English version

I reckon that because of the tirelessly reporting of @oliverschmid only very few of you didn't notice, that yesterday, finally the starting shot of the eagerly awaited game NextColony has been fired.

I would like to limit myself here to my very first subjective impressions and a few @jaki01'-typical meta thoughts, so as not to bore my readership with details of game mechanisms and strategies that have already been described in detail elsewhere.
Nevertheless, I wouldn't like to withhold from you some in my opinion very interesting links:

• Unlike the team of Steemit, Inc., whose official composition apparently is kept strictly secret, all persons involved in the creation of NextColony - Holger (@holger80), Jens (@jarunik), Oli (@oliverschmid), Robert (@bronkong), and Tim (@rondras), as well as the freelancer, Platuro (@platuro) - present themselvesproudly with first name and STEEM username. Who knows that he is good, doesn't need to hide. I hope Steemit, Inc. will forgive me this well-deserved side blow. :-)

• As a first introduction to the game I recommend the articles by @louis88 (My Starting Guide for NextColony.io - Some Infos for you!) and @rivalzzz (🚀Expansion Strategy to Start your #nextcolony!🚀).
  If you are interested in the programming aspects of the game, you may, for example, take a look at the blogs of @jarunik and @holger80.

'Minnow' instead of big investor

After I had already invested more money in the still inspiring 'Steem Monsters' than a normal person would consider more or less reasonable (but hey, have I ever claimed being 'normal'?), it was clear this time not to take part in any further financial matériel battle (also in view of some of my wife's - @kobold-djawa's - severe looks), but to play and enjoy the game as an ordinary 'little fish'. To invest thousands of STEEM in the auction of various legendary planets, I left to others ... and instead of that, for 9.99 STEEM, I only bought a little start ration of the most important raw materials. :-)

A game to whet one's appetite!

After logging in via SteemConnect, one is welcomed by the introductory story, which tells how a nuclear war finally forced mankind to leave the destroyed Earth and explore the universe in search of habitable planets.

Since I've always been fascinated by the infinite vastness of the universe and its countless galaxies, solar systems and planets, many of which are likely to be inhabited, the idea of NextColony to explore it on a virtual playing field, battle, trade and possibly build a 'wonder of the world', immediately attracted me.

Right at the beginning I examined my 'alpha planet' with the coordinates -233/-138:

---

---

By clicking on the arrows one can move through the map simulating the universe and also see the planets of other users. What irritated me a little at first is that the X-value of the displayed area becomes more negative if one clicks on the arrow pointing to the left and thus moves to the left - I am used to it the other way round, but in the end it doesn't matter ...

It's important to expand continually the buildings (whose graphical design looks really well!) located on one's planet. Available are a base station, a spaceship shipyard, a research centre, coal, ore, copper and uranium mines and depots ...

---

---

..., which, after increasing the corresponding skills ...

---

---

..., can be upgraded.

A sufficient extraction of these resources is required to be able to build the space ships necessary for the exploration of the cosmos later on.

Playing is fun and addictive: whenever I've upgraded skills or buildings using my limited resources, I'm impatiently waiting for them to regenerate to make further progress as quickly as possible. :)

The incorrigible Homo sapiens ...

I would like to conclude my article with a small pinch of critical thoughts. So humanity has proved itself 'worthy' of it's own expected stupidity by almost wiping itself out due to a nuclear war. Is mankind learning from this mistake? Not at all, in the legend of the uranium mine one reads: "Uranium is also the starting material for the construction of nuclear weapons and ignition devices for hydrogen bombs." 'Great', Homo sapiens obviously will never learn it! :)
If I had the choice, I would not only produce coal, ore, copper and uranium, but also fabricate vast quantities of ultra-modern photovoltaic modules and power storage units to ensure that my base station and the future spaceships are supplied with energy in an environmentally friendly and humane manner by means of always available solar energy. Yes, that's the way he is, this @jaki01, an incorrigible 'eco-idealist' ... :)