Elite Dangerous Colonization - Grand Tour of Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 (PART II)

 When I check my system on Spansh and Inara, they have a lot of errors.  Weeks later, there are still “construction sites” showing.  Old ones that have not been “construction” for significant time.  I hope that will correct itself in the next few weeks now that I’m no longer building this system.
Even the architect view in Elite shows 3 active constructions, which is incorrect.  There are no active constructions, all builds are complete.

That’s why the list in the previous post included my personal spreadsheet.  To keep Raven Colonial accurate while building, I couldn’t work from live data.  Had to use saved data and update Raven manually.  Since I wasn't certain my data would be saved accurately, it's all on a manually maintained spreadsheet.

Elite is my favorite game of all time.  Ever since the 1980s with the Commodore C64, and later, the Amiga.  “Elite Dangerous” ramped it up, made it modern, and in spite of the occasional misstep, kept the spirit of the original.

“Dangerous” came out 2014/15 (I joined the Beta in 2015, but think the Alpha was started in 2014.)  The servers have been running for over a decade.  I’m grateful, and try to buy a few ARX now and then as a thank you.  I'm worried that Elite won't be around forever, at some point the servers will go down for the final time.
On the other hand, my struggle with cognitive and memory issues has its ups and downs.  For 4 years, I lacked the cognitive skills to play Elite.  In mid-2024 I started improving and decided to re-learn Elite.  Took months, but by early 2025 I was back in “The Black,” playing Elite again.

A year later, and it feels like I’m losing some progress.  My plan for this entire system has been to complete it, then make videos visiting every facility, one by one.  If things go well, by the end I’ll have a library of iconic videos, reminding me of the incredible ride Elite has been. 
Something so that when the servers are gone, or if I’m no longer able to play, I can pick a video, watch a cherished memory, and smile.  

Once the facilities are all visited, there’s HazRes, Mining, Missions, Trading, Exploring… Maybe I’ll record the process of building and engineering a new ship.  Maybe even look into on-foot missions, or Exobiology.
Probably not those last two.  They don’t sound fun. (The new vessel, Nomad, will be released next week, which may change my opinion of exobiology.)

I also have to consider that learning and retaining knowledge isn’t as natural as it used to be. 
It’s a hell-of-an-effort involving notes, spreadsheets, journals.  Detailing how to do things so I can easily find that note the next day and remember how to do it again. I don’t mind learning new things, but have to be highly selective about which things are important enough to make the effort.

Anyway, that’s the plan.  It keeps me busy, and with luck, will provide memories for an uncertain future.

Elite Dangerous Colonization - Grand Tour of Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 (PART I)

 PROJECT INTRODUCTION:

     This is the culmination of a project that began on over 7 months ago.
Finally done building my system. It’s not the first, won’t be the last, but this one is home.
Below is a list of all 138 Facilities in System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40

NOTE: I couldn’t build a station in the Asteroid Belt. Made an assumption very early on that you could put any normal orbital in that slot. Turns out you can ONLY build an Asteroid Station there. Nothing else. Now I lack the T2 points to build it.
In hindsight I can't see doing anything differently. Everything is where I wanted it, just as it is.  But it irks me not to complete every empty slot.

Started working on this system December 7th of 2025.
Finished colonizing it on May 14 2026, all of it solo.
It took 6 months and 1 week to colonize everything in this system (ahem… again, except for the asteroid belt. Dammit.)

I used the Panther Clipper Mk II exclusively for this system, though the build underwent several tweaks over time to increase the tonnage.  (Dropped the shield, went Hull Tank, mix of lasers/multi-cannons.)  I'm not a good combat pilot, but no pirate has ever defeated her.  (Having high security helps.)
Named her Imperium Stellae Ultra (Call Sign 'Nfinity').  Bit of a Toy Story reference.

Took a couple of short breaks for CGs, primarily to get the Level 5 Surface Suits. I don’t like the on-foot part of the game, but it made sense to do a quick CG for a free level 5 suit.  
Other than that, it was six months of daily colonizing.

There are 3 T3 builds:
One Planetary Hub.
One Ocellus.
And a Dodec my wife bought for me.
Thank you Monique, that saved a month of hauling.
(Additionally, I solo built an Orbis in my first system, with an Imperial Cutter so please don’t hassle me about paying to win.)

There are:
5 Coriolis stations, and 5 matching Civilian Outposts on each corresponding planet.
1 Asteroid Station
(No, not the one I didn’t build… this one is in some planetary rings roughly at mid-system from the sun.)
30 Large Landing Pad facilities.

The rest of the stations are a mix of Mediums and Smalls, mostly built to farm points or to balance the system score. Plus I like high security, so there’s a lot more security/military facilities than truly necessary.

I initiated construction on Meeker’s Sanctuary on Monday, January 24, 2026.
It was named in honor of my wife, Monique.  As children, her niece and nephews couldn’t pronounce her name so they called her Aunt Meek. Later, it became Meekers. Now, her nephews’ children still call her Aunt Meek.

Began actual construction on Meeker’s Sanctuary on April 4th, 2026.
The delay was planned, because the more T3 facilities, Coriolis, and Asteroid Stations you build, the more Construction points each following one costs. T3 stations go up 6 points at a time, T2s only go up 2 points per build.

So I bought an Ocellus (T3) in advance, while it was still affordable. Didn’t begin working on it for a couple of months because I wanted functional stations which could be used to build the whole system.

Once construction began on Meeker’s Sanctuary, it took 1 month and 10 days to build.
If that seems slow… it is. With some cognitive and memory issues, 3 round trips at a time is usually all I can do before “falling asleep at the wheel.” Pushing past that point results in lots of mistakes. 

Usually minor, but sometimes I’ll fly into a planet or a sun, which slows things down. Sometimes I forget to buy commodities to deliver; sometimes I forget to turn in the ones I just arrived with. It’s less frustrating to take a break, do something brainless for a while, or take a nap, then come back fresh.
6 months and a week later, here’s the final structure of my system.

There are 138 total facilities, counting both orbital and planetary together.
If the facility name includes a name in parenthesis, that means the name was changed later and it may not be updated in Spansh or Inara yet.

The column headers below are:
Order - the order the facilities appear in the Architects' View.
Video# - There are 138 facilities, but only 31 numbered videos (plus a special case video.)
Duration - How long each video is.  It depends mostly on how many facilities in each video.
BODY - This is the planetary body the facility is orbiting or on.
Facility - The name of the facility.
Type - What type of facility it is, for those who want to know.
PAD - What size ship, if any, can dock.  Large, Medium, Small, and NO.