Ruins currently seem like mostly an annoyance, you have the "clear ruin" function that does not easily used (poor location) and their only effect is to block Exploitations. (you build over them just fine)

So some thoughts.  

Minimum:

Besides making the "Clear Ruins" feature easier to use

Maximum; give ruins some value.... now if we do that, you have to make sure you can't just "make ruins"  So I would remove the ability to Ransack your own Cities/Districts and just have a "Remove District" and "City->Outpost" functions [unwanted Outposts can be liberated]

Possible value for Ruins: have a few different "Ruin districts".. cheap similar to Nature Preserves, that can be built on Ruins and keep the Ruins.  I'd suggest a Science+Money one and a Faith +Influence one [Study v. Venerate Artifacts]

Krikkitone wrote:
Besides making the "Clear Ruins" feature easier to use

Before that, let's make it actually work. Right now, Clear Ruins is bugged and only reopens exploitation if you put down a new exploiter adjacent to the tile. Existing districts don't actually exploit even after the ruins are cleared. The hex tooltip says they do, but the graphical overlay doesn't show the FIMS yield and the calculations in the city UI confirm they're not being used.

I think the simplest solution is just to eliminate ruins entirely. They don't have value and they don't need to have value, at least not compared to the myriad of other things in the game that could have more value. Just let ransacks return a district to bare ground. Focus on more interesting things than ruined districts.

However, self-ransacking should still be removed for other reasons. There should be a proper technique for deconstruction.

I think the simplest solution is just to eliminate ruins entirely. They don't have value and they don't need to have value, at least not compared to the myriad of other things in the game that could have more value. Just let ransacks return a district to bare ground. Focus on more interesting things than ruined districts.

Seconded. They add neither strategic depth nor fun. Any game mechanic must do either of those two things.

What was their purpose? Why were they implemented? Is it simply for a production sink (since they always take 1 full turn or more no matter how much production you have)? I can't imagine any other purpose.

Get rid of them until there's a better reason for why they must exist.

I feel like ruins are something that should randomly degrade over time and also slowly ramp up in some sort of archeological benefit. Not sure what the benefit would be (science doesn't exactly make sense). But say, when an IP ceases to exist it leaves behind fresh ruins, over time some of those ruins return to their base terrain (eg the buildings completely crumble) and others gain more and more of whatever resource they provide. If you gain control over the ruins you would have to setup an archeological dig (or something) to access the resource there (similar to nature preserve) which would stop the decay process.

Decay could be something like radioactive half-life.

There could be a feature like if ruins stays long enough, in the future it will provide culture influence, you know, because they are ruins and ruins is a cultural heritage.

yeah I like ruins... there just should be some benefit from actually removing them (ie that explores the ruins and does a few things in effect). I'm seeing it not only doing something GOOD but also disarming TRAPS and/ or WILD ANIMALS ie if you forego this step and just build a quarter over it your construction crew may encounter these and obviously die or something.