That stuff is just gone. You could, however, set up a tech-mining operation in the ruins, which could theoretically yield these kinds of items.
Minor: these ruins (as a planet modifier) don't actually care what tech was there before, do they? Are they even all the same (in terms of chances for tech) or are some weighted to yield more or better stuff?
(Oddly enough, I did already change "Hand Weapons" to something else! They're now "Heavy Armaments", covering stuff from heavy squad-level weapons to hovercraft, tanks, mechs, and so on. Currently only used to boost the effectiveness of ground defenses - that is, ground defenses have demand for those, and suffer if it's not met.)
The new name bothers me somewhat, I thought there's a better term for thing you're describing, but besides "materiel" I couldn't find anything fitting.
<runs away screaming>
I know it's not happening, for good reasons, but Starsector's mighty nice shoot em up, even when it isn't!
I did consider it, but the logical endpoint of that is "projected marine losses: 3,000 credits" and, uh, I don't want to present things that way.
That's how the things are, though. You just need enough marines for whom you just pay once and spend them where it's needed; they don't level up or affect anything else (I'm still sad by having crew veterancy gone, but I digress). They ARE numbers and the sector IS a place where people no longer care for others. You may not like it, but I really like that it sounds so casually.
On the renaming of Small Arms to Heavy Armaments, yeah it's rather difficult to sum up that into 1 or 2 short words since it encompasses so many things. If it was just 'Mechs, Hovercraft & tanks you could sum that all up into Armour or AFVs, but including squad-support weaponry torpedos that idea.
Maybe "Weapon Systems"? But then it's a bit vague as that could also describe ship-based weapons.
Then "Planetary Weapon Systems" would be more precise and leave less room for doubt, but then that's a rather wordy title for one commodity, I would guess the longest in-game.
Maybe "Defense Products"? It's vague enough and with appropriate artwork one can represent that the products are any manner of vehicles and heavy infantry weapons, and their variants. I dunno, it's hard to pin down.
I've been liking these blog posts. Looks like the game is very close to a completed, or at least complete enough for public consumption.
I think there's at least two other options, either instead or in addition to using a commodity as ammunition to explain why bombardments aren't common. (I'd have liked to see Transplutonics or Volatiles as the "ammunition" myself just to give them a use, but I digress).
One involves taking a page from Nexerelin's book: Reserve Fleets. In Nexerelin, reserve fleets are stationed at planets or stations, hidden until the player or an AI invasion/raid fleet arrives at the planet and begins their invasion, in which case a large reserve fleet scrambles to interrupt the invaders and must be defeated to finish the invasion process.
Reserve fleets could be a way to force someone who wanted to do very significant hostile actions like bombardment to directly engage with the more active gameplay element (fleet battles) instead of sort of relying on a few unreliable faction patrols on engaging you en-route, as it's actually fairly easy to run laps around them using sustained burn with only a few skills in Navigation while they putter around trying to catch you with standard & sustained burn. W/O a reserve fleet type mechanic I worry it'll be too easy to "bombard" extremely big and important planets with little more than Drams & Valkyries, which would only have to worry about being extremely unluckily ambushed by a conveniently spawning. It'd also explain why a Tri-Tachyon official wouldn't even consider invading Chicomoztoc even though all their patrol fleets are off chasing one poor pirate sod in a Hound; their fleet probably couldn't get through the Hegemony's defensive garrison without massive casualties anyways.
If wanting Raids to be much more common than Bombardment, I think it wouldn't be too hard to handwave that reserve fleet away for raids. The raiding marines are lightning fast, in & out of whatever supply depot or refinery and back to their shadowy dropship in minutes. By the time the reserve force can scramble, the offending fleet is already pulling away with their spoils of war. Meanwhile a fleet that's engaged in bombardment has to linger by definition, and thus the reserve fleet can maneuver to engage them and save their homeworld.
Another option is to have planetary defenses play a slightly more active roll than just increasing "ammunition consumption":Planetary Defenses causing CR drops or even hull damage to the offending fleet. That would give another potential cost that could be controlled by, say, fleet composition: A fleet with more combat vessels like Eagles, Paragons, Etc would be better able to suppress planetary defenses and ultimately take less CR/Hull damage than a theoretical "Prometheus of Doom" fleet with mostly tankers, troop transports or even just civilian haulers filled with Marines, and the occasional Frigate.
I think it's possible to do something like that without getting hugely detailed.
Say, civilian vessels like the Starliner, Atlas and Prometheus are worth 0 on the Suppression Scale
Military vessels like Hammerheads, Eagles & Onslaughts are worth their value in recovery cost (8, 22 & 40 IIRC) before adjustment.
Optionally:Vessels get an additional modifier based on their size class. Say, arbitarily, FFs are worth 0x(handwaved as too small & flimsy to reliably stand up to counter-battery fire), DDs are worth .5x, CLs and CAs are worth 1x, and BCs & BBs are worth 1.5x(Making the Onslaught just as terrifying to see in orbit as it is from the bridge.). So the Hammerhead, Eagle & Onslaught of the previous example are worth 4, 22 & 60 suppression points if I recalled my recovery costs correctly originally.
Optionally:Vessels can get additional bonuses/maluses based on hullmods. May be a modular hullmod, or could probably be added to the Valkyrie in addition to its other upcoming bonus.
Finally, the Fleet's suppression values are compared to the planet's Defense value. Let's say the defense value is an arbitary 50 on Kanta's Den.
If the Fleet's net suppression is equal to or exceeds the defense value, little or no CR/Hull damage is taken. So, say, a handful of Eagles would allow you to bombard the den safely.
Otherwise, the fleet takes some CR/hull damage which will require time and supplies to repair. So, say, a few Hammerheads would not be enough to bombard the den safely.
The end result is basically a soft cap needing overcome with combat craft and a reason why barrages aren't more common: Even if one could sneak into the port past all the patrols in nothing but a Prometheus and two Valkyries with a battalion of marines, you still can't
safely dump your fuel onto defenses even if you theoretically have enough to knock them all out without the dedicated combat craft doing suppressive work. Safely suppressing the defenses would need a big fleet of big combat ships. Big fleets are expensive, big ships are expensive. Thus, a properly outfitted bombardment fleet, with all the ammunition and marines and battleships for suppressive fire, would be expensive to procure and maintain, and thus rare.
But that's just my ramblings.
(Man, I spent way more time than I wanted to with that whole bit).
On a final note, how about Aerospace Fighters? Could we see a fighter design that can operate both in an atmosphere and in space? Mechanically there wouldn't be much of a difference in the Fleet battle part, maybe the Aerospace design is slightly weaker in space combat but grants a bonus to raid strength when raiding planets (able to provide Close Air Support to the Marines on the ground) I don't think any current fighter is fluffed as an atmospheric-capable fighter though, so it'd require either adding that to an existing fighter or creating an entirely new one. Maybe something armed with something that's not too useful in space but presumably more useful against soft targets, like the Thumper?