So here is my complete next colony status update with where I am at and what I am hoping to achieve.

Skills

I will start with the skills as these probably will be most important in the future of the game

I currently at a 113 skill level, I am unsure how high this is and I assume it is about average as I am always building or researching something everyday

The mines are my main focus at the moment with a min of level 12 and my secondary focus is the shipyard as everyone is wanting to get that explorer, I need to get that to level 13 and then focus on explorer research

I have not done any of these yet as I assume I will only benefit when i have several planets

I started the transport before I knew what I was doing and now I am focusing on the explorer as I want a new planet

Buildings

I have got the base up to 6 as I feel this balances out getting resources and the build time in harmony and the same goes for the research centre, the ship yard I am trying to get up to level 13 as it is minimum for the explorer

I have got all the mines at level 12 and i will be upping this to probably level 15 on this planet and that should suffice

I will be upping these when I need more space for researching the explorer but they are all good for now