For what are engineers good? (Red alert)

[The Dank Lord [GER]]

For real, the only thing they do is damaging buildings when they get in them... They're completly useless...

Also I'm stuck at mission 5 of the allies...

[crabhead]

they can capture the building, if the buliding has low health

[The Dank Lord [GER]]

Jesus Christ really? ONLY when the building has low health? Who had that idea O.o

[Jozef]

If the building's health is red, to be clear.

[Ghost Robertson]

They also repair buildings, It might even be cheaper to use an engineer rather than just pressing the repair button.

[fnoigy]

Originally posted by Jozef:

If the building's health is red, to be clear.

It seems to be context-dependent, as sometimes it just has to be below half health.

[VaultBoy]

Originally posted by The Dank Lord GER:

Jesus Christ really? ONLY when the building has low health? Who had that idea O.o

It makes sense for the gameplay. With TD, you were able to snag any building with a single engineer. Snagging the construction yard and selling works well against the computer and can be brutal in multiplayer (if the game lasts long enough for it matter).

By making it so the building has to have red health, you have a bit more protection against the engineer steal.

[kane]

Originally posted by VaultBoy:

Originally posted by The Dank Lord GER:

Jesus Christ really? ONLY when the building has low health? Who had that idea O.o

It makes sense for the gameplay. With TD, you were able to snag any building with a single engineer. Snagging the construction yard and selling works well against the computer and can be brutal in multiplayer (if the game lasts long enough for it matter).

By making it so the building has to have red health, you have a bit more protection against the engineer steal.

Yeah in Covert Operations even the AI tries the sneaky engineer steal.

[☣Patient Zero☣]

You can use units to weaken structures before capture or each engineer damages the building so sending 4 engineers into a building would capture it.

[General Plastro]

Originally posted by VaultBoy:

Originally posted by The Dank Lord GER:

Jesus Christ really? ONLY when the building has low health? Who had that idea O.o

It makes sense for the gameplay. With TD, you were able to snag any building with a single engineer. Snagging the construction yard and selling works well against the computer and can be brutal in multiplayer (if the game lasts long enough for it matter).

By making it so the building has to have red health, you have a bit more protection against the engineer steal.

And then they scrapped that idea for future C&C games... heh... Engineer Rush will always be a thing in C&C :)

Originally posted by kane:

Originally posted by VaultBoy:

It makes sense for the gameplay. With TD, you were able to snag any building with a single engineer. Snagging the construction yard and selling works well against the computer and can be brutal in multiplayer (if the game lasts long enough for it matter).

By making it so the building has to have red health, you have a bit more protection against the engineer steal.

Yeah in Covert Operations even the AI tries the sneaky engineer steal.

They do that as well in some of the RA1 expansions... i am never prepared for those really >.<

[Mc Intire]

It is not context-dependant. The bar needs to be red (25% or less), otherwise the engineer will damage the building instead. If you send 3-4 engineers into a building, the first ones will rapidly damage the building while being consumed, depending on the buildings armor and total hp, until the building either explodes or the last engineer going in captures it.

If you are really unlucky, a building like the barracks that has low total HP and is at 30-26% of health, an engineer sent in might actually blow it up instead of putting it into the red area of the health bar.

A good method for a reliable capture is to bring the building to yellow health (50-45%) and send in two engineers. That will usually leave just enough health on the captured building so you can repair it or fix it with a third engineer.

Other notes about capturing:

A captured production building will give you access to enemy tech, however you also need to fullfill the tech requirements if you want to have full access to all the technology (i.e. having an enemy tech center as well)

If you capture an allied Construction Yard, you can produce a shipyard or an allied barracks, since they are unique buildings to their faction. If you want to build allied tanks, you need to also capture an allied Weapons Factory. This is due to how the game is coded. The same goes for the Helipad, as far as I know.

The AI has a habit of selling buildings that hit red health. So do not try to damage buildings into the red area with weapons fire. This also goes for campaign missions. The scripting should stop the AI from selling mission sensitive buildings, but better be safe than sorry.