Engineer: Reveal vs. Expectation & Comments

[raspberry jam]

They should be called Mosquitos. Because that's what they are. Buzzing in your ear at night... but not doing any real damage.

Nah, mosquitos don't die easily enough.

[Alaris]

I hope Engineers have a skill called Raid.

Raid: Kills nearby mosquitoes and thieves.

[sorudo]

They should be called Mosquitos. Because that's what they are. Buzzing in your ear at night... but not doing any real damage.

they don't buzz in my house, the last thing they see is ether a nice bright blue light or the latest newspaper.

[Hanok Odbrook]

the turret is based on the gatlic gun from around 1870, notice the swing at the back of the turret.

btw, if we're gonna hide behind magic but use logics on the engineer then we're never gonna get anywhere, you could just as much say that the turrets have magic bullets and mines are the material but magical form to traps.

Prove it. Convince me the turret isn't operated by magic. We have literally zero insight into how this new technology works. It would be ridiculously easy for Anet to just handwave this whole issue aside by saying the turrets work by magic, since MAGIC EXISTS IN THIS GAME.

Sure, you may say that in real life turrets don't work that way. But if we lived in a society that USED MAGIC, do you honestly expect our technology would have evolved down the same road? It's incredibly silly to say,"Oh I don't like this no way no how!" when you're talking about a game where magic is incredibly common.

But the Gatling gun still needed to be manned and manually aimed.

One of the problems does not lie with magic and technology being in the game, but according to Anet, the Engineer is borne of an anti-magic sentiment. The Charr developed their technology to be free of magic, therefore in order to properly work, it must work within the confines of the real physical world in which it was developed. I think that's where much of the problem lies - not that the Engineer exists (although I would prefer an Alchemist over this implementation), but that it's development and reason for being is too hypocritical with what we know at this point, and what we believe should be the limits of the technology at the point in time of GW2 when all other things are considered.

If I had to pick though, I'd say that golems and asuran tech make less sense to me. I mean, I can see how charr tech can be shared amongst the races (norn engineer lol), but I'd think that the asura would be able to figure out a way to make their tech compatible with other races (if only to enslave more of us to do their bidding).

Ahh, but the GOLEM is really nothing more than an oversized suit of armor, which is not really tech and more than capable of being created by a blacksmith. It is simply a suit of armor that gains mobility from magic, which we all know is possible (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, anyone?)

Hanok

[Alaris]

My problem with Asuran tech is that other races can`t seem to use it. I`m fine with it being magical and everything.

Also, good point about engineer being about using technology that is free of magic... but honestly, how far can you go before you see a super cool toy with a tiny bit of magic in it and say... what the heck...

Turrets are mainly physical tech, except maybe for the aiming device. Even then, it`s not *magic* magic, it`s probably asuran tech. A simple small gem, nothing fancy. And it was added to an already physical-only tech: guns.

Look at the warrior or ranger. Both are very physical professions, and yet they have abilities that we'd consider magical. What is to say that in their world, they wouldn't even consider those abilities as magic, so common they are? We magic-less humans know what can't be done without magic... but perhaps it's less clear in their minds what belongs to magic, tech, or physical abilities.

[GrimShade]

In the Charr video we obviously have cars, thus the Charr figured out the industrial revolution and created a combustion engine while the humans played with trees? A bit too far for my tastes but I am working at just accepting that one and moving on. A warrior in plate armor is virtually useless when a scout car can run him over, but moving on. If I can work with this idea that an elly can drop a meteor out of the sky on my head and I’ll just get up and run at him, I can try to take in a guy with a gun shooting me as I run at him…

The actual guns: They show us flintlocks and clockwork guns to start with but they have a reload rate as if we were in Evil Dead. Our bonus weapons from the Hall of monuments have a wheel lock rifle, and a fishy gun that is obviously a black powder flintlock type gun meaning single shot, long reload. The engineer pulls out what looks like a magazine loaded glue gun/gun that fires off as fast as a revolver unloading, and a gatling-esque turret.

The Centaurs we fight are stuck with a reload that makes them stop shooting at us, while the thief and engineer unload single shot guns that have no way of having a magazine.

I’m working at it and I’ll probably never play an engineer, but it’s just not working for me. 1 Gatling gun should be leveling small dragons, not bouncing off the warrior’s armor. A grenade should take out a room full of enemies, but what do you bet they keep coming. I also have this image in my head of that earth elemental at the beginning of the game we have seen, and I pop out a turret and just lay into it from the city walls…

[RD]

My problem with Asuran tech is that other races can`t seem to use it. I`m fine with it being magical and everything.

Don't we use GOLEMs in GW 1? We don't ride in them, but we reconfigure them to suit our needs and they fight for us.

Isn't the reason other races can't use them sort of explained in the second book? I don't remember it exactly, but didn't Snaff basically figure out that, for the GOLEMs to work properly, the rider needs to be inside it, which is only really possible for an Asura. There may be other things about it that make it Asura-specific.

[Alaris]

@GrimShade:

1) Humans were busy trying to survive extinction, whereas the Charr have been florishing. Also, humans use magic (and worship Gods) so they don't see a point to technology. That explains why one has evolved technologically faster than the other.

2) Armor is not like the armor we know of, obviously, if it can protect us from bullets or meteors while still exposing skin.

3) Good point about bullets etc. Perhaps there's a tradeoff between how fast a gun reloads (on its own) and how much of a punch it packs. It doesn't bother me that we don't have to reload guns though. I doubt we'll get an explanation of how ammo is generated other than "reloading guns and buying ammo was painful from a gameplay perspective, so we didn't implement it".

4) Grenades are probably not as potent as those we have today. Combined with better armor, it makes sense to me that it wouldn't level a room full of enemies... no more than a meteor would at least. That part, at least, makes sense.

@RDarken:

Well, we don't get to summon golems if that's what you mean... but we do get to give basic controls to automated golems we find. And 250 years later, I doubt we get to interface with asura tech any more than that.

Also, I do believe that the mind control of golems needs the cognitive power of asura. A lesser mind wouldn't do. The only reason they put the asura inside the golem as I recall was to keep him safe.

[Hanok Odbrook]

2) Armor is not like the armor we know of, obviously, if it can protect us from bullets or meteors while still exposing skin.

Yeah, I still have an issue with what the Mesmer calls Armor. I mean it looks good and all, but really? If anything stretches the bounds for me in the first game, it would be fighting in your nightie.

Hanok

[Alaris]