Bone White's Engineering for Dummies

An in-depth guide to the Engineering station. It is assumed you have learned the information present in the manual.

Overview

Engineering is the station I believe requires the most practice and experience in order to bring about the most benefits. If I could have one exceptional crewmember in my ship, I'd have them on Engineering. Why? Because Engineering affects every part of the ship. Without anyone on engineering, your ship is average. It shoots at the same speed, turns at the same speed, reloads at the same speed, has the same shields. Engineering is what allows Helm to out-maneuver enemy ships, allows Weapons to get that critical damage on a tougher ship, gives Science that all important scan time when you're engaging a new group, and keeps the ship alive much longer than a non-engineered ship with much stronger shields.

Your Engineer is the heart of your ship, forever with their head down at their console, blindly trusting their crewmates and straining every fibre of the ship in holding it together whilst keeping up with their demands.

This guide is built from my own experiences playing this station, in the hopes that others may improve their gameplay, communication and enjoyment!

Basics & General Advice

These tips and tricks will not only improve your general understanding of how Engineering works, but also provide information which will improve your ability as ship's Engineer.

• Stored configurations are saved on your machine between games. Play a practice game to get your setup ready for instant action upon playing seriously.
  
• Each pip of coolant can cool an extra 20% of power above 100% to a maximum of 8 pips (260%)
  
• Shield boosting only heals them if they are not raised. The hardening however still applies.
  
• Don't be afraid to overload a system if the situation demands it. This allows you to cripple less critical modules e.g. impulse, primary beam, torpedo, but increasing your survival rate. Overloading shields is highly recommended. If they go down, they will be damaged anyway, so you may as well squeeze that last salvo of protection out of them before they do drop.
  
• It is more efficient to power a module at 100% than at any other setting. The further you move from this setting, the more inefficient the use of Energy. If you don't need to power something fast, then doing it at 100% is much better for your energy reserves. A good captain will be aware of this, and define words such as "full power to xx" meaning 200% and "all power to xx" meaning 300%. Saving Energy means less docks, or more homing torpedos.
  
• DAMCON teams will repair the closest damaged module. If you are expecting damage from the front, get two or three of your teams at the front of the ship before the fight starts. A good captain will let you know of this before he jumps you into combat.
  
• DAMCON teams can get injured during combat or whilst repairing overheating modules. To replenish them, dock at a station. Inform your Captain of any lost DAMCON teams when out of combat.
  
• The ships's generator produces enough Energy to maintain all modules with shields down, without losing or gaining energy.
  
• With all modules disabled, the ship's generator can restore roughly 1 Energy per second.
  
• If the ship finds itself out of Energy and Homing Torpedos to convert, keep power to Impulse and drop all systems to 1% (so they are functional but operating on minimal Energy. Remind the captain/weapons/helm to use the mainscreen controls to look around the ship. You can occasionally spot floating energy batteries floating in space (Helm may need to dive or rise to fly into them). They will give your ship 1000 Energy, allowing you to resume normal operation. They look like a blue cylinder.
  
• Inform your captain of damage to your ship, especially when an entire system is offline.
  
  Finally, the most important rule of them all:
  
  
• The Captain's orders are absoloute.

Primary Beam

• Increasing Power: Reduces cooldown between beam blasts. Cooldown reduction is applied when the beam fires, meaning a gaming Engineer can pulse between 100% and 300% in time with blasts to minimise heat and maximise Energy efficiency, assuming they can see the ship at the same time (dual screen with main screen).
  
• Disabling Power: Beam weapons cannot fire.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x3/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: <=100%.
  
• Recommended setting in combat: <=100% if out of beam range, 100-300% if in beam range.
  
• Notes: Beam weapons are underestimated by most new players. They are much stronger than similar beam types on enemy ships on default settings. If you are in beam weapon range then beam weapons should be boosted.

Torpedo

• Increasing Power: Reduces reload speed of Torpedos.
  
• Disabling Power: Torpedos cannot be reloaded, but they can still be launched.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x1/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: <=100%.
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 100-300% if out of beam range, 100-300% if in beam range.
  
• Notes: If captain or weapons says they're loading or launching torpedos, give it any spare energy you can to help them reload faster, but don't move any energy from stations you deem better. The captain's direct orders always supercede my guides. If he tells you "energy to torpedos" just do it.

Sensors

• Increasing Power: Increases scanning speed of Science's scanners.
  
• Disabling Power: Science officer cannot scan, LRS map is disabled.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x1/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: 100-300%.
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 1% if no enemies to scan, 100% if enemies to scan.
  
• Notes: As soon as a a game starts, boost sensors to 250% with maximum coolant. The science officer's first job is to scan down all unidentified contacts, and then re-scan groups for weapon frequencies. The sooner the science officer finishes scanning the whole map, the sooner you can keep sensors at 1% for the rest of the game.

Maneuver

• Increasing Power: Increases the ship's turning speed.
  
• Disabling Power: Ship cannot turn.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x2/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: 100%
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 300% if performing a flanking maneuver with the helm/captain's coordination, otherwise 100%.
  
• Notes: Maneuver is a very useful module to power, with a good Helm operator, boosting maneuver can negate all damage from an enemy ship or ships. This depends on the weapons of the enemy ship, so rely on Science and your Captain's judgment, or Helm's requests.

Impulse

• Increasing Power: Increases the ship's maximum consumption of energy to impulse speed.
  
• Disabling Power: Ship cannot move via impulse.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x4/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: 100%
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 50-300% depending on situation. At normal customization settings, keep impulse between 75 and 100% to allow your Helm to keep distance from the enemies when required. Get ready to increase/decrease this on request of Captain or Helm.
  
• Notes: Impulse is the counterpart of Maneuver, and is often used at higher difficulties or against faster opponents (customization settings on server) to maintain desired distance between ships. Increasing this setting increases the ship's consumption of energy into impulse, and just like all other stations consumes energy whether the station (in this case, Helm) is using full Impulse or not.

Warp

• Increasing Power: Increases the ship's consumption of energy to warp speed.
  
• Disabling Power: Ship cannot move via warp.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x6/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: 100-250%. When warping anywhere, boost this to 250%. See Notes.
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 100%. Warp is often required to escape from danger, and any lower setting could allow that last hit on the ship which cripples it.
  
• Notes: It is much more efficient to travel great distances at Warp 1 and a high Warp Engineering setting, than Warp 4 and a normal Engineering setting. The faster speed is traded for extra energy consumption, but it is not wasted. A good Captain and Helm will always warp at 1 unless great haste is required.

Jump Drive

• Increasing Power: Decreases the time taken to Jump.
  
• Disabling Power: Ship cannot Jump.
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x6/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: 100-250%. When jumping anywhere, boost this to 250%. This will halve the jump speed, those five seconds could be vital in saving a friendly vessel or station.
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 100%. Jump isn't used often to escape combat, boosting Impulse/Maneuver is much more reliable, however if the Captain does tell you to Jump out, boost this to 300%.
  
• Notes: As with all modules, increasing the Energy allocation increases the consumption of Energy per second, whether you are jumping or not. The critical moment for Jumping is the moment Helm presses Initiate. At this moment the Jump Engineering setting is read and used for the timing of the jump. As soon as Helm says they have initated the jump, you can reduce the setting. For this reason, you can boost it to 300% and drop it long before it overheats to attain the maximum effect. If Jumping directly into combat, ensure Shields are boosted and active before the jump is complted (after Initiation), as jump drives damage shields (or the ship directly if no shields active).

Shields

• Increasing Power: Increases the shield's resistances and restoration rate.
  
• Disabling Power: Shields cannot be raised. (Reads ENR on the ship status).
  
• Energy consumption vs Sensors: x5/sec
  
• Recommended setting in non-combat: 0-250%, depending on damage.
  
• Recommended setting in combat: 100-250%. Remember that a high shield setting not only restores shields faster, but reduces damage dealt to them whilst boosted.
  
• Notes: Try to listen to the captain's communication, and keep forward shields boosted much more than rear unless otherwise informed or observed. You should only need shields when you are in enemy phasor range, or jumping with the jump drive. Remember that restoring the energy in shields is much more efficient (as with all modules) at 100%. If you are in no hurry for shield restoration, do not boost it to 250%. As always, Captain's orders are absoloute.

Recommended Engineering Setups (for hotkeys)

You can save a setup by clicking "STORE" and then the number (#) which you wish to save it to. (hotkey alt+#) The setup can be recalled later by pressing the number without pressing "STORE". (hotkey #) This allows you to have up to ten setups at your fingertips. At the start of the guide I reminded you that these configurations persist between games, so make a practice game to get yourself ready.

Recommended Setups:
(all modules are at 100% unless otherwise stated; coolant is measured in pips)

• All modules to 100%, 1 pip of coolant in each.
  This is the "resting" state of the ship, slowly cooling down all systems whilst keeping them at optimal capacity. Until you get the hang of using setups with <100% modules, this is your best friend.
  
• 260% (8 pips) Sensors.
  To speed up your Science officer's scanning. Do not use this setup in combat, and activate it as soon as a game starts.
  
• 200% (5 pips) Primary Beam, 160% (3 pips) Front Shields.
  Phaser combat setup, for taking out ships which are no threat to yours. Blows them up swiftly whilst leaving enough power to keep shields healthy and topped up. Excellent for small engagements where helm is in control of positioning.
  
• 140% (2 pips) for each of Primary Beam, Torpedo, Maeuver, Front Shield and Back Shield.
  Generic combat setup, giving every relevant station a boost. This setup relies on a good Helm officer to make the most of it.
  
• 260% (8 pips) Maneuver.
  For the quick turn, great for combined maneuvers with Helm such as warping past an enemy and turning around faster than they can to fire into their rear shields. Drop this setting as soon as Helm tells you the maneuver is complete. Also used for fast aligning for Warp, saving precious seconds on harder difficulties.
  
• 260% (8 pips) Warp/Jump Drive:
  Gives your ship the most efficient way of travelling great distances. Remember to change setting after the warp/jump is completed.
  
• 200% (5 pips) Torpedo, 160% (3 pips) Front Shields.
  For when you are keeping out of phasor range, and unloading repeated salvos of missiles.
  
• 200% (5 pips) Torpedo, 160% (3 pips) Primary Beam.
  Variant of the above, when facing multiple missile using enemies, so they can be shot down faster before reaching the ship.
  
• 200% (5 pips) Torpedo, 160% (3 pips) Rear Shields.
  Variant of the above, for fast mine deployment and baiting.
  
  Finally:
  
• 300% (4 pips) Front Shields, 300% (4 pips) Rear Shields.
  Set your shields to maximum, buying you those precious few seconds for Helm to Warp you away from a fight.
  
• 300% (4 pips) Impulse, 300% (0 pips) Front Shields, 300% (4 pips) Rear Shields.
  Variant of the above for vessels with Jump Drives instead of Warp. Impulse away from the fight. Get ready to drop Front Shields down to 100% or lower once all enemies are behind your ship.

Final Thoughts

This guide is the product of my own research and testing into the game. Some of my points may be wrong, others could do with improving or clarification. If you spot anything worth correcting or changing, please let me know.

Have fun out there all you budding Engineers.

[gavin8761]

Excellent Interaction.

[Ben]

Great stuff, the insights on timing of power for jump and weapons, the specifics of power consumption, all of it is great and makes the Engineering station a lot more active. Thanks for putting this together!

[C/Spoons]

typo under shields: first sentence, in parenthesis, change 'rads' to 'reads'.
awesome guide! I love engieer, which is awesome because everyone else I play with seems to hate it :) I'll definitly fiddle around with my quick keys

[White Flare]

Thanks for this guide. The in game help isn't as helpful as it should be, and this filled all the gaps. Kudos to you =)

[Asimo]

Thank you, realy useful guid for beginners

[Tired of your crap]

Also, and sorry for the spam comments, character limit and all, your pre-set that has Torps 200%/Front Shield 160%, you could probably change/alternate that to full on Torps if you're not in a Missile Boat because your gunner should be able to stop any missiles from reaching you, should you be wishing to stay out of phaser ranges. If you're in a M-Boat, you'll probably want the shield power to take the hits and get out if you're taking missile fire back, though.

Thanks for your guide! Your presets help a lot!

[Tired of your crap]

In regards to all your strategy with sensors/Science - this only works if the server sets unlimited sensor range. It's the default option, and most people choose it because it's forgiving for beginners, but don't get too reliant on scanning everything right away and then turning off your sensors. You will find yourself building habits you don't want to keep when your sensor range is limited and you can't just scan everything right away.

[Tired of your crap]

I highly recommend keeping your DamCon teams BEHIND any known dangers (like putting them closer to the middle than the front if you know your front will take damage) because having them near the damage when it happens will get them killed. Keep them off the perimeter if you can.

[Xavier]

I had a few additional points to add but the comments wouldn't let me (my comments were well over 1000 characters). Give me a shout if you want them so you can add them in to the guide.