Several questions

[Beardy Markus]

1)how to stop AI using my designs ? i've noticed they tend to use my obsolete design (pirates and independents) that's intellectual property theft [:-] also they'd had to steal the design to begin with.
2)is ruin bonus stack with wonders ? since nowhere said that or very carefully hidden info. i have energy wonder,ruin and weapon wonder and the research output are the same for both. so what going on ? all this hassle for ruin was for nothing aside that denied it for someone else ?

[Siddham]

I wonder did they capture one of your ships in which case it would become their ship?

[Beardy Markus]

that is not possible since i'd know if i were attacked or anything,also that was a independent freighter that used my Mk3 design when my up-to-date was MK4 with custom shipset. pirates did the same but with military ships.
they can copy ANY of my design even those that come with found/repaired ships which is even more nuts.

[Retreat1970]

If you're using RetreatUE pirate designs mimic Empire designs. If, for example, you come across Human pirates they will copy for the most part Human empire designs. This can all be altered in the design templates if you are unsatisfied.

Check the empire tech bonuses in the research tab of your research. If it is a planetary ruin with a empire wide bonus it should be displayed. If you are talking about research bonus sites, where you plop a research station on, then only the site with the highest percentage is used.

[Aeson]

If you aren't playing Distant Worlds: Shadows or Distant Worlds: Universe, then to my recollection pirates using the player empire's obsolete warship designs is expected behavior, as it keeps their ships moderately up-to-date without (normally) giving the pirates anything too powerful. Also, if I recall correctly pre-Shadows pirates would only use escort and frigate designs, or maybe escort, frigate, and destroyer designs. Independent freighters were handled the same way for largely the same reasons and might still be handled thusly in Shadows/Universe once standard empires reach something on par with the basic tech level in the base game.

Pirates and independents also only used the base version of whatever components were in the design since, as they weren't fully-fledged factions, they didn't have access to the improvements available from the research tree. Thus, pirate/independent ships were usually inferior to a ship of exactly the same design belonging to your own empire. This remains true for independents but not for pirates in Shadows/Universe.

If you are playing Shadows/Universe, be aware that ship class names are chosen from a list set by the founding species of the empire or pirate faction and so a Sluken pirate faction and a Sluken empire might both field escorts using the same class name without one necessarily having 'stolen' a design from the other.