SEV- Suggestions on Ruins

[tesco samoa]

I was thinking about ruins... ( rainy day i guess )

And I believe that in SEV there should be some options to select for ruins

Option 1 - No Ruins
Option 2 - Ruins only allow unique techs
Option 3 - Ruins only allow normal techs
option 4 - Ruins only allow ruin Techs ( need to get that added )
Option 5 - All Ruins on.

What do you think

[Baron Munchausen]

And also the option to hide ruins so you don't know they're present until you land the colony.

And my favorite, that ruins also occasionally release something unpleasant. A plague? A species of space monsters? A malevolent race in 'hibernation'?

[douglas]

How the random techs are chosen should also be different. Instead of a set number of techs, have a maximum research point value for the ruin and randomly pick techs that you have the prereqs for until the next one would go over the limit.

[Gandalf Parker]

I like all of these. Some good adds there like hidden, and release bad.

On the "points" thing though, I wouldnt want it to "fill from the bottom". I mean if it was 50,000 points of research I would rather have it go toward what Im working on than have it give me half a dozen techs I had purposely skipped.

Well actually, either one would be good for game purposes I guess. Maybe if it was put in points, then we could have multiple results also.
A) all toward what you have in queue
B) all toward a randomly selected field (maybe add it to the queue as a partial if it doesnt complete it?)
C) fill from the bottom up

[Fyron]

Gandalf Parker said:
On the "points" thing though, I wouldnt want it to "fill from the bottom". I mean if it was 50,000 points of research I would rather have it go toward what Im working on than have it give me half a dozen techs I had purposely skipped.

Why should ruins give you technology based on what you are researching? They should give you whatever they give you, worthless or not.

There should be plenty of ruins that give no technology at all.

[Gandalf Parker]

I can see ruins giving clues to boosting research in an area. Maybe it being the area you are researching should be left entirely to chance.

Actually if I were to think about it I can see it being clues to research (research points in specific areas) more than I can see finding tech that can instantly be modified and mass duplicated for use in my ships. So if I were making a wild-change suggestion it would to changing the whole ruins system to be either research points (general or a specific area boost), or a piece of technology which you can add to ONE ship and jury-rig it to be useable. That could be an interesting change for strategic play. I could find a level 5 missile, or a level 5 shield, but I only get to add it to one ship. I can find a planetary shield but can only install it on one planet. Maybe I could find an actual ship and use it, or a dreadnought hull but only a couple of engines and a shield are intact so I have to get it to a shipyard and analyze it.
Im not sure if that would be a GOOD change though

[AgentZero]

Imperator Fyron said:

There should be plenty of ruins that give no technology at all.

Um. Why? Sure it makes sense from a realistic point of view, but not from a fun point of view. The tag that tells you there are ruins on a planet is a little flag that says 'Hey! Colonize this planet and something cool will happen!'
Whenever you colonize a ruins planet, you should get something. Sometimes something good (unique techs, etc), sometimes something bad (Oh no! Wrathful ancient race!), sometimes something you might not really need (Goody. Meson BLaster IIs. Those will fit nicely with my APBXIIs...)

But I think not getting anything from a Ruins planet is kinda kicking the player in the teeth.

[Fyron]

tmce said:
Um. Why? Sure it makes sense from a realistic point of view, but not from a fun point of view. The tag that tells you there are ruins on a planet is a little flag that says 'Hey! Colonize this planet and something cool will happen!'
Whenever you colonize a ruins planet, you should get something. Sometimes something good (unique techs, etc), sometimes something bad (Oh no! Wrathful ancient race!), sometimes something you might not really need (Goody. Meson BLaster IIs. Those will fit nicely with my APBXIIs...)

But I think not getting anything from a Ruins planet is kinda kicking the player in the teeth.

Because it makes it more fun to have the chance to discover technology that leads nowhere... It adds more random chance and variety to the game. Why would all ruins be something good left behind? Maybe the ruins are just some partial houses with no useful technology to be gleaned... I believe you are the first person I have ever encountered that was utterly against this idea. Should we also make it so that there are no systems that are empty? It is kinda kicking the player in the teeth when he explores a new system and finds absolutely nothing of value...

mottlee said: Be maybe cool to have some "Bad" tech that starts you someplace then goes nowhere!

I agree. You can see such things in Adamant Mod.

Gandalf Parker said: Actually if I were to think about it I can see it being clues to research (research points in specific areas) more than I can see finding tech that can instantly be modified and mass duplicated for use in my ships. So if I were making a wild-change suggestion it would to changing the whole ruins system to be either research points (general or a specific area boost), or a piece of technology which you can add to ONE ship and jury-rig it to be useable. That could be an interesting change for strategic play. I could find a level 5 missile, or a level 5 shield, but I only get to add it to one ship. I can find a planetary shield but can only install it on one planet. Maybe I could find an actual ship and use it, or a dreadnought hull but only a couple of engines and a shield are intact so I have to get it to a shipyard and analyze it.
Im not sure if that would be a GOOD change though

While this would make gameplay interesting, having only one copy of a device available would be rather useless once you get more than a few dozen planets and ships. The devices found would have to be truly spectacular if that were the case. Perhaps a mobile War Shrine component, that boosts the chance to hit for all of your ships in a system or in a sector, would be the type of thing that it would be worth finding as a single useable component. Being able to find fully functional ships could be interesting, but only in the delay it takes to get the technology. It might be better to just have ruins give you a theoretical technology, then you have to do research to develop the device. This also somewhat covers the research boost idea, at least for unique techs, and is doable in SE4 mods (such as Proportions and Adamant, which already do this).

[mottlee]

Imperator Fyron said:

Why should ruins give you technology based on what you are researching? They should give you whatever they give you, worthless or not.

There should be plenty of ruins that give no technology at all.

Be maybe cool to have some "Bad" tech that starts you someplace then goes nowhere!

[Atrocities]

Ruins could give other things other than technology. They could give a new happiness pill, a boast to production, a boast to intel, a boast to research points, etc.