FULL Station Build Guide - X4 Foundations Guides - How to build a station from A to Z

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All you need to know to get your first station out in the wilds!
This will give you all the detailed information about how to build your first base in X4: Foundations. From buying blueprints, to manage the plot and hiring a builder.
#X4Foundations #X4Guide #StationBuilding
0:00 - Station Building Intro
1:15 - Buying Blueprints
6:33 - Create A Plot
9:20 - Construction Of A Base
16:33 - Resources And Builder
20:05 - Join Me On Twitch

[@CaptainCollins]

And if you want to see more quick and easy guides, that's your playlist: bit.ly/x4guides Btw, check out some merch: bit.ly/CaptainCollinsMerch

[@tomasznecek3895]

it's only on Twitch to see how this station looks etc? which one is it? thanks btw. congrats on the channel :)

[@davestigter4291]

Another fun option to do with building is place the dock, storage, and production module(s) anywhere in the build area and then press the randomise button (dice). It will randomise a design and will utilise any connecting modules you've unlocked to complete the plan.

[@TrifectaMonkey]

Game got a steep learning curve and can be frustrating. Thanks to you, I'm having more of a blast and spending less trying to decipher everything.

[@CaptainCollins]

That's awesome! Exactly what I wanted you to feel after doing all these vids :)

[@cnewtonc]

Captain Collins you have the best guides on youtube for this game. *Your Guides have saved my fleet so many times*

[@vr0p]

For real this vid was amazing, just dives straight in to useful knowledge, no filler content. A godsend to new player like myself!

[@trlavalley9909]

Really useful guide, had myself convinced I had screwed up somehow as it took forever for the builder to get to work, but it really was just a choke in the supply train, still very early in the game and the Argons are not playing nice with one an other. Anyhow your video helped me get my mind right and find the real problem.

[@CaptainCollins]

Yes! That's great to read. If you need any more hints, help, advice or want to share, hop in our Discord or stop by on a friday-X4-stream :)

[@aseroxd]

I just had a root canal done. I enjoyed it more than building stations in this game. At least until I've found this video.

[@CaptainCollins]

Ouch 😅

[@wyeri]

If you pull a module off the station and put it back it will be moved to the bottom of the build list so you have some control of the build order after planning.

[@CaptainCollins]

That's 100% correct. Thanks for pointing that out :) Welcome to the crew!

[@SymeonPhronema]

Awesome video, and I appreciate you making these for new players.

[@staybussin]

Still useful 3 years later!

[@JulianAdolph]

love your guides. they helped me so much. thank you!

[@wesleymcfarlane9612]

great informative content. thank you CC

[@Vueltero]

Great video, just found your channel, very interesting

[@NotThatBob]

What a great guide! Thanks so much

[@CaptainCollins]

There's a new one too, check that one out :)

[@NotThatBob]

@@CaptainCollins On it like a dog on a steak.

[@net2000man]

Thank you for such an informative video, Captain! Subscribed because of this video here, and will check you out on Twitch as well. Many thanks!

[@CaptainCollins]

Welcome to the Delta Squad 💪

[@duncanirvine4657]

Good vid ... Thanks for the info.

[@adamjoyce1521]

Very clear and helpful

[@CaptainCollins]

Glad you think so!

[@robertlaw3769]

Your videos have been a blessing, thanks!

[@CaptainCollins]

You're welcome :)

[@OrnluWolfjarl]

Something you should add in your guide. You can rotate in any direction, but you first have to move the camera view to a different angle. So you can rotate a part any way you like (even diagonally), depending on your view orientation.

[@CaptainCollins]

There's a new guide out :)

[@MadApplesWA]

I am seriously thinking of buying this game thanks to your vids.

[@KaijuAKD]

Not sure if this was patched in the last update, but if you don't have room for a module, move the entire construct to a side, top or bottom, snap it, and then center the construct moving the dock. The limit of the cube will only be applied to the dock, so the annoying module will stay outside but be operational. This is useful for placing those pesky x3 piers. I always build dock-container-habitat first, because population takes a time to gather. This way when your factory is operational, you'll already have workers to make it more efficient.

[@KaijuAKD]

A couple more tips I found useful. If your are building a mega factory, there is a calculator that will help you know how many basic modules you need to provide for the advanced ones. And last, if you see a faction that is going to be eradicated and want to help, or it lost it's base and you missed some blueprints, pick a contract to build a station, but instead of the basic modules it asks, build a couple of defense modules. The contract won't be completed until the production module solicited is built, so leave it at the end. If you build a ship construction module, the faction representative will reappear.

[@KaijuAKD]

One last tip about building contracts. Make the basic factory the faction needs. Once it starts building the last module, or when it already have all the materials it needs, you can modify the blueprint and add more factory or defensive modules, without giving any credit. Once the last solicited module is built, the contract will be completed and you'll get your credits, but the faction will keep building the extra modules. This is useful if you want to fill a demand without having to manage yourself the station, or if you want them to have an extra wharf/shipyard because theirs was destroyed or is to backed up

[@pr2thej466]

Cheers Cap

[@shagamatula1103]

Thanks great help. Collins..Irish decent ? Micheal Collins was one of our great heros.

[@1514max]

I find rolling the dice useful if you have an issue fitting your station in the box.

[@artemisreed535]

Fab guide as always. What do I do is there's no builders available in my sector? Just build my own or discover more to find them?

[@CaptainCollins]

The second. You just fly around until you find one. The time it need to fly to your construction site, the traders have time to bring wares 👍

[@Josivis]

I have a weird situation, my builder started the build stockpile too far from station for build drones to travel, how to reset the stockyard closer to the station?

[@peterclewes7073]

Hi There, Been watching for a few weeks now ( since i got X4 ver 3.3 ) should waited for ver 4 to come. Anyway could i ask some advise on Station Missile Turrets. I have three stations plus HQ but only one station in Black Hole Sun IV has a tab for Ammuunition to stock the Missile Turrets ?? any idears what could be stop the tab come up in Logical station overview. Looked at most of your videos for the answer.

[@CaptainCollins]

Hi Peter, I'm sorry, but missiles are a secret for me. If you wouldn't mind, jump into the discord and ask the other players there. Can't help you with a simple answer, sorry.

[@Ikdulo]

i have a problem with some resources just no being available. like Hull parts. is there a way to simply buy the parts somewhere and add the parts i need to the construction pool?

[@CaptainCollins]

Yes, you can alsways take your own traders, give them the task to buy something (for example hull parts) and then put these wares to the building storage of your station in build. The manager will then not buy these wares anymore from other traders, because they are locked. You can provide the station builds with ressources yourself as much as you want.

[@sulaco33]

When you are building a station for a faction as a mission (or a stage of a mission), do you have to use that very faction's modules or can you build a station with Argon modules for, say, the Paranid? I am asking because recently I have had some problems with finishing such missions for various factions. I thought maybe it was so because I mostly used Argon modules.

[@CaptainCollins]

No, only when it's specifically written in the mission description. Otherwise it shouldn't be a problem

[@sulaco33]

@@CaptainCollins Thanks for the reply. I must be doing something wrong or I am somehow misreading mission descriptions, then.

[@CaptainCollins]

@@sulaco33 Go through every single part. If everything is there, maybe you don't have enough storage, check that afterwards by building another storage module if everything else is there (and all components need to be done building).

[@sulaco33]

@@CaptainCollins Will do. Thanks, again, Cpt. Collins.

[@sulaco33]

I seem to sort of have found a solution to my problem (with a little help from reddit and Egosoft forums). It turns out that the construction ships assigned to build a station did indeed build the required modules OK, but they did not build the defense turrets they were supposed to. It happened because normally the construction starts when just enough (but not all) required resources had been collected in the build storage at the beginning of the construction. I learned you should first layout the design of the station (with shield generators and turrets), then confirm all module changes and wait for the resources to be bought and stored in the storage, and only after all the resources had been secured, you should assign a builder ship. A bit of pain in the ass but it seems to work.

[@KnutFuchs]

Theres one thing i wanna know since ive dabbled in station building myself a bit. It seems that for a lot of produced goods in my galaxy the price for them is lower than the total price for the raw materials used, is that normal? Is it because I dont have a workforce yet?

[@divegabe]

Good tutorial. I did most right but forgot about turrets and shields. I accepted a mission from the Paranid for 6.8m to build a high quality metal, which I assumed will be the same base you built - ore refinery. Do I need shielding , turrets and a habitat to complete the mission?

[@CaptainCollins]

It does tell you exactly what you need to finish the mission. If it tells you, you need storage, that means enough storage for the amount of items, not m³, if that changes something.

[@divegabe]

@@CaptainCollins Yeah I checked and it wanted 2 metal refineries and was completed after I did that. I also realised I went way over the top with 2 large storage for it too. I also got to lvl 11 on the relationship with the Paranid after the mission and trying out my new nemesis corvette now. Feels much better than the Argon one I had :D

[@LuisEdGm]

Is there any reason for making multiple small stations instead of a huge one? Something like a module limit?

[@CaptainCollins]

Your manager can reach a maximum of five jumps, so maybe you want to support different sectors with different wares. You also want to divert the threat of being attacked.

[@PaulRoneClarke]

My station takes literally days of game time to build. It says "Not enough hull parts" Now the station has much more funds than it needs, and I can go and buy hull parts myself - but I can;t transfer them from me - to station build. I can sell them, or I can "warehouse" them at the station, but not contribute towards the build. I went into Hull parts and set the limit I allow the builder to buy them at the maximum possible. He just sat there. For (real time) days my station 72% complete. missing hull parts, when stations all over the place were selling them.

[@stephanebessette6471]

A good companion video would be about using the plans. These are very useful once you realize that every stations have some common modules, such as a 3M6S port, a 3-Dock T and a container storage. Plans let you design these modules once and the next time you can simply reload that design/plan. And if you make a GREAT plan, you simply need to add the production module and maybe another type of storage module. Very handy feature. And there are also plans for the turrets and shields placed on the modules.

[@CaptainCollins]

Thank you for pointing that out! This could be a good video about "where can you automate to save time" or something like that. 👍

[@mintydog06]

Thanks for the great tutorial. When I'm first building a station and it doesn't have the resources needed to complete the changes, can I manually deliver the resources? Or do you just accept the estimate? And that gets the resources from the builder?

[@CaptainCollins]

You can also deliver everything yourself, but make sure that you change the trade rules before you do for that build task 👍

[@mintydog06]

@@CaptainCollins Thanks for your reply. I don't know how I can deliver it if I haven't built the docking station yet.

[@CaptainCollins]

You deliver to the "Building Storage". You don't need (and it doesn't work that way) to send it to the station directly.

[@mintydog06]

@@CaptainCollins That's great, many thanks Captain :)

[@mintydog06]

@@CaptainCollins I'm sorry, I still cant' do this. I managed to find the Build Storage, which is the basic part of the station that exists in space when you start construction? But I can't for the life of me work out how to send energy cells to it. Right clicking on it and choosing Trade Offers or Transfer doesn't work. And I can't see where I can add resources needed for research either. I tried the tutorial but that got stuck part way through, so I was left with the starting plot for a station.

[@Ryenthvor]

Nice vid, very informative! What modules do i need for a hullpart station? My economy is desperate for Hullparts

[@CaptainCollins]

Hey Ryenthvor! You will get all the information you need in the encyclopedia (finally once). For Hull Parts it's Energy Cells Production, Graphene Production and Refined Metals Production. You will need all types of storages, because you need Methane (liquid) for Graphene, you need Ore (solid) for Refined Metals and for all other stuff Container Storage. This factory will be huuuuge :D

[@katorone1841]

A very useful tool is: x4-game.com/#/station-calculator This lets you put in the stations you want to build, and calculates which supporting stations or goods you need to make it run; Specially for beginning players I find this extremely useful, because X4 players need to collect a TON of information to make things run efficiently.

[@CaptainCollins]

Thank you sir! I will save that as a bookmark, whenever someone in chat asks about station building. Have a good flight!

[@Ryenthvor]

@@katorone1841 Thanks bookmarked it!

[@Ryenthvor]

@@CaptainCollins Thanks for the quick answer, will get on building right away!

[@rybuds47]

Subscribed, you are awesome, you need to make some clones to teach us other games!

[@CaptainCollins]

I want to do that! There will be more :)

[@iamdaven7330]

I cant get mine to rotate the same direction as you. I tried, watched the same part 5 times. Not sure what I am doing differently. I can only spin a module on one axis.

[@CaptainCollins]

Please watch the latest video on that topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2HKlnh-rd14faM You can find the timecodes for easy access to the part you need ;)

[@hedcase]

Bought the game recently, spent some time having fun, then decided to do the first main mission "The experiment". I have the station, and I worked out how to place a docking bay, but can't find a builder anywhere. They are not on the map. I clicked "assign builder" and can't see one. Any help would be appreciated! BTW, I used your video(s) to work out how to place the docking bay, thanks.

[@CaptainCollins]

Fly around until you find one on the map, pause the game and assign him immediately :D had the same issue at the Terran start, they were pretty rare ;)

[@hedcase]

@@CaptainCollins got one in the end. Just gotta be patient :)

[@Aotearas]

So, building my first station and I tried getting some informations on how to upgrade a station after it's been built and I can't find anything. I do hope you can in fact upgrade any station you've already build because otherwise that would be a major kick in the balls (current station has no shields and turrets) and depending on how well it sells (hull part complex in Second Contact) two docks might not be enough, especially considering at least to of the available M docks will be in use by my own miners to resupply the station I had hoped to be able to add other docks/piers to the station as adequate and perhaps expand the production line too (currently 2x hull part factories, 1x graphene, 1x refined metals and 1x energy cells production, plus necessary storage and 2x 3m6s docks) ... Yet as I said, when searching for how to upgrade stations aI find absolutely nothing. Really, REALLY hope I didn't jump ahead of myself with expectations. It's a complex that will work as initially designed but if it turns out that your initially built station is the last of it and can't be changed after it's done that's something I'll have to note for the future. Would be nice if anyone in here can give a definitive answer!

[@CaptainCollins]

Just open the Building Menu again, do your changes, assign a builder and save it :) That's it :)

[@Aotearas]

@@CaptainCollins Thanks for the answer. Gotta say the changed UI in X4 takes a good chunk of getting used to, though it doesn't help that it's been a while since I last played X3:TC/AP. In the meantime, after solving a stuck on ware reservation bug (save, exit, load and horay the bloody trader finally came) my HPP2 complex is finally finished building and can start producing! I'd really like it though if the developers added a specific intermediate ressource trade rule for station complexes though. My complex is largely self sufficient requiring only ore and methane as raw ressources (procured by my two miners, one for each) and I'd rather prefer the station not buy any of the intermediate wares at all and if possible only sell excess production. So a station trade command that would automatically stop buying ressources the station produces on its own and that would only sell wares that aren't reserved for its own production cycle would be a heaven's sent QoL addition. Not sure how much of the devs ears you got as a streamer, but if they ever were to ask about any suggestions to improve the game ... *wink wink nudge nudge* Not sure if a mod exists that already does it (wouldn't be surprised, the X modding community has always been on point with that stuff) but even if there was a mod, first playthrough is going to be vanilla game only so I can learn the game first. The modding fun comes after I got to grips with the game's mechanics and quirks! In the meantime I'm going to work myself slowly through your list of guides. I've already said it but I don't mind doing it again: very nice work you do here with teaching people about the game and many thanks!

[@CaptainCollins]

You don't need a mod for this, it is already in the game. I highly suggest that you take a closer look into the "Logical Overview" on your stations. There's everything you just asked for. And when you did that, the next step are "Trade Rules". You can do all that you want there ;)

[@jonijuuso7296]

Wait didn`t that station need a pier? Your selected builder is a big ship can it build that station without a pier?

[@CaptainCollins]

How would you build a new station? There's nothing to begin with :) The contruction ship works with a building storage, no need for docking modules. And the build storage can be supplied by every ship type.

[@jonijuuso7296]

@@CaptainCollins Makes Sense, just the notice messages when you set the station to build that threw me off.

[@mrhenk007]

@@CaptainCollins can you do some tips about supplying build materials? Feels like I've been waiting forever for it to start building.

[@mikeking9719]

well i built a station in a plot, assigned a builder, gave the station plenty of money and literally zero is happening. I have large and small docks. Everything looks fine, I have accepted the estimate, confirmed the price, made sure there are no limits on buying resources, and I got nothing

[@CaptainCollins]

It took me about 12 hours of gametime to build a simple defense station this week 🤷‍♂️ sometimes the game just doesn't like your decisions 😅 don't give up, forget that one and move on, it will be build sometime

[@gamerx112]

whats with the vest?

[@CaptainCollins]

It protects me in space and on the brigde during hard times ;)

[@Slayer13yy]

My question is how place my plot on a different y axis

[@jacobwarkentin2156]

Apparently I did everything right, just wasn’t patient enough to let the freighter get to the builder ship

[@fxeconomist]

What ship are you flying ?

[@MrC0MPUT3R]

Looks like it might be a -Nova Vanguard- ? It's an Eclipse Vanguard. It shows it when he pulls up the map

[@dotaaccount7560]

Guide starts at 1:39

[@sgtsarge2617]

They should put your tutorial in the game itself

[@dubcuda874]

The builder has been stuck for days, why wont they finish any of my stations

[@bobi-bob]

the ship at 3:08 is very distrubing.

[@stormlands]

dont waist time and money building conections they are not needed. just build everything freefloating it works just fine.

[@brainsironically]

Bought the game, spent two hours trying to get it to "see" my nVidia card in my laptop, found that this problem has existed for over three years, refunded the game.

[@CaptainCollins]

Okay

[@brainsironically]

@@CaptainCollins lol. I was just miserable about it. Actually it was one of your vids that convinced me to buy it, and then it was a disaster. Thanks for the reply! ;)

[@_whatthefacts_]

Why the fuck is he wearing a plate carrier?

[@ossiedunstan4419]

2.00 minutes in and nothing. To much dribble for me.

[@floreamihaicristi2713]

21 min ... rly !!!?! soo ...

[@allendaly8332]

Hey Capt. Very Well Explained Just Like In Real Life IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY I learned Quite A Few Things On Your Excellent Video Thanks