UPDATE: FD seem to have buffed CMM supplies quite substantially now, so the specific example below is now somewhat redundant, but in general this guide still works for finding scarce goods.
UPDATE 2: Insulating Membranes are the next FOTM, but again, this guide is equally applicable
...Or CMMs as the flavour of the month. This guide, post, snip, whatever, is how I locate good sources of CMMs... but really.. this method works for any low stock/rare items; HE Suits, Nerve Agents, Battle Weapons. Other people who have good methods will likely differ, this is just my method.
Firstly, how not to find CMMs.
1. Go to Inara, search for CMMs centered on your location
2. Go to the nearest, highest stock port according to Inara
3. Complain on the forums when you get there and find just 0-20t at that and every subsequent location.
The tl;dr, unreliable version (I don't even use this regularly)
1. Go to Inara commodity search
2. Search for CMMs, centered on your location.
3. Pick a station, and check the population size of the system. If it's not at least 1 million, don't bother.
4. Fly to the station and grab the CMMs
5. Come back here and read the rest of this guide because this didn't work.
Honestly, I use this technique only if I'm feeling lazy, as it might work 50% of the time? But once you've found a place, you'll be right.
How to do it without Inara
First, a quick test:
You search Inara, and you get these two results:
Which would you pick?
The Longer, Reliable Guide (without using Inara)
If you're up to this part, hopefully you want to learn how to find these things without having to look at Inara ever again. Yes it takes a little longer... but is it reliable? Absolutely... and once you commit this to memory, it's just as quick as Inara.
1. Go to somewhere CMM's are in demand e.g (Tip #1: Demand is universal, Supply is conditional)
2. Go to the "sell" section of the market, and highlight CMM composites. Usefully, it will display "Locations which produce this" (Yellow Box), and "General Supply and Demand Info" (Green Box)
3. Review the "Locations which produce this", checking the System Population via the Galaxy Map (e.g for Peng). We're looking for at least 1m, but 10m is preferable. (Tip #2... big population = big supply)
4. Review the port location in the system map POI view (e.g for Lenthall Terminal in Peng). We're ideally looking for a distance of over 1,000Ls if you don't have an SCO, 10k-50k Ls if you do. (Tip #3, People Are Lazy)
5. Lastly, check if there's multiple sources in that system. This should be a no-brainer... more sources = more goods. Continuing the Peng example, it's the only source in that system.
6. Head on over and check it out... going to this one right now while writing this guide got me this:
If that's what you're getting each run, and fill the rest of your racks with Titanium or Steel, you'll have plenty of CMMs (Tip #4, Don't Beg at an Empty Foodstand). Granted, I knew this one would work because It's one I found before, but all I did was repeat the process I used to find it. I've also used this method in other locations (like for my current colonisation effort)... I'm just not using those examples because guaranteed despite explaining how to do this some people are now going to go direct to Lenthall Terminal in Peng and complain the stocks are dry coz 50 other likeminded individuals did exactly the same thing instead of applying this technique.
Quick tips
Tip 1: Demand is universal, Supply is conditional
Thanks to the BGS, despite CMMs listed as being from Surface Refineries, you may not find any at a given Surface Refinery. The reasons are complex and people like @Ian Doncaster know them way better than me, but regardless of what weird hybrid markets and other BGS effects can occur, places that consume CMMs will always consume CMMs.... if they don't consume them when they're meant to, then likely they actually produce them. So reviewing "Produced By" listings in the sell market where a product is consumed is the only guaranteed way to find a station that produces an item.
Note: If you're in a remote location or similar, you may not get any good station in the ones it lists. It might help to use Inara at this point, but do not search for CMMs... instead use the Galaxy Nearest function to search for "Surface Refinery" ports for a longer list, and apply the usual checks as above.
Tip 2: Big Population = Big Supply
Population effects are (logarithmic?), and control maximum supply size, and how much gets resupplied per market tick (every 10m iirc). Importantly, it defines what is low/high supply which is relative to the population of the system.
So a population of:
1,000-10,000 will consider 4 CMM's "Low Supply" and 50 CMM's "High Supply" and resupplies 2-4 per tick... while
10,000-100,000 might consider 20 "Low Supply" and 100 "High Supply" and resupplies 10-20 per tick
This makes sense, but I won't go into it here... suffice to say this is why you want a system with 1m-10m population or higher, as this is where you see maximum market sizes of over 1,000 and resupply ticks of 100-200, which means you have a very high likelihood of getting a decent supply even if there's competition for it.
And obviously, a bigger population = more ports = multiple sources, which is always a good thing.
Tip 3: People are Lazy
Not a criticism. You're lazy. I'm lazy. Everyone is Lazy. They see a supply port 100 Ls away and another 10,000 Ls away, they'll always choose the closer one. So of course, you don't go to that one... you go to the further away one.... "But that takes more time!"... actually, a distance of 10,000Ls at full throttle isn't too much bigger than a distance of 1,000Ls... it's gettting out of and back into gravity wells that takes time... and is where an SCO helps a lot.
"But I can't control my T9 with an SCO!"... you don't need to go the full way. Even if you just cover the first 2,000Ls of a 10,000Ls journey with a quick, inaccurate burst, you've broken out of the slowest point of the journey... and SCOs are a great way to get around to the other side of the planet or break orbit with a rapid burst... there's no time to get out of control either. And at the end of the day, what would you rather? Being quick to an empty market with lots of competition, or being a little bit slower to a well supplied market because everyone's lazy?
Tip 4: Don't Beg at an Empty Foodstand
The most critical part of this... if there's nothing there, don't hang around. The BGS is a fickle beast, and creates some odd situations. I've encountered a few markets that should have been well supplied, but weren't, because of some very niche considerations that are very specific to the BGS.... there's a reason smack in the middle of a very populous area I can't find HE Suits within 50 LY, even though by all accounts there are dozens of places that should be able to supply them.
But the worst thing you can do is sit there waiting for resupply ticks. The only time you want to do that is if you're about to depart, and notice a tick will happen in a 30-60 seconds.... but even then.. if the market is empty, parallelise your activity. Grab what CMMs you can, if any, note that as a bad location, fill up on Titanium or Steel, and then try a different place.
There's a whole bunch more detail I could provide, little tricks I've picked up along the way to spot better locations, but this is the guts of it. Just remember... it's not a sure thing.... it just maximises your chances (to, in my experience, a very high degree of certainty)...if the first place you hit doesn't have anything... that doesn't mean everywhere is out of stock... good chances the next place will work if you use these techniques.
I wrote this guide because this is how it's been in the game for a long time... but there's never been a reason to care before...... but as someone who's always been interested for <reasons> in the more exotic goods, these concepts have always been invaluable.
Have fun!
UPDATE 2: Insulating Membranes are the next FOTM, but again, this guide is equally applicable
...Or CMMs as the flavour of the month. This guide, post, snip, whatever, is how I locate good sources of CMMs... but really.. this method works for any low stock/rare items; HE Suits, Nerve Agents, Battle Weapons. Other people who have good methods will likely differ, this is just my method.
Firstly, how not to find CMMs.
1. Go to Inara, search for CMMs centered on your location
2. Go to the nearest, highest stock port according to Inara
3. Complain on the forums when you get there and find just 0-20t at that and every subsequent location.
The tl;dr, unreliable version (I don't even use this regularly)
1. Go to Inara commodity search
2. Search for CMMs, centered on your location.
3. Pick a station, and check the population size of the system. If it's not at least 1 million, don't bother.
4. Fly to the station and grab the CMMs
5. Come back here and read the rest of this guide because this didn't work.
Honestly, I use this technique only if I'm feeling lazy, as it might work 50% of the time? But once you've found a place, you'll be right.
How to do it without Inara
First, a quick test:
You search Inara, and you get these two results:
Which would you pick?
If you chose Shen Yi, you chose poorly.
Tarelkin Beacon is the correct choice here. Why?
In short, Shen Yi vs LTT 5673 is:
Low population vs High Population
Close Port vs Distant Port
"Fake" high supply vs "Real" low supply
You might luck out, get to Shen Yi and find 344t there... but you won't see even close to that for a few hours at least, whereas Tarelkin will be reliably 200t
Tarelkin Beacon is the correct choice here. Why?
In short, Shen Yi vs LTT 5673 is:
Low population vs High Population
Close Port vs Distant Port
"Fake" high supply vs "Real" low supply
You might luck out, get to Shen Yi and find 344t there... but you won't see even close to that for a few hours at least, whereas Tarelkin will be reliably 200t
The Longer, Reliable Guide (without using Inara)
If you're up to this part, hopefully you want to learn how to find these things without having to look at Inara ever again. Yes it takes a little longer... but is it reliable? Absolutely... and once you commit this to memory, it's just as quick as Inara.
1. Go to somewhere CMM's are in demand e.g (Tip #1: Demand is universal, Supply is conditional)
2. Go to the "sell" section of the market, and highlight CMM composites. Usefully, it will display "Locations which produce this" (Yellow Box), and "General Supply and Demand Info" (Green Box)
3. Review the "Locations which produce this", checking the System Population via the Galaxy Map (e.g for Peng). We're looking for at least 1m, but 10m is preferable. (Tip #2... big population = big supply)
4. Review the port location in the system map POI view (e.g for Lenthall Terminal in Peng). We're ideally looking for a distance of over 1,000Ls if you don't have an SCO, 10k-50k Ls if you do. (Tip #3, People Are Lazy)
5. Lastly, check if there's multiple sources in that system. This should be a no-brainer... more sources = more goods. Continuing the Peng example, it's the only source in that system.
6. Head on over and check it out... going to this one right now while writing this guide got me this:
If that's what you're getting each run, and fill the rest of your racks with Titanium or Steel, you'll have plenty of CMMs (Tip #4, Don't Beg at an Empty Foodstand). Granted, I knew this one would work because It's one I found before, but all I did was repeat the process I used to find it. I've also used this method in other locations (like for my current colonisation effort)... I'm just not using those examples because guaranteed despite explaining how to do this some people are now going to go direct to Lenthall Terminal in Peng and complain the stocks are dry coz 50 other likeminded individuals did exactly the same thing instead of applying this technique.
Quick tips
Tip 1: Demand is universal, Supply is conditional
Thanks to the BGS, despite CMMs listed as being from Surface Refineries, you may not find any at a given Surface Refinery. The reasons are complex and people like @Ian Doncaster know them way better than me, but regardless of what weird hybrid markets and other BGS effects can occur, places that consume CMMs will always consume CMMs.... if they don't consume them when they're meant to, then likely they actually produce them. So reviewing "Produced By" listings in the sell market where a product is consumed is the only guaranteed way to find a station that produces an item.
Note: If you're in a remote location or similar, you may not get any good station in the ones it lists. It might help to use Inara at this point, but do not search for CMMs... instead use the Galaxy Nearest function to search for "Surface Refinery" ports for a longer list, and apply the usual checks as above.
Tip 2: Big Population = Big Supply
Population effects are (logarithmic?), and control maximum supply size, and how much gets resupplied per market tick (every 10m iirc). Importantly, it defines what is low/high supply which is relative to the population of the system.
So a population of:
1,000-10,000 will consider 4 CMM's "Low Supply" and 50 CMM's "High Supply" and resupplies 2-4 per tick... while
10,000-100,000 might consider 20 "Low Supply" and 100 "High Supply" and resupplies 10-20 per tick
This makes sense, but I won't go into it here... suffice to say this is why you want a system with 1m-10m population or higher, as this is where you see maximum market sizes of over 1,000 and resupply ticks of 100-200, which means you have a very high likelihood of getting a decent supply even if there's competition for it.
And obviously, a bigger population = more ports = multiple sources, which is always a good thing.
Tip 3: People are Lazy
Not a criticism. You're lazy. I'm lazy. Everyone is Lazy. They see a supply port 100 Ls away and another 10,000 Ls away, they'll always choose the closer one. So of course, you don't go to that one... you go to the further away one.... "But that takes more time!"... actually, a distance of 10,000Ls at full throttle isn't too much bigger than a distance of 1,000Ls... it's gettting out of and back into gravity wells that takes time... and is where an SCO helps a lot.
"But I can't control my T9 with an SCO!"... you don't need to go the full way. Even if you just cover the first 2,000Ls of a 10,000Ls journey with a quick, inaccurate burst, you've broken out of the slowest point of the journey... and SCOs are a great way to get around to the other side of the planet or break orbit with a rapid burst... there's no time to get out of control either. And at the end of the day, what would you rather? Being quick to an empty market with lots of competition, or being a little bit slower to a well supplied market because everyone's lazy?
Tip 4: Don't Beg at an Empty Foodstand
The most critical part of this... if there's nothing there, don't hang around. The BGS is a fickle beast, and creates some odd situations. I've encountered a few markets that should have been well supplied, but weren't, because of some very niche considerations that are very specific to the BGS.... there's a reason smack in the middle of a very populous area I can't find HE Suits within 50 LY, even though by all accounts there are dozens of places that should be able to supply them.
But the worst thing you can do is sit there waiting for resupply ticks. The only time you want to do that is if you're about to depart, and notice a tick will happen in a 30-60 seconds.... but even then.. if the market is empty, parallelise your activity. Grab what CMMs you can, if any, note that as a bad location, fill up on Titanium or Steel, and then try a different place.
There's a whole bunch more detail I could provide, little tricks I've picked up along the way to spot better locations, but this is the guts of it. Just remember... it's not a sure thing.... it just maximises your chances (to, in my experience, a very high degree of certainty)...if the first place you hit doesn't have anything... that doesn't mean everywhere is out of stock... good chances the next place will work if you use these techniques.
I wrote this guide because this is how it's been in the game for a long time... but there's never been a reason to care before...... but as someone who's always been interested for <reasons> in the more exotic goods, these concepts have always been invaluable.
Have fun!
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