Sorry, I didn't keep links for many of these notes. You'll have to search quotes from below to find most of them. This was originally meant only as a help for me. I wound up posting here so in case I'm not at my desk, I can still refer to these notes.
This may be easy for most of you, and seem pointless to be so thorough. I've had cognitive problems ever since Covid in 2021, and it takes a lot of effort and study to learn things that used to be a lot easier. This is just part of my process trying to retain things.
Note 001
Priority 1
For the “useless"
T1 builds used to generate the T2 points, we recommend Orbital
Communication Stations as they increase system security and provide a
+3 tech boost while: being cheap, not needing surface slots, and have
no economy type influence. Military orbital outposts are another
security option, and also provide a small population boost, but are
three times the material costs of Comm Stations.
Note 002
Priority 1
From Cmdr Mechan’s
MEGA GUIDE:
Case Study #2:
Producing CMM Composites
A lot of players
have been asking about how to produce CMM Composites, which are a
commodity required in high volumes for the construction of larger
ports.
Producing CMM
composites is surprisingly simple - noting one needs to appreciate
that CMM Composites (much like Ceramic Composites) are produced only
at planetary ports with a refinery economy.
Also note that while
NPC ports further have the requirement of having to be based on High
Metal Content worlds, such restriction does NOT apply to player-built
ports. A player can theoretically produce CMMs on most colonizable
planet types (noting that attempting to do so on icy planets would
prove extremely challenging, if not outright impossible.)
The easiest way
to produce CMM Composites is the following:
Identify and
claim a system with at least one “clean” rocky planet (no rings,
no biologicals, no geologicals) which has at least one planetary
construction slot
Build a Primary
Port that won’t interfere with a refinery economy (i.e., make sure
you don’t convert it to a supporting facility later on.)
Build a Tier 1
Civilian [Planetary] Outpost on your rocky body
That’s it! The
Tier 1 Civilian [Planetary] Outpost will pick up a Refinery economy
from the Rocky local body, and will be producing CMMs without the
need for any supporting infrastructure.
Note that because
such a system will have a pretty small population and pretty low
economy strength and system statistics, production volume for CMMs
will be somewhat low to start.
If you have
additional time and the planet has additional planetary slots
available, you can also build two Refinery Hubs to boost CMM
Composites production if you want - and any other facilities that
boost system population (without introducing competing economies)
will also help boost production volumes.
This example is
shown in the “Colony 4” tab of the demo spreadsheet (same as
above.)
Note
003
https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/System_Colonisation
How To Get CMM Composite
If you want your system to generate
CMM Composite, you'll need to set up one of the following:
Rocky body. 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.
If the body has geological signals,
biological signals, or terraforming, you may need to add Refinery
Hubs on the surface to get the Refinery strength high enough to be
one of the top two Economies.
High Metal Content body. 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 Refinery Hubs.
If
the body has geological signals, biological signals, or terraforming,
you may need to add Refinery Hubs on the surface to get the Refinery
strength high enough to be one of the top two Economies.
As long as the Refinery Economy stays
in one of the top two spots of the market, you can build whatever
else you want in the system (or even on that body).
For a long discussion on this, see
this post in the forums, but this is from before the August 21, 2025
update:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/requirements-to-produce-cmm-composites.637152/
Note 004
...and must be built on rocky/hmc
not icy/rocky icy otherwise the surface port will turn into
industrial & eat up all the CMM
Also make sure that the planet does
not have volcanic activity, which will induce an arbitrarily
strong industrial influence destroying the refinery imports as well.
This is the case for my current refinery where the HMC's volcanic
activity has nuked all the exports relevant to colonizing except
(somehow) steel and titanium. (And I'm really not coming to heads
with why "volcanic activity = industrial"... get the
extraction part but not the other)
Step 1) Find and
claim a system with a HMCW
Step 2) Build a surface civilian
port
Step 3) Build 2x a refinery
Check your market = It will have CMM,
Ceramic, Liq o2, Steel, Titanium, etc
NOTE 005
Priority 1
Summarizing everything I found in this thread, for the ultimate
refinery system:
Find and claim a system with a
Rocky (best) or High Metal Content World (HMCW). Rocky gives extra
points of Refinery which will help resist weak links later.
The Primary Build should be a
civilian or commercial outpost port. Doesn't matter where.
On the target world build a
surface civilian port. Build 2x a refinery.
Must be built on rocky/hmc not
icy/rocky icy otherwise the surface port will turn into industrial &
eat up all the CMM.
(You want Rocky, not HMC, ideally. HMC
isn't terrible (because Extraction doesn't interfere much) but Rocky
actually gives you extra points of Refinery which will help resist
weak links later.)
Planet should have Major or
Pristine resources.
Make sure that the planet does
not have volcanic activity, which will induce an arbitrarily strong
industrial influence destroying the refinery imports as well.
Planet Geo gives bonus. The type
of Geologicals doesn't matter. This not correct for Refinery. Stay
away from planets with geo.
CMM will only be available from
ground bases.
Orbital above HMCW + refineries =
Steel and Titanium but no CMM's
Note that CMM composites are
consumed by High Tech, Industrial, and Military economies.
If you have ANY industrial
settlements or outpost in the system whatsoever, the new economy
calculation will cause your refinery's economy to be massively
overtaken by an industrial demand. A single tiny industrial
settlement somewhere in the system will cause all ceramic composites
and semiconductors to disappear from your surface refinery's market.
Even when it's a large T3 surface refinery.
It sounds like a dedicated system is
ideal.
Facilities anywhere in the system that
negatively impact refinery are:
- Industrial, high tech,
military, terraforming.
Facilities that don't negatively
impact refinery (for most cmdr purposes) are:
- Extraction,
agriculture, tourism.
NOTE 006
(Odd direction,
but interesting throughts. #5 is useful whatever your goals
are.)
You can probably get by with just one
system, I think, if it's got a few rocky moons and a decent number of
other bodies with multiple orbital slots. It'll just look a bit odd
as to which components of it do what.
1) Rocky moons get built up as
refineries with colony-type ports and lots of hubs. These are where
your T3s go, if you want any of those. Repeat on as many rocky moons
as possible to get the refinery hubs cross-supporting each other's
markets with weak links too.
2) T1 intrinsic economy ports don't
generate weak links, or pick up planetary influence, so you can put
them in orbit around other bodies safely for your HT and Industrial
needs
3) If you put two T1 ports around the
same planet, the weak links from your refineries will only stick to
exactly one of them (the older one), so you can get single-type
economies here by building a decoy [1]. Since you're not building it
for exports anyway, Military T1 outpost built first as the decoy,
then Industrial/HT as the economy should be a good combination. You
can do the same on the surface with the intrinsic T1 surface
outposts.
4) If you have ring systems with two
slots you can do the same to get an Extraction economy: build a
Coriolis first as the decoy, then an Asteroid base for the economy
5) Comms, Satellite and Government installations can be safe
ways to fill extra slots as they don't have an economy type so don't
generate weak links
6) Then you're only missing
Agricultural, and you have enough stations protected from weak links
by decoys that you can afford to just build a bunch of Odyssey agri
settlements elsewhere in the system, because you'll only lose
biowaste exports on the refineries and the decoys, but not the whole
system, and hope between them that they either produce what you want
or you get it via weak links somewhere.
Re - [1] You also have the option to
build a higher-tier port as the decoy, and then build order doesn't
matter, so you could stick a Coriolis or Orbis out here (for
shipyard, outfitting and general population/stats boosts) to shield
the outpost from weak links.
NOTE 006.1
(Goes along
with points in NOTE 006)
So if I read this thread correctly any
buildings except ports, satellites, comm stations and government
installations should be avoided like the plague, to not get weak
links ruining a system economy.
You can go a bit further than
that:
- things which generate weak links of the economic
type you already want are fine
- ports which have a decoy port
built in the same location to attract the weak links are fine (though
this also attracts strong links, so only works for shielding planet
or intrinsic economies)
- if you know what you're doing, there
may be a "safe" level and/or type of weak links, though
that's a lot trickier and very specific to what you want the economy
for
NOTE 006.2
(Also goes along with
#5 from NOTE 006)
Love that catch 22. The only way to have
a secure system is to have Military, but the only way to have CMM is
not to have Military. I guess that, technically, one could build 20
Orbital Military Outposts, but that's 360,000 tons just to get 40
security. It'd also be nice if FDev could give some info on how
detrimental those weak links can be. E.g., if I have Refinery of 1.4,
can that withstand 0.25 of Weak Military and still produce enough
CMM? or only 0.1 of Weak Military?
You can get Security increased
without going the military route, but will require more effort.
Communication Station will give you +1 Security (and a T2 point),
and a T2 Government Installation will give you +2 Security (and a T3
point), both of these do not give any system economic influence
whatsoever.
NOTE 007
(This
just confirms my thoughts to build mainly Refinery in the system.)
I
have a system with 3x HMCW's next each other.
Build on the first planet a surface
outpost port, build 2x refinery hubs.
Once the 2nd was build,
the market of the port became active with CMM, Steel etc etc.
Now
with new update that port have two strong links.
On the 2nd HMCW I did the same.
Now
with the new update that port on the first and 2nd HMCW have two
strong links and two weak links.
Atm busy with building a big civilian
port on the 3rd HMCW
Normally I guess, it would have 4 weak
links, once I have build on that 3rd planet 2x refinery hubs it will
have 2 strong links and 4 weak links
I'm curious how the market will look
like.
Surely there comes a point where the
additional amount of commodities becomes redundant. 200k steel etc at
a single T2/T3 should be enough for future construction?
Yes, at the moment max Steel stock in
one of my surface port is +-138k
4 or more cmdr's were hauling
steel and lowest was 95k
Each 10min the market regenerate some
materials, so after an hour or bit more the max stock is back
NOTE 008
I thought that CMMs are only produced
on HMCs- was that debunked a while back or changed with recent
Colonization updates?
Never true even in the original.
Any surface refinery can produce CMMs.
HMCs in general are Extraction
which won't harm CMM production in the new version, but won't help it
either - Rocky is much better.
Rocky or HMC, oodles of CMMs are
produced, well beyond needs.
NOTE 009
From someone who disagrees:
This is what I have:
Main Rocky body - Tier 2 Coriolis
1
Refinery Hub, 1 Military Settlement, 1 Extraction Settlement on main
body.
- Strong Links to the tier 2. (This is the only body
with more than 1 ground slot.
The rest only have 1 ground
slot)
1 Refinery hub on Rocky Body 2 - weak link
Tier1
Ground Outpost (Colony) on Rocky Body 3 - Makes CMMs, Polymers,
Semiconductors, Superconductors, Ceramic Composites (see attach
screenshot).
Other weak link orbitals and installations around
other bodies. Mostly extraction or agriculture.
These don't impact the refinery
economy for what I want. That's important. It may effect a good(s),
but its not the ones I care about.
And the reply:
...
Actually, you just need a rocky body with no biologicals or
geologicals. That's what you've put your colony on, and that's
where 140% of your refinery economy is coming from. If you'd picked
anything else (a metal rich, HMC, or icy body) it would not have
worked.
NOTE 010
Here is what I did:
T1
civilian ground port
followed by 1 refinery hub
I built
this on a HMC world with no rings.
I have a decent population in
this system, so it produces enough CMMs to build a T3.
There
is a weak link in the system to a T2 starport that has a refinery
economy, but I don't think that played much role in getting CMM and
Ceramics.
From Gemini: (Suspect information, don’t accept at face
value)
1. Best Planet Selection
You need a planet that can support a settlement with the
prerequisites for a Refinery economy. The most suitable candidate
from your system details is COL 285 Sector AX-J C9-9 3.
Planet: COL 285 Sector AX-J C9-9 3
Planet Type: High Metal Content
Surface: Landable
Rationale: High Metal Content planets have the raw
materials required to start a Refinery economy, and being landable
is mandatory for a surface settlement.
2. CMM Composite Production Build Order
CMM Composites are a Tier 2 manufactured good, so they require a
simple two-step chain: Refinery -> Manufactory.
Step
|
Unit to
Build
|
Location
|
Economy
Established
|
Notes
|
1
|
Refinery
(Tier 1)
|
Planetary
Surface (on Planet 3)
|
Refinery
|
This T1 unit
processes raw ores and establishes the required economy type. It
consumes basic resources like Iron, Nickel, and Sulphur (which
are present on High Metal Content worlds).
|
2
|
Manufactory
(Tier 2)
|
Planetary
Surface (on Planet 3)
|
Refinery
|
This T2 unit
consumes the output of the Refinery (Minerals) and produces the
desired CMM Composites. It will also produce other T2
manufactured goods.
|
Export to Sheets
Final Output: CMM Composites
