So, was playing some PS2 last night and found myself dropping my Mana infantry turret and using it as cover. It worked fairly well. But it had it's flaws. So I got to thinking...why doesn't the engi have something that can help his fellow soldiers more? So why not have a deployable shield? Something that someone crouching can hide behind and stand up to shoot over. Of course it would need to have a bit of a zone around it to avoid people from blocking doors with multiple shields. But there are so many times I've been caught in a fight either in a base or in a field where if my team had a few more bits of cover they would likely be more effective in defense or Assault. Perhaps some kind of deployable thing like the medic shield bubble but it instead projects a shield forward. So it can be destroyed and what not.
I don't see how anyone would want to use a deployable cover, for the simple fact that you always run as infantry when you are not protecting capture points or are pinned down inside houses or behind walls. At those places, there are an abundance of covers and vantage points, something SOE have been improving a lot since the release 2012, not to mention the abilities of medics in those situations. Lastly, the AI turret actually works as a cover as you say, with the interesting bonus that you can fire a machine gun from it without needing to expose your body more than the head from a certain elevated angle. That's why I don't think a deployable Engi Shield will improve the gameplay.
