Alec's guide to "interesting" colonisation systems and stations.

[Alec Turner]

Been meaning to create this thread for quite a while now. Basically, with the launch of the Trailblazers update and the dawn of system colonisation hundreds of new stations are appearing in and around the bubble every week and not all of them (dare I say hardly any of them?) are especially interesting to anyone other than the architect. But there are also some real gems out there which are well worth a visit from the galactic tourist and I thought I'd create this forum thread to try and keep track of them.

So what do I mean by "interesting"? Well here are some suggestions:

• Trailblazers allows us to manually place surface stations and as a consequence there are now some visually amazing places to visit (some more immersion breaking than others).
• Some commanders (either by luck or design) have ended up colonising systems that have spectacular vistas (close orbiting bodies, inclined rings, large/bright/multiple stars, even nebula) and have placed assets in the system to capitalise on this.
• Some systems have been colonised with a very particular roleplay reason in mind and their architects, through manual naming and/or out-of-game resources, have found ways to create additional content to illustrate this.
• With many of the specifics of colonisation being left to the community to discover and document, some systems have become good reference sites, either for what things look like or for how the BGS aspects of these systems appear to be working.
• As more colonisation cosmetics are added to the ARX store, having actual in-game examples of things that people can visit and view from different angles and lighting conditions will be useful.

What probably isn't that interesting (to the wider community at least?) are things like yet another Coriolis station with noob hammers or yet another ice asteroid base. That said, if you have a particularly fine example (especially well lit or placed, or showing off its cosmetics nicely) then do go ahead and let us know about it.

The way I'll organise this is to have a table here in the OP summarising the systems/stations and their notable features, and a link to the post in this thread shouting it out. If you're going to highlight something please include the full system/station name (so others can easily find it) along with screenshots or video giving people an idea of what they can expect to see.

IMPORTANT: when visiting these systems please ask permission from the system architect before considering "helping" with any of the construction sites as they may have been left deliberately unfinished, either for their visual appearance (completing a surface construction site performs additional terrain flattening which can obliterate geographical features) or because they're being used for racing or other activities which require them to remain in their current form.

With all that said let's go! (starting with a few I'm already aware of including a couple of my own).

System	Body	Station	Architect	Description
Hyades Sector ZU-Y d68	4 b	The Devil's Tower	Alec Turner	Construction site flattening the top of a mountain so it looks like the Devil's Tower from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
Hyades Sector ZU-Y d68	4 b	The Happy Bottom Riding Club	Alec Turner	Outpost with EDCoPilot station facts + copper/grey customisation.
NLTT 10259	1 d	A.E.B City	Gizzard	Large planetary port whose outer buttresses extend over the edge of the mountain it's been placed on top of.
Tucanae Sector AA-Z b0	6	Grover Platform	Disgo	A platform jutting out from the side of a steep crater which provides some challenging Parkour opportunities. (now "fixed" but still interesting to see how terrain gets reshaped to provide a solid foundation for what you build)
Col 285 Sector GL-X c1-11			kekosummer	A system containing one of every kind of Odyssey settlement.
Col 285 Sector FG-C b14-6	1	Detroit	Rythillian	5 settlements all cluttered 200km from each other around a crater.
Col 285 Sector TD-R b18-0		Macmillans Hope	Diwrnach	The simultaneously heartbreaking & heartwarming story of an Orbis station built by the community in under 10 hours.
Col 285 Sector ZX-R b5-0	A 4	Ascendia + Cold Light Observatory	Starsong	Spectacular surface ports at the bottom of two massive 19km deep craters on a tidally locked Oxygen atmosphere world.
HR 7207	4	Archwyvern Ring	Khanja	An Orbis starport orbiting a ringed Earth-like world.
Col 285 Sector PZ-O c6-33	1 c	Citrolo Plant	Jana Razeki	Surface port on a tidally locked moon with a rich red ammonia atmosphere.
Col 285 Sector PZ-O c6-17	3	Ito Territories	Jana Razeki	Planet port on a tidally locked Sulphur Dioxide planet whose concourse has a fantasic sunrise view (when the alignment is right).
Lalande 25224		Lantern Light	Lavelain	The OG "interesting" colonisation station. An Ocellus orbiting close to a neutron star that originally span so fast it was impossible to dock with. It even has its own commemorative bobblehead!
HIP 76495	4	Lyashenko Landing	Sefora	A surface port with an excellent view of its planet's rings (if you can catch it at the right time of day).
98 k Tauri		Morningstar	Ned Flandalorian	A 4-armed Coriolis in close orbit around a neutron star which can be seen through the mailslot.
NGC 1981 Sector ZU-Y d27			The Orion Colony Initiative	Distant Worlds & OCI Headquarters - The ‘Launch Site’ for DW3. The primary infrastructure is yet to be built but the system is still worth finding on the galaxy map just to appreciate the accomplishment of the "Shoulder Of Orion" project.

 

[Alec Turner]

RESERVED FOR FUTURE EXPANSION
(last time I did a big forum thread I hit the character limit!)

 

[Alec Turner]

More on Hyades Sector ZU-Y d68 (yes sorry, I am going to shout my system out a bit, but then it's over to everyone else I promise).

So there's a few special things about Hyades Sector ZU-Y d68. I created it 10ly from Fullerene C60 (whose "Rebuy Prospect" is the home of the Buckyball Racing Club) so the Race Marshalls faction have followed me into the system, which I'm setting up as a new hub for racing.

For people using the EDCoPilot 3rd party app the system contains a growing number of time trial races. There's also some historical context to several of the station names in the system which are explained further in EDCoPilot's station facts facility.

• The Happy Bottom Riding Club was the name of the dude range near Edward's Air Force Base where Chuck Yeager used to hang out.
• Slam'n Sammy's (a bar/installation providing some good tunnels and holo-ad slaloms for hooning purposes) is named after Sammy Miller, a rocket dragster racing driver I used to go and watch in the 80's.
• Drakhyr Point is named after the creator of the Buckyball Racing Club (inspired by the legendary races by ElectricZ) and will now form the finish line for the 3311 Drakhyr Rally.

As well as the locations listed in the OP (The Devil's Tower and The Happy Bottom Riding Club) there's Camp Bucky (my original construction yard rally) ..

Source: https://youtu.be/Tsuu_RNRtPw

.. there's the aforementioned Drakhyr Point ..

.. there's Crater Edge Spectations (a tourist settlement and bar perched alongside two massive craters where you can spectate as base jumpers hurl themselves off the edge) ..

.. and there's the Piceous Elicitation Ltd extraction facility and Piceous Azafhart Volcanic Microbrewery who have set up shop in areas of active volcanism on body 3b to produce what is probably some of the gassiest beer in the galaxy.

 

[rootsrat]

Nice thread! Looking forward to all the additions

 

[Ashnak]

And next on the line: Alec's Awful Avoidance of Censorship Puns...

 

[krupps]

Very interesting idea.

 

[Doctor Dread]

Kudos for the Devil's Tower from Close Encounters, I will replicate on the first occasion

 

[Macros Black]

The backstory for this system is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

If I'd known you'd make a thread I'd have built in something more interesting than a system with a single star and a single, ringless gas giant... .

Nice list, sounds like worth visiting.

 

[Alec Turner]

The backstory for this system is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

Oh good shout, that deserves to go on the list.

 

[Starsong]

I'll submit my own colony of Col 285 Sector ZX-R b5-0 for consideration, if that's allowed. Colonisation on the oxygen-atmosphere planet A 4 "Ascendia" is located at the bottom two massive craters, one at the tidally locked world's midday point and one near the terminator region. Due to their immense 19KM depth, the atmospheric pressure increases from the planet's normal 0.08 ATM to 0.21 ATM (if I did the maths right, anyway), which should (alongside the consistent habitable temperatures in the midday crater) be theoretically breathable.
Other than roleplay reasons, there's another reason to build here - a 0.21 ATM oxygen atmosphere looks really cool. I've included some screenshots from the T3 port "Ascendia City" in the midday crater and the high-tech settlement "Cold Light Observatory" in the twilight region.

 

[Alec Turner]

I'll submit my own colony of Col 285 Sector ZX-R b5-0 for consideration, if that's allowed. Colonisation on the oxygen-atmosphere planet A 4 "Ascendia" is located at the bottom two massive craters, one at the tidally locked world's midday point and one near the terminator region. Due to their immense 19KM depth, the atmospheric pressure increases from the planet's normal 0.08 ATM to 0.21 ATM (if I did the maths right, anyway), which should (alongside the consistent habitable temperatures in the midday crater) be theoretically breathable.
Other than roleplay reasons, there's another reason to build here - a 0.21 oxygen atmosphere looks really cool. I've included some screenshots from the T3 port "Ascendia City" in the midday crater and the high-tech settlement "Cold Light Observatory" in the twilight region.

Oh my god, that looks absolutely incredible and will definitely go on the list (except I have to run for a train right now).

Oh, and yes - the main idea of this thread is that people can submit systems and/or stations for inclusion.

 

[ArmedNightshade]

Just gonna throw in my hat in the ring here with my colony in HR 7207. Ringed earthlike worlds are my absolute type of celestial body, sadly they're obscenely rare so getting ahold of this system was a dream come true. After a little bit of mostly solo work it's now up to 1.4 billion inhabitants, and other players seem to be passing through it daily. A T3 planetary port on a binary rocky moon is also in progress now, though progressing slowly since I'm currently busy colonizing a 2nd system ^-^

 

[Kira Goto]

For your consideration...

Col 285 PZ-O c6-33, placed on body 1 c with a thin ammonia atmosphere near the day-night border such that the sun is low in the sky... I like the intense red it generates. Name of the port will be Citrolo Plant once it's built - right now, just a construction site. You may also find some Osseus nearby if you look around, I spotted a few as I was looking for where to put it, and settled on this small valley. Moon tidally locked to gas giant, 26.5d orbit if memory serves - with a slight axial tilt, so I'm not sure it will always look like this, but right now...

Spoiler: Picture

(I also hope I got the concourse placement on it right for when it's built)

Col 285 Sector PZ-O c6-17, body 3 with a thin sulphur dioxide atmosphere if memory serves. Planetary port [outpost] Ito Territories is placed on a flat plain amidst a mountain range, that at least at time of placement, was in sunlight right around the terminator as well. Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot of it then and it periodically cycles out of daylight from (I presume) being tidally locked to its partner world with a 45 day orbit. Currently it is slowly returning back to the day side if I'm judging it right, and when the sun is low in the sky it creates this really good looking yellow-blue with maybe some green and/or red mixed in. People like their craters, but I dare say this looks fairly stunning as well.

Spoiler: Two shots

One from a few kilometers up to show partially what it will end up looking like...

... and I nailed the concourse placement on this one. Once the sun crests that ridge, anyway.

It may be a refinery port, but it doesn't have to be boring. Technically there is also a refinery hub not too far amidst an equally hilly area alongside, if I recall, a crater... but it's even more in darkness than this port right now.

HIP 109196, body 5 d is a ringed moon with a high orbital inclination at a 32.5ls distance to its ringed, class IV gas giant parent. Probably a captured body, or something else knocked it on this trajectory. Planned here is a large tourist settlement of yet to be determined placement, because I am not quite sure of either the best location in which to put it - only one surface slot available - and I haven't built the satellite required to throw it in anyway. Two example pictures... but the result may differ if you visit because Odyssey's dynamic exposure nonsense makes it sometimes hard to see the gas giant rings. I'll take suggestions on where I should best put this thing, though I would like it to be somewhere on the day side with the gas giant in view.

Additionally there is a ringed lava world present here too, alongside your usual gas giant assortment.

Spoiler: Pics

'Regular' example shot

Polar screenshot, coordinates -59.3301, 34.3489 if you want the viewing yourself (also a good example of what I mean by that lighting nonsense, the above shot was taken on the night side and with no surface in view)

The first two locations were not intentional in the planet lighting, more just happened to be good locations in my building spots. The HIP system on the other hand, I went for that on purpose because of that fancy ringed moon. I haven't 'scouted' my other places yet so don't know what may or may not be worth viewing there, however if you want a starport with a ridiculous name (roleplay-oriented because the character herself is full of silly nonsense and it was my solo Orbis primary project, completed in roughly two weeks) visit the nearby HR 8778. Or take a trek to my two outposts at 200+k ls in two separate other stars of HIP 108860 and/or HIP 113614. They'd probably appreciate the company... I built only one of those the old way.

Or the kind of botched sword formation (on the map) of planet 4 in Col 285 Sector JS-T d3-118 where I messed up the placement of a refinery hub due to temporary transition into darkness of the building area and had to work with it. Originally wanted to build around one of the big craters there but they're perpetually in darkness. Which is no good. Now it just looks like something weird that may be viewed as potentially inappropriate despite my best intent.

Worth noting - in-game these systems will be attributed to "Jana Razeki", it is my alt under which I have committed to colonization.

 

[thistle]

Great idea Alec

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

I can get the screenshots another time but I passed by a system in the last day, CD-75 4, with a Coriolis, Bundt Whole, in the fuel scoop zone. It is a new colony but I forget the architect's name. The station is the only object in the system.
EDIT: been back there and got a good screenshot:

The architect of this system is CMDR BUNGALOWDESTROYER (not sure if it's meant to be all caps but that's how it appears in station services).
I think this is a gold paintjob, not just the proximity of the star giving it colour. Also, it has a palm tree interior.

 

[Alec Turner]

For your consideration...

Col 285 PZ-O c6-33, placed on body 1 c with a thin ammonia atmosphere near the day-night border such that the sun is low in the sky... I like the intense red it generates. Name of the port will be Citrolo Plant once it's built - right now, just a construction site. You may also find some Osseus nearby if you look around, I spotted a few as I was looking for where to put it, and settled on this small valley. Moon tidally locked to gas giant, 26.5d orbit if memory serves - with a slight axial tilt, so I'm not sure it will always look like this, but right now...

Spoiler: Picture

(I also hope I got the concourse placement on it right for when it's built)

Col 285 Sector PZ-O c6-17, body 3 with a thin sulphur dioxide atmosphere if memory serves. Planetary port [outpost] Ito Territories is placed on a flat plain amidst a mountain range, that at least at time of placement, was in sunlight right around the terminator as well. Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot of it then and it periodically cycles out of daylight from (I presume) being tidally locked to its partner world with a 45 day orbit. Currently it is slowly returning back to the day side if I'm judging it right, and when the sun is low in the sky it creates this really good looking yellow-blue with maybe some green and/or red mixed in. People like their craters, but I dare say this looks fairly stunning as well.

Spoiler: Two shots

One from a few kilometers up to show partially what it will end up looking like...

... and I nailed the concourse placement on this one. Once the sun crests that ridge, anyway.

It may be a refinery port, but it doesn't have to be boring. Technically there is also a refinery hub not too far amidst an equally hilly area alongside, if I recall, a crater... but it's even more in darkness than this port right now.

HIP 109196, body 5 d is a ringed moon with a high orbital inclination at a 32.5ls distance to its ringed, class IV gas giant parent. Probably a captured body, or something else knocked it on this trajectory. Planned here is a large tourist settlement of yet to be determined placement, because I am not quite sure of either the best location in which to put it - only one surface slot available - and I haven't built the satellite required to throw it in anyway. Two example pictures... but the result may differ if you visit because Odyssey's dynamic exposure nonsense makes it sometimes hard to see the gas giant rings. I'll take suggestions on where I should best put this thing, though I would like it to be somewhere on the day side with the gas giant in view.

Additionally there is a ringed lava world present here too, alongside your usual gas giant assortment.

Spoiler: Pics

'Regular' example shot

Polar screenshot, coordinates -59.3301, 34.3489 if you want the viewing yourself (also a good example of what I mean by that lighting nonsense, the above shot was taken on the night side and with no surface in view)

The first two locations were not intentional in the planet lighting, more just happened to be good locations in my building spots. The HIP system on the other hand, I went for that on purpose because of that fancy ringed moon. I haven't 'scouted' my other places yet so don't know what may or may not be worth viewing there, however if you want a starport with a ridiculous name (roleplay-oriented because the character herself is full of silly nonsense and it was my solo Orbis primary project, completed in roughly two weeks) visit the nearby HR 8778. Or take a trek to my two outposts at 200+k ls in two separate other stars of HIP 108860 and/or HIP 113614. They'd probably appreciate the company... I built only one of those the old way.

Or the kind of botched sword formation (on the map) of planet 4 in Col 285 Sector JS-T d3-118 where I messed up the placement of a refinery hub due to temporary transition into darkness of the building area and had to work with it. Originally wanted to build around one of the big craters there but they're perpetually in darkness. Which is no good. Now it just looks like something weird that may be viewed as potentially inappropriate despite my best intent.

Worth noting - in-game these systems will be attributed to "Jana Razeki", it is my alt under which I have committed to colonization.

I'll read this properly later but just a quick note that I don't think your images are working properly.

 

[Kalizandra]

The mountain top facilities always remind me of the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Something about the Iron Oxide colour and maybe my imagination running away with base jumping off Olympus Mons. Fab screenshots Alec! Looking forward to seeing what other folks have come up with.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

I tend to position my settlements at the edge of the mountains so I get mountains one way and desert the other;

 

[marx]

I've just been to Grover Platform, it has been fixed:

Still quite scenic, but not as good for stunts as when it was glitched.