More Realistic Ruins

Ed Kolis · #1 November 19th, 2002, 03:52 AM

It never really made sense to me that a starship passing by a system would detect ancient ruins on any planet that has them. Wouldn't it have to do special scans? Well, here's an idea in two parts - the first part can be implemented without the second.

1. Cloaked Ruins - Ruins now have a cloak level, like ships; they are not visible until either a ship with an appropriate scanner moves into the system, or the planet is colonized (and presumably surveyed).

2. Archaeology - Ruins are not immediately turned into tech when the planet is colonized. Instead, there is a chance each turn, modified by population (more pop is good, up to a point, then the ruins get paved over - much like resource extraction in newer Versions of P&N), that the ruins will be discovered. Of course, if the ruins have been detected with a scanner, then they are immediately turned into tech since the scientists know where they are.

Kamog · #2 November 19th, 2002, 04:19 AM

That makes sense. The way it is now, at the start of the game, everybody can rush out to look for ruins and quickly colonize all the planets where ruins are detected. It would be better if it were harder to find them.

Ragnarok · #3 November 19th, 2002, 05:02 AM

Yes this would be interesting to see implimented into the game. It componant could be like 150KT (big for the purpose of since it's a special device, it would be on a special hull) and it only goes on one sort of hull. A new hull is added, perhaps name it "exploritory" or something of the like. Better name could be thought up I'm sure. Then you have special ships that you use to explore systems. Adding yet another greatness to this already great game.

PvK · #4 November 19th, 2002, 07:21 AM

Yes, good ideas, and this has been suggested several times before.

What I did in my Proportions mod was to increase the number of ruins by several times, but then make most of them contain nothing useful. That way, you can see which ones MIGHT have tech artifacts, but there are a lot of them (also considering colonization is expensive in Proportions), and most of them don't give anything. Best I could come up with given what could be modded.

PvK

Gryphin · #5 November 20th, 2002, 02:38 AM

I see the Ruins an unimportant serendipty "Fun" part pretty much like "Eye Candy". Yes I make for any planet with ruins as soon as possible in the early game so I don't research techs I might recive. By the time I have reached
Light Crusier, Propulsion 6, ECM III, etc.. I don't even look for them. I focus on colonizing the planets that will aid my expansion.
If you make them part of your strategy I suggest you take: Ancient Race and Rock Colinazsation to max it out.
As for realty? I look for play ballence and some consistancy but not realty.

That said, it might be fun to play a small map with 2 to 4 humans with lots of Ruins. Sorta a Treasure Hunt. What file and settings do I change?
Thanks

Suicide Junkie · #6 November 20th, 2002, 02:57 AM

Quote:

It never really made sense to me that a starship passing by a system would detect ancient ruins on any planet that has them. Wouldn't it have to do special scans? Well, here's an idea in two parts - the first part can be implemented without the second.

Well, considering that the first ship who passes through the system takes a detailed tally of the mineral, organic, and rads value of each planet, and rates it on how nice it would be to life there... Its not too unreasonable that super-advanced technology still intact enough to be useful to the scientists could be seen from space.