The Colonisation Construction Process

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System Colonisation Ship (SCS)

After selecting your system, the System Colonisation Ship becomes your hub for construction operations. This is where you’ll deliver the required commodities for your primary starport and subsequent installations.

Resource Requirements and Hauling

Building a station (especially a T3) requires delivering substantial quantities of commodities. The required items vary depending on the type of station you’re building, but the logistics challenge remains significant regardless. The hauling process becomes a routine of loading cargo, jumping to your system, delivering to the SCS, and repeating.

For T3 stations, solo hauling is extremely challenging. Most successful colonisation efforts involve squadron support or at least a small team of dedicated commanders.

Tracking Progress

Construction progress is measured as a percentage of the required commodities delivered. Experienced colonisers recommend tracking your daily progress to establish delivery rate trends and setting milestone targets (e.g., aiming to reach 50% completion halfway through the deadline period).

Getting Help: Squadron Support

Solo colonisation of a T3 station is extremely challenging. Getting support from a squadron or other commanders can significantly speed up the process and help you meet your deadline.

Consider these collaboration strategies:

  1. Schedule regular hauling sessions with your squadron
  2. Use fleet carriers as mobile storage depots
  3. Share progress updates to maintain group motivation
  4. Track contributions to acknowledge everyone’s efforts

Tools and Planning

While many commanders rely on community spreadsheets to track construction details and plan colony development, more sophisticated tools are emerging to help manage the complex logistics of system colonisation.

ED-Assistant Tool

I’m currently developing an ED colonisation Assistant, a colonisation management tool that helps automate many of the more tedious tracking tasks:

  • Automated Progress Tracking: Uses screenshot analysis with vision capable “AI” LLM’s to passively track your colonisation ship’s market needs
  • Resource Management: Monitors resources across your fleet carrier and ships
  • Route Optimisation: Suggests efficient trade routes for collecting and delivering required materials
  • Real-time Updates: Processes Elite Dangerous journal files to track your progress and visited systems, where data is available in the journal. Our screenshot process covers the gaps in those files quite well.
  • Interactive Planning: Helps visualise and plan your colonisation efforts without manual spreadsheet management

The tool is designed to be fully compliant with Elite Dangerous terms of service, using only permitted methods like screenshot analysis and journal file reading. It’s currently in development and I’ll share it when it’s a bit easier to use and deploy on other Commanders PC’s.

Traditional Tools

If you prefer manual tracking methods, consider:

  • Commodity requirement spreadsheets
  • Progress tracking tools
  • Hauling schedule organisers
  • Economic impact calculators

Many commanders still find value in maintaining their own spreadsheets alongside automated tools, especially for long-term planning and squadron coordination.

Colony Planner Tool

For help with planning your colonisation project, consider using the Colony Planner Tool. This community-created resource can help you calculate requirements and plan your development strategy.