It's whatever you have bound to "Switch Fire Group" under "Keybinddings / Infantry". Normally, it's 'B'. Not all guns have the same fire modes available. http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Carbines#row-1 (Carbines always start at Semiautomatic mode upon log-in.)
Excuse me. "Carbines always start at AUTOMATIC mode upon log-in." I knew what I wanted to convey but said the wrong thing.
really engineers need 2 guns, the trac-5s, which isnt a great carbine in itself but is the most versatile and can be improved into a reasonable long range/assaulting weapon, and then a jaguar for a good personal defence weapon with great hipfire for base fights and biolab carnage an outy and an inny
Trac-5 S has full auto, 3x burst, and semi fire modes. It also takes specialized ammo types, and underslung grenade launchers. The GL is mainly why I roll with it, it turns Biolabs into cert makers for me since I just resupply my own nades and get 2-3 kills per shot once the siege sets in.
Claymore - lots and lots of Claymores. *snicker* Claymores replace your ammo pack so you'll need to learn to use the "B" key to toggle your turret to drop an ammo pack instead. They are very handy: - climbing in a tower turret, drop one facing back into the tower, turn around and climb in. If an Infiltrator comes up, they'll get blown up before they can hack. - set them near a tower jump point and you'll nail hostiles as they try "tower hopping" in bases. - set them near generators when hostiles are flipping them. - drop one at the entrance to a spawn room, facing the door. A hostile "peeks in" or after they flip a base and - *boom* - set near control points. etc... You can be very far away when you'll suddenly get a kill from one you setup like that. As for gun - it's a personal call. The S series gives the broadest options but there currently are a few bugs with some but bugs will get fixed. Extra explosives or a shotgun or smoke -- handy options for shorter ranged encounters. So on and so forth. By default - the "B" key toggles fire modes.
Personally I think Trac 5s is a piece of garbage. I only use LC3 Jaguar or the Nighthawk depending on situation.
I love claymores. I lure people into so many traps with them. Wish the utility pouch didn't suck so badly that I could carry a lot more of them.
Its good at close range.. it has recoil in both horizontal directions which is only moderately controlled by a foregrip. If you plan on using it mid-range, don't expect to hit a lot (I have good trigger discipline, and only fire in bursts.. and its still difficult at mid-range. But if you are close, you'll win a LOT. Put a laser on it and fire from the hip.
I use a lynx, works great for me. But I am curious, what scope does everyone use on it? I use the 1X scope, anything else zooms in too much for this gun.
Trac5-S is great on paper, but I find the bugs to be so annoying that it is rarely worth the hassle. I use Jaguar, but Lynx is almost the same animal. Trac5-S bugs, which occur regularly or randomly: * Can't reload grenades from ammo packs. There is a workaround described below, but it just adds more hassle. * Grenades have 0 splash. A direct hit 1-shots the target. WOOT! A hit 6" away from the target does zero damage. Bleh! * Gun sometimes gets stuck on launcher and won't switch to bullets unless you first switch to something else (pistol,repair,etc). That's a ton of fun when you fire your grenade in the MAX's face and then need bullets to finish him off... This bug also works nicely in concert with the ammo reload bug/workaround. * The gun sometimes does 0 damage with bullets. Random, but is related somehow to the launcher. I'm sure you -S users have noticed where you get in a fight with someone, shoot them and get hit markers, then die and the other guy had zero damage. Yeah...enjoy that. Fingerdance launcher resupply workaround: After you fire the grenade, the launcher starts reloading. During the reload animation, hit 1 to switch to bullets. You can then hit 2 right away and go back to the launcher. But the initial switch triggers something that avoids the resupply bug. All of these bugs and BS add up to an unpleasant experience with the Trac5-S. IMHO of course. I switch to the Jaguar and was shocked at how well I could kill people compared to the Bug5-S. If they get the bugs fixed, I would LOVE to make use of all the -S goodies. Until then, no thanks.
Lynx with no scope as its a close quarters wep. If the situation allows it I'll sometimes I'll pull out a sniper rifle with the 12x scope and take pot shots. Most of the time I'm too busy running around repairing, dropping ammo or claymores.
I play engi whenever I'm either in a vehicle or in a major base repairing crap, so most of the encounters where I'm being shot at (as opposed to my vehicle being shot at) are at close quarters. I use a nighthawk with extended magazine and ammo belt simply because it'll 1-shot most troops in a generator room at an amp station, and cause real difficulty for people at bio labs and tech plants too. Plus there's something incredibly satisfying about killing a heavy with resistance shields as an engineer without nanoweave.
My Nighthawk. It's a lawn mower, and there's plenty of lawn out there, purple and blue. They all get cut down in close quarters and I will likely never have it any other way. Don't forget to cert the 8 round.
They are so useful for watching your own back too. I'll place them at the entrance to a Generator before I start repairing it (esp. good at Amp Gens). If a bad guy runs in he gets blown up, if he doesn't then I have defensive mines already set for the next time they try to take down that Gen; either way it's usually win-win for me.
grenade launcher that gets reloaded by ammo packs, sounds like old battlefield. and i remember it being a terrible idea. prolly why other games limit the shorts and dont let it be refueled so simply, and those grenade launchers kill in one hit...
This! OMG THIS!!!! Now that my mind is reformed from exploding due to awesomeness, The Trac5S is solid all around with grenade (and even better for LA) The Lynx is an amazing hipfire mid range rifle but you lose the grenades. Shotguns are very handy in generator rooms since a double tap of buckshot to the head kills ANYONE, but you are screwed past 10 meters. It's not a bad idea to have all three and rotate depending on mood/situation. Personally if I'm running around defending/repairing gens, I tote the barrage shotgun. Anything else I run the track5s with grenades and nv/ir scope.
That's my main weapon. I use Adv Laser Sight and hip fire it almost exclusively; the key here is to always move move move, and if you get in a firefight strafe left/right. I don't know how many times I've taken down a shielded HA and only taken about 2 bullets myself doing this. I always keep the IR/NV scope on it; it's a decent scope if you need it for the range, it's very good at night, and it can help you find cloakers who think they've run away from you. It's also useful if you think there may be mines about too. As a secondary weapon I like the Nighthawk, usually when I'm tooling around in a BioLab where CQC is the beast. You want to get the Extended Magazine for this, and the only scope worth having is the IR/NV because it really doesn't fire any more accurately when scoped than when hip fired.
