Once again, different tastes in play. Engineering is boring to some, I get it. It is. There are times where I would want to go captain, or gun, to shake things up a little. However, I like engineering, because I like the way it plays. Yes, it's simple, yes, it's critical, but it's also rewarding in a different way than Piloting or Gunning.
You say an engineer has little impact, to which I disagree. With disable as it is, they are probably the most impactful part of the match. I agree that disable needs to stop being the pure meta, and I agree with new content to the engineers. Skirmish is starved for it anyways. But I disagree on making it so that everyone gets to gun. It'd be nice for more people to be able to shoot, but then they'd stop having to man the weaponry so as to repair everything before they could man them again. Now we've got a different kind of cycle, and one that doesn't do much to replace the last cycle.
As for ships that encourage everyone to gun, they exist! They're just squishy. The Mobula and the Spire are probably the best example of this. The Junker is another, a tanky ship with a perfect layout for an engineer to do both gun and repair. Honestly, the ship that most discourages it is the Pyra, and that's just because of the nature OF the pyra; be in the middle of the battle, take as much as you can, don't die. The maindeck on a Pyra is often the most boring for some, due to being needed almost solely for repairs. Just the nature of the beast. And then we have the Galleon, a ship which, you would think, would encourage having the ability to let the engineer gun, but it's done rarely in the case of Hwachas, as you want a rolling broadside for optimal damage, and the gungineer is stuck fixing engines.
And I'm not patronizing. That's what was on the Steam page. That's what people do walk in looking towards. Something that has been stated before is that one issue Guns has is that there's nothing like guns, meaning no one has anything to pull from, and can only go in with their expectations.
On the on the ship, I half agree. Your focus is suppossed to be on the ship. Your part is to keep it alive, and carry it to victory. But that's what you have the icons for, so you can be scanning the skies while watching component health. I've helped my captains several times by calling out ship placements they've missed, spotted and unspotted. I've also been responsible for getting kills as an engineer, especially on ships like the Junker, where the gunner is responsible for strip, not kill. And that's something you have to be aware of, when to leave a component to burn, and when to get the kill that will save the ship. So yes, your focus has to be on the ship, but no, it's not entirely taken up by it.
Less disable would be wonderful. More kill based weapons would offer up a more critical side to repairs and hull, and make engineering that more desperate, and, from my point of view, fun. The engineer is the one with the save, getting that spanner hit in just before the explosives hit, saving the day. It would make engaging that much more daring, as you're likely to still get disabled and very quickly killed. This is fine. I don't mind it. Having tools to overcharge engines and weapons would be wonderful. I *want* something other than the buff hammer. Armor kit from Alliance, thoroughly balanced, would be an awesome addition! As would, say, countless other additions that have been posted here. But they would still be timed, and still require the engineer to be highly mobile and situationally aware. Meaning we're back where we started. Unless you want to add more to the icons at the edge of your vision, and inspire clutter, you're back to square one with moving about the ship to boost components.
The fun of engineering is, as you say, 'running in circles playing whack-a-mole'. It's fast. It's mobile. It's trying to be everywhere at once. It's not patiently waiting for arc on a weapon, or trying to coordinate an ambush with your ally. You state it can be repetitive. So can everything, given time, especially when perfected. Dodging rams can become simply boring, simply because you know exactly the maneuver to take to avoid them. Or else using the same weapons day in day out can get boring, because you've mastered the only ones anyone ever takes. That's just where being starved for content comes in.
