First of all, ill be honest, im writing this while being angry , on to the main point.
I think its safe to say that engineers, more specifically rally points are a decisive factor, whether your team wins or loses the game. the factor that seemingly most of the player-base is unaware of, because 90 % of the time i am the only engineer on the team trying to build a useful rally point, aa/at guns etc. and i am tired of being forced to spend most of the match running all around the map with a hammer because my teammates don’t have enough brain-cells to put an engineer in their squad.
Again i am not bragging but i have single-handedly turned matches around just by placing a rally point.
So please, instead of going full “GUNS GUNS MORE GUNS IN MY SQUAD”, squeeze in a single engineer in there.
I agree that this is a flaw in game design, and obviously a poor understanding of the modern player.
My suggestion to prevent the problem is to create a soldier officer class in the campaign line that can be shoved into a squad, thus gaining a 20% increase to the experience gained.
The officer is also capable of creating temporary reinforcement lines, with similar mechanics for summoning artillery. The Engineer, on the other hand, needs to take away the function of creating spawns, and leave them purely fortification activities.
It’s funny how Enlisted, as a meat-throwing game, gives the most important element of this idea to an unpopular class that uses it for attic campsite and hidden spawns in the middle of the enemy rear when it should all look like a front-to-front attack.
I’m really not sure why it’s unpopular to begin with, given how important all of the functions of Engineers are in a game like Enlisted. I think part of it is players aren’t told what Engineers do, though I can’t be certain. It’s really just odd to me, as an Engineer main, why more people, just… don’t use engineers. I mean, I get it, Gunners / Assaulters are powerful, but… Engineers bring things to the table no other class does other than just killing things faster. I’m always glad when I see others building stuff in game, but it’s still such a rarity.
I have been in the same situation many times that I am sole spawn provider and feel that I have to spend my squad upgrades always on engineers. I think that they could make the squad upgrades differently. Now you have to spend “order for squad upgrade” if you want to change the upgrade tree. why is it not free? or similiar like how you can change perks?
Understanding how to provide spawns and ammunition for your team is in big role in this game and it should be rewarded so.
Far too many dipshits in this game that seems to be incapable of building spawns, then making a million excuses as to why they didnt build any. My favourite - ‘I don’t have any’ from a guy who has high tier weapons… you make the choice to be a dumbass, don’t make excuses for doing it.
I start all of my games with ‘please build spawnpoints’ then generally start calling out team-mates who dont build them if the team is going poorly, then we get into an argument and they rage. Hey, at least i get amusement out of it.
Has to do with skill not new vs veteran I think.
Just feels like the majority of players in this game can barely move the mouse and press a button at the same time. Let alone form a thought or be inquisitive. Engineer? Nah sounds boring bro I want to shoot shit! But you can spawn closer and shoot more. I want to shoot shit trash noob!
When I got my first engineer ever I looked what it did, spotted a rally point. “So if I build this thing I can half my walk from spawn, wait the entire team can spawn on it?” Well guess this is the thing everyone is building because that is too good, lets build it so no one shouts at me.
Sorry but the new lv3 player doesn’t know what the fuck is a gathering point and less skill players are busy learning how to shoot and survive to learn how to use an engineer yes there are some idiots who don’t build them but if 1 in 10 player it only builds them the problem is another
I think it’s more reality vs expectation thing. Developers do stuff with a certain expectation of how it should work out in the field while they either do not seem to be aware of the realities of how people engage with it or just flat out ignore that reality entirely. The reality of how the game is played, the player base and how people engage with the mechanics of the game is practically almost its own meta, or part of the actual game meta now.
The problem is, all of that plus the state of the game/the game development direction (courtesy of Gaijin probably) so on and so forth, is so baked into Enlisted that it would require a fundamental rejig and rethink of the game mechanics, game play/game design, and their implementation. Moreover, they can’t “fix” the “problem” of nobody using engineers when A) nobody has engineers in their squad, B) the game limits the number of squads you can take into battle and basically incentivizes people to run squads that are better at getting kills therefore nobody uses the engineer squad, and most importantly C) any solution to the problem fundamentally flies in the face of the current Enlisted game design and direction (which Darkflow have stubbornly indicated they are steadfast in and absolutely do not want to change even though it would be for the better) and Enlisted/Gaijin/Darkflow’s grind and microtransaction prioritization and make-an-FPS-War-Thunder approach. While they continue to act like they’ve got both hands and legs tied behind their back (while doing the same thing to the game itself) when it comes to the direction of the game and its design/mechanics, the best they can do is just rejig the rewards and points payout for engineers and other things in hopes that in the future, as people continue to unlock new squads, people MIGHT be more inclined to add an engineer to it, maybe. Then again, just because you have an engineer in your squad doesn’t mean you will play as it, or even get to play as it before it’ll die because of terribad AI. Perhaps that is a flaw with how the engineer is played to begin with: you actually have to main the engineer in your squad and spend a lot of time running around and slowly building things (and then getting killed).
In fact, if I were a bit more conspiratorially minded (which I am), I’d even go as far as to say that the multitude of issues with how people engage with the mechanics of the game vs developers intent, as well as the flaws in the game design (and the design of the mechanics) itself, do not matter to Darkflow or Gaijin, and that it might actually be in their interests if a large contingent of the player base is selfish/not a team player/only interested in kills and playing the game like any other multiplayer FPS. Such behaviour/play style (including kill farming) is rewarded above everything else (the growing numbers of bots on teams is perhaps an unintended but welcome side effect and makes getting kills that whole lot easier), and they only need to maintain a player base which seems to be a unique mix of casuals and whales in order to rake in those microtransactions and profit off the grind. But hey, I digress.
I do have at least 1 engineer in every squad because I understand the importance of rallies.
However I can see why the engineer class is unpopular:
Building stuff is just not rewarded enough:
1.1) Rallies, ammo boxes and sandbags don’t generate enough xp when friendlies use them,
1.2) Barbed wires, do they even generate xp when enemies take damage on them?
1.3) Implacements (AA, AT, MG): I only seem to get xp when I use them myself xD
1.4) Tank traps, do they even generate xp?
1.6) In general, building stuff does not generate enough xp to be even comparable to just killing enemies.
Building stuff takes time and attention:
2.1) Default building speed (especially for rallies) is painfully slow,
2.2) You have to controll the engineer to build and are vulnerable during building,
2.3) AI squad members like to run like headless chickens when you build and get themselves killed.
Structures have questrionable utility and have obvious limitations:
3.1) Barbed wires don’t seem to slow down enemies effectively and you can only build 10 of them,
3.2) Tank traps rarely stop tanks because they can mostly just drive around them,
3.3) Sandbags don’t protect you from explosions at all,
3.4) Ammoboxes? Meh, most soldiers don’t last that long to use them on the battlefield,
3.5) AT and AA are most effective against infantry,
3.6) MG nests can only be unlocked through long hous of grinding playing engineer II squads at the end of the upgrade tree,
3.7) Rallies emit noise, are easily destroyed and have respawn timer (to prevent quick consecutive spawning?) and rallies built close together will merge into one on the respawn map thus sharing the spawn timer.
Playing engineer can be frustrating:
4.1) As attacker, sometimes the game goes so well, nobody even uses your rally before the cap is taken,
4.2) As defender, sometimes the cap you spend much time building up falls even before the team pulls back from the last cap,
4.3) When you have such games, you wonder why you played engineer in the first place and question the meaning of your own existence when you stare at the battle result screen, seeing you have the most building points but pittiful xp and near bottom ranking.
Although I understand how important rallies are, I understand people who don’t play engineers because the game just doesn’t reward building the same as killing.
They should make each squad have a “Squad leader” class that is the number one position and does everything the basic engineer does.
Then just revamp the Engineer class. Engineers are pretty vital in this game, they don’t really do anything engineer worthy, and it seems most players are oblivious to them. Ingrain what is vital to the Squad leader, then give Engineer’s more build worthy stuff.
I seriously hate playing a new Squad until I get my “Squad Leader” and it would be beneficial for them to lean into this Leader functionality.
While i agree with almost all of your points, i have to say that i am not saying to play as engineer squad, i am suggesting for people to simply put an engineer in their other squads instead of other roles 2 reasons : ammo boxes and rally points .
Like sniper squad: you dont need an assaulter in long-ranged fights, but you`ll need an engineer to build ammo boxes for your sniper rifle.
Or machine-gunner squad : isn’t “almost infinite ammo” better than “arty strike once every 3 minutes that will most likely kill teammates” ?
ammo boxes = more bullets = more shooting the enemies.
rally point = closer to action = more shooting the enemies.
building a rally point is what ? a 10 second delay max.
Another often overlooked engineer item is the sand bag cover. It’s very fast to build, allows cover to an objective, is a very good stabilizing position for LMG/SMG, and allows you to duck behind for reload.
Rally Point, Ammo Boxes, hasty fighting position… So beneficial, it’s not even funny and most ignore them.
If I had a nickel for every game I’ve been the only one building anything…
, on to the main point.
