Engineering changes, what I would like to see.

So, to start off.

In PS1, I was one of the rare people that ran around with Adv Engineering.

I planted minefields in random high traffic areas, also behind enemy lines on bridges with the Phantom and Wrath with a trunk filled with ACE.

I know it has been said before and probably many times over but I would really like to see Engineering from PS1 make a return in PS2.

For awhile, we could kind of due it with maxed out belt that allowed us to carry more mines, BB and C4 as most of the really good and cleaver engineers would place a tank mine with a c4. This allowed us to cover more area but still do the same damage.

You could also place 2 sticks of c4 with a BB as this gave the same affect.

Sadly, since the change of c4 where it disappears when you die it has put a cobwash on this tactic. Also the increased model size of AT mines but not increased trigger or damage range has pretty much turned these into a one trick pony kind of weapon. Basically you can only use it in very limited situations, mostly suicide tactics.

I would very much like to see more versatility to my Engineer other than playing it for the repair gun and unlimited ammo.

I know many vets would enjoy seeing spitfires, motion sensors, aegis shields, and all the other fun toys engineering got in PS1 back in PS2.


You could nerf the damage on AT mines and gives us more of them so we can make more than just one trap but make an area complete death trap for any vehicle not running mineguard.

Just some suggestions that have probably been made before but figured I would put them out there again.

The devs are deathly scared of adding any new textures. This generation of gamers demand great graphics while having 200 people fight.

i don't know about you, but i'm not even 18yet and on the list of my fav games are:
AI wars
Earth 2150
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
X3 reunion (TC and AP were cool, and fun, but i didn't really feel like in a foreign universe anymore)
Lufia2
now google those games on the list that you don't know and thentell me they are games with outstanding graphics
i prefer asthetics and gameplay over pure graphics.

Gamers who play games only for graphics are the ones who suck the most normally

Bill was talking about the rule, not the exception.

in a general sense, Bill is absolutely 100% correct. Just because your one step above the rest, doesnt mean you elevate everyone else. The notion that you had to point out your difference, puts your right back down to your original peg in my book.

Just relax. My generation dislikes your generation for MANY reasons. That does NOT mean that we dislike YOU, or any individual. we are mature enough to understand that generalizations do not indicate personal characteristics.

Graphics don't matter when the mechanics are solid. People will take lower graphics in favor of a better overall game.

Doesn't it make you feel old to bring out the "this generation" crap?

Louis CK has some good ones, but the video game world seems to mostly be 15-25. I've just learned to accept the teabaggers etc.

Wow, didn't THIS thread get off topic awfully fast! C'mon folks...back on the rails. There are plenty of other threads about the misceleanous garbage to thrash that stuff out on.

Anyhow, I agree with Militia. I'd LOVE to have the PS1 Engie back. And trunks to store extra ammo/mines/etc in! I miss those days. Mines are basically worthless now, except as virtual suicide weapons. Although I DID get a Harrasser kill the other day with mines that I had placed like an hour earlier in an out of the way place far behind enemy lines...think about that for a minute. Almost an hour. Far behind enemy lines. Not exactly usefull except to increase my K/D score. Definately not usefull in a fight.

I wouldn't mind the mines being so freaking visible if they couldn't be destroyed. Maybe give Engies a cert tree to disarm them (and C4 as well). After all, historicallly mines were developed primarily to deny the enemy access to a certain location while funneling them in a different one. "You want to take this town? Sure, come for it bro...but unless you want to lose half your men and vehicles to our mine field you better take THIS road where we are waiting for you!" In PS2, mines are just targets for tankers to hone their skills on. Heck, I dropped a few on a narrow path out of sight of a comming prowler then hightailed it out of there...only to hear him stop and blow them up. He could NOT have seen me plant them...but he sure as Hades saw them glistening on the road like a pair of well oiled breasts saying, "Come, caress me with your mighty gun TR tanker!" Complete and utter waste of resources.

Just saying, historically, mines have killed many times more innocent civilians than ennemy soldiers. Even today mines used in old wars are still killing innocents. Maybe in Auraxis they made mines visible to not end up killing half their own civilian population after the war

Except there are no civilians on Auraxis. Or children. So it's a moot point.

i miss EVERYTHING about the combat engineer (and later adv combat engineer when it was released)
i had way more fun laying deployables and setting up defenses for the oncoming attack than i have ever had doing anything at all in ps2

there was so many goodies that they had and it really made you feel like an engineer with all the options you had

from laying TRAP's to block tanks coming across the bridge (or at least slow them down) to laying cerberus turrets at the right spot on top of hills to get a clear shot at aircraft and laying motion sensors up high on trees to detect anyone in the area you were defending, it was all fun

i truly miss the combat engineer

Hows this for improved mine gameplay:

Once placed, the enemy can only see the pressure plate for the mine. The pressure plate is quite small, maybe 1/5 the size of the mine diameter. No blinking lights, just a small gray disk on the ground.

Engineers can disarm mines with their engineer gun. This is the ONLY way a mine can be disarmed. Shooting it has 1/10th the effect it currently does, so you can still shoot a mine, but it will consume a LOT of your ammo to do so.

Engineers can disarm AV mines without worrying about detonating them by getting too close. Engineers can disarm AP mines due to the range of their engineer guns, but they still need to stay outside of the trigger radius of AP mines.

Allow Engineers to cert into mine 'backpacks'. Takes up the suit slot, acts like an ammo belt or grenade belt etc., but allows for 20 AV mines or 10 AP mines to be carried per loadout when fully certed.

Admittedly an improved motion sensor from PS1 would have been a bit more elegant than the infil darts we have in PS2. Improved meaning it would actually reliably provide RADAR in a radius against non-crouchwalking enemies (often in PS1, or maybe just early in the game's life, motion sensors would fail to spot someone.) It was better because you could often see the sensor before walking into its radius, but it often resulted in a tactical decision between shooting it (which also announced your presence) or handling it in a variety of other ways.

Automated turrets were fun, but probably shouldn't make a return. I sort of prefer limiting the number of non-player-skill weapons in the game (even mines fall under this category) to a minimum, and PS2's servers are already fairly stressed without having to manage a bunch of AI units too (which is what automated turrets are: AI-controlled units.)

Mines could be improved by having them deal less damage but be more numerous (as in PS1). The mine-spacing requirement and damage of mines in PS1 worked very well. If you were driving recklessly fast, you'd basically get 1-shot, but if you were just a bit slower than that you would get off with just severe damage, and slower than that you would spot them before hitting them. (This comment was about AT mines, but really it applies to AI mines too.)

That said, I like that PS2's mines are split between AT and AI (but also love that they can be combined to be that much better, and that AT mines can be shot in isolation to explode and kill someone in a pinch.)

With all types of deployables (including darts) I would love if when the weapon was equipped you get a counter of how many you have active out of your current maximum. Honestly I'm still not sure how many darts I can actually have active at once. Sometimes it seems like 3-4 stay active at once, whereas other times it seems the max is 2.

the biggest problem with mines atm i feel is more that they are absolutely massive in size

once we get the size back down to be smaller than a monster truck wheel then yeah i think there should be more of them and be weaker like in ps1

can you imagine 20 mines the size of how they are now? it would be SO easy to see the minefiled and avoid it

Also, standardize the mines across Empires so if I disarm your mine I can use it myself somewhere else....

I'd like to see:

• bigger minefields (upto at least 6 placeable)
• deployable cover (like the AI gun shield, can be destroyed from behind, taking the place of your turret)
• AA turret (like the AI/AV turret only firing flak)
• Auto-turret - just close range smalll arms turret like the PS1 Spitfire (again taking the place of your AI/AV turret) - something like below basic pistol DPS and range.
• Sensors (1 to 3 deployable, yet again taking the place of your main turret).
• Invisiblity field (1 deployable, just big enough to hide a sundy, taking the place of your main turret) - would probably need a no deploy zone around if to stop more than 1 being used together.

Whenever I see people teabagging I cannot help but think "some people's kids".

A bit more on topic, I like some of the ideas. I always thought that Engineers would be a lot more interesting if they had abilities that were not directly combat related such as a deployable shield, bridges, etc.- you know, things that change the battle scap rather than just more weapons.

That being said, and honestly no offense, but personally I think they need to schedule the LA for the revamp- of course, I am biased because I play LA almost exclusively. Still, LA is the only class without a tool, the last time I checked is one of the least played and lowest scoring classes as well. I know they scheduled the Infiltrator as the first and at the time I think that made sense as it was the lowest scoring class and at LA levels in terms of playtime, however, since then I have seen quite an abundance of infiltrators thanks, IMO, to how easy it is to perform the cloak&gank maneuver (especially considering how often they can start dealing damage before the opponent even see them uncloak).

In any case, Engineers, last I checked, were among the most played class (just behind HA) and were one of the most XP rewarding classes (just behind medic) so honestly I think there are a lot of other areas that should come first.

I remember setting up large scale router traps with a buddy using shadow turrets, aegis shields and an AMS.

Good fun, that video was very nostalgic...

Personally I think that more deployables from PS1 should be included in PS2. Sure people will complain that an auto turret is a 'zero skill weapon' but hell this is a war game not a skill demonstrator. The real skill there would be in tactically choosing the location or in evading/ destroying the thing. (a bit like mines)

To my mind there is only 1 real choice ATM for an engineer and thats the AV mana turret, Id like to have some decisions to make.. (and they should probably be less powerful that a turret that can 0HK infantry and kill tanks from beyond render range)

*Lathers himself with flame-ret@rdant*

Auto-firing turrets. Give them 1/5th the damage of the current manned turrets, but high durability and a small frame. This means they are almost never a threat to anybody except large in large battles, where they wouldn't really kill a lot of people but could provide great suppressing fire. Nobody likes seeing red on their screen, even if it's not doing a lot of damage. Infis could bypass them with stealth, EMP grenades could maybe do large damage to them, and a heavy with a nano-shield emptying a mag into one wouldn't even lose his shield before killing it, although it would take the whole mag to kill one.

They would have limited field of engagement like current turrets. In small-scale fights, anybody being damaged by one would likely be able to retreat behind cover without even being taken into health damage, and be able to flank it. Don't give it the damage my personal turret had, because then I would be a god again. Just give it enough damage and health to be useful but not much more than a nuisance.