NextColony is a game of strategy, patience, and to some extent luck.
There is a certain chance you find a new planet on every exploration, not a high one. And to find a planet with a good rarity is even less likely. You can get aggressive or friendly neighbors, some who develop at a higher rate than you do or an area where you could outpace everyone else, at least for a while.
Of course, once you have more planets and your fleet grows, you can find things to do often.
I just discovered my first planet! That is planet beta, because everyone gets a starting planet.
You can see that myself and my two big neighbors (but not only), already cleared a 'screen' of space, at the highest resolution, in-game. And you can see where I discovered my first planet, quite far away. Others have been lucky enough to discover it within a few squares of the alpha planet.
My beta planet is of the most often discovered type, I believe: common copper. Hmm, what will we do with all that copper? :)
Anyway, I'm excited! New horizons are opened. Looking forward for the next few days, weeks, and more. ;)
P.S. Not about NextColony, but I've seen on SplinterTalk comments like this:
Don't bother you guys, comments borrow the same tags as the root post! Adding tags to the comments won't have any influence on the tokens you will be rewarded with.