Engineer skills and techniques - a starter

Thought I'd just start this one off. Please add to it.

The new skills just for Engineers are:

Loaded Engineer - Allows you to summon different items. The higher level you are, the better things you can summon. Also gets you the EngineerLink.

Construction Health Bonus - gives additional health to things you summon. Extra 5% health per level.(EDIT now 20% per level)

Shield Healing - Allows you to heal other peoples shields up to their max (150 unless they have bought Shields Up!). You get a small amount of xp, but don't kid yourself that it will help you level faster, it wont. Its really to help others

EngineerAwareness - Shows a bar above the heads of your team mates indicating what their shield strength is

Armor Vampire - like vampire, but gives back to your armor rather than your health. Get back 3% of damage done as armor per level. 10 levels.

Armor Regeneration - like health regeneration, but increases your armor instead. Heals 1 per second per level

Shield Regeneration - when not under fire, regenerates your shield back to your starting value. Your starting shield is 10 times the level.

Wheeled Vehicle Stunts - You can make vehicles jump, and gives you better control

Vehicle Eject - although level 1 is available to everyone, levels 2-4 allow you to eject more frequently

What to do first?

Buy the class. This temporarily gives you limited ghost, health regen and armor regen.

Buy Loaded Engineer level 1. This gives you the EngineerLink. I would also recommend buying up to level 2 so you can summon a lightning sentinel. Level 4 lets you buy two of them.

Before going further down the engineer skills, I would increase basic skills. Health is always useful. You have an infinite weapon so max weapon speed. And DB/DR always help

Early on, buy one level of vehicle eject.

If you like helping others, get Shield Healing level 1. Level 3 triples the xp you get, but it will never be much. Wait until much later before getting levels 2 and 3

If you buy Shield Healing, it is worth thinking about Engineer Awareness, so you can see the bars of who needs healing. A bit easier than trying to listen to the clicking

Shield Regen is very useful if you are playing with bots or with few other engineers. At the moment, there are so many engineers it is not problem getting your own shield up. A medic can heal themselves with a flak or blast, but you cannot increase your own shield with the link. Its expensive, but very useful under some conditions

Once you get off the low level status, you have to start thinking about things like Ghost.

If you want to use vehicles or turrets a lot, you need armor vampire. Get back 3% damage as armor per level. However your DB needs to be 50 before you can buy.

You also want to keep increasing all the Engineer skills
So, at this stage it is down to how you want your character to go.

Other thoughts:

The EngineerLink alt-fire is very powerful - just over double a standard link. Get up close and use it to take out monsters. Very useful at either end of a chain.

if you are further away, remember that the link primary fire is better than a flak, and you have an infinite. Go for it.

Whenever you spawn something, it starts with low health. Heal it to its max straight away

As soon as the game starts, spawn a sentinel or a lightning sentinel in a central place. If you remember to keep coming back to it and healing it, it will net you 40-60 kills before it gets destroyed by titans in wave 6. In particular, the lightning sentinel is great against gnats

In the later waves, sentinels are not so useful as monsters take them out quite quickly.

Likewise, turrets are great in the lower waves, but powerful monsters waste them quickly. Sitting targets.

If you are in a turret, you cannot defend yourself well once monsters get up close. So spawn 2 lightning sentinels and then spawn a link turret. The sentinels will protect you against anything that gets close, and you can recharge them with the link turret

Two engineers near each other with link turrets can heal each other

Blocks can be very useful at slowing monsters down. You can create sheltered spots with them to limit the sides you get attacked from. But do not block the path of other players with them. They could get annoyed

Just some thoughts to start people off.

One thing that might be cool for engineers is the ability to have them be able to link somehow (i.e. Link Gun) where they could then be able to produce a bigger vehicle, more powerful turret, etc that they couldn't normally produce by themselves. You know have 2, 3, 4, or more engineers combine to make an uber engineer.

The logistics could get a little complicated but i'd think you could easily write some code where when linked (however implemented) it combines the current levels of each linked engineer and puts them in the tier of a single engineer but with all levels combined.

So if you had a level 10 engineer, a level 20 engineer, and a level 30 engineer linked together... all or 1 of them (however implemented) would then have the abilities of a level 60 engineer.

Just a few points to keep this thread going.

In order to buy a level of Loaded Engineer, your character has to have 6 times the level required.

xp for shield healing has been increased, so the shield blast can be quite helpful now. Up to 4.5xp per person in the blast - so could be equivalent to taking out a titan.

Engineers can link to all turrets. When linked, they will heal the turret if it requires healing. If the turret does not require healing, then the turret gets a performance boost, and the engineer linking gets half the xp. But dont forget to spawn some blocks to protect you.

We are currently trialling Defense Sentinels. These are quite good at nerfing incoming missiles.

Get a few engineers together, stick down a number of defense sentinels, spawn some turrets for low level players, and boost the turrets with the link.

Remember link chains are very powerful with infinite weapons at the rear and a high damage link/player at the head

Also...I belive the link turret is goin out...
And 2 sents only avaible at 60...

BUT....here some pointers...
? damge bonus to 50....why?...amour vampire

? Enginners in numbers are MUCH more powerful...they can heal each others shields..and 3-5 sents all in close proximity..(providing outta titans rocks way..)..can take down stuff pretty well..providing you help them out...
Not to mention some can summon turrets and other can heal and bonus you ..watch each others backs...

? Above lvl 41?...when you get on..find a medic....Theyll hellp keep you alvie more.....Also ..dodge liek crazy!!...remember....lava skaarjs can take you out pretty fast....and metals reflect ur beam..use ur alt fire!!..get in close>>....

So thsoe are some qucik ponits ...and also....i gtg do something soon...

I have to say I've been playing engineer for the last couple of days and it has become a lot more fun character to play than at first. I am really starting to like it. The difficulty seems about right now, I have just leveled from around 30 to above 40 (so no ghost and no regen) and it is tuned really well in both regimes in my opinion. If I am lucky I score around 1000 now.

Here is how I do it:
- plant a sentinel in a middle of a room (normal one), if it is a huge map plant lightning sentinel in somewhat elevated position. When I get to levels when I can afford 2 sentinels I would put them in 2 SEPARATE rooms to score higher. I am certain that this has more effect than 2 sents next to each other (I observed engineers who did either way, and the one with separate sents had way more sent kills).

- waves 1 to 5 DON'T camp around the sent(s), it wil do its job on its own, go around killing stuff yourself and just heal the sent once in a while. At wave 5 watch your adrenaline and make sure it is full at the end of the wave 5. Boost shields as much as possible. Not only it will give you "massive" xp, folks will apreciate it. If you get attacked by a sworm of flies make them follow you to your sent, it will do the job for you.

- wave 6: your sent will get destroyed anyway, so destroy it yourself and build a defensive sentinel (which titans tend not to attack). Start berserk at the start of the wave (remember the adren you saved in wave 5?) and show those titans what you are made of. This is the wave that can make my score jump and I can berserk the whole wave, even with my adrenaline of 100 only. Or I die 2 seconds after the wave starts. You HAVE TO love titans.

-waves 7 to 13 (for me it is usually waves 7 to 11, I tend to die a lot after that

): plant the offensive sent(s) as before, only I now tend to camp a bit more around them. I noticed that a really neat tehnique to kill a red skarrj is NOT to shoot it. That way, your sent will start fire and the skarrj will target it. Just link the sent, the skaarj will die quickly and you wont get hurt at all. Same for the queen, only with queens you can get easily behind them (as they are fighting the sent) and fill their behinds with your green stuff.

- wave 14: same as wave 6, only with a lot more praying involved

- waves 15 and 16: forget the sents, just pray

On all the higher waves try to boost shields even more than before, as people actually need that now.

I don't use blocks, vehicles or turrets. O, maybe just a TLC1200 (or what is it) to impress the girls.

O-o, that was long-ish.

Yeah it was...long
Havnt been able to play engineer in a bit..so Im guessing the defensive sents are out for public use?..that will eb interesting..cus The wave I HATE on both medic and even more so with no regen is the warlord wave..

...its deadly!!...null to death..(and no ghost makes it incredible hard to live!) ..

What I have done in past and will continue to do is on maps with some hdigin spot..where some enemies still can get in put blocks in ..not to BLOCK the monsters btu slwo them down..or some that only one can get in at any given time..that way players can srtill get in.(like that medic... trying to save your butt..o.0.)

What I dot with skaarjs and sents...lava and metal i let the sent start and alt fire it away...ghost skaarj is all sent cus well they dont stay still !

Also in alte waves...by lati mean 13 15 16...Groups of 3 engineers can buidl a pretty handy fortification..with very little death..however!!..the moment one dies and a suffice hole opens up in defense..the walls come crashing down...and if you in the fort at that time...GET OUT! b4 it becomes a death funnel...
(not to be confused with funnel cake..)..but yeah..I mite try the enginneer today if i get the net time...(stupdi streaming/shared comp...grumble grumble..)

-Jason_x- wrote:

Yeah it was...long
Havnt been able to play engineer in a bit..so Im guessing the defensive sents are out for public use?..that will eb interesting..cus The wave I HATE on both medic and even more so with no regen is the warlord wave.....its deadly!!...null to death..(and no ghost makes it incredible hard to live!) ..

Forget about it, the defense sentinels are not THAT effective. Most of the time a normal sent gets you more protection. Just in the titan waves, since the normal sent is dead anyways, it MIGHT be a good idea to build a defensive one (not that it helps extensively).

I really feel the defense sentinel should be improved a bit (maybe faster shooting), as it is, it is not really worth building it in most cases. Most engineers will prob. rather have 1 or 2 offensive ones I guess. Or maybe its just me. Try it yourself Jason, I am interested which do you prefer.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

I really feel the defense sentinel should be improved a bit (maybe faster shooting), as it is, it is not really worth building it in most cases. Most engineers will prob. rather have 1 or 2 offensive ones I guess. Or maybe its just me. Try it yourself Jason, I am interested which do you prefer.

Thanks for the feedback.
The defense sentinel fires by default once every 0.8 seconds. However, it is affected by weapon speed, so in your case, it will be every 0.53 seconds. If there are enemy missiles in the air when the timer goes, it will typically take out the closest to the sentinel. (By take out, I mean it will remove the damage from the missile - only the glob disappear)

So one by itself is useful. I think their real power will come when you have 5 or 6 together. But then 5 or 6 normal sentinels together would stop most attacks.

5-6?!?!....You can summon that many?!.....I take it they dont work on the basis of the other sents. their limit being 2 and all...so..if i summoned 3 defensive sent i could summon and offensive..(Providing Im a high enough lvl..?.)

I havent actually tried building more than 1, but I'd guess 1 engineer can put up 2 max. So more engineers would be needed.

Szlat: I actually wrote a pretty long feedback on the defensive sentinels in another thread you started specificaly for that and I clicked "quick reply" and my reply somehow disapeared. I thought you got that by e-mail or something (appears not). Basically it was about being really cool if we could see which projectile has been neutralized (by disapearing, change of color, freezing in air, transforming into sheep etc.) I read somewhere that it is somehow difficult to implement, but would make the sentinels much more usefull if possible. Now you just know that out of 5 rocks approaching you, one is not dangerous, but you don't know which.

Have you considered that we would be allowed to spawn defensive sentinels IN ADITION to others? So 2 offensive and 1 defensive? I believe most people would rather deploy offensive ones and I think as it is we are not going to see much of the defensive ones. (Mmm, do I build a defensive one and help everybody out or do I build ofensive which gets me kills?)

I really think the normal sent is in most cases better defense. It "pulls" monster after itself (defensive does not do that) and takes them out too, as opposed just neutralizing projectiles. I agree, 5 or 6 of them together would take down almost every projectile, but 5 or 6 of normal sent would take down every monster fast.

Is it just me or do you get adrenaline when projectile is shot down? At least for some of them I think you do. (my adren went from 0 to 2 to 4 and I was not shooting, moving and had only defensive sent built)

To sum, I would:
- enable us to build one defensive sentinel in adition to others
- make defensive sentinels better by ONE of the following:
a) the projectile disapears or similar
b) firing rate is faster
c) making it so that monsters tend to attack it not players (+ making the sent more damage proof)

In general I really like the whole idea of defensive sentinels, but I do not think it is there yet.

Hmm..well in later wave I like to build forts for ther players..but depending on size and ease of getitn in..i may not set up sent...with defense sents i may set up..

And ignore my former quesiton..I now understand how youll get 6..( 3 engineers summon 2 of them each...o.0

So wait they neutralize rocks?.o.0..

Yeah, I think they do neutralize them. But you still see the rocks coming. And I think the queens mess them up with their fast firing...

About forts: well, most of the time, you'd see only engineers inside, rarely other players. Perhaps a medic with lots of empathy and compassion :]

What I'd like to know is this: I noticed that a turret can take 1 rock without blowing. Is there any engineer high level enough that has his armor vamp buffed so that can vamp through the titan waves inside a turret without getting linked?

Currently....unless your very lucky i dont think so ....if vamp was maxed out..and DB maxed....and regen maxxed.....wep speed and regen maxed..maybe...but i dunno....

Well as a medic I love forts..great place to heal and retreat too...I have seen some wep masters using the forts as a retreat..(cus if a medic sets up there the injured will need some healing..)...But hehe..now i think i may follow around he engineers to heal them..

...sent protect me..and i heal them for what doesnt..

heh....I just wish my is would get off the other comp so I could try it..:S...stupid sharing comp..grr..

**EDIT**
So hey just tired out those def sents...not too well i admit..cus i had VERY off game like...trans locate in front of a titans rock..with no ghost..sit in one spot..slowly dying...cus i cant run or I'll die....and I cant regen or heal myself(46 adren!! baaa)..o.0

But yeah the fire rate is sorta low but its interesting..dont neutralize queens thou which is interesting.....also I find the toliet care add in quite funny..XD...i sued it couple times.(no clearance on that thing..:/..)
But yeah..

Also I noticed I random aquired a 46 stat point bonus?...(I used some to finish of the shield healing)..pourquoi?..

Wonko The Sane wrote:

I actually wrote a pretty long feedback on the defensive sentinels in another thread you started specificaly for that and I clicked "quick reply" and my reply somehow disapeared.

Sorry, never got it. I think the other thread is in the Developer forum, so it is restricted as to who can write there.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

I really think the normal sent is in most cases better defense. It "pulls" monster after itself (defensive does not do that) and takes them out too, as opposed just neutralizing projectiles. I agree, 5 or 6 of them together would take down almost every projectile, but 5 or 6 of normal sent would take down every monster fast.

At the moment I think you are right in that they may be equally effective in defense. And in that case as you say, Engineers will spawn the offensive one that also gets them xp. I was partly thinking about protection for turrets here, where you already have enough offensive power, but something to take out the rocks would be very helpful.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

Is it just me or do you get adrenaline when projectile is shot down? At least for some of them I think you do. (my adren went from 0 to 2 to 4 and I was not shooting, moving and had only defensive sent built)

Shouldn't do. I'll check.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

- enable us to build one defensive sentinel in adition to others

At the moment we already have turrets,sentinels,vehicles and blocks. I can't see us increasing to a 5th type. I'd rather try to get them balanced, then give Engineers the choice of 2 of one type or mixed, depending on their play style.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

- make ... a) the projectile disapears or similar

I would love to, but I can't except by putting an excessive load on the server/network. Its down to the way the server has no control over the client projectile once it has fired. This test was really to see if that mattered, or whether the defense sentinels were acceptable without.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

b) firing rate is faster

Could be done. I just didn't want to make them too powerful initially.

Wonko The Sane wrote:

c) making it so that monsters tend to attack it not players (+ making the sent more damage proof)

Monster had to be made to target normal sentinels, otherwise plant a sentinel and hide, the sentinel takes out all monsters and the monsters never fight back. Since the defense sentinel doesn't attack the monster, I can't see the monster being distracted by it when there is better prey elsewhere

Wonko The Sane wrote:

In general I really like the whole idea of defensive sentinels, but I do not think it is there yet.

Agreed. Thanks for the feedback

Today I tried it again and did not manage to get any adrenaline "free" with defense sent. Perhaps I was just imagining things the other day.