EDColonisation

This page is about the Colonisation feature and activity in the game Elite: Dangerous.

The Colonisation game feature allows you to place a claim on any unpopulated star system that is within 15 ly of another, already populated, star system. To place the claim the game charges you a non-refundable 25 MCr fee. You then have 24 hours to place a colonisation beacon in the claimed star system, after which a colonisation ship arrives in the system. After that you have another 4 weeks to complete the construction of the so-called "Primary Port" facility, which is the first orbital station in the system. Once you achieve this you become the permanent architect of the system (publicly visible in the game, similar to the "first discovery", "first mapped" or "first footfall" tags) and now have unlimited time to initiate and complete further construction projects in that system.

References

• [1] ED wiki
• [2] Elite Dangerous Colonization Mega Guide: A Google document written in collaboration with many others by CMDR Mechan.
• [3] Colonisation Reference Tables at the AetherWave Research website.
• [4] Choosing And Claiming A System: A Trailblazers Tutorial: An introductory video by CMDR Mechan. I already had minimal knowledge about colonisation when I watched this, and I didn't find this very useful anymore.
• [5] OASIS Guide for Bootstrapping a Bubble: A Google document written by the OASIS folks, the Orion Alliance of Settlers and Independent Systems player group, a player group which was created from the Shoulder of Orion Colonization project, which in turn was an opening initiative of DW3 (Distant Worlds 3 expedition). This guide is a lot less formally written than the Mega Guide, and in fact I found it quite difficult to extract meaning from it. In my opinion, if you want to really understand how Colonization works, then you should read the Mega Guide first, and then treat the OASIS guide merely as a companion document which in some cases illustrates the information from the Mega Guide.
• [6] CMDR DaftMav's Colonization Construction Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet allows to "simulate" building up a system exactly the way you want it, while also highlighting dependencies and construction point requirements.

Terminology

This wiki page uses the terminology from the Mega Guide [2]. See the glossary in that document.

Ritual for claiminig a system

• Go to the Colonization contact when docked at a station.
• Select a system to claim: The system must be within 15 ly of the system where you're docked at.
• You can NOT choose where to build the first station, aka the "Primary Port". The location is chosen for you by the game.
  • You can view the location by going to the System Map of the destination system and activating the Architect view.
  • The Primary Port location is indicated by a "flag" icon (instead of the usual "+" icon where other ports can be built later on).
• Configure the Primary Port
  • The Primary Port selection screen provides information about resource costs and system effects.
• When you are finished with configuring the Primary Port, press the Confirm button.
  • A non-refundable 25 MCr fee is now deduced from your balance.
  • In addition, a System Colonization Beacon is assigned to you.
• Using the System Colonization Suite ship module, you have to deliver that System Colonization Beacon to the destination system within 24 hours. If you fail to do so, the claim will be revoked, without refund of the fee.
  • The System Colonization Suite module must be assigned to a fire group.
  • If you fail to deliver the Beacon within 24 hours, you can claim the system a second time.
  • If you fail to deliver the Beacon a second time, you will be barred from claiming the system again for a few days.
• After deploying the Beacon, a System Colonization ship jumps to the Primary Port's construction location, allowing for the delivery of resources to complete construction.
• You now have 4 weeks to build the Primary Port. If you fail, the claim will be revoked, without refund of the fee.

Facilities that can be built

• Orbital facilities
  • Ports: Outpost, Coriolis, Asteroid Base, Orbis, Ocellus
  • Installations
• Planetary facilities
  • Ports: Outpost, Ports
  • Settlements
  • Hubs

The Primary Port

The Primary Port is the first facility to be built in a system.

• The location is fixed.
• The Primary Port costs 17-25% more commodities than the equivalent facility when it's not a Primary Port.
• The Primary Port must be built within 4 weeks of claiming a system.

Simultaneous construction

• You can have only one Primary Port construction going on at the same time. This means you cannot have multiple claims open at the same time - before you can claim another star system you must complete the Primary Port of the previously claimed star system.
• You can have up to 5 construction projects going on at the same time in systems where you have already built the Primary Port. This is a per-system limit, e.g. if you are the architect of 3 systems you can have up to 15 construction projects in total.

Tiers

Facilities are classified into 3 tiers: Tier 1 (T1), Tier 2 (T2) and Tier 3 (T3).

• Orbital facilities
  • Ports: These can be Tier 1 (Outposts), Tier 2 (Coriolis stations, Asteroid Bases) or Tier 3 (Orbis stations, Ocellus stations).
  • Installations: These can be Tier 1 or Tier 2.
• Planetary facilities
  • Ports: These can be Tier 1 (Outposts), or Tier 3. There are no Tier 2 planetary ports.
  • Settlements: These can be Tier 1 (sized "small" or "medium"), or Tier 2 (sized "large").
  • Hubs: These are always Tier 2. They don't have a size rating.

Construction points (CPs)

Generating CPs

Tier 1 and tier 2 facilities generate constructions points

• Tier 1 facilities generate tier 2 construction points. Tier 2 CPs are also known as "Yellow CPs".
• Tier 2 facilities generate tier 3 construction points. Tier 3 CPs are also known as "Green CPs".
• All facilities generate 1 CP, with the exception of Large Planetary Settlements: These generate 2 CPs, and are therefore of particular interest for architecting a system.

Consuming CPs

Tier 2 and tier 3 facilities consume these generated CPs.

• Tier 2 facilities consume tier 2 CPs.
• Tier 3 facilities consume tier 3 CPs.

Cost increase mechanic

A cost increase mechanic exists for T2 and T3 facilities of the Port type:

• The more T2 and T3 port-type facilities you build, the more CPs a future such facility costs.
• The cost increase for T3 port-type facilities is higher (+6) than the cost increase of T2 port-type facilities (+2).
• It does not matter whether you build a T2 or T3 port-type facility, it will increase the future cost of BOTH T2 and T3 port-type facilities.
  • This gives an incentive to build T3 port-type facilities BEFORE building T2 port-type facilities.
• The cost increase starts with the third T2 or T3 port-type facility. The first two T2 or T3 port-type facilities cost the same.
• The cost increase already starts when you BEGIN construction of a facility. This means if two T2 or T3 port-type facilities are still under construction, the third will already suffer from the cost increase.
• A T2 or T3 Primary Port is exempt from the cost rules: It neither consumes CPs, nor does it contribute to the cost increase.
  • This gives an incentive to built a T3 Primary Port, although the material cost for Pimary Ports is higher.

Facility building overview

Overview of facility building

Facility class	Facility	Port type?	Tier	Size	Landing Pad	Generates CPs (*1)		Consumes CPs (*1)		Notes
						T2	T3	T2	T3
Orbital	Outpost	Yes	1	-	M	1		-	-
Orbital	Coriolis Station	Yes	2	-	L	-	1	3, 3, 5, 7, 9, ... (always +2)	-
Orbital	Asteroid Base	Yes	2	-	L	-	1	3, 3, 5, 7, 9, ... (always +2)	-
Orbital	Orbis Station	Yes	3	-	L	-	-	-	6, 6, 12, 18, 24, ... (always +6)
Orbital	Ocellus Station	Yes	3	-	L	-	-	-	6, 6, 12, 18, 24, ... (always +6)
Orbital	Installation	No	1	-	-	1	-	-	-
Orbital	Installation	No	2	-	-	-	1	-	-
Planetary	Port	Yes	1	-	L	1	-	-	-	Yes, this has a large landing pad!
Planetary	Port	Yes	3	-	L	-	-	-	6, 6, 12, 18, 24, ... (always +6)
Planetary	Settlement	No	1 (*2)	Small	Variable (*3)	1		-	-
Planetary	Settlement	No	1 (*2)	Medium	Variable (*3)	1		-	-
Planetary	Settlement	No	2	Large	L	-	2	1	-	Yes, this provides 2 T3 CPs!
Planetary	Hub	No	2	-	-	-	1	1	-

Notes:

• (*1) Substantial parts of the CP generation and consumption columns come from the AetherWave Research website - the Mega Guide for some reason does not go into details about these except that it has cost-increase tables.
• (*2) The AetherWave Research website shows planetary settlements to always be tier 2. This is probably incorrect because some of them are then also shown to not consume any T2 CPs, but instead to generate T2 CPs.
• (*3) Certain small settlements have a medium landing pad, while certain medium-sized settlements have a large landing pad. This is interesting in particular for medium-sized settlements, because these are only tier 1.

Factions

What factions will be present in a newly colonized system after you complete building the Primary Port

• When you are not in a Squadron
  • Unknown
• When you are in a Squadron
  • 60% influence, i.e. primary faction of the new system: The controlling faction of the station from which you made the claim. This will also control the Primary Port.
  • 20% influence
    • Either the controlling faction of the system from which you made the claim.
    • Or (if the system controlling faction is the same as the station controlling faction), the second faction by influence in the system from which you made the claim.

Building orbital vs. planetary facilities

• Contraband market strong-links can ONLY be created using orbital facilities (pirate base)
• Certain commodities (e.g., CMM Composites) are restricted to being produced at planetary sites exclusively
• Tier 3 Planetary Ports have the best statistics of any facility in the game
• Refinery markets can ONLY be specialized by using the ground-exclusive Refinery Hub
• Hubs in general, which are planetary-only, are among the best facilities to specialize an economy while also having excellent system-wide bonus stats

Services (e.g. shipyard, outfitting, etc.)

The Mega Guide has a large table of what is needed for a certain service to become available in different facilities. As I have not studied this in detail, I'm not reproducing anything here for the moment.

As a hint for further study, here are some services that look interesting to me:

• Commodities Market
• Shipyard
• Outfitting

Population

Water Worlds and Earth-like Worlds provide a large population boost to orbital facilities built around them. To get the most out of this boost, T2 or T3 facilities (Coriolis, Ocellus, Orbis) should be built. According to the OASIS Guide [5] these are the multipliers:

• Water World: Provides a 30x multiplier.
• Earth-like World: Provides a 40x multiplier.

Optimising construction

• Page 46: TL;DR: Building more than one port on or around a given local body is a bad idea. Don’t do it.
• Constructing a T3 Primary Port is most efficient in relation to CP cost increase.
• Medium-sized planetary settlements do not cost much more materials than small settlements, so it can be advisable not to waste any precious construction sites for cheap small settlements which do not contribute a lot to the system.
• Constructing large planetary settlements is extremely interesting because these are the only T2 facilities that generate 2 T3 CPs.
• From the ED wiki: If in doubt, build a Military Outpost as the Primary Port. Rationale: A Military Outpost provides population and security - most other structures subtract security, so it's one of the hardest system statistics to keep up.

Strong and weak links

Basic terms

Certain facilities emit links to other facilities in the system. These links have an influence on the markets of the link-receiving facilities. Facilities that emit links are called Supporting facilities.

Another key term used when discussing links is the term "local body": This refers to the astronomical body to which a facility is immediately connected, i.e. the astronomical body that the facility is orbiting, or the astronomical body that the facility is built on. This does not include the moons of said body.

Link properties

The properties of a link are:

• The economy type that the link projects onto a receiving facility.
• A numeric value that indicates the strength of the link. The numeric value is sometimes given as a percentage, and sometimes as a floating point value. For instance, a link strength of 40% and 0.4 are equivalent.

Economic Strength Value

A facility can receive many links of varying economy types and strengths. For each economy, a facility has an Economic Strength Value, which indicates how strong the given economy is at that facility.

Received links of the same economy type add up their strength.

The mixture of all Economic Strength Values influences the commodities that are available in the facility's market. See Economies section for details.

Link types

Two types of links can be distinguished:

• Weak links
  • As indicated by the name, a weak link has a relative low numeric value.
  • The strength of a weak link is fixed and is always 0.05. It cannot be influenced by any modifiers. [Mega Guide, "Weak Links" chapter]
  • Generally, weak links form between a facility and other non-local-body facilities.
• Strong link
  • As indicated by the name, a strong link has a relative high numeric value.
  • The strength of a strong link is variable and is influenced by various modifiers.
  • The strength of a strong link cannot be reduced below 0.1. [Mega guide, "Strong Links" chapter]
  • Generally, strong links form between a facility and other local-body facilities.

Which facilities receive links?

Only port-type facilities can receive links.

To recap from earlier sections on this wiki page, these are port-type facilities:

• Orbital ports: Outposts (T1), Coriolis stations and Asteroid Bases (T2), Orbis and Ocellus stations (T3).
• Planetary ports: Outpost (T1) and Ports (T3).

Which facilities emit links?

General rules

• As mentioned in the "Basic terms" section above, facilities that emit links are called "supporting facilities".
• Usually only non-port-type facilities emit links. Because links convey an economy type, non-port-type facilities that do not have an economy cannot emit links - see below for a list.
• In the special case where there are multiple port-type facilities at a local body, some of those port-type facilities are "converted" to supporting facilities and also start to emit links - see the next section for more details. Port-type facilities always have an economy, so if one is "converted" it is always capable of emitting links.

To recap from earlier sections on this wiki page, non-port type facilities are:

• Orbital: Installations (T1 or T2)
• Planetary: Settlements (small or medium T1, or large T2) and Hubs (T2)

Which non-port facilities have an economy type, and which ones do not? The Mega Guide is mostly quiet on this (except the "How to effectively Plan for System Construction" section which says that Satellites have no economy influence). I found the following information on the AetherWave Research website [3]:

• No economy influence
  • Orbital Installations: Satellite, Comms Station
  • Planetary Hubs: Civilian Hub, Outpost Hub
• With economy influence
  • Orbital Installations: All that are not listed above (which is most of them).
  • Planetary Hubs: All that are not listed above (which is most of them).
  • Planetary Settlements: All of them.

TODO: Contrary to the above, the OASIS guide states that "Planetary Outposts can and will generate strong and weak links and in fact civilian planetary outposts will push links for every economy they initialize with, so be careful!". I assume "initialize" means either the inherited or intrinsic economies.

Conversion of port-type facilities to supporting facilities

When more than one port-type facility exists at a local body, then some of those facilities are "converted" to supporting facilities. "Conversion" here means that the port-type facility starts to emit both strong and weak links, which is something that normally only non-port-type facilities do.

From [Mega Guide, "Special Case: Port-to-Port Strong Links" and "Special Case: When Ports Convert To Being Supporting Facilities" sections]: General priorisation rules when

• The port-type facility with the highest tier is not converted. All port-type facilities with lower tiers are converted.
• If there are multiple port-type facilities with the same tier, then the port-type facility which was built first is not converted. All port-type facilities that were built later are converted.

From [Mega Guide, "Special Case: When Ports Convert To Being Supporting Facilities" section]: The actual "conversion" rules that apply depending on what port-type facilities are present at a local body:

• If all of the port-type facilities are orbital
  • All but one of the orbital port-type facilities are "converted", according to the priorisation rules.
• If all of the port-type facilities are planetary
  • All but one of the planetary port-type facilities are "converted", according to the priorisation rules.
• If there are both orbital and planetary port-type facilities
  • All but one of the orbital port-type facilities are "converted", according to the priorisation rules. UNCLEAR: The Mega Guide states "Thereafter, orbital ports follow the rule below" - but it's not clear which is the "rule below".
  • All but one of the planetary port-type facilities are "converted", according to the priorisation rules. UNCLEAR: The Mega Guide states "regardless of their tier", which would imply that only the "built first" priorisation rule applies.
  • Super special case for planetary port-type facilities: The one planetary port-type facility that is not "converted" according to the priorisation rules, is actually "semi-converted" - it does not emit weak links, but it does emit a strong link to the remaining "unconverted" orbital port-type facility.

Weak link emission rules

[Mega Guide, "What Are Strong & Weak Links?" chapter] The general rule is: Every non-port-type facility with an economy type emits weak links to all port-type facilities outside of their local body.

When more than one port-type facility exists at a local body, then some of them are "converted" to supporting facilities and also start to emit weak links. The conversion rules can be found in the section "Conversion of port-type facilities to supporting facilities".

Strong link emission rules

From [Mega Guide, "What Are Strong & Weak Links?" and "Strong Links" chapters]:

• Strong links form only between facilities at the same local body.
• Every non-port-type facility at a local body emits zero or one strong links to one of the port-type facilities at the same local body.
  • If there are no port-type facilities at the same local body, then non-port-type facilities do not emit strong links.
  • If there is one port-type facility at the same local body, then non-port-type facilities emit exactly one strong link to that single local body port-type facility.
  • If there are multiple port-type facilities at the same local body, then non-port-type facilities still emit only one strong link to one of those local body port-type facilities. Which one of these port-type facilities is chosen to receive the strong links is governed by rules explained below.
• When more than one port-type facility exists at a local body, then some of them are "converted" to supporting facilities and also start to emit strong links according to some special rules, found below. The conversion rules can be found in the section "Conversion of port-type facilities to supporting facilities". The special strong link emission rules are these:

From [Mega Guide, "Special Case: Port-to-Port Strong Links" chapters]: Special rules for emitting and receiving strong links when more than one port-type facility exists at a local body and some of them are "converted":

• If all of the port-type facilities are orbital
  • All but one of the orbital port-type facilities are "converted", according to the conversion rules. Each of the "converted" orbital port-type facilities then emits a strong link, which is received by the not converted orbital port-type facility.
• If all of the port-type facilities are planetary
  • All but one of the planetary port-type facilities are "converted", according to the conversion rules. Each of the "converted" planetary facilities then emits a strong link, which is received by the not converted planetary port-type facility.
• If there are both orbital and planetary port-type facilities
  • All but one of the orbital port-type facilities are "converted", according to the conversion rules. Each of the "converted" orbital port-type facilities then emits a strong link, which is received by the not converted orbital port-type facility.
  • All but one of the planetary port-type facilities are "fully converted", according to the conversion rules. The remaining planetary port-type facility is only "semi-converted". Each of the "fully converted" planetary port-type facilities then emits a strong link, which is received by the "semi-converted" planetary port-type facility.
  • The "semi-converted" planetary port-type facility emits a strong link of its own, which is received by the not converted orbital port-type facility.
  • Furthermore, the "semi-converted" planetary port-type facility forwards all strong links it received, i.e. it re-emits all strong links that it received from the "fully converted" planetary port-type facilities. These forwarded strong links are then received by the not converted orbital port-type facility.

TODO:

• If there are orbital non-port-type facilities, does a planetary port-type facility receive their strong links? The "forwarding of strong links" rule implies that links are "directional" in the sense that they go from the planetary surface to orbit, but nothing is said about the other direction from orbit to planetary surface.
• What does the following note from the Mega Guide mean, exactly? "We have reason to believe that strong links enabled by "converted ports" are not presently working as intended (for example, they are passing on planetary inherent economies but NOT acquired economic values from local-body strong links.) So be careful about multiple-ports-around-a-single-local-body."

Strong link modifiers

The strength of strong links is variable. Some general rules from [Mega Guide, "Strong Links" chapter]:

• Higher tier facilities project strong links with a higher initial value than lower tier facilities.
  • Currently only the initial value for T2 facilities such as Hubs is given: It is 0.8.
• Strong links are further modified by various influences. Every positive influence adds 0.4 to the link strength, and every negative influence subtracts 0.4 from the link strength. Below are tables of all known influences.
• The minimum value of a strong link is 0.1, i.e. negative influences cannot decrease a strong link's value below 0.1.

TODO

Can influences from the table below create NEW strong links?

• For instance, a Research Station (intrinsic High Tech economy) by itself emits a High Tech strong link. If the Research Station is built at an Ammonia World, clearly the High Tech strong link will be improved. But will the Research Station also emit a Tourism strong link, introduced by the Ammonia World influence?
• I assume the answer is no, because if it were yes then every system with major or pristine resources would positively be swarmed by Extraction, Industrial and Refinery strong links.

Above it is stated that 0.4 are added/subtracted. Is this true, is it not in fact a factor of 1.5 / 0.5?

• The reason for this uncertainty is that in the Mega Guide on page 60 the case study gives the strong link value as "0.8 * 1.5 [Strong Refinery Links, modified by pristine reserves]". As it is, a factor of 1.5 applied to a strong link value 0.8 results in 0.4.

Currently known modifiers, listed per influence type.

Strong link modifiers, per influence type

Influence	Positive influence	Negative influence	Notes
Local body type influences
Earth-like world	Agriculture High Tech Tourism
Water World	Agriculture High Tech Tourism
Ammonia World	High Tech Tourism
Terraformable body	Agriculture
Icy body		Agriculture
Local body signal influences
Body with Organics	Agriculture High Tech Tourism
Body with Geologicals	High Tech Tourism
Body with Volcanism	Extraction
Other local body influences
Planet tidally locked to its star		Agriculture
In general: Planet tidally locked to its parent, and all further parents are also tidally locked to their parent, up until the parent is a star		Agriculture
Star system influences
Major or pristine resources	Extraction Industrial Refinery
Low or depleted resources		Extraction Industrial Refinery
System has a Black Hole	Tourism
System has a Neutron Star	Tourism
System has a White Dwarf	Tourism

The same modifiers as above, but this time listed per economy type.

Strong link modifiers, per economy type

Economy	Positive influence	Negative influence	Notes
Agriculture	Earth-like world Water World Terraformable body Body with Organics	Icy body Planet tidally locked to its star In general: Planet tidally locked to its parent, and all further parents are also tidally locked to their parent, up until the parent is a star
Extraction	System has major or pristine resources Body with Volcanism	System has low or depleted resources
High Tech	Earth-like world Water World Ammonia World Body with Organics Body with Geologicals
Industrial	System has major or pristine resources	System has low or depleted resources
Refinery
Tourism	Earth-like world Water World Ammonia World Body with Organics Body with Geologicals System has a Black Hole System has a Neutron Star System has a White Dwarf

Note: There seem to be no strong link modifiers for Military, Terraforming or Contraband economies.

TODO: Mega Guide says on page 38

• Refinery economy relies on rocky planets.
• Extraction: Wants high metal content (or metal-rich) ones (bonus points if ringed) or a decent number of asteroid belts and ringed planets (to place asteroid bases).

Information from OASIS Guide

TODO: Integrate this information in the section(s) above

• Orbital starports only form strong links with constructions on the specific body they orbit as well as with other orbital constructions that orbit the same body. They can only form weak links with anything else.
• Links affect the economy of ports
• Weak links are 8-16x weaker than strong ones.
• Strong links from T2 constructions (things that cost T2 points), are twice as effective on the economy as links from T1s (cost no build points to make).
• Orbital Outposts do not generate weak links.
• Planetary Outposts can and will generate strong and weak links and in fact civilian planetary outposts will push links for every economy they initialize with, so be careful!
  • TODO: What does "every economy they initialize with" mean, in particular "initialize"?

Economies

Economy relationships

Economies support each other with the commodities they produce. At the lowest level these relationships form a relatively simple production chain, but at higher levels a more complex network of relationships emerges. The following table makes an attempt to show these relationships.

Economy relationships

Economy	Consumes	Produces	Production chain stage	Notes
All economies	Medicine, Food	Various	All	The consumed commodities listed here are not listed again in subsequent rows.
Extraction	-	Raw materials	1
Refinery	Raw materials	Metals	2	From here on it gets already more complicated, because Metals are consumed by the economies on the next 2 stages.
Industrial	Metals	Machinery	3	Even more complications, because Machinery is again consumed by the economies on the next 2 stages.
High Tech	Metals Machinery	Technology Electronics Medicines	4	Here a full network forms, because Medecine is consumed by all other economies.
Agriculture	Machinery Technology Electronics	Food	5	The network intensifies, because Food is also consumed by all other economies.
Colony	Technology Electronics	?	6
Terraforming	Technology Electronics	?	6
Service	Technology Electronics	?	6
Repair	Technology Electronics	Hydrogen Fuel	6	Only Repairing Stations have this economy type.
Damaged	Technology Electronics	Nothing	6	Only Damaged Stations have this economy type.
Rescue	?	Nothing	6	Only Rescue Vessels have this economy type.
Contraband	?	?	?	Only Rescue Vessels have this economy type.

Note: The content of this section was taken from the ED Wiki. Although the wiki page was written for markets in systems that were not colonized by players, I assume that these basic game rules also apply to markets in player-colonized systems.

Port-type facility base economy

Every port-type facility has a base economy. Port-type facilities fall into two categories when it comes to how their base economy type is determined:

• Port-type facilities that have an intrinsic base economy type. Intrinsic means, the facility type itself determines the economy type. An example is an Orbital Scientific Outpost, which always has the base economy type High Tech.
  • The Mega Guide calls these "Specialized Ports".
• Port-type facilities that inherit their base economy type from the type of their local body. An example is a Coriolis, which has the base economy type Refinery when it orbits a Rocky world, the base economy type Industrial when it orbits an Icy world, etc.
  • The Mega Guide calls these "Colony-type Ports".
  • The Mega Guide calls the inherited base economy "Base Inheritable Economy".

The following table shows how the base economy is determined for each of the port-type facilities.

Port-type facility base economy

Facility class	Facility type	Tier	Intrinsic Economy		Inherited Economy	Notes
			Economy type	Economy strength
Orbital	Industrial Outpost	1	Industrial	1.0
Orbital	Criminal Outpost	1	Contraband	1.0
Orbital	Scientific Outpost	1	High Tech	1.0
Orbital	Military Outpost	1	Military	1.0
Orbital	Civilian Outpost	1			x	See table below
Orbital	Commercial Outpost	1			x	See table below
Orbital	Asteroid Base	2	Extraction	1.0
Orbital	Coriolis	2			x	See table below
Orbital	Orbis	3			x	See table below
Orbital	Ocellus	3			x	See table below
Planetary	Industrial Outpost	1	Industrial	0.5
Planetary	Scientific Outpost	1	High Tech	0.5
Planetary	Civilian Outpost	1			x	See table below
Planetary	Port	3			x	See table below

The following table shows which economies are inherited by port-type facilities that do not have an intrinsic economy type. Notes on the economy strength value of inherited economies:

• The Mega Guide does not say anything about the economy strength value of inherited economies in the section dedicated to this topic.
• The OASIS Guide on page 10 implies that the strength is 140% (= 1.4).
• In the Mega Guide section "Case Study #1: Building An "Ideal" Refinery System", it is implied that 1.4 is indeed the correct value.
• However, in the OASIS Guide on page 16, in the "Special Case" section, an example is given with an Asteroid Base which has an initial 1.4 Extraction economy - the extra 0.4 here are coming from the system's Pristine Reserves.

Port-type facility base economies inherited from local body

Local body type	Inherited economies	Notes
Black Hole	High Tech Tourism
Neutron Star
White Dwarf
Brown Dwarf	Military
All other star types
Earth-like World	Agriculture HighTech Military Tourism
Water World	Agriculture Tourism
Ammonia World	High Tech Tourism
Gas Giant	High Tech Industrial
High Metal Content Planet	Extraction
Metal Rich World
Rocky Ice World	Industrial Refinery
Rocky planet	Refinery
Icy planet	Industrial

Influences on port-type facility base economy

The base economy of all port-type facilities is influenced by two sources:

• Weak and strong links, as given in a previous section on this page.
• Certain attributes of the facility's local body.
  • The Mega Guide calls these "Base Inheritable Economy Modifiers".

Here is a list of local body attributes that have an influence on a port-type facility's base economy. Notes:

• The Mega Guide does not say anything about the economy strength value of local body influences, either in the section dedicated to this topic or anywhere else.
• The OASIS Guide on page 10 implies that the strength is 140% (= 1.4), i.e. the same value as an inherited base economy.
• The economy strengths from local body influences are added to other strengths, they are not multiplicative.
• OASIS Guide page 10: If the economy that comes from a local body influence is the same as one of the facility's base economies, and that facility already inherited its base economies from the local body, then the economy from the local body influence will not stack! For instance if the facility inherited 1.4 Extraction from a High Metal Content Planet, and that planet has rings, then the facility will NOT get another 1.4 Extraction. If the OASIS Guide is to be taken verbatim, then stacking with an intrinsic economy would work, i.e. an Asteroid Base around any planet with rings would have 1.4 (intrinsic) + 1.4 (ring influence) = 2.8 Extraction.

Local body attributes that influence the base economy of port-type facilities

Attribute	Influence	Notes
Body has rings (includes stars with asteroid belts)	+ Extraction
Body with Organics	+ Agriculture + Terraforming
Body with Geologicals	+ Extraction + Industrial

Consolidated economies

TODO Write how all the influences are consolidated in the final economies of port-type facilities. How is this shown in game? Can the game show multiple economies at a given market?

From what I understand so far, the economy relationships come into play separately at every facility that has a market. In other words: If a facility has both Refinery and Industrial economies, then the Industrial economy will consume the commodities produced by the Refinery economy, and the market will end up having only Industrial commodities. TODO Is this true?

Mega Guide, "Naming And Customizing Your Facilities" section: Since update 3.3 ports also acquire the interior layout style that matches their primary economy type. Updates to interior layouts happen Thursday (on the weekly downtime) only.

I think the following two things mean the same:

• Mega Guide, "Special Case: Port-to-Port Strong Links": In the present implementation of how this mechanic works, planetary ports have the surprising behavior of passing on to spaceports above them also the inherent economy of the planet they reside on - which is an extremely powerful effect. Having multiple civilian (T1) planetary ports on a rocky planet and a Coriolis above them may result in an incredibly strong market (This is true for a single planetary port to a single spaceport. Whether this is true for multiple planetary ports remains to be verified.). We believe this is a bug (tracker link), so exploit it at your own risk - as it may be eventually fixed and you may end up with a pretty-broken system if it is.
• OASIS Guide: It appears that civilian surface outposts push up 40% T1 Strong links for each economy that it generated when it was initialized. (Example: A civilian outpost on a rocky body with bio signals will send up 0.4 REF, as well as 0.4 BIO and 0.4 TER). This means colony typed surface outposts should be used very carefully to avoid mixing in unwanted economies to your starports!

Markets

Port-type facilities that have a market will buy and sell commodities according to their consolidated economies.

The following table comes from the OASIS guide and focuses on materials needed to build facilities in a player-colonized system. Which commodities are needed exactly, and in what quantities, depends on the facility.

Overview table of production / consumption by economy type

Produced commodities	Consumed commodities	Notes
Extraction
Biowaste	?
Refinery
Liquid Oxygen
Surface Stabilisers
Ceramic Composites		Only produced at planetary facilities.
CMM Composites		Only produced at planetary facilities.
Insulating Membrane
Polymers
Semiconductors
Superconductors
Emergency Power Cells		The OASIS guide says this "can only be sourced in the bubble". TODO: Does this mean a player-colonized system is entirely unable to produce Emergency Power Cells?
Aluminium
Copper
Steel
Titanium
Copper
Copper
Industrial
Survival Equipment	?
Liquor	?
Food Cartridges	?
Building Fabricators	?
Crop Harvesters	?
Geological Equipment	?
Mineral Extractors	?
Power Generators	?
Thermal Cooling Units	?
Water Purifiers	?
Basic Medicines	?
Muon Imager	?
Military Grade Fabrics	?
High Tech
Pesticides	?
Evacuation Shelter	?
Microbial Furnaces	?
Agri-Medicines	?
Combat Stabilizers	?	Illegal under most government types. Can only be manufactured at stations controlled by a faction with one of the following government types: Anarchy or Dictatorship.
Advanced Catalysers	?
Bioreducing Lichen	?
Computer Components	?
H.E. Suits	?
Land Enrichment Systems	?
Medical Diagnostic Equipment	?
Micro Controllers	?
Resonating Separators	?
Robotics	?
Structural Regulators	?	According to Inara these are only produced at planetary facilities. However, the OASIS Guide says that these are also produced in player-made Orbital facilities.
Battle Weapons	?	Illegal under most government types. Can only be manufactured at stations controlled by a faction with one of the following government types: Anarchy, Communism, Confederacy or Dictatorship.
Non-Lethal Weapons	?
Reactive Armour	?
?	?
Agriculture
Water	?
Beer	?
Wine	?
Animal Meat	?
Coffee	?
Fish	?
Fruit and Vegetables	?
Grain	?
Tea	?

System-wide properties

Introduction

A star system has a number of system-wide properties which are positively or negatively affected by the facilities that exist in the system.

The following system-wide properties exist:

• Security
• Wealth
• Standard of Living (SoL)
• Technology Level
• Development Level
• "Initial" Population
• "Max" Population
• Happiness

Facility effect

If a facility has an effect on the score of one or more of the system-wide properties, this is indicated in the game UI with chevrons.

Security

In general, a low Security score results in a low system security which has at least the negative effect that more interdictions occur.

The Security score is not identical with the low/medium/high system security that players see elsewhere in the game UI, but there is a relation which apparently is influenced by the system's population size. As the population grows, to maintain a high system security the Security score must also increase.

Wealth

It's not clear what the effects of the Wealth score are.

Proposed theories:

• Commodity prices
• Commodity amounts
• Module and/or ship availability
• System happiness

Standard of Living (SoL)

It's not clear what the effects of the Standard of Living (SoL) score are.

Proposed theories:

• Population growth
• Maximum population
• System happiness

Technology Level

Technology may have additional effects, but what is known is the following:

• The higher the Technology Level the more services are available at stations when you dock.
• Shipyards become available at Technology Level 35, but according to the Mega Guide this is subject to change.
• The higher the Technology Level the more modules are available in Outfitting.
• All modules become available at around Technology Level 100.

Development Level

It's not clear what the effects of the Development Level score are.

Proposed theories:

• Volume of available commodities in markets.

"Initial" Population and "Max" Population

Some official FDEV statements:

• "The overall level of a facility's output is determined by the population associated with that facility - a higher population results in greater output of commodities."
• "Populations [sic] will grow on each weekly maintenance tick. Populations [sic] growth is based on a curve and will grow quickly for the first month before slowing to a more gradual pace, enabling quick establishment of strong economies."

"Initial" Population notes:

• The "Initial" Population score determines the amount of population added to the system when the facility is initially constructed.
• The amount of population added also depends on the local body where the facility is built. For instance, a Coriolis station built at an Earth-like World or Water World adds a much higher amount of population than if it were built at an Icy body.

"Max" Population notes:

• The "Max" population score determines the maximum amount of population that can exist in a system.
• Nothing exact is known, though. For instance, it is assumed but not known whether the facility's local body interacts with the "Max" Population score similarly as with the "Initial" Population score.

Happiness

It's not clear what the effects of the Happiness score are.

The effects appear to be minimal, but some things that have been observed:

• The amount of credits the Architect earns weekly for a system.
• Positive or negative system states (e.g. Boom, Outbreak) appear to have a positive or negative effect on the Happiness score

Prerequisites

Some facilities have prerequisites for building them:

• An Asteroid Base can only be built if the location is in a planetary ring or in an asteroid belt.

Notes for things that I saw in the Mega Guide vs. my own observations

• Page 34. table with services
  • Commodities Market in Scientific Outpost: In my case was enabled after I built a Scientific Outpost as the Primary Port. The cell in the table is not filled.

HOWTOs

How to get CMM Composite produced?

Source is the ED wiki:

• Variant 1
  • Choose a Rocky body without geological signals, biological signals, or terraforming. (Vulcanism and rings are acceptable.)
  • This gives a base economy of Refinery + 1.0.
  • Building a Surface - Planetary Port - Outpost Civilian or Surface - Planetary Port - Port will produce CMM Composite.
  • There's a bonus if the system's reserves level is Major or Pristine, and a penalty for Low or Depleted reserves.
• Variant 2
  • Choose a High Metal Content body without geological signals, biological signals, or terraforming. (Vulcanism and rings are acceptable.)
  • This gives a base economy of Extraction + 1.0.
  • You will need to build one of the Planetary Ports with Colony economy (Outpost Civilian or Port) and then build one or more Refineries.
• In both cases: Do not build Industrial, Military, or High Tech facilities on or above the body, as they can quickly consume the CMM Composite production.

Selecting systems

Some criteria for selecting systems to colonize:

• Efficiency criteria
  • Large planets (with more slots - up to 10 are possible, but more than 7 is very rare) are always preferable.
  • A high number of space slots is always preferable.
  • "Tightly packed" planets/slots across a single main star are preferable (vs scattered planets across 5 separate and far-from-each-other stars.)
• Nice vistas
  • Ringed worlds
  • Close parents or siblings
  • Atmosphere
• Interesting planetary features
  • Mountains or craters
  • Geology
  • Biology