Well been thinking about what kind of abilities would be cool to see for the engineer in particular to makes its turret more usefull since from what we know so far they are more for a distraction and will not rack up kills unless someone stands out in the open not paying attention. So here a few ideas a came up with to make them more usefull for the team if an engineer decided to invest his skill points that route.

What are your ideas and views on this. Also what other abilities would you like to see / ideas do you have for the engineer class skills and abilities? If you have any ideas let me know to put in the poll


Taken From Horses http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102014-brink-info-compendium-v2/ What we know so far.

Engineer:
Establish and defend tactical zones, deploy or repair objectives, and improve your team's weapons. - They can deploy multiple types of turrets, and can lay landmines.

- Can build and repair objectives
- Can defuse the soldiers HE charge
- Operative can hack things – Engineer’s can destroy the hack box that is on the objective.
- Can lay landmines
- Engineers improve their deployables, get better at upgrading weapons, and can alter Command Post bonuses.
- The main deployables in Brink are the turrets. Any Engineer can put down one turret in a location of their choosing; deploying a second turret removes the first.
- Engineers will not start out with turrets and mines. They will have to purchase them via the ability screen. Each will count as an active ability.
- Turrets are really best thought of as 'distractions.’ They generally don't get kills by themselves (unless someone's not paying attention at all), but they do make the enemy keep moving, to distract them for a few key seconds so you can surprise them.

(more on turrets)
- Turrets can miss fast-moving players, but smart Engineers will place them where evading is hard for opponents to manage.
- They have limited scanning both horizontally and vertically, and a limited range.
- When used tactically they are extremely powerful, and their raw lethality can be adjusted by how an Engineer chooses to spend their ability points.

1. Faster Response Time - Yes

2. Larger Attack Radius -Yes

3. Able To Detect Cloaked Operatives Within A Certain Range - No

4. Allies Able To Refill Ammo At Friendly Turrets - No not there purpose

5. Increase Bullet Damage - yes

6. % Increase Of Headshots Occuring - just no

7. Spot And Marks Enemies Who Pass By For A Short Period Of Time - no

8. Periodically Shoots A Missle (radius attack does dmg of a grenade) - No this is not borderlands, why shouldn't it heal and revive as well?

9. Self Destruct ( When close to being blown up self destructs sending shrapnel in every direction) - Yes but how will hack boxes apply?

turrets shouldnt detect cloaked spies. the self destruct thing is interesting but it should only be triggered manually rather than when the health on it is low.

for the mines:
i think most of those ideas really arent good. especially the stun mine. the smart system really isnt that important to the game. disabling that would just mean that they have to do everything manually which is sometimes better. i think a spider mine would be better, but with minimal damage

The only reason you do not want them being able to detect operatives disguised is because that is the class you are going to play as Wraith lol. You know that will balance things out since they will have a perfect disguise this way operatives have to think smart about what they are doing and it doesnt make things so easy for them to blend in. I'm not saying it will spot them at its shooting range would have to be closer to the turret maybe little more than half way in its shooting distance for it to pick up on spies.


The missles I suggested for increase damage since supposedly turrets will only be for distraction atleast that way if an engineer decides to invest his skill points into buffing his turret it will be able to get some kills or damage a group of enemies to make it easier for his team to take out not like it will be firing them off every 5seconds or anything maybe doesnt even fire them unless there is more than one enemy was just a suggestion to increase the damage a turret does so that engineers actually get something out of building it and not just seeing it get destroyed without it killing anyone or doing anything to help the team.

What do you mean the hack boxes? The hacks dont involve destroying turrets they involves turning them you the enemy side correct? So the turret would never get close to being destroyed to enable the self destruct ability.


The headshot increased % is a decent idea I think because it wouldnt involve increasing damage of every bullet just the chances that every once and awhile a bullet may get a critical hit killing an enemy. Nothing to crazy like 25% was thinking along the lines of at most 5% chance or something.

No because it would be overpowered. One of the abilities the operative has is to hack enemy objectives deployables, if they can't even get near them well.

About hacks I hope both, but the devs have only said hack as to steal away.

I would prefer more damage than small chance of headshot same with the missile idea, not that it is a bad one.

I wonder if mines will be OHK, if so there really doesn't need to be secondary abilities. If they aren't maybe a DoT mine upgrade.

if snipers arent ohks i doubt mines will be either. it would get really annoying when you always run into mines that you are unable to see. i wish there were less powerful spider mines

Your forgetting that Turrets will only have a certain view of perception so all they would have to do is sneak up in the turrets blind spots to hack it.

Yea I was just suggesting some things to help buff the eningeer and his abilities if you invested that route that way turrets are not completely useless. I kind of like the idea of them having a group attack function that way when a group of enemies turns a corner the turret isnt completely out for the count they still need to tread cautiously.


I know I was thinking about the same thing after I posted that poll but then I thought well what if you could hold multiple types of mines since there will probably be a limit on how many you can lay down this way you can lay down a few mines and it adds a little depth to the game iono just throwing out ideas . You got any good ones?

Who said mines would be invisible?

hmm. i really dont know. i gues im just jumping to conclusions

Well its one thing to get shot its another to get blown up. Just saying.



Since when do turrets have blind spots? I know they are limited to range spatially.

Not sure about how many mines, but variety is the spice of life.

As to type of mines I will ponder for awhile and return once I am enlightened.


I heard that operatives could see landmines, which implied others can. Ironically only a engineer can defuse a mine, which makes a friendly operative/engineer team. Although how an engineer can disable a mine he can see... ah a wizard probably did it.

operatives will probably be able to mark them so that everyone on your team can see it

Perhaps the mines are highlighted for an operative, not that they are invisible.

It would also make sense for them to be OHK because unlike a sniper a mine can't follow a person or relocate itself on its own accord.

if it was a ohk, engineers would plant them in high traffic areas, and it would become extremely overpowered

That would be nice.



An excellent idea on the highlighted idea, invisible is a bit much anyway. Good reason for OHK, not that I am for it of course.

That was the intention of the mine, stopping the flow of traffic. If you keep going the same way and blow up every time chances are your dumb. You also have to think about the cool down time. It may not be like you could throw down ten mines in a second.

Exactly mines are supposed to cut of easy routes forcing people to go other ways or boom.

Cool down is important unlike scavanger claymore people.

i still dont think it should be a ohk. it should do a considerable amount of damage but not a ohk. at least not on a medium or a heavy

That might be a factor. It would be an easy tatic to have a heavy be a mine sweeper then get healed.

How would they be extremly OP? All you need to do is pay attention to where the hell your walking and you wont get blown up simple as that, I hate when people say items what bring some strategy to a game are OP because they dont want to pay attention to where they are walking and want to run around like they are rambo and nothing can touch them.

Exactly if your dumb enough to get blown up multiple times because you dont want to pay attention and look around for something laying on the ground thats your fault. Also I am sure they will have a limit on how many you can lay down and with the cool down on abilities will take a second before you can lay another one down so how exaclty would this be overpowered??? That sounds pretty balanced to me and if you step on it because you werent paying attention you deserve to die.

Exactly if your dumb enough to get blown up multiple times because you dont want to pay attention and look around for something laying on the ground thats your fault. Also I am sure they will have a limit on how many you can lay down and with the cool down on abilities will take a second before you can lay another one down so how exaclty would this be overpowered??? That sounds pretty balanced to me and if you step on it because you werent paying attention you deserve to die.

how can you pay attention to where your walking if you cant see them? if they were visible to everybody then they should be ohks

Again I dont know why you are assuming they will be invisible I havent seen anything stating such. But I get your point about if they are undetectable them being OHKS would be OP but I dont think they are going to have them were you cannot see them.

On the topic of mines being visible or not, here is how they worked in ET and QW

In ET, mines were actual landmines, as in buried underground. You could not see them unless a covert-op spotted them. Teammates saw little flags where mines were planted. If you stepped on a mine, you heard it trigger, and if you didn't step off it, an engineer could defuse use under your feet. Grenades would clear mines, regardless if they were spotted or not, and they would usually kill you if you triggered one. I think you had between 4-6 mines, I don't remember.

QW had mines you placed on surfaces, so they were visible. Grenades can still clear them, and they seemed a bit weaker. I think you had less mines to work with also.

In terms of Brink, seeing that they are on a man-made island, I don't see a lot of organic surfaces, like dirt and such to bury landmines, so they would probably be visible, unless they adopt a mechanic where even though they are visible, arming them makes them invisible.

to clear something up, landmines in W:ET could only be cleared with grenades if spotted