Why not simply have a building auto build based on the number of friendly's near by. That way it functions like flag capping where non engy classes can secure the perimeter, while still allowing engy's to provide the fastest build rate in addition to receiving points for it. Also providing an onscreen progress bar about an inch from the cross hair would help new players understand that "camping" new buildings is a good thing.
the problem is that you cannot simply enable ebuild/repair and think this would solve anything. you change a very core gameplay element, ofc this has broad implications on a lot of mechanics. but it stands, building and repairing are boring, but absolute neccessary, tasks. its simply not fun watching textures of horrible resolutions (the building textures look really shite btw) while the action happens right outside. and as we noted in this or another thread, the best intention you can provide is fun closely followed by points. the fairest solution to this would be to split the burdon and leave no room for excuses ("im a rifle"). there is downsides of this too, undoubtable. the most obvious ones are, engineers that like to build (mostly new players which learn maps) wouldnt be that important anymore. but they would still be able to build, as any class actually, so for them its an improvement as they additional can learn to know the classes and their weaknesses. scouts that hide-sneak behind enemy lines and are currently limited to setup a base by the low ebuild speeds. on most maps, save for the most chokepointy ones (to name two, slaugthered and canyon), you can easily pull this off as engineer aswell. if you say, "but as it happens on those maps it is a problem", which i fully accept as decision, then you simply make the selection of hide remove the ability to ebuild. masses of players building almost instantly or outrepairing everything. there is plenty of ways to target that. the easiest probably would be to limit build/repair speeds to a certain threshold. the fear that armories would make engineers obsolete. it wont happen. i admit, i too predict that you will see way less engineers on the battlefield. but given that you already sometimes end up with only 2 engis, where one is the commander, this wont change much either. engineers have awesome abilities, they are the most versitile class. they may not excell in killing, but in directing and shaping combat. they at least can escape each and every situation and delay a whole tankrush with a few walls. they will also still make excelent squadleaders. its not building and repairing what makes engineer a good class choice, if this wouldnt be true, you wouldnt see a single engi on district ... but there is an idea i had during typing this. i dont really like it because it works with scaling values and i think constants are better for things like this as it gets predictable easier, but let me tell anyway. you could scale ebuild speeds between 150 and 50% (of engi build speed) depending on the distance to a friendly building (except for turrets), where 100% is about twice the width of the nf vehicle factory.
An idea I used to think about was if the engy could actually attach his calc to a building and leave it going, which obviously means he can defend it a bit, but can't do revs or drop turrets/walls whilst it's going. But there's a lot of downfalls with that idea, like what happens when he dies, and if he gets revved, or runs too far away, or the enemy destroys it and he no longer has a calc at all then. Etc.
I think that is a great idea. What happens when he dies... his calc should stop building till he is revived. If he respawns it should fizzle out and disappear. What happens when building dies... he should have to go get a new calculator from armory or barracks or perhaps pick up his calculator(picking it up might be coding nightmare). If he runs too far away should be fine... he just won't have a calculator. If the building finishes he should have to go back and hit E(or some other key perhaps melee the building to get it off(could be awesome for scouts to melee off an engy calc while its building)) on the building to get his calculator back from it. It should not charge unless it is in his hands.
Out of your 4 solutions, the 1st, 2nd and 5th (last) I had in mind, but the 3rd and 4th I already ruled out. If he runs too far away and leaves his calc then it's just going to be fucking annoying, not to mention new players not realising this, running off and leaving the calc thinking they can only build one building. And whilst the building dying is irrelevant, I care about if the calc gets destroyed (which has to be possible to stop building), because then he would have to change class to get it back, which is unintuitive. So I like the concept but I don't like the overhead it brings.
Two words, sticky calculators. This is a bit of a two part idea, For non engineer classes, add a 5th weapon slot that copies the sticky weapon "this weapon sticks to things" code and builds at the same speed as ebuild for 10 seconds. After the 10 seconds, it burns out, and the player gets a new one. This keeps players close to what they are building but allows them do more than stare at a wall and hold e. For engineers, with a full calculator, be able to create an engineer version of the ebuild bomb. Building it disables your calculator for however long the current time to discharge the calculator is. This is tied to the repair upgrade skill, so you are effectively sticking your calculator on the wall and letting it work. This should get around the 'lost calculator' and should be intuitive enough for new players. Skill process: 1. This calculate thing can build things. 2. If it is full, I can make a thing that I can stick on the building and it will do the same thing, but the calculator is unavailable if I do this. A simple "calculator recharged and available in x seconds" when making the item the will do wonders for any further confusion. This will create the problem of the times not working, 20 second build time = 20 second recharge, what about the 5 seconds to fumble around the menu to attach it to the building? To fix this, use the same idea, but add a key that automatically turns off the calculator for the cool down time. You keep the tool but it is disabled. Not sure how well this will work as it adds a third function for a weapon. If need be, keep slot 4 as the build/repair tool and add slot 5 as a constructables menu tool. Hopefully this will give someone an idea
Idea... have an animation of the engy taking out some kind of grenade type object then attaching it to the front of the calc. The calc rapidly discharges into the grenade object (while he holds the mouse down) up to half the calc (all of the charge if without repair upgrade) then when he releases the mouse it throws a short distance like stickies go perhaps less.
But overall, you guys actually like the calc sticking idea? I didn't know if it was actually ever worth mentioning, I've been sat on that idea for like 2 years.
At first I was like: But then I saw: So then I was like: "Holy shit, that fixes ebuilding and makes routine engy building not boring!"
ya I could go with the sticky calc nade sounds like a better idea then sticking your calculator on a building. No worry of loosing the calc.
Inb4 5 riflemen all throw their e-build weapon and then proceed to mow down the entire squad progressing towards them. That's even worse than giving them straight e-build.
I hate the calc sticking idea. I think it's overly complicated and that there are many better solutions to reducing the monotony and onerousness of building. Unequivocally a bad idea imo. I will elaborate some other time but I am tired and need to study atm.
Then let ebuild nades stack in a geometrically diminishing manner, perhaps by a clean 50%? Then each subsequent e-build nade repairs half as much as the last one. Now you can have your entire team each throw on a nade and never get more than twice the ebuild rate. Problem solved.
Give engineers a "deployable builder" and just have it be a grenade they throw at a building to have it autobuild at some slow but faster then e-build rate. Don't give non-engineer classes any extra build power I never like e-build to begin with blurs the lines to much.
I don't actually see why it's a bad thing that the combat classes can do that. I mean, if you have a squad composed entirely of riflemen who can get deep into enemy territory and build a base without dying, those are some pretty badass riflemen. Engineers are still the only way to really keep a squad alive, armed, and protected from enemy fire. They're massively useful outside of their building role, and a squad of five anything can ebuild a structure pretty damn fast. The point of the game is to get players working together, it shouldn't matter what class they play as. Besides it's really only ninja raxes that would be a problem, and you could solve that by just doing something like 'buildings must be placed within a certain radius of a radar' which turns radars into a territory claimer and solves all issues related to ninja buildings. Actually, that gives me an idea...
