Elite Dangerous System Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40 - Building the Cobra Mark 5 Tourist Tripper

Cobra Mark V – Custom build for In-System Tourist Tripper, the Goddess Mnemosyne.
Introduction To The Grand Tour, PART III

When I finished colonizing Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40, there were 138 total facilities that had been built over the course of 6 months and a week. I play… slowly. And colonize solo. It takes a long time.

For personal reasons expressed elsewhere, I now want to create a video library. One visit at a time, a reminder of all the fun colonization was.

Not all facilities can dock my Panther. Nor even the Corsair. There are a number of facilities with only small landing pads. No need to consider the ones without landing pads, but it’s common sense to select a small ship for the Grand Tour. Whatever size the landing pad, a small ship can always fit.

Having been a fan of the game since the C-64 and Amiga days in the mid-1980s, it had to be a Cobra.
The Mk3 would have been iconic. The Mk4 would have been exclusive. (It was only released to a specific group of players.) I liked the Mk4 back then; it was less maneuverable, but had more shielding and an additional weapon slot. Haven’t flown it in years.
But now there’s the Mk5. All I’m hearing is that it’s by far the best small all-rounder. Before the Kestrel, it might have been the best small ship period, but it sounds like the Kestrel has the best small combat role.

To date, this is the ultimate Cobra. It’s like they took all the best of the Mk3 and Mk4, then ramped it up with Caffeine and jet fuel.
There’s a lot of reasons to like it, and I hadn’t built one yet.

It had to be excellent at in-system hops, so SCO was a no-brainer.
It had to be a durable shield/hull tank, because I struggle at keeping my focus, and am error prone. Always build something that can survive my mistakes.
Needs speed and agility, because if I’m flying a tiny little ship, then escaping is important.
Something with enough firepower to fight back, because I don’t like running away.

The Cobra Mk5 checks all the boxes. It’s the spiritual successor to the ship that started it all. It’s a fast, agile, tough fighter when it needs to be. Even loaded to the gills, it gets 39 LY jump range. (And really, it doesn’t need jump range anyway, since it’s an in-system mudskipper.)
Just for those times when it does need to travel (like engineering)… it’s got a pocket-sized Class 2 Fuel Scoop. Glacially slow to fill the tank, but it beats running out of fuel somewhere.

It’s a beauty of a ship. Great aesthetics. Easy to fly. Lots of punch when you hit the gas.

(I’m no expert, but if you want to see the build, here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/Cobra-MkV-Mnemosyne

It doesn’t have to be the best there ever was. Just has to meet my needs.

After building and engineering, wanted to fly it. And it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve truly played, because writing all this and planning the trip kept my free time occupied. Time enough to get rusty.
Figured a quick jaunt to the Nav Beacon was called for. A chance to get some flight practice, and a light combat refresher. If it turned out to be too much, she was relatively cheap to build, a rebuy won’t kill me…
Did not expect the result. Got mostly light and mediums, but there was one Elite Anaconda that I expected to end me. Only it was like playing on easy mode. I’m over-spinning, losing my targets, getting confused and forgetting what buttons to push… and never took any damage. Never even took significant percent off the shield.
Maybe the Nav Beacons tend to give inexperienced opponents, but it was a fantastic ship to get back up to speed in. Extremely forgiving.

After these videos are done, I’ll test it in a HazRez and see if she still feels tough...

Next, a cool name. I considered several. Nothing clicked until Grok suggested Mnemosyne.

The Goddess Mnemosyne presided over Memory, and Remembrance. With my cognitive problems, that’s not only apropos, it’s kind of poignant. The whole purpose of this project is to give me tangible memories for when my actual memories fade. Naming her Mnemosyne feels like a good omen.

Even better, Grok suggested MUSE9 for the call sign. Mnemosyne was the mother of the NINE muses, the spirits of inspiration for humanity. The entire theme ties in beautifully to this project.

Great ship, great name, and the engineering is done.

Time for the next step.

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 and documented, 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 and maintain 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.

The Satilla River Tuplar Tree, in Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40

The Satilla River Tuplar Tree
Col 285 Sector WL-L c8-40

On December 12, 2025 I had enough T3 points to deploy the Dodecahedron! There’s been mixed feelings in the Elite community about the Dodec. For me, it was a Godsend. Colonizing solo, big plans, going to take months.  This system will be my HOME, with 74 orbital and 62 planetary slots to build.

The Dodec Insta-Build saved me around 3 weeks of time. I previously built an Orbis as a memorial for my Dad in another system. Then a T3 planetary port in this system. Still plan an Orbis (or Ocellus) in this system. Paid my dues, still paying them. My wife gifted me the Dodec. I’m grateful.
I wanted it to be special, with meaning. Named it the SATILLA RIVER TUPLAR.

The Old Satilla River Tuplar Tree has been gently anchored in my memories for decades. I grew up on the Satilla River. One of best places in the world was where the Tuplar tree grew out on a small spit of land at the side of a quiet cove. (It's long gone, the tree died and rotted away many years ago.)

It was a giant of a tree, home to great fishing, had big "seeds" or small "fruit,” I'm not sure what you'd call them, but they were reddish yellow, and elongated. Had a huge tangle of roots, half in, half out of the river... more or less, depending on whether the river was low or high. Mostly low in the spring and summer. Fishing was best then.

The Tuplar's trunk was gigantic. If anybody was of a mind to swim in that deep, dark, tannin-dyed water on the outer side of the tree, it would have probably taken 5 adults linking hands to go all the way around it. Me, I was a little afraid of being in the water on the deep side of the tree.

We swam in the Satilla, but that particular spot seemed especially foreboding. Going by line length, even when the water was low, it was 10 feet or more.

The ground side was always shady, and pretty. Sometimes there'd be a snake or large skink nesting in the split base of the tree. You could climb around if you were bold, and drop a line straight out from the water-side of the roots and trunk. It would easily drop down 10 feet or so even when the river was low. 

It was my preferred fishing place. I'd often prop up two or three lines on the shore, climb a nearby twisted oak that had a perfect branch for reclining on. If the fishing was slow, I'd read a book.  When I’m unsettled and in need of peace, this is often my chosen memory.

Twenty-odd years ago, I could find online references to Tuplar trees.
Google used to know that Tuplar was a colloquialism for “Tupelo” tree. Now Google thinks I’ve lost my mind.
Grok thinks maybe it was a family colloquialism descended from the Creek language "ito opilwa," swamp tree.

Our Tuplar tree was a landmark to generations of my family. Mom, who will be turning 88 in a few days, remembers that tree being a giant even when she was a child.
My generation is growing older, and our branch of the Satilla River Thrifts and Wainwrights will likely be the final generation to remember the Tuplar tree. “Tuplar” itself will be forgotten.

I’m grateful to Elite Dangerous for the opportunity to make permanent changes to our chosen systems in the game.

 I know Elite has a finite lifespan, but for the duration my system will have a Dodec station dedicated to the memory of the Satilla River Tuplar Tree.

Elite Dangerous - Mapping To Help Plan My Colony

 I'm still struggling to figure out what to build, where, and where not to build.  I especially want CMM Composites.  But I also want an Ocellus station, a T3 Planetary Port, and an Asteroid station.

Some of those have prerequisites that have to be built first.  Also, I built my Primary when I knew a lot less than I do now... which is STILL next to nothing.  I'm still trying to learn, but am afraid my Primary Station may have been a bad choice.  And wouldn't you know, it's the only station you can't demolish.

To help plan, I mapped out a clean diagram of my system, with labels.  Next, after the current CG is over, I'll do a full exploration on every body in the system.  Just in case Inara or Spansh has an error, or incomplete data.  

Once that's done, I'll plan accordingly, then check out Raven Colonial to see if my plan has any hope of working.  In the meantime, I finished creating the system diagram today.  Just in case it helps anybody to see what you can do with Diagrams.net (and I'm a newbie at it, it's very intuitive), and because I may want to reference my map when I'm not sitting at the computer, the map is attached below.
Hope you like it!

Elite Dangerous - Colonizing Pre-Requisite Structures List

 

This is created by Gemini. It took some clarification, but he did a great job on the list!  There are some great resources online, but I couldn't find anywhere that listed the pre-requisite builds.  

GEMINI:
As requested, here is the complete list of buildable structures, organized by location, cost, and the required structural prerequisites that unlock them.

---

1. Orbital Structures

Orbital structures are built at available orbital construction slots around a star or planet.

Structure Name	Build Cost (Points)	Generates (Points)	Required Prerequisites	Primary Effect / Focus
T1 Satellite	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	None	Low Wealth, Standard of Living, Development
T1 Comms Station	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	T1 Satellite	Low Security, High Tech Level
T1 Relay Station	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	None	Low Security, Low Development
T1 Orbital Bar	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	T1 Satellite	Low Wealth, Low Standard of Living
T1 Space Farm	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	None	High Standard of Living, Low Development
T2 Military Installation	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Relay Station	High Security
T2 Security Station	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Relay Station	Very High Security, Development, Standard of Living
T2 Government Installation	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Relay Station	Low Security, High Standard of Living, Development
T2 Medical Installation	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Comms Station	High Tech Level, High Standard of Living
T2 Research Station	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Comms Station	Very High Tech Level, Development
T2 Tourist Installation	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Orbital Bar	High Wealth, Low Security, Development
T2 Pirate Base	1 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	T1 Satellite	High Wealth, Very Low Security
T2 Outpost	3 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	None	Medium Station (M-pad), adds various stats
T2 Asteroid Base	3 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	None	Large Station (L-pad), adds various stats
T2 Coriolis Starport	3 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	None	Large Station (L-pad), adds various stats
T3 Ocellus Starport	6 T3 / 0 T3	+0	None	Largest Station (L-pad), adds high stats
T3 Orbis Starport	6 T3 / 0 T3	+0	None	Largest Station (L-pad), adds highest stats

---

2. Planetary Settlements

Planetary structures are built on available settlement slots on a landable planet.

Structure Name	Build Cost (Points)	Generates (Points)	Required Prerequisites	Primary Effect / Focus
T1 Small Settlement	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	None	Low Security, Development, Standard of Living
T1 Mining Outpost	0 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T2	None	Low Wealth, Low Standard of Living
T2 Medium Settlement	1 T2 / 0 T3	+2 T3	T1 Small Settlement	High Wealth, Standard of Living, Development
T2 Large Settlement	1 T2 / 0 T3	+2 T3	T1 Small Settlement	High Wealth, Standard of Living, Development
T2 Planetary Outpost	3 T2 / 0 T3	+1 T3	None	Medium Port (M-pad), adds various stats
T3 Planetary Port	6 T3 / 0 T3	+0	None	Large Port (L-pad), adds highest stats

Key Takeaways for Your Plan

1. The Communication Station Prerequisite: The data confirms your suspicion! The T1 Comms Station itself has a prerequisite: the T1 Satellite. Once the Satellite is built, the Comms Station becomes available.

2. Point Generation Meta: You are correctly targeting the structures that generate T2 and T3 points for your final builds.

   • To get the 3 T2 points for your Coriolis (T2) / Asteroid Base (T2), you will need to build at least 3 T1 structures (like Satellites, Comms Stations, or Relay Stations).

   • To get the 6 T3 points for your Orbis/Ocellus (T3) / T3 Planetary Port, you will need to build the T2 structures that grant the most points: Medium/Large Settlements are the most efficient, granting +2 T3 points each, meaning you'll only need to build 3 of them (which, in turn, requires 3 T1 Small Settlements).

3. No Immediate Doubling: Since you are building just one T2 and one T3 large port (after your initial port), you will not trigger the cost doubling (which happens upon starting the second T2 or T3 large station).

Enjoy the calming process of hauling, Commander. Building a system is a marathon, not a sprint, and having a plan is the key to minimizing wasted trips! o7

For another look at how the entire construction point system works, you can check out this guide: How Build Points Work: A Trailblazers Tutorial.

Colonizing - How To Get CMM Composites (Notes found on the internet)

 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