There are four basic ways to tell whether someone is a spy. First is the name. If the display feeds you back your name, obviously they’re a spy. But often it’ll feed you back a teammate’s name, and it does take a second for the display to pop up, so get in the habit of doing “blast and fix” almost automatically. One good shotgun blast will usually make a spy alter their actions enough to clue you in even if it misses, and it won't hurt your teammates, only their armor, which you can fix with your wrench. However, If you’re playing in a clan or just have a good memory, the sooner you know who is playing which class, the better chance you have of catching a spy. Second is whether or not they bleed when you shoot them, which is about as basic a detection method as you can get, although newbies all too often don’t understand the concept “No blood = no spy”. =) Third is the gun type they’re carrying; it will always be the gun that class respawns with, which can sometimes tip you off. A good engy will never walk around with the railgun, so blast them if you see someone with it. Medics often use the supernailgun, but if you see them with it out in your base that should serve as a small warning. In any case, you can test it by calling medic, and if they run over to you without immediately switching to the medkit, they’re probably a spy. Everybody else is harder to tell, since their respawn weapon is often the one most used. However, if you see a player with a non-standard weapon, you can be absolutely sure that they’re not a spy. If an engy comes over to your sentry with a wrench or shotgun, they’re probably reloading it for you and most definitely not a spy trying to destroy it. The fourth and most subtle giveaway, yet most useful, is direction. The problem spies have is that they will almost always be headed in the opposite direction than a real player on that team would be headed. Good players pick up on this subtlety, and good spies learn to overcome it, so be on your guard. Blast anyone who looks like they’re headed in the wrong direction, which is usually towards your sentry or the key/flag/whatever, or is generally acting a little suspicious. If they’re wounded or resupplying or something, no harm done. If they’re a spy, gib them immediately! Be wary of this tactic, though; great spies are VERY convincing players and can really wreak havoc given the slightest chance, as they know just how to act to convince you and know just when is the right time to strike, so try to cultivate a slight case of paranoia when playing with spies on the enemy team. Trust me, that part is all too easy! ;)

Also please note that while friendly fire is on, your tip-offs are reduced to gun held and direction of movement unless you want to pound on everyone with the wrench to check. Obviously blasting people with the shotgun is no longer a viable option. This also means spies have a slightly better advantage then they would normally, so it’s important to have set territories and good team communication to spot them in time.

-= Offensive Sentry =-

There is one important tactic I haven’t talked about at all yet, and that is the OFFENSIVE sentry. If you have the enemy on the ropes, your base defenses are secure, and can get into a good position unimpeded, go ahead and set up a sentry to pin them in their base! This tactic is most useful when you have a couple other engineers to help out, as they can get your sentry up to level 3 just with the metal they carry with them, can defend you while you set up, and are able to leave the minimal base defense necessary to their sentries. If going solo, you may need to set up a dispenser to resupply you, which tends to be pretty slow to reload. I suggest you set it up in a dark, out of the way corner and let it build up a little while you go off and create havoc. Then come back after a few runs, build your sentry, and quickly resupply so you can upgrade it as soon as possible. It’s not too hard to get a level 3 sentry up this way unless the defense is fairly organized or there are simply a lot of them, and if you have at least one other engineer helping you it begins to get really ugly for the other team! However, don’t expect your sentry to have a long lifespan, as the whole team will be concentrating on bringing it down. And remember to not detonate your dispenser until it has supplied you and your teammates with everything they need, since your resupply rooms are quite far away. In this case the dispenser isn’t nearly as useful as a bomb as it is for it’s intended purpose, resupplying ammo and armor; just remember to let your teammates know where you stashed your dispenser so they can take advantage of it. If you scoff at the idea of an offensive engineer, and some do, just think of how annoyed you may have been on the Well when an enemy engy set up camp in your attic and built a sentry overlooking your lobby; you probably had to take a good minute or two just to deal with that single threat. Imagine how well that could work for you when combined with an organized offense on the part of your teammates, especially if you have a pair or trio of engy’s whose sole purpose is to keep your sentry alive as long as possible by harassing the enemy team. Just remember not to leave your base undefended!

-= Offensive Tactics =-

Which brings me to my last category of tactics, the offensive engineer. Believe me, engys can be very offensive, in all meanings of the word. In some ways they can be more lethal than the worst MIRV spammers on the net, because they have the ability to stop clustered enemy offenses COLD with a suicide EMP run. I’ve annoyed many, many players with this tactic, including most of my clanmates. =) It’s a powerful defense, because you can often trade taking out several powerful enemies for a relatively weak defender, namely you, and on top of that you have a much shorter distance to cover to get to where you were than they do. On offense, an engy escort with a death wish is a powerful ally, as there’s often very little the other team can do to keep from being blown away, leaving a gaping hole in the defense, albeit only temporarily. You can also take advantage of the fact that EMPs can penetrate walls, detonate sentry guns, and blow up pipebomb traps, so you can take out some enemy defenses this way that would otherwise slow down your team significantly. Finally, although you have weak health and armor, you are relatively fast, so if you need someone to carry the flag an engy is an acceptable class to do it with, although certainly not the first choice.

-= Miscellaneous Defensive Tactics =-

USE LINES OF DEFENSE! This is a vital tactic for defending your base, so much so that I’m including it in this specific class guide despite the fact that it’s a very general tactic. If you are your base’s only defense, the opponents you’ll be facing will be unhurt and fully armed a large amount of the time. This means you’ll often be overwhelmed if the enemy offense is anything but the lightest trickle. Instead, have teammates take up positions throughout the base (not just concentrated by the flag) so that enemies must get past several different teammates in order to get to the flag. If you cluster together by the flag a single MIRV can potentially take you all out, but if you are scattered throughout the base and an enemy must engage each of you separately, only the most coordinated and powerful attacks will get through to the flag area. This also allows your teammates to warn each other of intruders so that there are fewer surprises. In fact, if you use lines of defense often your opponents will forget about your sentry since they’ll be concentrating on your teammates and won’t have encountered your sentry in awhile, and end up getting riddled with chaingun shells just when they think they’ve broken through. Often you can provide 2 or 3 lines of defense yourself: In rock2 I’ll sit out in the courtyard to engage enemies early, my sentry will be in the Warden’s side entry hallway, and my dispenser will be building up rockets in the Warden’s office, giving me three lines of defense alone.

To this end, when defending you’re in the flag room and not much is happening where you are, use every bit of information you can get your hands on to get a better idea of what’s going on. Watch the death messages so that you know what classes to expect, and when to expect them. If you have dedicated defenders in certain positions, knowing when they kill opponents and when they’ve died can provide valuable clues as to what to expect. Obviously, if you see a knife display there’s a spy in the house, for example. In fact, if you’re not doing anything you might as well try to help coordinate your team’s efforts as much as possible; Ask where dropped flags are, what the status of that enemy sentry is, etc. A good, thorough set of macros or a comm script is ideal in this situation. Also keep your ears open: If your team’s defenses is set up so that the enemy must penetrate several lines, they’ll be coming at you at a full run in an attempt to get in and out as quickly as possible before your teammates can return. This means that you will often be able to hear opponents coming and will be able to greet them appropriately. Listen for sounds like the basement elevator in 2fort to know whether to expect a friend or an enemy. Use all the information available to you.

Finally, when things are a little too hot to handle near the flag you will often have to call in someone else to help. Ideally you’ll have someone there full time to help you guard later on in the game, but this is actually somewhat rare, especially on public servers. If you need it, however, don’t hesitate to call for help! When you do get help, however, make their life easier: Provide them with armor and ammo through discards and patchups, or a dispenser if you don’t have one already up in a strategic location. (although I recommend you do) When enemies come in, make sure that your fire doesn’t hurt them as well, so be careful how you aim and where you throw your grenades.

-= Training Map =-

At this time I should point out that there is a map created specifically for engineers, with engineers as the ONLY class choice, available at radium. (http:/www.planetfortress.com/radium) Just as snipers have “sniprwar,” engys have “engoff,” or engineer face-off. I’ve never seen it played on a server before (and for good reason!) but it would make an acceptable training level. I don’t recommend you go right out and download it, just be aware that it’s there, especially if you are new to the class and could use some training, which I would be glad to provide should you manage to catch me playing online at the right time. In this case, I would request that you have a specific area you wish to work on rather than a general request for help. A great many other TPFers are knowledgeable about the engineer class and will provide assistance if requested, but I recommend you attempt to fully digest the information in this guide and practice on your own before asking for help from anyone.

-= Binds =-

This is getting pretty long even by MY standards, so I’ll finish up with a couple binds and a script I’ve found useful, as well as the quick review I promised at the beginning. The first two detonate your dispenser and sentry, respectively:

 

bind <key> “detdispenser” (Definitely have this bound!)

bind <key> “detsentry” (Player preference, use as described above, be careful you can’t accidentally hit it)

 

And this little script automates the building/upgrading process so you don’t have do deal with the menus nearly as much; use it to set up, upgrade, repair and reload your sentry, all with one key:

 

bind ' tryall

alias tryall "trymake; wait; tryup; wait; tryfix; wait; tryam; wait"

alias trymake "special; menuselect 2"

alias tryup "slot1; wait; wait; wait; wait; +attack; wait; -attack; wait; menuselect 2"

alias tryfix "slot1; wait; wait; wait; wait; +attack; wait; -attack; wait; menuselect 3"

alias tryam "slot1; wait; wait; wait; wait; +attack; wait; -attack; wait; menuselect 1; wait; wait; +attack; wait; -attack; wait; wait; menuselect 1" //(These last three lines should all be on the same line, but if you cut and paste it should probably work fine)

Note: If you require any help regarding binds or aliases please post your questions at Our Forums.

-= Review =-

And here’s the quick review for those with no patience. =)

*Always prime your EMPs and handgrenades well before throwing them, and don’t

underestimate the damage a successful kamikaze run can do!

*When in a fight with a heavier class remember that you only have 5 more health than a

scout but are significantly slower. Use your weapons, dispenser, and sentry wisely

to compensate for this disadvantage.

*In most situations you want to be one of the last lines of defense, due to your relative

weakness in one-on-one combat.

*When fighting an engy, be wary of kamikaze EMP runs and try to either stay out of their

grenade range or get close and kill them quickly before they can throw one at you.

*Use kamikaze EMP runs if there are several enemies clustered together and you can

afford to die, if you’re about to die anyway, if the enemy is simply too close to the flag or your sentry, or if they’re moving so erratically that this is the only way to kill them.

*When doing a kamikaze run, discard first so you don’t add your explosives to your

damage.

*Although you’re expendable, don’t kill yourself if it leaves your base undefended.

*Use EMPs on heavy classes and handgrenades on light ones.

*EMPs penetrate walls, so use their surprise ability whenever possible.

*EMPs can detonate pipebomb traps, letting you or a teammate grab the

flag/key/whatever. *Even if you trade one-for-one on a kamikaze EMP run, you’re still slightly ahead as

long as you have other people on defense to handle the other intruders.

*When entering a set area an engy is defending, warn them you’re coming and shoot the

wall to show you’re not a spy upon entering.

*<Arguable> Grab those grenade packs before anybody else can swipe them! (See above

for exceptions)

*Use the shotty, never the railgun, unless you’re sniping an enemy sentry.

*Always patch up your teammate’s armor unless you need the metal for something else,

and ALWAYS after you shoot them!

*Your discards contain every kind of ammo there is but costs you quite a bit in metal.

*Discard to get rid of your rockets in case you’re caught in your own EMP blast.

*Don’t pick up extra packs for this reason, and drop packs in places that enemies will pick them up to give you warning and to increase the amount of explosives they’re carrying.

*Use your dispenser as a roadblock, a bomb, a warning system, or a resupply station,

preferably as many of these at once as possible.

*Keep a key bound to detdispenser.

*Stock your dispenser with rockets when action is slow by hitting it with the wrench and

pressing one.

*To abort building, press the special key a second time.

*Location is vital for a sentry, try to make it difficult to kill with long range weapons or

grenades, preferably by putting it up high.

*Later on in the fight you will need a heavier class to help you defend. Help them help

you.

*Don’t bother chasing after a flag-carrying enemy most of the time. (Use your best judgment.)

*If destroyed, get your sentry back up to full as soon as possible!

*Vary your sentry locations often!

*It is possible to build a sentry floating in midair if done properly, but it’s not usually worthwhile.

*Maintain other people’s guns and dispensers as well as your own.

*Learn to ID spies quickly, and dispose of them ASAP!

*If friendly fire is on, set up a good team communication system and have a set territory to avoid needlessly killing teammates.

*Use an offensive sentry if your team has the offensive advantage, but try to take other engys with you if possible and make sure you’re not leaving your base undefended!

*Engineers aren’t just for defense, they can be good on offense as well!

*Always use lines of defense unless the enemy offense is EXTREMELY light!

*When sitting alone and bored in the flag room, use all the information you can get to

find out what’s happening out in the rest of the map. Find out who’s on your team by name, pay attention to death messages, and listen for approaching enemies.

OK, that's it, boys and girls! Just remember to keep your hard-hat on, your cigar lit, and your eyes open for spies, and if you see me in a game don’t be afraid to call me over for a sentry upgrade or a little armor patch-up! =)

Written By: SA[Paladyne]TPF
Edited By: SA[Turbo_X]

Formatted By: [STF]Killjoy[NeT]