engi abilitiy that wont unstack their power

thats not quite true... I often have spawned a light sent up high and it immediately exploded because I couldn't link it and something shot it. I also have placed one high, linked it by someone else's help, then it died because something shot it alot. in fact the opposite is true. if I have a light sent low with blocks to keep the monsters back... it will almost never get hit because they target where the lightning comes from... the bottom of the ceiling sent. so all the shots go right past. if its up high... the same happens but then it hits the ceiling itself and the splash damage hurts it.

my main issue for having this is because people run in and out of a base. I often am linking to something and someone runs past me and breaks the link... either on purpose to get shields, or by accident just from running past. now its broken and I can't reach. another time someone spawned a turret on top of a building and I tried to link them. I couldn't reach from the ground so I got on the roof. the roof told me I was out of bounds. so I couldn't stay linking and we had problems. if it was longer for just enough time I could link it from the ground which, arguably, made me an easier target rather than a harder one

Trooper wrote:

thats not quite true... I often have spawned a light sent up high and it immediately exploded because I couldn't link it and something shot it. ...

You are correct - I had forgotten that by default monsters will not target sentinels. I had to add code so that monsters will target a sentinel - 20% chance for normal sentinels, 25% for lightning sentinels. And this setting bypasses the normal "closest enemy" algorithm.

Szlat wrote:

For Engineer's to be able to do their job, they needed a really powerful secondary link, which was also infinite on ammo. So as BotFodder said, it had to be balanced - and the shorter length was one way of achieving that (see other threads on comparing the Eng link to a piercing link)

Although this does not impact what you said regarding wanting Engineers to be put in harm's way, I'm curious what you mean by "to be able to do their job" - Are you referring to healing their vehicles/turrets/sentinels? I am not sure exactly how the turrets or sentinels are set up, but I do know that vehicles (at least within default UT2004 code) have an internal variable that scales the healing they receive.

greg11 wrote:

Does better graphic detail show any lighting effects that can make judging distance any easier? I currently only have a IGP card so I have to play with low settings.

I used to run a low-end ATI card and now run an 8800GT and have not noticed any difference*. There is a dynamic lighting effect that gets applied where the Link Beam ends, but that really only helps you if you're shooting at walls (and, well, why would that be useful?). UT3's Link Gun, aside from being straight, actually plays a specific sound effect when you connect with an enemy, which really helps. I know that in the UT2004 Excessive Overkill mod, the Link Gun secondary's beam also spawns a visible "smoke cloud" when it connects, which is another nice way to provide feedback on whether you're actually hitting your target.

*Aside: Running on low graphics settings if you are using the Link Gun primary fire with weapons hidden will generally help you out. The Link Gun's plasma bolts in high detail mode are noticeably larger and effectively blind the center 30% of the screen.

you could also make an ability that lets you regain your link. this might be easier.