The Field Engineer Commandments

[Surrealistik]

The m37 accepts underbarrel flamers.

Fucking seriously?

This is a revelation.

Also that wiki needs some serious updating.

[apophis775]

Are you going to end up getting upset and nuking this guide later as well?

[Surrealistik]

Added Commandment 5, expanded Commandment 4:

#5: Thou Shalt Do Thy Fucking Job

[Surrealistik]

Added #6: Thou Shalt Be Efficient At Thy Job

Will gradually expand this commandment's content over time.

[solidfury7]

>MG nest is bad

Stopped reading such heresy there and then.

[Tylaaaaar]

I am the most robust engineer alive

also Mg nest is OP.

[Surrealistik]

It's terrible; absolute garbagio compared to the Sentry, and anyone who believes otherwise clearly doesn't know better.

Let me count the ways, largely related to the fact that it has autonomous firing:

https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/ColonialMarin ... e_43254735

The fact is that the AI is a massive advantage that the M56's greater ammo capacity and slightly better penetration don't nearly compensate for, especially when the Sentry has a manual fire mode anyways (want suppressive fire? resin clear? It has an app for that). Beyond that, I have literally never played a round where I've gone through both the initial ammo box _and_ the spare.

Killing a bad, probably injured T3 with a knife doesn't suddenly make these incontrovertible facts about the M56's relative shittiness go away; it's just awful.

[Chaznoodles]

MG nest is garbage compared to the sentry.

If you want to play nest gunner, take a sentry and use manual. More damage, better ammo conservation, IFF, keeps firing if you get knocked down.

[Tylaaaaar]

It's terrible; absolute garbagio compared to the Sentry, and anyone who believes otherwise clearly doesn't know better.

Let me count the ways, largely related to the fact that it has autonomous firing:

https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/ColonialMarin ... e_43254735

The fact is that the AI is a massive advantage that the M56's greater ammo capacity and slightly better penetration don't nearly compensate for, especially when the Sentry has a manual fire mode anyways (want suppressive fire? resin clear? It has an app for that). Beyond that, I have literally never played a round where I've gone through both the initial ammo box _and_ the spare.

Killing a bad, probably injured T3 with a knife doesn't suddenly make these incontrovertible facts about the M56's relative shittiness go away; it's just awful.

I mean, if the turret was to have longer range like the one on the dropship that would be fucking amazing.
The AI may have A mass boost due to it being.. well AI.
However with the machine gun nest it doesn't need power cells. And can be really fucking robust due to it allowing you to fire it manually so if your in a tight section and you /know/ that there is xenos on the other end you can cause some serious damage.

[Surrealistik]

I mean, if the turret was to have longer range like the one on the dropship that would be fucking amazing.
The AI may have A mass boost due to it being.. well AI.
However with the machine gun nest it doesn't need power cells. And can be really fucking robust due to it allowing you to fire it manually so if your in a tight section and you /know/ that there is xenos on the other end you can cause some serious damage.

Power cells cease to be a problem when you install a high cap cell (which you always should at a minimum) which is usually sufficient for a round, nevermind the supercap which will last about forever.

Again, you can fire the sentry manually, and it won't FF marines, so you can actually output _more_ fire power down a tight corridor.

[Tylaaaaar]

Power cells cease to be a problem when you install a high cap cell (which you always should at a minimum) which is usually sufficient for a round, nevermind the supercap which will last about forever.

Again, you can fire the sentry manually, and it won't FF marines, so you can actually output _more_ fire power down a tight corridor.

I mean the MG gun does have waaaay more ammo than the sentry, in some cases you can really lock down a position with the MG
The sentry is pretty fucking robust im not gonna lie, its got IFF, T1S and T2s wont come anywhere near it (same with the MG apart from IFF)


With some tweaks I reckon the MG could become even better, perhaps being able to put specialized attachments on it, longer sight on it etc.
Annnd one final point, Sentry is realy fucking good at defending a position and that MG is quite good for assaulting the enemy, setting it up in a key spot can cause fucking chaos against the Hive.

Thats enough rambling from me back to the endless void of time and space continuance i go!

[Surrealistik]

I mean the MG gun does have waaaay more ammo than the sentry, in some cases you can really lock down a position with the MG
The sentry is pretty fucking robust im not gonna lie, its got IFF, T1S and T2s wont come anywhere near it (same with the MG apart from IFF)


With some tweaks I reckon the MG could become even better, perhaps being able to put specialized attachments on it, longer sight on it etc.
Annnd one final point, Sentry is realy fucking good at defending a position and that MG is quite good for assaulting the enemy, setting it up in a key spot can cause fucking chaos against the Hive.

Thats enough rambling from me back to the endless void of time and space continuance i go!

Like I said, most of the time the sentry won't go through the first clip, and the rest of the time it absolutely won't go through the second, and while the M56 can be useful in a push, the sentry is even better.

The one material advantage the M56 has over the sentry appears to be somewhat better armor penetration, but I can't confirm the magnitude; it seems fairly minor though.

[Tylaaaaar]

It does have the 'special' tungsten rounds unsure how much more/less damage it has compared to the sentry, also really does depend on the user to make the MG nest effective. (baldie + machine gun = deltards dead)

[Karmac]

If it relies entirely on marine competence it isn't worthwhile

The sentry maintains its own level of compat capability while allowing for its parameters to be modified, which makes it 100x more applicable to any circumstance, i.e. it's better in any scenario where you don't want marines shooting each other in the back with a god damn machine gun.

[Surrealistik]

Added perhaps the most valuable tip of all:

#21: Don't try and be a hero, taking risks to save others; unless you're reasonably certain you can save them without getting captured/killed yourself, fire at their abductors, but don't chase or engage; let them go. If the person you're trying to save gets away, great. As long as you have a sentry to tend to, you're almost surely more valuable. If you get captured, not only will your team be down a technical field expert, but the aliens will have yet another larva. Making this mistake is my #1 leading cause of preventable deaths and captures due to xenu. Depending on your situation, this might also get your sentry killed; just don't do it.

[Lumdor]

Appreciate this guide. Don't play combat engineer, but if I decide to one day I'll know that this guide is here to lead me along.

[Gandalf]

Would be real neat if you included a section for how to use the smartgun in the 10% of circumstances its worth having.

[Surrealistik]

Would be real neat if you included a section for how to use the smartgun in the 10% of circumstances its worth having.

Never; I will never even begin to encourage anyone to use that piece of shit, especially since it lost its niche vs zombos.

[Gandalf]

Never; I will never even begin to encourage anyone to use that piece of shit, especially since it lost its niche vs zombos.

Then I suppose I shall have to keep buying it and lugging it around and never getting a chance to actually use it.

[Surrealistik]

Cleaned up Commandment #6 and #4 a bit; going to subdivide/reallocate the #6 tip pool gradually.

[Surrealistik]

Added review/mention of the Masterkey underslung.

[spookydonut]

You can hack the youtool vendor next to the dropship module printer to get a high capacity industrial welder but it wont fit in a tool belt, only backpack or tools pouch.

Also if you hack the medic's prep vendor it will unlock an O- bloodbag for them.

[Surrealistik]

You can hack the youtool vendor next to the dropship module printer to get a high capacity industrial welder but it wont fit in a tool belt, only backpack or tools pouch.

Also if you hack the medic's prep vendor it will unlock an O- bloodbag for them.

I'm not a fan of the high cap industrial since I always seem to have better things to put into my pack, and because I use a welder pack. Could be decent to dole out to medics and PFCs with robo limbs though, along with eye protection. That said if you're not using a welder pack, you will almost certainly want one as an engineer.


Also added a special caution against ever using the M39 SMG since it's a worthless piece of shit, a note on barricade facings and an example of how not to build/orient them.

[Surrealistik]

Added Commandment #5: Thou Shalt Prepare Thy Infrastructure

Other commandments after shifted down.

[immaspaceninja]

Since you mentioned bolting doors open, in my opinion, its also a good idea to disable the environment in the APC of an area you control, which powers down the doors. That way you can just pry them with your crowbar to keep them open, saving you some time, and giving an ability to close and weld them shut very fast, if needed.