Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

Indeed - I once got Space Yards II and III from one ruin - near turn 15 or so! So that put me way up in the construction race

Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

It is true that normal techs can give kick off for one player, but unique techs are practically useless except Neural net. And that comes handy only with bigger ships and later in the game.

Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

Are the techs set or does it depend on what you are studying?. I used to think it was whatever I was working on and so would fill my research slots with everything that cost 200K or more, then I read that wasn't true.

Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

Unique tech ruins (ie: Neural Net) are set from the beginning. "Normal" tech ruins are determined when you colonize the planet, and it is quite random.

Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

Actually massive planitary shield has been useful to me. In a PBW game once I wiped out a fleet of 24 ships with one.

I had one small colony planet in a system completely populated by one other player. As often happens diplomacy broke down. Since this planet was all by itself I didn't bother building obital defenceses. But I did build a massive planetary shield and a few weapon platforms.

He was quite shocked when he attacked that planet and was destroyed by my shielded weapon platforms. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

An interesting fact I have found is if you save a game, then explore the ruins, you will get one set of techs. If you get a unique tech, running the save game will always give you that tech.

If the ruins give you random tech, when you play the save game, they will give you a different set of random tech the second time. Each time played after that will give you the second set of techs. It will effectively give you two choices for the random tech.

Of course, this only works in a solo game, but I found it strange that the ruins would rerandomize once, and not again.

Re: Unique tech from ruins
 

This happens because the random seed is not saved, but is always the same just after you load a game. To get another set of techs from the ruins, just do something that uses the random number generator, like simulating a battle, and then colonize the planet. If you really feel like cheating, just keep reloading and simulating two colony ships running away from each other a different number of times until you get a colonization tech.