How long to exploit ruins?

[Vanigo (OP)]

How long is it supposed to take for a xenology team to exploit ruins before your engineers can move in? I ask because I've had a damn good team sitting on a ruin for, like, 5 years now; I'm starting to think it's being buggy. Does my -31 translation skill impact this?

[Steve Walmsley]

It can take a while. NATO has had a team in place for three years without success, The Soviet Union took about two years for the first ruin and only two months for a second.

Steve

[Father Tim]

Does my -31 translation skill impact this?

Yes.

[Vanigo (OP)]

Translation skill is just picked randomly at the beginning of the game and there's nothing you can ever do to change it, right?

[Hawkeye]

Not in-game, as it is a race stat.
But you can go into SM mode, open "View Race" and change the skill level there

[Father Tim]

Each alien language you successfully learn increases your Translation modifier by +10.

[Vanigo (OP)]

Is that only alien empires, or do ruin races count?

[Father Tim]

Dunno.  Ruins didn't work that way back when Steve wrote that rule.

[Vanigo (OP)]

Hey, related question: I know the skill of your xenology team determines the success rate of your recovery operations, but do you have to leave the team at the dig to benefit, or is it set when the team finishes translating?

[welchbloke]

B

Hey, related question: I know the skill of your xenology team determines the success rate of your recovery operations, but do you have to leave the team at the dig to benefit, or is it set when the team finishes translating?

You can move the team once it has finished the translation.

[UnLimiTeD]

You can assign Ground Combat Officers with a Xenology rating to the Engineering Brigades, I think.

[martinuzz]

Yes, true. This is what the game does by itself as well, when automatic assignments are turned on.

[Nibelung44]

You find ruins with geo survey right? I must be very unlucky on this case, but can you confirm?

[Steve Walmsley]

You find ruins with geo survey right? I must be very unlucky on this case, but can you confirm?

Yes, geo survey finds ruins.

Steve