I prefer the new system over the old. It was cheap as hell before and now feels right. I have to time the gun so it doesn't overheat, and I can keep repping up after 2 seconds instead of 4. The certs actually feel like they have helped too. I'm working on the last one and I noticed that base turrets seem to take less time than they used to.
The problem with overheat is that it didn't really address the core problems. Enough engineers can still keep a Sunderer up against enormous enemy bombardment. Here's what I'd rather see instead: If the thing you were repairing was damaged within the last X seconds, you only repair at a fraction of the normal speed. Diminshing returns: Each additional engineer simultaneously repairing helps less than the one before. (This can be tuned so that no matter how many engineers you have, it soft-caps and can't exceed a certain rate.) Together, these solve the problem of repair "tanking", encouraging temporary retreat, and best-of-all still allow out-of-combat repairs to be fast and not boring/tedious.
Stop repairing right before your repair tool overheats, wait a second, repeat as necessary. If you let the tool overheat it takes longer to recover than just letting it cool down.
I run as engi about 95% of the time and i dont have any other issues than the intended issues (as in if its not certed its going to suck balls) and this is true for ALL aspect of this game, the more you invest in something the better it becomes, complaining about how crappy an uncerted weapon/tool/vehicle is, is just pointless and stupid.. I even have a really decent example Take the Lightning, no certs and it sucks friggin balls and dies way too fast, spend 200 certs and you have some nice armor to keep it alive longer and 250 more gives you the HEAT turret and thats just nasty against anything that happen to cross your path.. (Speaking from own experience)
I played ENG mostly throughout beta but now don't bother unless I need to fix my S-AMS. The "modification" (nerf) they applied to the ENG tool really doesn't give you much incentive to fix anything because it can be destroyed so quickly. I'm talking about turrets at the bases. During beta the turrets were really useful and in constant use. There were actually massive battles with AA and AV turrets blazing away. It was really cool. Now? I really don't see them being used at all. Why? You can take them out so quickly and even with the ENG upgrades, you can't repair them in a full clip without your tool overheating and losing progress on the repair. It's so frustrating I don't even bother. It's too bad as it was a lot of fun to use the turrets. Made for quite a show when it was dark out.
The worst thing about the heat build up is that it builds up heat when the trigger is down, even when you're not lined up on a target. While this is more realistic, in practice, it can be royal pain, mainly on Max'es. I would definitely change it so it only builds heat when actually repairing something. Also, I agree that the big blue res-flash is something that should not be seen by the enemy. Keep it as friendly viewable only.
Yah, back in beta we first had the problem of 2 or more engies just repairing a tank through ENDLESS bombardment. The first solution was to put a timer on taking damage that prevented you from repairing if you took any damage for about 6 seconds or so. Trust me when I say the overheat mechanic is far FAR FAR less annoying. ... Ok, #1 again, the old mechanic of NO repair for 6 seconds from any damage would make repairing them even worse.... #2 you do NOT lose 'progress' on your repair.... every point of health you repair STAYS repaired. Just use your repair tool until RIGHT BEFORE it overheats and let it cool off most of the way and engage repair again (you can let it overheat, doesn't glitch your repair or anything... but it does cause a bigger wait before you can repair again)
I do worry about the lack of people activly keeping turrets and the like up, i was taking part in a base defence last night and everyone seemed largly oblivious to the fact we were getting our ***** kicked for the want of simple support actions (stabilise generators, repair turrets, unhack stuff thats the wrong colour). Dispite this being a VERY good way of getting XP most people were content to sit around looking badass in tanks or rushing around looking for the bad guy who just shot at them from the rocks outside and basicly let the base get shafted while 2 or 3 people tried to keep the ship from sinking. I really hope this is because of a lack (for now) of tactical awareness on part of the player base, rather than "i don't like the over-heat mechanic so i won't bother repairing".
The problem is not the overheating. The problem is that destroying stuff requires no teamwork. Every class or asset can destroy everything in this game without the need to work together. But repairing takes time and you are vulnerable while doing so. It is fine as long as you have somebody covering you. Which would be nice as you are contributing to the team by fixing sth. usefull. BUT why should sbdy. cover you as it doesn`t give him certs. And whatever you fixed will be destroyed in a matter of seconds anyways. The solution could be to make the whole gameplay more team-oriented. But I guess they rather add a insta-repair option you can spend money on...
