Hey everyone! For this diary, we are going to take a deeper look at the Engineer class and its role in the larger picture.
The Engineer class plays primarily as a support to your teammates on the field. A few key engineers can increase longevity of your teammates and assets on the field - this can make a big difference in crucial battles, both offensively and defensively. Having coordinated Engineers on a team is essential to coming out victorious.
Equipped with a repair gun, the Engineer can repair fellow infantry, vehicles, and structures. Early game this can create an advantage where teammates can press early and earn more cash from kill bounties while getting repaired. The repair gun locks on from a certain range, and can also be used to target enemies and do a small amount of damage - which is great for chasing down specialized classes such as a Sniper or other Engineers.
Additionally, the Engineer also gets cash for repairing! This extra money early can help speed up tech advancement or provide key upgrades to help push into the middle game. Chain repairing, or cycle repairing is also very effective. This is when one Engineer repairs another Engineer who is repairing teammates engaged in active battle. When the front Engineer has sustained some damage, the Engineers can swap positions. This keeps all the primary damage dealers engaged in the battle much longer than they might be otherwise.
When it comes to repair structures, each structure has tiers which once their health is below a certain tier, it cannot be repaired above it again. This makes Engineers vital in defense, as each tier of health lost brings a team closer to defeat. Keeping each structure at full health, or up to its highest available tier gives the rest of the team more time to react to various surprise attacks from enemies. Harvester repairing is also important as well, as losing a harvester will cost your team valuable income, while providing bounty money to the other team. Turrets will also need attention as they are generally more lethal than other weapons, so keeping them alive will make a big difference in defending the base.
The Engineer also comes with certain abilities that are very impactful on the state of the game. First and foremost, the Engineer can defuse bombs planted on structures within the base - this is key as bombs will often deal massive amounts of damage to structures. Since bombs come at a high cost, defusing a bomb can be very detrimental to the opposing team financially.
Since Steam Fest, we are also adding various traps like proximity anti infantry mines to prevent infantry from accessing core locations within structures. Many structures will have a core power source, which if attacked will be detrimental to the structures health - traps are a great way to prevent the opposing team from sneaking bombs there in the first place!
The last ability we will talk about is the Repair station. The Engineer will have access to a repair station that can be placed on the ground. This allows any allied infantry or vehicles around it to be automatically repaired. These work great for cyclical attacks - where one group of teammates can trade out of combat to repair while another group jumps in to sustain the pressure and keep the enemy on their toes!
For many of us at Petroglyph, the Engineer is definitely one of our favorite classes, and we look forward to seeing the creative strategies that come out of its unique abilities and play style. As always, your feedback is very valuable to us, and expect more spotlights or content teasers in the future!