OK, so school me on ruins

[LizardSF (OP)]

I found some ruins on a very nice world a good number of jumps from my home system. I'm just barely managing my empire and can't afford a lot of wasted time and effort. I need to know, as simply as possible, what I need to get use of them.

I have created and placed a xenology team; they found 18 installations. I'm told they can be recovered by an "Engineer Regiment".

I have a couple of "Engineering Brigades" already built as part of my starting lineup. I've done nothing else with ground forces.

I haven't yet researched a "Troop Transport Bay", but I could get it done in a few months.

What is an "Engineer Regiment", as opposed to a "Brigade"? What tech do I need to get one?

What do I need to carry one to the ruins?

Will I need any other tech? (Salvage, tractor beams, etc?)

Thanks for all the help.

(OH, this is unrelated, but... can asteroid miners mine gas giants or moons? And can you place automated mines on gas giants to harvest sorium, or do you need ships with the sorium modules? I've run out of sorium on Earth; I have a lot of fuel reserves, but I need to get a steady supply of new sorium ASAP. A shipyard has just been refitted to produce a new line of Exxon-class tankers outfitted with sorium harvesters, but I'm not sure that's the only solution.)

[TheDeadlyShoe]

engineers used to be a size 20 'regiment', but this was later standardized to a size 25 brigade since everything else ground is oriented around the brigade structure.

The regular troop transport bay can transport a size 5 unit; with 5 bays on a transport it can transport a brigade, including the size 25 engineer brigade.    Designing & building a commercial version is sufficient.  Bring the engineer to the ruins and it will excavate them over time automatically, possibly getting you installations, rare components or other surprises.

you wont need any other tech.  Tho you may want to make sure talented xenologists are in charge of your engineering brigades.

***

I am pretty sure 'Chunk' moons (like Phobos and Deimos) count as asteroids.   I don't think you can interact with gas giants through any method but hte sorium harvester module.  Surely there's a terrestrial world with good Sorium accessibility somewhere nearby...

[Brian Neumann]

You might also want to send a few combat ground units to guard your engineers. 

Sorium harvesters only work for getting fuel from gas giants that have sorium in them.  Nothing else will do this so it is a good way to get fuel.  Alternately if you have a source of sorium on some place closer to home put some auto-mines on it and ship the raw sorium home to be processed by your fuel refinerys.

Good Luck
Brian

[Atlantia]

Sorta related: is there a way to have Aurora generate more ruins in a new game? I want more!

[TheDeadlyShoe]

activate SM mode, then go to system info (the orange sun icon in the system map).  the SM panel at the bottom right has a 'random ruin' button.

[Person012345]

I have a planet with ruins, but it isn't producing any "alien artifact" trade items. It was Xenologied and has had engineers recovering the installations for the past ~30 - 40 years (there were several hundred available IIRC), the planet has a population, but it has never at any point produced the aforementioned trade goods. Does anyone know why that is?

[Yonder]

Current consensus seems to be that the Artifact trade good is bugged and never actually produced.

[LizardSF (OP)]

So, I moved one Engineer Brigade to the ruins... I can't tell if they're doing anything or not. They've been there probably less than a month, though. Is one Brigade enough? (I sure hope so, it took me almost a year to fly them out there...) Do I need to give them any orders? They're listed in the "Ground Units" for that world, so I'm sure they're really there.

[Owen Quillion]

They'll automagically do their thing, but it'll take a while. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think how it works is that there's a chance each five-day increment to attempt to recover an installation (and a further chance that said installation will be unrecoverable; the commanding officer of the Brigade having a xenology bonus affects this).

Multiple brigades will, obviously, exploit the ruins more quickly, but a single Brigade will eventually get to it. 18 installations is a fairly small number as ruins go, so more than one probably isn't worth it if it's a two year round trip!

Slightly spoily, but as someone suggested, having a few actual combat units on the planet couldn't hurt, either.

[Girlinhat]

Assigning a xenoarchaelogist to the engineering brigade helps, and I assume a civilian commander with a similar bonus will help.