Ruins

Ruins are the rare and valuable remains of ancient civilizations that appear on your worlds. Alien ruins can be exploited to recover installations and technologies, including some technologies not discoverable by any other means.

Discovery

Geological survey conducted on terrestrial worlds may reveal abandoned alien ruins on that world. The chance of alien ruins is redetermined during new galaxy creation. It is normally 20% for any terrestrial world, terrestrial moon or small terrestrial moon with gravity > 0.4G and temperature between 200K and 360K (about -73C to +87C).

Once discovered the ruins will show on the System Map, under the Artifacts tab (C#) / Display2 tab (VB6).

Type	# Abandoned Installations
Destroyed Outpost	6-11
Ruined Outpost	12-22
Ruined Settlement	24-44
Ruined Colony	48-88
Ruined City	96-176
Partially Intact Colony	180-330
Deserted Intact Colony	360-660
Partially Intact City	720-1320
Deserted Intact City	1200-2200
Deserted Intact Cities	1200-2200

Study

Discovered ruins need to be studied by ground forces with Xenoarcheology equipment (C#) or Xenology teams (VB6). Once the team arrive on site it will began the long process (up to years) to discover all there is to know about the Ruins and the empire they belonged to. The higher the tech level, the more advanced ship components you may find. However, the level of the ruins does not affect the level of technology you may find.

Recovery

Once the ruins have been analyzed by your xenologists, you can then begin trying to recover any ruins you've found. To do this, bring in Construction forces.

After your Xenology team is done deciphering the ruins, bring in Construction brigades to dig up and find the use-able materials, facilities, technologies, etc.

Ruins will generate Ancient Artifacts trade goods for the civilian economy. In C#, this is a type of discovery made by construction crews, giving you a large one-time supply. In VB6, ruins produce a small ongoing supply permanently.

VB6 ruins also have a chance that you may stumble upon some FUN, so bring up backup.

There are three outcomes:

Not Successful	(Construction Brigade Name) has attempted to recover an alien installation on (body) but the installation was beyond repair.
Successful	(Construction Brigade Name) has recovered an abandoned (installation type) on (body)
Vault	(Construction Brigade Name) has disturbed an underground vault on (body) that contains hostile robotic soldiers (VB6 only)

Recovery mechanics

Each production cycle, an Construction Brigade has a chance to make a recovery roll on an installation. If this roll is unsuccessful, nothing happens. If it is successful, then there is a chance that the facility they recover is unable to be repaired. The chance of this happening determined by taking a random roll from 1-200 and comparing it to 200 - (Construction Brigade Morale + Xenology Bonus of the Brigade commander).

For example, a new Construction Brigade with morale of 100 and a Xenology bonus of 5% should have a success rate of (200 - (100 + 5))=95 versus a 1-200 roll, or about 52%. Since Construction Brigades can gain morale and bonus increase with each successful recovery, a seasoned Construction Brigade with morale of 118 and bonus of 22% might have a success rate of (200 - (118 + 22))=60 versus a 1-200 roll, or about 70%.

Once a successful roll takes place, whether an installation is recovered or not, the number of available installations to recover is reduced by one. If that leaves the available installations at zero, a message is generated stating that the ruins are fully exploited.

Recovery outcomes

Note: This is a VB6 table. C# has different values, but I don't know if those are public knowledge. Once an Construction Brigade successfully recovers an installation, a roll from 1-200 takes place to determine which installation is recovered.

Number	Installation Recovered	Note
1-11	Minerals	Random quantities of one random mineral
12-15	Missiles
16-17	Mass Driver
18-22	Maintenance Facility	Random between 1-5
23-37	Construction Factory
38-45	Ordnance Factory
46-49	Fighter Factory
50	Spaceport
51-57	Fuel Refinery
58-71	Infrastructure	Random quantity
72-76	Deep Space Tracking Station
77-82	Research Lab
83-87	Terraforming Installation
88-94	Fuel	Random quantity
95-96	Ground Force Training Facility
97	Duranium	Random quantity
98	Neutronium	Random quantity
99	Sorium	Random quantity
100	Shipyard
101-150	Mine
151-200	Automated Mine

In addition, each time you recover a facility you have a chance to gain an un-researched tech, and the type of building determines what type of technology you will find when you find it. The chance is low for normal facilities and higher for Research Facilities.

For example, recovering a Mine could give you "Mining Production ## Tons", with the tech level being the next level that has not been fully researched.

Recovering a Research Facility may grant technology that cannot be otherwise researched, and is the only way of finding some technology.