How difficult would it be to use this mod as the basis for a planet mod? Basically, defining a set of enemy structures (similar to the ones from the base set) that only spawn on one specific planet (not nauvis), in a way that is not tied to any user-configurable settings (like the small/medium/large thing, is that required?)

In addition, is it possible to ensure the enemy structures only spawn on generated resources? Or would that be outside of the scope for this mod?

It's fine if only the first paragraph can be done, but there were a lot of linked and nested script files in the ruins base set that made it difficult to know what was absolutely required to get the result I was looking for

1) Sorry, I don't understand what you mean? Do you mean that a planet mod requires this mod? Then that mod needs to include "AbandonedRuins_updated_fork" in their info.json file (not led by a ?).

2) Why only let ruins spawn on resources (means ores)? If you mean those with type="mining-drill", that they spawn only on ore patches? Yes, that's possible to do.

3) The ruin-set mod's structure is pretty easy. A recommended way can be found in AbandonedRuins-base (0.1.5).

1) Yes, the main idea being that the planet in question would be full of these abandoned ruins, specifically military bases, that should be difficult for the player to attack/destroy, but are required to expand from the starting area and to obtain the other planetary resources. Ideally, there should be tons of these enemy bases scattered everywhere throughout the map, making it difficult for the player to explore outside the starting area.

2) I meant moreso, in addition to the random scattering of enemy bases, if it would also be possible to specifically target resource patches, so that enemy structures always spawn on them, as if they were being defended, preventing them from being easily captured by the player.

3) I'll try to look into it, but when I checked, it looked like one script required another script, which required another script, which went through a for loop, which then required ton of other files in small/medium/large folders, and I wasn't sure if it was necessary to copy the entire structure, or if there was a more compact "bare minimum"

Also back to point 1, my main question about the settings, can another mod use the ruins core, without being affected by these settings, like disabling that hostile ruin defenses setting would completely defeat the point of the planet in question, if they were affected by it, and being able to modify that small/medium/large chance seems like it would also affect structures being generated on the planet mod in question.

I have just noticed that there is a locale string missing. I have now renamed it, the word "distance" might be confused with "distance to spawn point/tile" option.