[dmm]

Yes, that's a clever idea, which partially works around the lack of a scenario editor. And you can use the map editor to put in ruins with whatever tech you want. You colonize the ruins to get the tech, then abandon the colony. (I think that idea came from geoschmo.) So that all helps. You can do many things with the initial conditions if you are systematic enough. But it's clumsy and incomplete, and you can't set event triggers at all.