[Slick]

Although that sounds to me like you sure would be tough to beat after getting those techs early, I would have to say that the scenario you describe seems rare to me in my experience. Ruin techs are chosen randomly at the time of map generation. I recommend playing several games with ruins before you write them off as unbalancing.

In my experience, ruins add flavor to the game and rarely lead to an overwhelming advantage like you experienced. Obviously it can happen, but SE4 never claims to have exactly equal starts for players.

Other factors can have a huge impact on giving a single race an advantage. You could have more large/huge breathable planets close to your start. You could have a particularly easy or very difficult defensive position from the start due to your placement and the number of warp points in your home system. Your opponent could be hampered by empty systems or, worse, black hole systems.

It is possible to make a custom map to create exactly equal starts, but this is not the general practice. I feel it is more fun to learn to exploit my advantages and cover my weaknesses in a long term plan to prevent the other players from doing the same thing. This pushes players to develop tactics, strategy, game plan... whatever you want to call it, most aspects of the game have effective counters and veteran players can win even in the face of an inferior start.

That game sure illustrates the importance of getting those ruins and/or preventing your opponents from getting them first!

Slick.