(Edit because I'm a derp) - I have the ELCP installed, in case that matters.

I was playing as the Broken Lords on a Normal sized map, I made sure all my Heroes maxed out Indiana Bones and Search Party was the first Techonlogy I researched.

I didn't over-explore and I focused on getting to Era VI as fast as possible. I did not research Endless Mechanisms at this stage.

Once I got to Era VI, I explored all the other Ruins, both on land and in the water. I got all the hidden Alloy and Armor techs except for Arcane Weapons (the last one for Mithrite and Hyperium). Several Ruins also told me I didn't find anything.

After all Ruins were explored, I researched Endless Mechanisms and I once again explored every Ruin with Heroes who had Indiana Bones maxed out.

At this point, I didn't find anything in about 40% of the Ruins I explored, and I never got Arcane Weapons =(

From the wikis, I sort of understood that with Search Party and Indiana Bones, there's a 0% chance of getting nothing from Ruins. I'm also aware that there's a 2% chance to get Arcane Weapons but looting nothing in a game where one takes all the measures to ensure that doesn't happen still feels bad.

I don't think this is a game-breaking issue, I just wanted to look at the Arcane Weapons in-game and make some unrealistic Elite Stalwarts for the lulz. I'm also aware that if I really wanted Arcane Weapons I could've just reloaded the auto-save after Endless Mechanisms was researched and then just explore all the ruins again and again until I finally got it. But that's a work-around and it feels exploit-y.

From what I've seen, the majority of the community doesn't seem to value Search Party or Indiana Bones all that much. And If after spending 2 skill points per Hero AND a technology, the original design says it's intended to still have a chance (actually a pretty high one) to get nothing, I can see why.

I hope someone can tell me if this is just a bug but it's considered to be too low priority to ever be fixed or if I simply misunderstood how the Search Party and Indiana Bones effect stack.

Cheers!