Repair cooldowns and misunderstandings

[Dr. Clueless]

Hey, everybody. So, I've had some frustrating games in the last couple of days, and I'm wondering if someone can enlighten me on what's happened. I've been running my Engineer with Spanner/Mallet, and it's been working. The problem is that I've been getting constant flak during my repairs as a result of it. My understanding is that, when a part is on cooldown, nothing you do to it makes a difference. If I hit the balloon with my rubber mallet, no further swinging will do anything until that cooldown is up. Am I wrong here? Because I'm getting routinely antagonized for hitting a part with the mallet and going off to hit other parts while it cools down, rather than swinging it fruitlessly at the original part.

I'm literally getting told that I need to keep swinging my mallet at a part while it's on cooldown instead of going to hit something else. Am I just that misinformed? Do further swings reduce the cooldown or something? Or do I just keep getting crewmates who have no idea how repair equipment works? I got yelled at today for "not repairing", waiting for our 2 damaged parts to come off of cooldown so I could hit them again.

Is the mallet just terrible? Should I stop using it so that people stop complaining when I'm on cooldown?

[Dutch Vanya]

You were doing it right. Whoever said that was wrong. Hitting something with mallet and hitting other things during cooldown is the proper way to do it. Were you still playing novice matches?

[Dr. Clueless]

I don't think I was in Novice games, no. So I am doing this right? Good to know I'm not going crazy, at least. Thanks.

[Dutch Vanya]

And you're using the spanner then, to rebuild something if it's all the way broken (red) by hitting it repeatedly, then finishing off with a single mallet hit? Of course there are exceptionss, certain components have certain tricks to keep repaired better but you will figure this out. Sometimes you also need to work extinguishing in there.

Either way, i'm guessing that person might have confused repairing with rebuilding.

[Dr. Clueless]

I've not heard of finishing a rebuild with the mallet. The mallet has the lowest rebuild power. What would that accomplish? Just make it faster to hit the rebuilt part with the mallet after you're done?

[Dutch Vanya]

I've not heard of finishing a rebuild with the mallet. The mallet has the lowest rebuild power. What would that accomplish? Just make it faster to hit the rebuilt part with the mallet after you're done?

Oh yea i worded that wrong, making it more confusing. I just meant a single mallet hit after something was fully rebuilt.

[Alistair MacBain]

Hit a component with the mallet and run to sth else aslong as youre back in time. Or if youre under the threat that the component dies soon (hull/balloon) you sometimes wait there to rebuild as fast as possible.
To rebuild sth just hit it constantly with the spanner. As soon as the component is back up, switch to the mallet and get a hit with that one it.

[Queso]

It would appear it is not you who is Clueless, Doctor!

[Spud Nick]

I don't feel like I did everything I could if I don't swing my mallet around like a mad man. Is that silly?

[SirNotlag]

I don't feel like I did everything I could if I don't swing my mallet around like a mad man. Is that silly?

no. <snicker> ITS HILARIOUS!

[HamsterIV]

As a rule Malleting non broken components things is good, but there are three exceptions:

1) Malleting the hull armor when it is less than 20% damaged. This over heals the hull and starts the cool down at a point in the engagement where the hull is likely to take more damage soon. In a game where everyone is using the quick kill gat mortar combo the deciding factor in who wins an encounter is the main engineer keeping the hull armor up longer than the other guy.

2) Malleting a component that is on fire or about to take fire stacks. If stating that cool down means that the component will break before the cooldown completes due to fire damage you would be better served using the extinguisher or chem spray.

3) Malleting components that are some one else's responsibility. A good crew trusts one another to do their job.  Generally each of the two engineers has a list of components they are responsible for. If the captain assigns you a part of the ship, he/she has every reason to be angry with you if you are neglecting your part of the ship to fix a different part of the ship.

[HamsterIV]

I forgot one:

Malleting an engine while on kerosine. This is similar to the hull armor only not as vital. A single engineer can keep engines at near full while the pilot is burning Kerosine by constantly hitting them with a spanner. Where as hitting the engine with a mallet will allow the engine to drop to almost 50% damage before the cool down expires (while on kerosine burn).