Early Waystation next to starving Pather world is clever!
It sounds like "optimal" means "early" without being a credit sink. You want to start growth ASAP, but also want to keep industry options open pending blueprint and item finds.
Options for this range from 100% reliable to somewhat random:
- faction commission + colonize nicest things in their space: worth sorting planets by class early and seeing who's got spare Class Vs
- Freeport + story point spend on accessibility improvements can dodge Hazard Pay while maintaining good growth
- Waystation moneymaker near a starving pather/pirate base (needs anti-bombardment defense fleet)
- academy mission chain consistently takes you to high-value worlds
- scan missions for Research Stations and Domain-Era Survey Ships can seed item drops that determine what you want to colonize, same for habitable planet survey missions
Cheap industries like mining or farming pay for their construction in a cycle (?) or so. Moneymaker like refining, fuel, and drugs kind of need high accessibility/stability and a powerful fleet first. Plus their cost is high enough to want a full chain for that 50% price drop reduction...
Is it possible to simplify colony choices to the payback period relative to their cost? e.g. "don't Megaport your size 3 colony for growth, wait until it's a size 4 with Refining+Fuelprod".
Base price in credits is ~50k crew ~20k supplies ~15k machinery plus a Nebula or something to bump your fleet up to 1k crew. Saving on base price here and there and using supplies from combat drops you can get it below 50k a planet.
Viewed that way optimal strategy is to go wide (many small bets) on colonization the moment you can spare 50k, then go tall (one or two massive investments) much later and let things de-colonize.
edit: does anyone actually drop colonies + tech mines on every good ruin they find, as the game kind of suggests you do?