole down chain supply is more efficient. A single Pharma station can easily supply any number of stations and produce a handy profit too. Your wharfs and shipyards will need habs too to supply ships with crew. Very worth it.

[Scutum]

Habitats are optional for any station, even for shipyards. I believe a pilot/captain is added for free, though not completely sure. 95%) But habitats are being reworked for the next patch iirc, so anything might change. You can check 4.00 Beta patch notes.

[trooperrob]

I believe that 25% extra productivity does not increase the raw materials requirement. If 25% more productive with the same raw materials that would be substantially more profit.
Not sure if this is the case though.

[CreatorOfWorlds]

Habitats are optional. But if you don't have them there are no 'life' on your station and therefore you can't get the free workers you can use elsewhere.
For food, medicin and drugs you can just buy them instead of producing them at the same station. These items take up very little volume, so a transport ships can carry a lot.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Rogue:

It seems to me- I might as well forget about habitats and simply build more stations? Even if it is less total production, I think I might actually prefer the reduced complexity.

Am I missing something?

You have it basically right but you are missing some details.

* Habitat BPs are expensive so spending your money building more stations/expanding existing stations instead is probably more profitable than buying the habitat BPs and building those. The reason for that is the glacial slowness of filling them up.

* However you can steal habitat BPs using EMP bombs. That makes habitats worth it economically, it turns them into free money.

* Habitats are not optional as far as shipyards/warfs are concerned since the crew for new ships is drawn directly from habitat populations. You pretty much must get habitats up for your shipyards/warfs.

* once you do own habitat BPs there is no reason not to install habitats in all your stations since they are basically free money at that point.

[Tech Enthusiast]

To get started:
Yes, ignore habitats.

To maximize profits:
You need Habitats. They will not change a production line from "100A --> 100B" to "125A --> 125B", but will actually do magic and make it "100A --> 125B".

That is a TREMENDOUS boost and just gets crazier down the line to end products. If you just get 25% more Ships, without inputting more resources, that is very much worth it.

But you can and should start without it, to get the thing moving. And that is fine as well. The point to add workforce for me is about when I can at least mass produce all the needed base building parts myself, without having to buy them elsewhere. So Hull, Energy, Claytronics.
I may add another factory for turret components, to be able to fully build stations without AI partners,... but usually that is not needed for a while.

[Rogue]

Hello, ty all for replying.

I have been playing with the "Station calculator" (very handy!) http://www.x4-game.com/#/station-calculator

It appears that more modules = greater bonus- when the station has a habitat.

Ie- ONE STATION with a habitat and 5 hull parts modules will produce more than 5 individual hull part stations (that don't have habitats)

Energy cells, Graphene, etc are not in short supply and as such are not really part of the equation, having more Graphene will not make more hull parts.

[Lapo]

They increased the population production bonus and consumption of food/medicine for the latest 4.0 beta so the numbers you see in the calculator only applies to 3.30.

Also, a hidden benefit of an habitat is that your stations get full of wandering NPCs with random stats up to 3 stars that you can hire for free.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Rogue:

Hello, ty all for replying.

I have been playing with the "Station calculator" (very handy!) http://www.x4-game.com/#/station-calculator

It appears that more modules = greater bonus- when the station has a habitat.

Ie- ONE station with 5 hull parts modules will produce more than 5 individual hull part stations (that don't have habitats)

Energy cells, graphene, etc are not in short supply and as such are not really part of the equation, pumping graphene into the station will NOT make more hull parts. ie- you don't have to put these modules on the hull parts station if you don't want to.

Yep I make energy cell factory separated from my hull part factory and depending on the needs of the station I also separate low usage resources.
Like Graphene is a good example since 1 graphene module can supply 10 hull part module so I just transport the graphene over from another station that uses more of it.

[Rogue]

Originally posted by Lapo:

They increased the population production bonus and consumption of food/medicine for the latest 4.0 beta so the numbers you see in the calculator only applies to 3.30.

Also, a hidden benefit of an habitat is that your stations get full of wandering NPCs with random stats up to 3 stars that you can hire for free.

I see, well I think the idea is the same though.

[felmari]

its a means of giving a boost without having to build more production modules which then may need more resource and depending intermediate modules. depending how big you go having npc's supply you will leaving productivity spotty from waiting on resources. one thing to note is have a good amount at the shipyard will allow you to hire marines and technicians as well.

[Oddible]

Just a bit of a "lesson learned". Don't put multiple ship fabrication modules on the same station - build them on different stations. It makes the logistics more annoying to have to fill up storage at different ship construction stations but you'll never get enough of a population in your stations if you combine them. I guess you could build all 4 races habs in your shipyard (I heard they populate separately) but that means all those different types of foods too.

[haessliches Frettchen]

When i have habitats of different races I need many different ware for the guys, that I know.
But what hapens when I use other parts of the station from different races? Does it inflict just the needed parts for building or also other things?