Engineering is boring for silly reasons

[MARTFONGER]

1) "Cool. I got them to another place that I can't see or experience" - The engineering section could easily have a viewing screen(s) for the exterior. It would make sense for something like that to be in engineering. There are a thousand easy ways to do this in Unity.

2) "Putting power brick on mouse and going to bed" - The mechanic which causes fire extinguisher and ice grenades to cool the reactor is clever, but unfortunately the net effect of these mechanics being so effective is that it locks the engineer in place right next to the reactor, holding a button, looking at the same glowing amorphous blob and listening to the same white noise for the majority of the game.

3) "Have to be in Engineering to do that so just stay back there" - Capsules. I have no problem feeding anyone capsules but forcing the engineer to be in engineering to do it, with no reason to ever go anywhere else since every profession control is in engineering, means that other players don't even want to see you basically ever. The away missions do still happen, but without exact timing they are over way before you realize the team is off the ship. You get treated like a second class citizen who has to stay in the back with the equipment.

4) "WONK. DONK. WONK. WONKDONK. WONK. THIS IS NOT A TWO PERSON JOB!!!!!!" - At a minimum at least lock the controls out entirely when a player is an engineer. Any time the minimally interesting events of rebooting the ship or extracting items happens, other players are all up your♥♥♥♥♥about doing it first because it is one of the more involved sequences that most don't get to see very often - - -
...
- - - BECAUSE THEY DON'T GET STUCK PLAYING BORING ENGINEER!

Please consider what several hours of gameplay in a tiny, minimally textured room is like. Especially consider that this is a VR title, and a person might actually have to live that hell. It's not fun and it needs an overhaul.

It could be really good fun...

[MARTFONGER]

Originally posted by JamesXCJuggalo:

i guess your not good at it it its quite fun i find it to be. hmmm and no its one of the most essential roles on the ship till its upgraded to a decent reactor then you get to be the boarder. well during tight fights with high temp calls for the fire extinguisher straight at the core to save coolant the those close moments

Drive-by commenting for the win. Thanks for the bump I guess.

[obvious]

I don't find the engineer role boring. Yes, you don't see everything. But that is part of the game. You still see more than you would while playing engineer in Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator. I am unhappy as it is that they added core temp display for pilots, so the need to communicate is reduced.
Engineering is only boring in late game when the reactor is too good. Then you just shoot capsules and don't need to tweak energy levels, cool the core or switch aux settings to fit the situation. But then you are part of the boarding crew, as James said. And you always go with your crew to planets. The captain should tell you when you can leave ship. Also: check the map. If the next system is named it is a planet and you should set atrium on and head for teleport. "leaving the engineer behind" is not a thing on most ships.
Yes, cooling the core is effective. But you can't do that all the time, since you have other things to do as well in order to be a good engineer. So, not boring. But rather stressful.
Also: The engineering station needs fixing in combat. Just as the weapons person cannot repair their weapon station from the bridge, you cannot repair engineering from the bridge. I think it makes sense to have jobs linked to stations and the crew spread out on the ship. A window in the core rooms sounds like a structural hazard. And I am glad they did not add that.
To translate the rather harsh words of James: There might be more to the engineer role than you see right now. Good engineers do way more than just to cool the core and their actions have a big impact on the ship as a whole. Playing as an engineer I am always way too busy for missing a better view: Got no time to look out the window. Try work with core safety off and then handling core stability to squeeze out some extra watts before using coolant. Your goals as engineer should be to be as frugal and resource saving as possible while providing the crew with as much as is needed.

[obliviondoll]

Originally posted by UNDERHILL:

The engineering section could easily have a viewing screen(s) for the exterior.

Originally posted by obvious:

A window in the core rooms sounds like a structural hazard.

There is a massive difference between "viewing screen" (as in computer monitor) and "window" (as in transparent portion of the outer hull). You can have the ability to view the outside of the ship (or key areas relevant to engineering) without compromising structural integrity.

[obvious]

Indeed. But why? Does a modern plane carrier ship have such screens in the engineering part of the ship? No. Because not everybody needs to know everything and because it is a distraction. Physics-wise they WOULD have to make that a window, i think. Theorizing about screens is all fine, but have you looked at the game engine and how it does things? There is no full color screen that's like a window. Or a dynamic one that would show ship positions etc in a meaningful way. Just the sensor dish does that. But why should the engineer have a second sensor dish installed for them? Makes no sense. Every other solution most likely would require extensive programming efforts to work (remember alls the bugs of the 2D handheld scanner) or to even be implemented in the first place. Not likely to happen.

The information deficite between crew members is a design choice. In this game and in similar coop games. So that people have to communicate. Aside of that actual real crews also work like that. I like this aspect of the game. Like I said, I'd even like the pilot to be uninformed about the core temperature so that the engineer has to tell them when to be careful.
You don't have to like that design choice. If you don't, then I recommend you don't play Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator. There it is even worse.
But complaining about this like OP did and calling the reasons "silly" is not fair to the game. The choice was made deliberately and that it is an unpleasant experience for OP is not a fault of the game but of how they and their crews play the game. With too little communication.

[MARTFONGER]

Originally posted by obvious:

Indeed. But why? Does a modern plane carrier ship have such screens in the engineering part of the ship? No. Because not everybody needs to know everything and because it is a distraction. Physics-wise they WOULD have to make that a window, i think. Theorizing about screens is all fine, but have you looked at the game engine and how it does things? There is no full color screen that's like a window. Or a dynamic one that would show ship positions etc in a meaningful way. Just the sensor dish does that. But why should the engineer have a second sensor dish installed for them? Makes no sense. Every other solution most likely would require extensive programming efforts to work (remember alls the bugs of the 2D handheld scanner) or to even be implemented in the first place. Not likely to happen.

The information deficite between crew members is a design choice. In this game and in similar coop games. So that people have to communicate. Aside of that actual real crews also work like that. I like this aspect of the game. Like I said, I'd even like the pilot to be uninformed about the core temperature so that the engineer has to tell them when to be careful.
You don't have to like that design choice. If you don't, then I recommend you don't play Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator. There it is even worse.
But complaining about this like OP did and calling the reasons "silly" is not fair to the game. The choice was made deliberately and that it is an unpleasant experience for OP is not a fault of the game but of how they and their crews play the game. With too little communication.

Obviously they had something particular in mind for the gameplay. Putting one of the most important classes in a tiny box is a terrible way to promote team play.

Exactly how many games have you guys joined with 3 people in them where engineer was taken? Practically nobody wants to choose it.

[King]

personally i love playing engineer and I dont really have issues being stuck without seeing whats happening. If i am watching whats happening then im not doing my job.

[obvious]

I never noticed a problem with engineer place being vacant. Many people even fight about that position. On the Enterprise the engineer also was in engineering. Scotty was not on the bridge. Team play on the ship does not work via "standing next to each other" (unless you are on planet) but via communication. And for that it does not matter where you are or how tiny your box is. Weapons also is alone in a tiny box on some ships.
If you don't like playing engineer, that is fine, Underhill. People like to play different classes. Try the others and see which you like better. All classes are important and make a big difference if played well.
As you can see, King here is a text book specimen of a space ship engineer :D If that is not how you think and feel, all good. We are all different. Let's combine our strength and save the galaxy :)

[MARTFONGER]

Originally posted by obvious:

I never noticed a problem with engineer place being vacant. Many people even fight about that position. On the Enterprise the engineer also was in engineering. Scotty was not on the bridge. Team play on the ship does not work via "standing next to each other" (unless you are on planet) but via communication. And for that it does not matter where you are or how tiny your box is. Weapons also is alone in a tiny box on some ships.
If you don't like playing engineer, that is fine, Underhill. People like to play different classes. Try the others and see which you like better. All classes are important and make a big difference if played well.
As you can see, King here is a text book specimen of a space ship engineer :D If that is not how you think and feel, all good. We are all different. Let's combine our strength and save the galaxy :)

The games which do not separate players on teams are innumerable.

The games which do can be counted on one hand.

[obvious]

And that is why I play this game here. And not the countless others. If you prefer generic gameplay, then there are "innummerable" generic games to play instead of Pulsar. If you prefer non-generic, there is this handful of indie games like Pulsar, Artemis Bridge Simulator, We need to go Deeper, Blackwake and maybe a few more. Can't you let us have those few? Why do you insist on them conforming to generic gameplay rules instead of just playing one of the mainstream games that already follow that schematic?

[MARTFONGER]

Originally posted by obvious:

And that is why I play this game here. And not the countless others. If you prefer generic gameplay, then there are "innummerable" generic games to play instead of Pulsar. If you prefer non-generic, there is this handful of indie games like Pulsar, Artemis Bridge Simulator, We need to go Deeper, Blackwake and maybe a few more. Can't you let us have those few? Why do you insist on them conforming to generic gameplay rules instead of just playing one of the mainstream games that already follow that schematic?

I remember seeing Artemis a long while back, it looks fun but I wish it were online networked.

Thanks for mentioning the other games, i hadn't heard of them.

I just think that a few things would make engineer more fun. This game doesn't NEED to have engineer lack a view of outside.

[King]

this game doesn't NEED to have engineer have a view outside either. could they revamp engineering to make it more interactive? Yes. Does that involve being able to see outside? No. Seeing outside doesn't add anything to engineering, if you want to see outside don't be the engineer, you have several other roles to take that can see outside and are more enjoyable. Not every role is for every person. I personally hate being scientist because I find it boring as hell.

[VelxraTV]

Engineering is more of the multitask and system management part of the game. I guess there are so many things to do because yeah its doing everything in a box. I enjoy all roles but I most often play engineer and captain because they are the most useful roles on the ship. If I'm commanding a ship I typically do it from engineering to help cool the core on lower level ships. But soon as the crew has good level 3 gear and a good reactor the cooling mini game becomes a little boring for people because it is to easy.

I like engineering and it is the most important role on the ship. But I have to agree that it would be nice to have some screens to see whats going on.

As for extracting parts from other ships I think this feature should only work for the engineer because it is their skill set for the feature. If the extraction percentage success only applied to the engineer then that would encourage teams to use him for the process.

[obliviondoll]

Originally posted by Geronimo:

As for extracting parts from other ships I think this feature should only work for the engineer because it is their skill set for the feature. If the extraction percentage success only applied to the engineer then that would encourage teams to use him for the process.

Only work for Engineer? I disagree.
Only apply the success chance to Engineer? I disagree.
Have a base % chance with an upgradeable skill modifier for the Engineer that starts at a slight buff from the baseline value? Yes.

[Agent Orange]

Originally posted by King:

personally i love playing engineer and I dont really have issues being stuck without seeing whats happening. If i am watching whats happening then im not doing my job.

Exactly this, Scotty.

[H1tSc4n]

Lol i never ever play engineer. I find it extremely boring after a short time.

I just wish they added more gimmicks and minigames to some of the crew jobs.

The most fun roles imho are Pilot, weapons (usually my role), and captain.

I do agree with the Op, having played engineer in the past, once you get a new reactor it becomes very boring.

I believe they should add some minigames to speed up tasks?

For example increase cooling efficiency - you get a little very simple minigame

Or

Momentarily increase reactor output - you get another very simple minigame.