How to get Universal Cartographics?

[marx]

This question has popped up here and there, so I thought I'd make a thread for it. The subject is simple: what can I do to get Universal Cartographics on my Coriolis? (Or Asteroid base too, I guess.) After all, looking at the crowdsourced data, such player-built bases do exist. Does anyone have any information on how to get UC then? (As a side note, I also didn't get Vista Genomics listed, yet it's there on the Concourse.)
I asked support about this a while ago, but when they got around to my ticket, their response was that either there's a hidden requirement they don't know about or it's bugged, so they are passing this on to QA, and closed my ticket as Solved. (It wasn't.)

Here are the things I've tried so far. My Coriolis is built around an ELW (no other orbital slots), in a system with: 53 Tech Level, 9 Wealth, 21 Standard of Living, 35 Development Level, 2 Security. High Tech / Agriculture economy. The system had a Scientific outpost as the primary (since the primary slot was around a WW instead of the ELW), and that has the built-in UC of course. I've built the following:

Three Satellites, one of each variant​

Relay Station (Enodia)​

Comm Station (Pistis)​

Orbital Research Station​

Research Settlement (Large)​

Scientific Surface Hub​

Exploration Surface Hub​

So, what am I missing here?

Another question: do the T3 stations come with Universal Cartographics by default, like the Scientific outposts do? Or perhaps with the latest patch, where Frontier mucked around with primary Coriolis-es and Asteroid Bases so they always start with a shipyard, did that also mean new T2 bases now get UC by default?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

My system has a TL of +21 chevrons (may or may not be 21 points, of course) and three ports:
- the industrial T1 orbital outpost does not have UC
- the colony T1 orbital outpost moved to (narrow) majority high-tech by strong links does have UC (but didn't before it became majority HT)
- the colony T1 surface outpost which is primarily industrial (from the planet) also has UC

So there's probably a fair bit going on as to exactly which services which station gets.

 

[marx]

Interesting, good to know it might not be a whole-system requirement then. However, if I had to wave farewell to UC there because it's over an ELW and there was only the one orbital slot, that would be rather poor design.
For the record, the Coriolis was built at a high tech level already, and when the economy overhaul patch gave planet types their own influences, its High Tech economy was already the highest one.

Although... do you happen to know if left on their own, ELWs would give more Agriculture than High-Tech? I wouldn't be surprised if they did, and looking at my system, I think they probably do. In that case though, it would be rather poor design if an ELW would practically rule out UC on certain station types. (Maybe I should hunt for a tidally-locked-to-a-star Earth-like, heh.)

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Although... do you happen to know if left on their own, ELWs would give more Agriculture than High-Tech?

I think it should be equal Agri, HT, Tourism and then slightly less military (assuming nothing exotic like a black hole in the system to boost Tourism further, it's not tidally-locked, it's not ringed, etc.) if I'm reading the patch notes and calculations right.

In your position you should be able to get its economy proportions out of the journal and subtract 0.05 for each weak link shown to get the planet's baseline.

 

[marx]

Oh, you're right, I forgot that weak links are always 0.05. In that case, yeah, the base for my ELW was 1.40 for High Tech, Agriculture, Tourism. If that would rule out UC, that'd be quite terrible.

Two interesting things to note here though: first, Inara reports correct numbers on the economies (I verified them with my journals), so that's handy, and second, one of my High Tech influencers doesn't appear to actually give a weak link. I should have six of those, which would mean 1.7 HT, but I only have six and 1.65 HT. I wonder if it's the primary Outpost that doesn't provide a weak link.

But if we had to have High Tech as the single highest strong link on a body, then that would rule out UC from Earth-likes. While you can (in theory, at least) decrease Agriculture by building over a tidally locked (to a star) Earth-like, that still leaves Tourism, which apparently isn't decreased by anything.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I wonder if it's the primary Outpost that doesn't provide a weak link.

That'll be it. Ports only generate strong links, not weak links.
(Which obviously has its uses!)

But if we had to have High Tech as the single highest strong link on a body

My T1 surface outpost which does is Ind 2.4, Ext 1.85, Agri 0.4, Mil 0.1, HT 0.1 (Ind and most of the Ext coming from the planet)

Interestingly it didn't when it was Agri 1.0 before the patch, and I've not finished any new stuff in the system since, so economy certainly plays some role, but it's not as simple as "must have lots of HT" - my primary is Ind 1.4, HT 0.1, Mil 0.1, Agri 0.05, Ext 0.05 and doesn't have UC despite having a higher HT fraction than the surface outpost and a higher combined HT+Ind fraction than it.

So while economy probably has an effect it's unlikely to be the sole consideration.

 

[marx]

True, especially since I'm seeing in the data Asteroid bases which do have UC, while naturally their High Tech economy is far below their Extraction.

That's me circling back to my original question then: what is my Coriolis missing, how could I get UC there? Tech Level's high, population's high, and have been through several weekly server restarts, so it's not just "wait for the next weekly tick" either - and there was the shipyard "fixing" update that ought to have recalculated them all anyway.

So hey, Frontier, help some CMDRs out please? Surely it shouldn't be more complex to get UC and VG online on a station than a Shipyard.

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

I'd say it's a bug. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's due to the same bug that's causing stations to be identified by the wrong type, causing the wrong icon to be shown on the docking screen or recorded in the game journals.

 

[Macros Black]

HIP 50874 is a bit of a mix:

Universal Cartographics:

• Hellboy Terminal (Ocellus)
• Nerodych Territory (Large Surface Port)
• Galactus Reach (Outpost)

No Universal Cartographics:

• Darkseid Vista (Coriolis)
• Red Skull Anvil (Asteroid Base)
• ...

It doesn't seem to be linked to the faction.

 

[AlexxxA]

Everything was built before u4.1.2.0 but some info from my system as it is now,

System economy is Tourism / Extraction.
Sec: 3, Tech: 40, Wealth: 30, SoL: 6, Dev: 43

Of the 4 ports,
High Tech Outpost: UC Yes, VG No, Shipyard No
Scientific Planetary Port: UC Yes, VG Yes, Shipyard No
Orbis: UC Yes, VG Yes, Shipyard Yes
Asteroid Base: UC No, VG Yes, Shipyard Yes

 

[Titler]

My station with Cowtographics. No other large station is active, and the orbital outpost doesn't have it. If I remember cowrectly, it was simply building tech level raising stations in the system that finally brought both it, and the Shipyard online (pre-SY tech level reduction), and those stations are not on the planet the Cowriolis orbits.

I do however also have multiple active economies; it's High Security; I don't have the population yours does, which indicates that growth is based on the planets within the system, but population is not related to tech level/station utilities. Inara however lists the wrong system architect, and credits the last cowmander who donated goods here, so I'd be wary of how accurate the data is.