SEV- Suggestions on Ruins

[AgentZero]

Fyron said:
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...

An empty star system isn't quite the same thing as getting nothing from ruins. One does not expect to find stars surrounded by colonizable planets on the other side of every WP, therefore finding nothing at all isn't really a kick in the teeth since at least now you KNOW there's nothing in that system.
But taking the time to build a colony ship, settle the planet, and if suggestions in this thread are implemented, spending a bunch of research points on absolutely nothing. Then what are you left with? I figure, if it's a bunch of delapidated old houses, it isn't really worth mentioning. Therefore the fact that your scouts flagged a planet as containing ancient ruins means there's something worthwhile there.

I could accept ruins tech that would be inferior even the lowest tech levels your empire could research, since you could always find a use for it, even if it's just trading it to another unsuspecting empire for something good. Or I could accept techs that fail to live up to their promise. ie: You find a ruin tech that you're told will allow you to develop a gun the size of a Meson BLaster but with enough power to destroy an entire world, but after you research it you just end up with something the size of an MB that does, say, 50% more damage. Not what you were promised, but still useful.
But to get NOTHING? I wouldn't consider that fun. I'd consider it frustrating and annoying.
For everyone who's played GalCiv, let me just ask, when you send your Survey Ship halfway across the galaxy to an anomaly that normally gives you that 25% tech boost, but instead you get nothing, do you say, 'Boy, that was fun!' or 'That was an annoying waste of time!' with a few explicitives thrown in for good measure?

[Suicide Junkie]

tmce said:An empty star system isn't quite the same thing as getting nothing from ruins. One does not expect to find stars surrounded by colonizable planets on the other side of every WP, therefore finding nothing at all isn't really a kick in the teeth since at least now you KNOW there's nothing in that system.

By the same reasoning, would it then be perfectly fine to have dud ruins if the stock game had duds and the manual mentioned that they would be there?

[brianeyci]

I think there should be "power ruins" in SE:V. There should be a strategic reason why you would want to occupy a ruin planet after it has been taken. Maybe 5% boost to total empire mineral production, or something like that. Or maybe special techs that get unusable once you no longer own the planet. And as well, certain ruins should "broadcast" their use to all other empires, because of the immense energy/whatever used. For example, if you use the 5% boost to mineral production every turn, all other empires get to see the planet and system and get a notice about its use.

That would make for some interesting fights over ancient ruins.

Brian

[Fyron]

tmce said:
But taking the time to build a colony ship, settle the planet, and if suggestions in this thread are implemented, spending a bunch of research points on absolutely nothing.

Who said anything about spending research on dud ruins??? They would lead nowhere, immediately. No new tech areas would be opened. You would waste absolutely nothing.

Then what are you left with? I figure, if it's a bunch of delapidated old houses, it isn't really worth mentioning. Therefore the fact that your scouts flagged a planet as containing ancient ruins means there's something worthwhile there.

I could accept ruins tech that would be inferior even the lowest tech levels your empire could research, since you could always find a use for it, even if it's just trading it to another unsuspecting empire for something good. Or I could accept techs that fail to live up to their promise. ie: You find a ruin tech that you're told will allow you to develop a gun the size of a Meson BLaster but with enough power to destroy an entire world, but after you research it you just end up with something the size of an MB that does, say, 50% more damage. Not what you were promised, but still useful.
But to get NOTHING? I wouldn't consider that fun. I'd consider it frustrating and annoying.
For everyone who's played GalCiv, let me just ask, when you send your Survey Ship halfway across the galaxy to an anomaly that normally gives you that 25% tech boost, but instead you get nothing, do you say, 'Boy, that was fun!' or 'That was an annoying waste of time!' with a few explicitives thrown in for good measure?

You get a colony as normal out of it... it is nothing like the absurdity of "anomalies" in GalCiv...

Even ruins that at first look promising could turn out to have nothing of use...

[brianeyci]

Oh, the "power ruins" would be nicely put into a Category called "persistent ruins".

For example, you would get a special weapon that could skip through armor and shields, but that weapon would only continue to work and you could only continue to build it if the ruin was under your control. And various other things I can think of that would create more strategic reasons to own a ruin planet. For the idea to work though, all other empires would have to be aware of the ruin planet every turn it was "used".

Brian

[Baron Grazic]

I like the idea of Persistant Runes. That would certainly allow more Roll Playing ideas for games.
Runes that always give tech doesn't sound realist. In the late game, if my Empire has researched everything except Torps, and I colonise a Ruin World, why should that world have Torps?