Headquarters and hubs

• The company starts with its headquarters (HQ) at its home port. It gets one more hub every 15 company levels (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90: 7 locations in all). A hub is founded from any port's popup ("Build a hub here", click again to confirm) and is permanent.
• Each HQ/hub levels from 0 to 40 on the XP of every delivery unloaded at its port (the same XP the company gets), and of every full load shipped out of it by a ship that arrived empty (a one-way route out of the hub: the hub gets the XP the load will earn where it's delivered, when it's loaded; the company and ship still get theirs on delivery). Level L to L+1 costs (5 + 0.7 x L) minutes of a quarter of a full fleet's XP at the current company level, so a hub taking about a quarter of the fleet's deliveries maxes out in about 12.5 hours.
• Each level is an upgrade point, spent in the port popup on four paths of up to 10 points each. Each point also costs money: $2M for a path's first point, then $500k more for each point already in that path ($2.5M, $3M... $6.5M for the 10th; $42.5M for a full path). The buttons show the price and grey out when you can't afford it; the Finances tab totals it as "Hub upgrades". They boost every ship docking there: Ship XP +5% per point (ship XP only, not company or hub XP), Fuel & repairs -3% price, Port stops -5% time (unloading, repairs and refueling all speed up), Pay +2% on deliveries unloaded there. The HQ's bonuses are 1.5x a hub's.
• Every delivery unloaded at an HQ or hub also earns the company extra XP, free with the hub's level: +10%, plus 10% more for every 10 hub levels (+20% at level 10... +50% at level 40). The HQ's is 1.5x (+15% up to +75%). The hub's own XP and the ship's aren't boosted by it. The Hubs cards and port popup show it, e.g. "Company XP +30% on deliveries here (+40% at level 30)".
• On the map, the HQ and hubs have a ring in the company color around their port (heavier for the HQ; gray on the Route Assignment map). A small red dot sits just up and to the right of any HQ or hub with an upgrade you can buy now. The Hubs tab shows a black dot while a hub has an upgrade you can buy (a point and the money) or a new hub can be founded.
• New ships launch at the HQ or any hub, chosen when buying; recovery boats are then re-based across the hubs (see Lost ships and recovery boats).
• Industry: every HQ and hub has room for 3 commodity buildings, on the quay behind the marina's basin, on the side across the channel from the HQ building (+y), in a row of equal square plots nearest the basin. One plot opens at each of hub levels 10, 20 and 30. Each building is one commodity's; a hub can't have two of the same, but the same one can be built at other hubs. Each costs a flat $15M (Finances "Hub upgrades") and can be pulled down (confirmed) for half back, freeing the plot. At its port, for its owner's ships only, its commodity costs 20% less to buy and sells for 20% more, and every delivery of it loaded or unloaded there earns 50% more company and ship XP. Built from the Hubs tab (each card's Industry section) or by clicking a plot on the map (an industry popup with the same section): an open plot shows "Build ($15M)", which opens a picker of every commodity's building (ones already there greyed); a built one shows its boosts and "Pull down". On the map an open, empty plot of this player's own hub is marked out with a dashed line; built ones show their art with a shadow, at any company's hub. In multiplayer they're host commands. Saved with each hub.