"Development Level >>"? Figuring out what all these numbers do.

[PilotB]

Industry
Orbital large pad Icy body. Outpost any body
Surface Any body.

Refinery without links.
Orbital/refinery Rocky body 0 signals.
Refinery with links
Rocky body, HMC, MC body 0 signals.

Hight tech.
Orbital.. No good large options. Outpost any body
Surface Any Body. Biology boosts

Extraction.
Orbital HMC, MC, Rings, Asteroid belts.
Surface HMC, MC.

Agriculture no great options.
Orbital WW not tidally locked + space farms.
Surface Not tidally locked + farm settlements.

Military
Large port, Star no asteroid belts, outpost anywhere.
Surface. No good options.

Contraband
Orbital Anywhere.
Surface no options.

For a small resource system for 1 player.
Rocky body, Coriolis in orbit, civilian outpost on the surface.
Landable body 2 any type geology + volcanism are a bonus. Surface industry outpost.
Landable body 3 biology is a bonus. Surface high tech outpost.
Body 4 Military outpost.
Body 5 optional criminal outpost.

Then system 2 WW or landable body coriolis + as many farms as the body can handle.

If you need to support many players and big markets then you break the small system down into 4 different systems 1 per economy and then reinforce the builds with links.
Then go build a theme system where you ignore the market links and just build stuff that seems cool to have together. You can also upgrade to founding with t3 stations for increased supply but for most players a the surface outposts are more than enough market.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Mechan's guide has errors but they're not ones which matter to beginners. On the other hand, it is pretty lengthy and if you're not such a beginner that it wouldn't occur to you to use a big freighter to haul more cargo per trip, a lot of that length isn't necessary... so for a shorter summary

The basic rule is that if you want a coherent economy, you need to deal with weak links somehow. You've got three choices for that and you need to be consistent about which one to use per system.

1) Ensure that you have a single economy type for the system - either using stations with intrinsic economy, or from suitably-typed planets - and only build things which generate weak links for that economy. Lots of planet types start off as multi-economy too, so you probably want to build the intrinsically high-tech/industrial stations at those planets to avoid picking up that influence. The "Contraband" economy on the criminal outpost has minimal production and no consumption, so can make a good baseline to avoid an inconvenient planet influence and then put strong/weak links of the right type onto (this is about the only way to get a vaguely workable Agricultural economy)

2) Ensure that you never generate any weak links - only build orbital stations and surface ports (maximum one of each per body), and the few installations which don't have an economy type (e.g. government) to balance out security. You can't get every economy this way and you may need to pick the right sort of system to get more than one, but you can get most of them and with care and the right planet types multiple non-interfering economies per system.

3) Ultra-expensive: always build two identical stations at every planet/orbital position you care about the economy of - the first one absorbs the weak links, so the second one just has its intrinsic or planetary economy, but you can build weak-link generators for other purposes safely.

Alternatively you can decide that this is a system where you don't care about the economic side of it and just build things which look good. It's a bit annoying that you can't have both.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

No, the point is that scientific outpost will be immune to planetary influence, so it won't get the Industrial economy from an ice planet. Which makes it more likely to get refinery outputs (even though the High Tech will eat some). Nothing can be done with the Coriolis, it's a lost cause.

Ideally we'd have a specialized Refinery surface port, but, shōganai...

Notice that they did not give us a dedicated refinery or agricultural outpost...

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Notice that they did not give us a dedicated refinery or agricultural outpost...

The original design didn't really need them. Build a Colony station, link two structures of the appropriate type to it, done.

The new design is intended very specifically for players who care that their economy isn't Colony but don't care what it is other than that.

 

[hutandrei]

What I still don't get is the purpose of the Civilian Hub(aegle).
Did anyone try to do one of those?
It does require an agri settlement as prerequisite - but it doesn't do anything - and it has a huge security penalty.
It's beyond weird.

 

[Starsong]

What I still don't get is the purpose of the Civilian Hub(aegle).
Did anyone try to do one of those?
It does require an agri settlement as prerequisite - but it doesn't do anything - and it has a huge security penalty.
It's beyond weird.

I built one a while back when we were speculating it gave a big population boost. It doesn’t.

 

[PilotB]

What I still don't get is the purpose of the Civilian Hub(aegle).

Mission target. That's all and if someone actually wants to keep their low security rating for the stellar factors.

 

[Shurimal]

I'll finish my second scientific port with three strong links later today and see how that goes.

Well, that may not happen after all. We have a thunderstorm here and power just went out in the neighbourhood. I had just four Pantherloads to go...

<A few hours later> Luckily the outage was fixed faster than the power company estimated so I was able to finish my little experiment. And it worked!

Docked, Type: Crater Outpost in system Scorpii Sector PT-R b4-2, State: None, Faction: Revolutionary HIP 86385 Union Party in state Unknown Allegiance: Unknown, Economy: Refinery, Government: Communism Station services: Dock, Autodock, Black Market, Market, Contacts, Universal Cartographics, Missions, Outfitting, Restock, Refuel Repair, Shipyard, Workshop, Flight Controller, Station Operations, Powerplay, Search And Rescue, Station Menu, Livery, Social Space System Colonisation, Refinery Contact Economies: Refinery 360%, High Tech 105%, Agri 30%, Military 20%, Industrial 5%, Tourism 5%

The quantities are not amazing, but the space port just came online and isn't fully operational so that might change with a few BGS ticks. And even with these quantities things are certainly workable

 

[tomalus]

What I still don't get is the purpose of the Civilian Hub(aegle).
Did anyone try to do one of those?
It does require an agri settlement as prerequisite - but it doesn't do anything - and it has a huge security penalty.
It's beyond weird.

I built one.
It adds stats without adding economy influence. Doesnt produce strong or weak links.