So from what I understand, there is could be a removal of Explo, meaning the addition of alot of server side resources and the disuse of the functions of space ruin generation and deletion and what is also pretty well the whole department station side.
For the purposes of A: providing more Materials to mine and area to explore B: re-using some old aspects of Exploration and C: offering more to do on lava land for more various roles than just mining.
I propose the following additions for the purposes of expanding Lavaland, after the implementation of Ruko’s mining rework.
Z-levels traversable by foot
Lavaland is big, very big, making it bigger would rock though, especially if we can devise more things to actually put down there.
But for the purposes of putting more space between Mining base and any new ruins and thus not compromising all the rock breaking Miners do, as far as the job title goes, adding adjacent Z-levels that you could just walk or boat into, with more space to put rocks, ruins and minerals.
adding additional Z-levels, be it 2 with North and East, an additional 3rd north-eastern section or just one for each cardinal direction, even just 2 adds TONS of space, expanding ruins and having more of them would thus be feesable
Re-using the out-post generation code
Throwing out the old outpost generation code sounds like a big waste to me, even though every explo main has Fully explored every possible combination of those outposts, not everyone server side is an explo main, some people have never touched that aspect of Bee’s gameplay nor is everyone willing to given the potential horrible, low-chance of recovery and dead waste of a round that Explo can easily turn out to be.
But using that code to instead create Large Lavaland ruins is perhaps a marvelous opportunity to impliment large scale salvage operations by engineering and assistants akin to ship breaking.
Also keeping the various discoverable technology options available from explo down there doesn’t sound terrible either, meaning Scientists can instead be deployed along side engineers, miners and assistants who are taking apart or refitting those ruined bases/crashed stations.
Lavaland, an industrial frontier
One aspect of Ruko’s mining rework is the emphasis on re-connecting the Station and Mining via the disused gateway, this is fantastic because the Gateway is an instant teleport between the station and Lavaland.
However, leaning into the full on stargate reference that the gateway is, various Gateways could be placed in the additional Lavaland Z-Levels to be found and synchronized to the station’s gateway network.
These Gateways could be placed either inside of the Repurposed outpost structures or on their own on necropolis tile style areas in proximity to said structures.
Aforementioned deployments of Engie or Sci’s genneral personel rather than specialized detachments would be reasonable and various structures such as additional research servers, backup T-coms, in-active reactors with power relays, pimped out but damaged service sections.
If it’s on station then by all means in the context of a more station and crew connected lava land, more options can be added.
Additionally re-activating an abandoned NT base on lava land could be made a crew objective.
Bonus, Golden age Wreckage and the lost things within
Science and Engineering both generally stay out of each other’s way, but thinking about the expanded functions of ruins brings up the possibility of having uses for Science and Engineering co-operating when in Lavaland ruins to restore something like an advanced anti-matter reactor or Tesla engine, salvage a multi-cannon BSA or maintain containment on some kind of ancient creature or weapon from the interim ages of 2150 through 2425.
Lofty ideas for eccentric masochist coders.