Time for a devices update?

[Antrix.4512]

Hey Engies!

Let me start by saying that I'm head over heels for this class, even though my heart was initially stolen by the Thief. Some of you may have noticed that I take a rather active stance in defending this profession and eagerly await much-needed bugfixes. But... putting all those details aside, I began wondering today: isn't it time for the devs to show some love to the engineering devices without changing their core mechanics and gameplay? What do I mean?

From Turrets to Photon Swords: A Tech Gap?

So, let's paint a picture. On one hand, we have the Holosmiths, masters of photon forging, manipulating light and energy. Their tech is so advanced that I think Tony Stark must either be a distant descendant of Charr or at least have had his ancestors consult the engineering geniuses in the GW2 world. I mean, the class aesthetics scream "burn your foes with napalm and blow up cities while The Prodigy - Spitfire plays in the background". Then, on the stage come these spitball turrets made from junk and sticks that we've scavenged from peasants by demolishing their shanties. I mean, seriously?

How about we freshen things up cosmetically? Yes, yes, we all know too well that with ANet, "better" is always the enemy of "good". But still, my hopes are bolstered by the fact that in this case, improving the models will, firstly, be extremely difficult to mess up, and secondly, there seems to be nothing left to break.

It's been a long-standing request from players to at least make Jade Mech's color customizable, and I wholeheartedly support this idea.

So, what do you think, friends? Is it time to update the engineer’s devices, or should we say, "ANet, please leave the engineers alone"?

Peace, love, and gears! ❤️⚙️

[SleepyBat.9034]

The only thing  I care about is reworks and buffs to Inventions and Turrets.

[Noah Salazar.5430]

The only thing i care is a way to provid fury to a team as qheal scraper by inventions/alchemy or scrapper itself

Edited August 26, 2023 by Noah Salazar.5430

[jason.1083]

And the only thing I care about is to revert the dumb changes to Holo over the years that only promote the "Stationary damage dealer in a raid" gameplay. 

[draxynnic.3719]

5 hours ago, Antrix.4512 said:

So, let's paint a picture. On one hand, we have the Holosmiths, masters of photon forging, manipulating light and energy. Their tech is so advanced that I think Tony Stark must either be a distant descendant of Charr or at least have had his ancestors consult the engineering geniuses in the GW2 world.

Technically speaking, holosmiths are human technology (Elonian engineers used Zephyrite sun crystals to make it), although if ArenaNet hadn't been obsessed with linking PoF elite specialisations to Cantha, it would probably have been asura tech.

More broadly, though, there is a bit of a dissonance in that the original engineer was very grounded in relatively conventional (to us) charr technology, and then the elite specialisations go crazy with magitech. In particular, it feels a bit weird that holosmith is throwing around hardlight fields and mechanist mechs are blasting energy projectiles around, but engineer ranged attacks (including mechanists) are still mostly bullets, explosives, and other projectiles that aren't too far off real-world weapons. It would be interesting to have the option to make engineer builds that really go all in on the magitech that aren't a full melee holosmith.

[MrForz.1953]

I just want to keep my engineer memes man, the wrench is mightier than the sword. I signed up here to drop nails, spit napalm, build anything out of junk in less than 5 seconds, spray questionable fumes and get launched backwards by my own rocket boots, I have no care for asuran wizardry and other Marvel-tier, Taimi-Ex-Machina technology.

[Serafina.8357]

On 8/25/2023 at 4:22 PM, Antrix.4512 said:

Hey Engies!

Let me start by saying that I'm head over heels for this class, even though my heart was initially stolen by the Thief. Some of you may have noticed that I take a rather active stance in defending this profession and eagerly await much-needed bugfixes. But... putting all those details aside, I began wondering today: isn't it time for the devs to show some love to the engineering devices without changing their core mechanics and gameplay? What do I mean?

From Turrets to Photon Swords: A Tech Gap?

So, let's paint a picture. On one hand, we have the Holosmiths, masters of photon forging, manipulating light and energy. Their tech is so advanced that I think Tony Stark must either be a distant descendant of Charr or at least have had his ancestors consult the engineering geniuses in the GW2 world. I mean, the class aesthetics scream "burn your foes with napalm and blow up cities while The Prodigy - Spitfire plays in the background". Then, on the stage come these spitball turrets made from junk and sticks that we've scavenged from peasants by demolishing their shanties. I mean, seriously?

How about we freshen things up cosmetically? Yes, yes, we all know too well that with ANet, "better" is always the enemy of "good". But still, my hopes are bolstered by the fact that in this case, improving the models will, firstly, be extremely difficult to mess up, and secondly, there seems to be nothing left to break.

It's been a long-standing request from players to at least make Jade Mech's color customizable, and I wholeheartedly support this idea.

So, what do you think, friends? Is it time to update the engineer’s devices, or should we say, "ANet, please leave the engineers alone"?

Peace, love, and gears! ❤️⚙️

I think it'd be neat if your Elite Spec changed the aesthetic of what you use. Normal Engineers have well put together, if basic, turrets. Scrappers get cobbled together airship salvage. Holosmiths get hardlight. Mechanists get jade tech.

[Matoro.9708]

On 8/25/2023 at 2:22 PM, Antrix.4512 said:

Hey Engies!

Let me start by saying that I'm head over heels for this class, even though my heart was initially stolen by the Thief. Some of you may have noticed that I take a rather active stance in defending this profession and eagerly await much-needed bugfixes. But... putting all those details aside, I began wondering today: isn't it time for the devs to show some love to the engineering devices without changing their core mechanics and gameplay? What do I mean?

From Turrets to Photon Swords: A Tech Gap?

So, let's paint a picture. On one hand, we have the Holosmiths, masters of photon forging, manipulating light and energy. Their tech is so advanced that I think Tony Stark must either be a distant descendant of Charr or at least have had his ancestors consult the engineering geniuses in the GW2 world. I mean, the class aesthetics scream "burn your foes with napalm and blow up cities while The Prodigy - Spitfire plays in the background". Then, on the stage come these spitball turrets made from junk and sticks that we've scavenged from peasants by demolishing their shanties. I mean, seriously?

How about we freshen things up cosmetically? Yes, yes, we all know too well that with ANet, "better" is always the enemy of "good". But still, my hopes are bolstered by the fact that in this case, improving the models will, firstly, be extremely difficult to mess up, and secondly, there seems to be nothing left to break.

It's been a long-standing request from players to at least make Jade Mech's color customizable, and I wholeheartedly support this idea.

So, what do you think, friends? Is it time to update the engineer’s devices, or should we say, "ANet, please leave the engineers alone"?

Peace, love, and gears! ❤️⚙️

Mortar kit has been on a placeholder skin since launch - that's 11 years. Even though many better skins now exist like the stone summit cannon or aetherblade cannon.

Supply crate is just a bunch of turrets that already exist. The large gatling gun in drizzlewood would be an excellent replacement, but I've never heard a peep about it.

There's a much better rifle turret skin in the LWS3 caudecus manor mission. Curiously unused.

The random nature of elixir X leaves it as a very undesirable choice, on top of being just elites from two other classes. You're then left with supply crate which is similarly uninspired, or using the toilet mortar. Basically, core engi elites are on pure copium.

We could have a gadget elite to maybe help, but frankly the 3 that already exist need help.

They care so little about tool kit that they used the same animations for the AA on mace, and it's just as clunky, but has more damage and the confusion of 3 so it's okay.

And don't get me started on traits.

This game is somehow the most fixable unfixable mess.

[draxynnic.3719]

17 hours ago, MrForz.1953 said:

I just want to keep my engineer memes man, the wrench is mightier than the sword. I signed up here to drop nails, spit napalm, build anything out of junk in less than 5 seconds, spray questionable fumes and get launched backwards by my own rocket boots, I have no care for asuran wizardry and other Marvel-tier, Taimi-Ex-Machina technology.

Which is a cool theme, but I think it would be fair for future additions to drift away from that. Core engineer feels like all engineers are based on charr tech, which was fair enough in 2012 when we could imagine that asura magitech was being made by elementalists, mesmers, and necromancers, but they've made it abundantly clear that engineers are competent with magitech too since Season 1. PC engineers, though, pretty much only see it with holotech, mechs, and the odd lightning bolt from the sky.

[Antrix.4512]

I still hold the opinion that it would be a good idea to add a skin system for such skills. I understand that opinions vary from person to person, so I believe this implementation would be the most reasonable, and no one would be left out. However, the whole topic is nothing more than speculation and dreams, considering that Engineers don't even get critical bugs fixed. So, counting on things like skins is simply unrealistic.

[August.5934]

On 8/26/2023 at 12:22 AM, Antrix.4512 said:

Hey Engies!

Let me start by saying that I'm head over heels for this class, even though my heart was initially stolen by the Thief. Some of you may have noticed that I take a rather active stance in defending this profession and eagerly await much-needed bugfixes. But... putting all those details aside, I began wondering today: isn't it time for the devs to show some love to the engineering devices without changing their core mechanics and gameplay? What do I mean?

From Turrets to Photon Swords: A Tech Gap?

So, let's paint a picture. On one hand, we have the Holosmiths, masters of photon forging, manipulating light and energy. Their tech is so advanced that I think Tony Stark must either be a distant descendant of Charr or at least have had his ancestors consult the engineering geniuses in the GW2 world. I mean, the class aesthetics scream "burn your foes with napalm and blow up cities while The Prodigy - Spitfire plays in the background". Then, on the stage come these spitball turrets made from junk and sticks that we've scavenged from peasants by demolishing their shanties. I mean, seriously?

How about we freshen things up cosmetically? Yes, yes, we all know too well that with ANet, "better" is always the enemy of "good". But still, my hopes are bolstered by the fact that in this case, improving the models will, firstly, be extremely difficult to mess up, and secondly, there seems to be nothing left to break.

It's been a long-standing request from players to at least make Jade Mech's color customizable, and I wholeheartedly support this idea.

So, what do you think, friends? Is it time to update the engineer’s devices, or should we say, "ANet, please leave the engineers alone"?

Peace, love, and gears! ❤️⚙️

you forgot to mention scrapper, do you not love scrapper? 🥺

[Antrix.4512]

2 minutes ago, August.5934 said:

you forgot to mention scrapper, do you not love scrapper? 🥺

You know, for some unknown reason to me, I love all the Engineer specs, no beating around the bush. There are things that turn me off aesthetically, but there are enough of those even on my Thief. Overall, I really like the Engineer and I can't wait for Mech's toolbelt and Relics fix, so I can try playing this class as well. I've even crafted a couple of main ascended sets already ^_^

[August.5934]

5 minutes ago, Antrix.4512 said:

You know, for some unknown reason to me, I love all the Engineer specs, no beating around the bush. There are things that turn me off aesthetically, but there are enough of those even on my Thief. Overall, I really like the Engineer and I can't wait for Mech's toolbelt and Relics fix, so I can try playing this class as well. I've even crafted a couple of main ascended sets already ^_^

Here a rose for you  🌹

[draxynnic.3719]

I think part of the distinction is that scrapper is still a charr-themed elite specialisation, albeit one that's using parts scavenged from the technology of other races (particularly asura). Holosmith and mechanist are entirely based around non-charr magitech, however, so the contrast between the elite specialisation skills and what's available if for any reason they don't want a full bar of skills from their elite specialisation is more jarring.

[Antrix.4512]

10 minutes ago, August.5934 said:

Here a rose for you  🌹

Is everyone here so warm and kind-hearted? It feels like quite a contrast compared to other class sections 😊

3 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

I think part of the distinction is that scrapper is still a charr-themed elite specialisation, albeit one that's using parts scavenged from the technology of other races (particularly asura). Holosmith and mechanist are entirely based around non-charr magitech, however, so the contrast between the elite specialisation skills and what's available if for any reason they don't want a full bar of skills from their elite specialisation is more jarring.

Yes... your description accurately captures what I wanted to say.

[jason.1083]

4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

I think part of the distinction is that scrapper is still a charr-themed elite specialisation, albeit one that's using parts scavenged from the technology of other races (particularly asura). Holosmith and mechanist are entirely based around non-charr magitech, however, so the contrast between the elite specialisation skills and what's available if for any reason they don't want a full bar of skills from their elite specialisation is more jarring.

You mean this? 

Yeah esthetically it's superior but don't show that to any elitist hardcore player, their gonna get very mad.

Holosmith suffers the most from this disparity between core skills and elite ones Imo.

Edited August 30, 2023 by jason.1083

[draxynnic.3719]

13 hours ago, jason.1083 said:

You mean this? 

Yeah esthetically it's superior but don't show that to any elitist hardcore player, their gonna get very mad.

Holosmith suffers the most from this disparity between core skills and elite ones Imo.

Yup. Although that bar isn't that far off prot holo...

Mechanist can also have a strong disparity between rifle skills from the player while the mech is firing green energy bolts, though. Even with legendaries, I think Aurene's Persuasion is the only one that converts the grenade in the autoattack.

[jason.1083]

3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Yup. Although that bar isn't that far off prot holo...

Mechanist can also have a strong disparity between rifle skills from the player while the mech is firing green energy bolts, though. Even with legendaries, I think Aurene's Persuasion is the only one that converts the grenade in the autoattack.

I mean, yeah, at least Mechanists have less skills native to them that do that, since all their utilities have minimal animation.

The mech itself definitely has that issue, which is one of the reasons Jade mech skins would be nice. Personally I'd like to see  other visual updates like Throw Shield actually throwing the equipped shield rather than the generic skin, I know legendries change that but it feels like it should be the case for everything, it would help to eliminate those visual gaps.

Turrets changing also sounds neat, but I reckon that's a far too large rework for Anet to actually do it.