12th Planet discovered on NextColony and bought myself some Stardust!

In my last post on NextColony, I shared how excited I was to discover 5 planets within a week. I probably jinxed it and since then I was on a planet discovery drought for close to a month 😅. So I am glad to discover my 12th planet yesterday, naming it "Leonela".

A common atmosphere planet is not a huge deal, but it is again a strategic planet for my next phase of exploration.

There is a huge unexplored area just to the north of my new planet, so hopefully, it won't take long for me to discover my 13th planet. Fingers crossed...

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UI/UX Improvements

Since my last post, @nextcolony made quite a number of UI/UX updates which I really enjoy. First off, in the past when you send out your explorers, it will redirect you to the "Mission" page. Now, it will remain at the "Galaxy" page allowing you to continue sending out more explorers without the additional refreshes and waiting time.

Then the "Overview" page is revamped with more useful details, such as the total missions that are ongoing and your mission limit. It also shows the number of "Hostile Missions" so that you will know if there any incoming attacks. The "Overview" page also links to @jarunik's client, which is a less beautiful but more functional client.

The planet view is also improved. Now it is showing an overview of your production, buildings shipyard and missions.

Overall, the changes are pretty neat and I can see how it is now adding some useful features from @jarunik's client. UI/UX is the most important thing in any application and I hope @nextcolony will keep up the good work.

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Stardust Pre-sale

@nextcolony also recently started the 1st round of Stardust pre-sale. There can be up to 3 rounds of pre-sale and according to the dev team, Stardust will only get more expensive following each round.

Currently, based on the pre-sale page, each Stardust is 0.002 STEEM. As a form of support to the game, I have purchased 50,000 Stardust for 100 STEEM. At the point of writing this post, there are some issues with the game and hence my purchase is delayed. However, you can see my transaction here,

Are Stardusts good investment?

While I do not regard this purchase as an investment, there is actually a fair chance that Stardust may cost more in the future. At this point, there is no way to convert your Stardust to STEEM yet, but since Stardust is meant to be a token, @nextcolony will likely allow exchange once the initial sale is over. According to the team,

To ensure our token model has a "sink" in it, we have to burn tokens. This idea was initially suggested by Vitalik Buterin and has been widely adopted. Basically, it involves designing token models with "buy-and-burn" mechanisms. The decrease in supply raises the value of all remaining tokens by the percentage of total supply destroyed.

For now, Stardust is planned to be burnt under the following scenario:

• Yamato Upgrade
• Respawn
• Planet transfer

It is also important to note that 8% of Stardust for goods traded in the market will also be burnt. In my opinion, these are really good token sinks and if the supply is controlled well, the tokenomics is sound. In addition, I think the @nextcolony team is doing a great job improving the game, every update makes the game more user-friendly and fun. Hence, with increasing user base and a good tokenomics, there is a fair chance that price will appreciate in the future. This is not a financial advice though and I am certainly not a qualified financial advisor.

Oh by the way, the NextColony market is live here. You should go check it out if you are interested!

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Stability issue

Despite all these positive developments, I can't help to notice the recent stability issues that are plaguing the game. As I mentioned, the game is down when this post is written and although I sent in STEEM for Stardust, it is not reflected in my wallet yet.

On top of today's incident, the API server was also down for quite a while on 18th October. 2 failures within a month does not reflect well on the game. So I hope that the team can focus on improving the stability of the game before other aspects. The other cool features will all count for nothing without a stable game to begin with.

Now all I can do is to play some GodsUnchained while I wait for NextColony to be up and my Stardust delivered 😉.

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The "Raise to 50" Initiative

Under 50 SP and finding it hard to do much on this platform? I might just be able to raise your SP to 50. Check this post to find out more!

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This article is created on the Steem blockchain. Check this series of posts to learn more about writing on an immutable and censorship-resistant content platform:

• What is Steem? - My Interpretation
• Steem Thoughts - Traditional Apps vs Steem Apps
• Steem Thoughts - A Fat or Thin Protocol?
• Steem Thoughts - There is Inequitable Value Between Users and Apps
• Make my votes count! Use Dustsweeper!
• What caused STEEM to get dumped? Why I think the worst might be over
• Steem 2020 is about having a "SMART U"