Engineering Game 1.3.6

[HamsterIV]

With everyone finding their inner pyromaniac thanks to the latest adjustments to the flamer, the engineering game has changed. Here are some ways my engineering game has changed:

I default to chem spray and spend more time running about the ship between combat than looking out for new targets/ stuff the captain is about to run into.

If a component gets too many stacks of fire and there is no extinguisher aboard, I might let it burn out rather than chem it 8 times.

After rebuilding the balloon while under flame attack I chem spray instead of mallet when it comes up. Spanner, spanner, spanner, mallet is part of my muscle memory and I have to consciously force myself to use chem instead of mallet on rebuild. Sometimes habit still takes over.

I have to be aware of what the other engineer has an extinguisher and not chem/mallet a component if they are in a better able to deal with the fire.

On a whole the changes to the flame thrower has made the engineer game more busy. This has lessened my enjoyment of the game. Prior to the flame patch I was able to keep a look out for hostile ships, offer tactical advice to the captain, and occasionally shoot a gun without worrying that the ship would fall apart. I spend more time worrying that a sub optimal performance as engineer will cost us the game.

How are you coping with the changes the new flame thrower has brought to the game?

[Rainer Zu Fall]

To answer your question I'd like to quote yourself:

On a whole the changes to the flame thrower has made the engineer game more busy. This has lessened my enjoyment of the game. Prior to the flame patch I was able to keep a look out for hostile ships, offer tactical advice to the captain, and occasionally shoot a gun without worrying that the ship would fall apart.

I couldn't think of a better way to describe it than that.

[Alistair MacBain]

I totally sign this.

[Tanya Phenole]

we always sprayed stuff on rebuild, it is sprayers' life

but 5 sec cooldown...

[Imagine]

You mean... engineers have to spend the course of a game fixing things instead of doing other classes jobs?

[N-Sunderland]

You mean... engineers have to spend the course of a game fixing things instead of doing other classes jobs?

Actually engis still get to do other classes' jobs, main engis just have it harder now.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Good, bout time people had to work at things. Way it used to be and should be. There wasn't just a spray and forget mode like we've had this past year. Engineers had to be miracle workers, pilots had to be thinking 30 seconds ahead and ready to evade in a heartbeat with eyes in the back of their heads, and gunners...gunners...okay lets face it, they've never had to work hard for anything other than aiming. Lazy bastages!

See what you did Hamster, you made me hate gunners even more!!

[HamsterIV]

Actually engineers aren't miracle workers any more. They are punch clock drones who are slaved to the chem cycle. If they are a few seconds off the entire ship could suffer. Woe be it to the crew who kerosines into an ambush. If the engineer is off spray duty to keep the engines up the whole ship gets stuck in a no win situation.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Then that is the pilot's responsibility not to get their ship into that mess.

[Alistair MacBain]

Engis never were miracle workers.
You always had to keep your timing in mind when infight. What bugs me a bid is that you now have to run cycles even outside of the fight when the pilot isnt even using any tool.
Spray and forgot only worked against the old flamer. Every other serious firesource had to be dealt with.
Try and do a fire and forgot against a Hades shooting your hull.
The banshee with its aoe had to be dealt with due to components (engines/balloon) might catch fire.

I dislike it a bid that i cant keep track of the movement of my ship outside of fight now due to the need to constantly chem. Not sure how to fix it but it feels a bid akward.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

A miracle worker engineer is one who knows the cooldowns, knows when to use what, and is in sync with their pilot. They know what the pilot is going to do before they do it and they anticipate it. I've ran into a few people who could do this. Sadly, I haven't seen it much since the good days other than a few here and there. When the pilot can have total confidence in the crew, it allows the pilot a lot more flexibility to fly harder and take risks.

The last time I felt that, to it's fullest extent, was back in 1.1 and it would be pugger crews too. They'd take a match or two to get used to me and then we'd go at it against Brick or other Squid pilots and have some really grant battles. Course ships moved better and pilots didn't need to often use their tools to fly, they needed them for combat and evasion. Chem cycling of the vessels was not a hard task because unless there was combat, we weren't throwing a kerosene tick into the mix to mess them up. I had enemies that did just that. They'd chem cycle everything and the pilot wouldn't worry about swatting me, they'd just tank mode.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

It's neither a chem cycle (I totally agree that the 5 seconds you gain with kerosene to rush in are actually non-existent considering it mostly makes no difference to the outcome of the match) nor the more ... challenging (?) engineer tasks.
What really bugs me is the mindless jumping around. You always do the same, boring things. You don't have to think about whether you hit with the spanner or the mallet, in which order to repair the components to have a daring low health but can bring down another enemy - It's all just one huge algorithm that never changes. Which is not challenging but really really boring.

I'd rather get back to see what's going on and be ready to take countermeasures before the captain has to say "We're going to do x now, prepare to do y!". Sorry but ... that throws away a huge fun factor for me.

[Crafeksterty]

If i see enemy ships with full on flamers, yeah. Im going to make my engineers do chem rounds.

But versus few ships with maybe one flamer, i only need one engineer with chem and the other with extinguisher.
You as an engineer may be getting commanded constantly by a frightened pilot or you are frightened yourself and forced to chemspray.

The fire is very difficult to fight against, but it does not call for constant cheming. But when you do the chemming versus flamers, that fire does NOTHING. So whenever you are exhausting yourself to Chem cycle versus flamers. It IS winning the fight.

Versus one flamer on one ship or two, you will most likely depend on the extinguisher mostly. How about this, the ships is ON FIRE and you engineers need to go extinguish. One guy extinguishes, YOU with chem follow him, what he can do is run and extinguish while you chem the components behind him.


That is why i propose a buff to the extinguisher   So that extinguisher cooldown is like 1.5 with 3 second immunity.

[Dementio]

If the old flamethrower did not pose a thread to engineers than it had to be buffed.

Also if the teamwork/communication needed to accomplish what Crafeksterty has adviced is just not there you may need to do chem spray and fire extinguisher, if you fear fires that much. You may be sacrificing superior mallet/spanner combo and use a pipe wrench instead, but if flamethrowers are the majority of the enemy damage output it might very well be worth it.

I never liked playing engineer. Flamerthrowers or not, I hate the feeling of having a component die on me because I took a sec too long to repair it or having the armor die because, (e.g.) I was repairing the engines, but leaving the engines would result into them being destroyed easier and the pilot having less moveability which might serve as a severe disadvantage in whatever fight we are in right now.
I never understood why people like to play engineer so much. You are always doing the same thing, even before 1.3.6 have I seen my engineers repeating the same pattern the engineer before them did. I don't see how it was enjoyable before.
And if you can't take the pressure of having flamers shooting at your ship in the middle of you repairing everything, then your pilot should, I dunno, stay out of the enemy's range?

[RearAdmiralZill]

I never got the point of "chem rounds." Flamethrowers have the shortest range in the game. Maybe its just me not playing the new patch enough (I didn't start till after flamethrowers were scaled back after the first changes) but if you keep getting into situations where chem-spray is required on your whole boat to survive, that's got some pilot error in there to some degree.