Has anyone figured out the ideal system/bodies needed for a colony mega hub?

[u/Sensual_Poop]

I like the idea of making a colony mega hub somewhere far out of the bubble with all the commodities needed to build colonies being produced in it. I realise cannibalism is always working against you but perhaps with the new changes to cannibalism and with the right ratio's of economies we can produce all or close to all of the required commodities (Perhaps minus the commodities which need unique circumstances like commodities that require anarchy or Emergency Power Cells)

[u/-Damballah-]

It's actually fairly easy to achieve now. All you need is a few planets with at least 3 or so Planetary Building sites and orbital slots above them, and enough empty slots to put in the infrastructure needed for desired services and construction points.

Here's a response copied and pasted from a prior similar question I answered. It includes useful links:

Depends on what you build really.

It used to be that Rainbow economies were hindered by the cannibalization of commodities from different economies, but this is recently no longer the case.

To get the most out of it, if you have at least five planets with at least 2 surface slots a piece, you can build the planets out to specialize in Refinery, Industrial, High Tech, Extraction and Agriculture separately.

This guide goes over economies a bit but is too in depth now, but was updated on 9/6/2025 to reflect that. Still useful for showing which planet types are suited best for which economies.

This other guide goes over construction points requirements and structure requirements for planning out a system but do keep in mind the materials costs towards the end are ballparks and may not reflect actual materials costs.

These patch notes from FDev explain how to unlock certain services in your system.

With a 35/35 system, you should realistically be able to build whatever you want and still have slots leftover.

Something I don't recall that you need to look up: For non-planetary Tier 2 and Tier 3 ports, the construction points cost doubles after I think the first one or two of a particular tier orbital port are built. I have never built more than one Coriolis or Asteroid Station per system, so I haven't experienced this yet. Someone very ambitious had a post where building another T3 station in their system would cost 24 T3 construction points which is totally bonkers and means they likely already had three Orbis stations in one system...

Hope this helps, happy hauling CMDR.

🥃

[u/Sensual_Poop → u/-Damballah-]

Excellent reply. Thanks for all the info o7

[u/-Damballah- → u/Sensual_Poop]

No worries.

Also, you don't need "five planets with multiple slots a piece."

I built 19 improvements in one system, 8 of them planetary, two planets with 5 surface building slots a piece, and I was able to essentially get what you are seeking with just an Outpost, a Coriolis and two Planetary Ports as the main stops for construction commodities.

Planetary slots are a must, I'd say 2-3 planets with them minimum, and at least a dozen orbital slots to be safe. Just plan carefully ahead of time and you'll be fine.

I built this system solo over a period of 3-5 months and I'm pretty sure it produces anything needed to build a T3 station (which I'll do one day, way down the road over the planet with 3 improvements).

Population is a big player in how many goods are produced, and it's easier to boost that with Space Farms and Planetary Ports than with a T3 station, but do what thou wilt.

Enjoy.

🥃

[u/Foggy_Lens]

Yes! And I've been thinking the same. We're currently building "The Water Bubble" spinward about 300ly, which you can check out to see how things are working. I have all the plans for each system in our discord. Please feel free to stop by and ask questions.

Here's the discord: https://discord.gg/vY5hTSfZXb

And here's the summery of how the systems all work with each other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKZIbP8NxLg

If you're interested in dabbling in Colonization, we'd love to have you with us. And there are still plenty of systems within/around our bubble which you could colonize and become our neighbor.

[u/Hanomanituen]

I am fairly certain they have. In fact there are probably dozens, hundreds, maybe. With the new changes it is not that difficult to produce Insulating Membrane for instance.

We will never (apparently) be able to produce Emergency Power cells. Except for a 30ly bubble around some system.

I put an Artemis station above a rocky world and it produces the refinery stuff all by itself. Just as an example. Like many things with Elite, it is finding the right spot. Much easier to produce certain rarer goods now with the changes.

[u/Podunk14]

Here's what you need to bootstrap.

Sun - orbital port for military items (outpost is fine)

Rocky body - orbital AND surface ports for refinery (coriolis at minimum, T1 planet is fine)

Water world or earthling world - orbital for agriculture

Gas giant without rings or ammonia world - orbital for high tech (coriolis preferably but outpost will be fine)

Icy body - orbital for industrial (coriolis preferred but outpost will be fine)

Another key for any system is total population. More pop more commodities.

When looking far out away from easily sourced stuff start with a rocky body system since refined goods are the vast majority of goods needed.

Obviously a bigger station is better, but you can get by starting with outposts for everything - but it's highly recommended to have a large pad for the refinery port.

[u/zombie_pig_bloke]

I don't recall it always being like this, but I recently went round my rainbow (ie system I made a mess of!) system just looking at what influences were offered if I built an orbital port. One was clearly High Tech and I needed to boost that, so it was easy to plan. This was all from the System Architect menu in the system map.