Quote Originally Posted by steelerfan View Post
I understand that.

But what if you are not the first person to go to a particular planet and many of the resources have been moved already?

From my understanding (I'd have to try to find the article again), the planets are not "Earth-sized". They're much, much smaller. Maybe I'm wrong about that though.
According to the article they say they are the size of real planets. They also mention that anything you do to a planet, digging materials, killing animals, destroying things only affects your local save. So what you have mined, will be available to others. The only thing people will see in regards to other players interactions are if you are the first person to discover (planet or creature) and name it. People will see that you were the one who discovered it.