the population tick is different from the influence tick. Influence/conflict is currently around 8:30a.m. UTC, pop tick somewhere before 10:00p.m. UTC.
when building a station, pop tick varies a lot. First tick isnt as big, second tick appears to be largest. We observed 500k, 8m, 3m, 5m for a T3 starport on a HMC with biologicals. 8m and 3m ticks were with extraction economy. Third 5m tick with High Tech
2nd T3 we just finished around a waterworld had 300k and 13m ticks. First tick was exctraction economy, second tick tourism.
Edit: also the population increase was mostly limited to the T3 station. My refinery steel supplies stayed rather stable, increasing only a little bit from 130k to 138k (which might be due to SoL and Wealth increases). The T3 tourism station is now at 180k tons of steel with a 20% Refinery via weak links (and 140% extraction from the ring).
Edit2: what's really good is that the Tourism/Extraction & Refinery stations offer now a 36m/hour in system round trip, according to Inara, between Victoria Wolf Steel and Victoria Wolf Resort.
People in my squad finished an Orbis (T3) around an Earthlike - 26 million pop from the get go. I don't think I've kept much track but that was finished on the 6th of this month. Now, at 10th, the population is about 104 million. It's also hard to keep track without visiting because there's a delay in the info displayed on the system map and the summary screen when you're actually in-system. The summary is faster.
I also haven't documented it very well, but I think my Tier 1 Port (Planetary outpost) is giving me bigger pop ticks than the Coriolis. Both are on HMC's with no volcanism, geologicals or biologicals. The Coriolis has 2 strong links while the Planetary port has 3, but still, the supply in the t1 port is like 10x that of the T2 Coriolis.
Some data points on population.
After completing a primary port orbiting a water world, I recorded the system population and algae supply for about 2 weeks without building anything additional.
I recently started some additional construction and increased development levels, which has increased supply, but population growth has slowed down dramatically.
System: Synuefe JI-K c24-1
Tick
Week
Date
Population
Pop Growth
Supply (Algae)
Note
1
1
2025/05/23
9,924
2742
2
1
2025/05/24
13,052
3,128
3144
3
1
2025/05/25
881,088
868,036
25820
4
1
2025/05/26
1,749,174
868,086
36364
5
1
2025/05/27
2,617,190
868,016
44461
6
1
2025/05/28
3,485,207
868,017
51285
7
1
2025/05/29
4,400,000
914,793
57292
I forgot to record the exact population.
8
2
2025/05/29
5,221,299
821,299
62717
9
2
2025/05/31
6,089,326
868,027
67700
10
2
2025/06/01
6,957,402
868,076
72334
11
2
2025/06/02
7,825,408
868,006
76680
12
2
2025/06/03
8,693,455
868,047
80786
13
2
2025/06/04
9,561,491
868,036
84687
14
2
2025/06/05
10,429,518
868,027
88352
15
3
2025/06/06
11,297,564
868,046
91892
16
3
2025/06/07
12,028,676
731,112
94767
Started the construction of a comms Station
17
3
2025/06/07
12,028,676
131357
Finished a comms station and a exploration hub
18
3
2025/06/07
12,181,993
153,317
144408
Finished a satellite
19
3
2025/06/08
12,335,588
153,595
145298
Finished a comms staion
20
3
2025/06/10
12,490,602
155,014
146192
Started the construction of a coriolis around a sun
I have also recorded in other star systems where I have built surface outposts on HMC that the population continues to grow at rates of 695,700 per day, although not as much as on the water planets.
System: Synuefe JI-K c24-3
Tick
Week
Date
Population
Pop Growth
Note
1
1
2025/06/02
10,010
Science Outpost (Primary) constructed
2
1
2025/06/03
10,010
Finished T1 planetary civilian outpost
3
1
2025/06/04
59,511
49,501
4
1
2025/06/05
755,251
695,740
5
2
2025/06/05
1,451,000
695,749
6
2
2025/06/06
2,146,716
695,716
7
2
2025/06/08
2,842,448
695,732
8
2
2025/06/09
3,538,197
695,749
9
2
2025/06/10
4,233,961
695,764
And here is the population after completing Orbis around an ELW planet in another system. The population growth reduces the None part of the security slider and increases the other parts, but so far it has not affected the security of the system.
By the way, while Orbis sells a ton of goods, I have seen very little impact on the supply of the two existing stations (it's still growing by 0.5% each day).
Perhaps the local system, each planet, has something like a bucket, and once the development level accumulates or time passes and it becomes full, the market stops growing.
I’ve been using the relatively new feature in spansh that lets you search for player colonised systems in order to then sort by population to produce a top 5 for a new Lave Radio feature. What I found surprising was that the top population systems typically only have a small number of stations (one big one and maybe a couple of others). I’d kinda expected the top systems to have loads of stations. My theory (based on the Buurs system) was that these were simply systems that got a big station in the 1st week or so. But perhaps what we’re saying here is playing into that too and systems with more stations are actually at a disadvantage re: population growth?
I've got a system that started off with a lone Orbis [orbiting terraformable water world] with nothing else built for a while. At the start of update 3 it jumped to 400 something million. I've yet only added space installations, and since then it's gone up to around 665 million population. Could be either...
... another mild curiosity, a system where I've got an outpost orbiting a non-terraformable WW, population numbers have almost started to equal those systems with a starter outpost containing a terraformable water world (so far the first station in those always orbited it, hence not mentioning it directly). All three are 3 million or slightly upward (latest figure was 3 mil for non-terraformable WW and 3.4 for both the ones with a terraformable WW orbited by an outpost).
I do hope they're not stuffing that many people into such a small - comparatively - orbital station. That would give a whole new definition to 'squeezed into a sardine can'.
How many security 'points' do you need to change a system from Low to Medium to High security? More or less, I think I've seen somewhere that it also depends on population, as in, the bigger population, the more points you need. But I don't know how true this is
How many security 'points' do you need to change a system from Low to Medium to High security? More or less, I think I've seen somewhere that it also depends on population, as in, the bigger population, the more points you need. But I don't know how true this is
My current experience suggests as low as +3 can get you medium security rating (with ~3-3.4 million pop), and +5 at that similar size also is medium [stars with a military outpost remaining at low security with the +2 doesn’t indicate anything population-related?]. Not pushed for high sec anywhere yet, anywhere I’m liable to probably will just end up having the security infrastructure up before I begin building any of the larger ports adding significant population.
… and currently I am also hesitant to develop around my Orbis mentioned above, beyond some of the complementary and security infrastructure at star A - most of the interesting locations/planets are at B and C - due to the mess of planetary influences, and to a lesser degree weak links. The system plan involves a lot of high-effort building that is far less reliable to construct in the current functionality - so, I’m probably not.
Anyway - my guess is you may have high security starting at +6, or +7-9.
I've had a system with ~500k population go through a weekly tick with security at 0 and still stay at medium. In fact I don't think I've seen any system drop back down to low once it's gone above it.
So, it seems like getting medium security in a system might only require +3 in the stat by pure numbers/'chevrons', and assuming no background system stats potentially at play.
They will form a strong link regardless of what type of outpost it is. It doesn't really matter with ELWs, the T3 will already have such a mix of economies that the strong link from the outpost won't make much difference.
I'm trying to understand how two ports behave above the same body.
It's suggested that they create a strong link passing on all the planetary influences?
Is that right?
So if I built two outposts above a hmc with vulcanism, they would both get extraction as a planetary override.
Would one then strong link to the other? (assume the youngest or lower tier one to the newer, higher tiered one) and as the planet has vulcanism would it get the strong link boost for extraction?
I guess a rocky world with prestige reserves, may do the same for a refinery?
The higher tier (or newer station) still acts as a shield for links from outside the planet, and links from installations on and around the planet would only go to the bodies primary orbital station?
This is the same behavior we saw with a planetary port passing on planetary influence as well as links?
Is this right?
Also reading the latest on population and markets, go we expect population affects market size now, more the dev does?
And the recent update suggests all the tier 1 outposts shouldn't have open commodities markets without also building strong links to comms/relay. My experience is that this isn't working, and in the case of a shielded outpost, like those above, this would shut it's commodities market?
Both I expect are important - I haven't re-tested development level by gradually building it up since Update 3 made populations dynamic.
Market size is proportional to the square root of population, so is going to give increasingly slow progress.
Development level seemed to be linear in effect at low numbers, but might also have a cap or diminishing returns later.
Certainly in the early stages development level is probably quicker to increase than population and has more effect.
The comms installation will only enable stations that it strongly links to. So if you had multiple stations throughout the system where you wanted the facilities enabled, you'd have to build a comms installation around each one.
When building 2 or more ports on the same body. The oldest port or the highest tier port is the Master port. The one port to rule them all. This port gets all the links but does not give out any. The other ports are support ports. They give out links strong and weak but do not receive any.
Support ports will have their default market and nothing more. They give out links but do not get any. They cannot be boosted. In the case of a colony port that means they take the body economy. They give out a link based on their tier not their default market strength. An outpost gives a t1 link with a base of 0.4 and it's boosted by the usual effects that boost links. you should only bother with support ports if you cannot get the link any other way or if you need the pure market. Ports are expensive for their tier so not an efficient way to add market pressure to the master when an alternative exists.
I've had a system with ~500k population go through a weekly tick with security at 0 and still stay at medium. In fact I don't think I've seen any system drop back down to low once it's gone above it.
My test system (population 17M) dropped from medium to low after I built the outpost hub needed to reactivate the commodity market in my HT outpost as a result of the last update. I assume that the -2 SEC from the hub was sufficient to cause the drop. The irony is that had we known that you need additional stuff to enable HT markets, I could have placed the HT outpost in orbit around a body with 2 slots. I could then have just built a relay installation in the second slot to reactivate the market. It would have taken less time (orbital vs surface construction site), used less materials, and with a SEC boost of +1, the system security level would probably have stayed at medium.
I've got enough Tier 2 points to build a Coriolis (I already have an Orbis elsewhere in the system), and the Earthlike doesn't have anything around it but I think it only has 1 slot. What should I build there? It's an agricultural/tourist system.
This was a bit of a test system from the early days, rather than being designed from the outset.
The Coriolis shown in the sheet below is not yet started, or even placed.
I've got enough Tier 2 points to build a Coriolis (I already have an Orbis elsewhere in the system), and the Earthlike doesn't have anything around it but I think it only has 1 slot. What should I build there? It's an agricultural/tourist system.
This was a bit of a test system from the early days, rather than being designed from the outset.
The Coriolis shown in the sheet below is not yet started, or even placed.
If i had an earthlike, I'd build a T3 around it. They are pretty rare, there is only about one every 30ly. They give a huge population boost. They don't need much else. And imho T3 adds slots (at least my Orbis around a water world did).
Wouldn't build a T3 anywhere else than WW or ELW (except to have a "free" building slot due to the T3 points).
Was this a primary T3? There's a bug where you can sometimes not use up the primary port slot when completing it, but I'm not aware of any mechanic where T3s give slots themselves.
Regarding population ticks:
Noticed that today there was an additional population tick during the weekly maintenance.
The waterworld Orbis "Victoria Wolf Resort" is ticking for 26 million each population tick since the second tick. It is now on the fourth tick at 92 million.
It has gone active and i can confirm that the "Tourism" interior isn't the "Tourism" interior, but the "Wealthy" interior as in Leonard Nimoy station.
Added a T1 starport somewhere else in the system, am curious whether this will change anything and in which direction.
