[Dracus]

He is right, You can not repair something from a higher tech level then you have or from a type of tech you can never develop.
tech. You capture a ship That has Crystal tech and you can not gain that tech then You can not repair the damaged area's of that ship that use that tech. You can repair the engines as long as they are not from a level you have not researched yet. When i capture ships that will not gain my anything by breaking them down. I add them to my fleets and use them until they get damaged. I will then either trade them to my allies for other ships or give them off as a gift to an allie.
That way I don't continue paying for a damaged ship. (ps. I rarely ever scrap a ship for any reason.)