Station Engineer
| ENGINEERING STAFF | |
  Station Engineer |
Access: Engineering, Power Equipment, Tech Storage, External airlocks, Construction Site, Maintenance, Telecoms Additional Access: Not defined Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Chief Engineer Duties: Start the singularity, wire the solars, repair station hull and wiring damage, do the job of the (always) incompetent atmos techs. Basically, do everything that has anything to do with repairs. Also, be prepared to be the hero the station deserves, because Security is lazy. Guides: Engineering items, Guide to Construction Materials, Guide to Basic Construction, Guide to construction, Guide to advanced construction, Singularity Engine, Solars, Hacking, Guide to Telecommunications |
Effectively, you are an assistant on steroids, and need not fear any electrical things with your gloves. You can, however, affect the station, for good or for ill, much more profoundly than a mere assistant can. For example, badass engineers can break into the teleporter room quickly to kill a malevolent AI.
But for the love of Nar'Sie, don't run off with the damn space suits before the singularity engine is set up!
Engineering Etiquette
Take a look around engineering as the first thing you do, and see how many fellow engineers you have. If there's a ton, you probably don't want to snatch up everything that isn't nailed down. Don't fight over hardsuits. Don't try to break into the middle of a task someone has already begun: trying to fill plasma tanks at the same time as another person usually ends up filling engineering with plasma, and trying to turn on containment at the same time as someone is often lethal.
Be nice and courteous and you'll often be treated well, curse people out for their incompetence or how slow they are and people aren't going to rush to your retrieve your corpse when syndicates blow your head off on the solars.
Engineering Equipment
Engineers have to carry a lot of equipment to perform their various tasks. The job is a lot easier if you carry around what you need so you don't constantly have to be running back to engineering for each step of a repair process.
This is an image of the tools every engineer should be trusted to have on him at all times:
And if you have one of the engineering hardsuits (planning to go to space):
And the inventory contents:
| Container | Contents |
|---|---|
 Utility belt |
 Screwdriver, crowbar, wirecutters, wrench, multitool, cable coil, welding tool. |
 Backpack |
 Box, welding helmet, |
 Box |
 Airlock electronics, power control module, T-ray scanner, 2x cable coil, oxygen tank, breath mask. |
Some of this you start with, some you need to collect. The items you pick up are:
Insulated Gloves: Your most prized possession, these puppies protect you from shock. Engineers work with insane amounts of electricity, and it's easy to put yourself into crit if you tap into the main engine line without remembering to put them on. Always grab a pair of gloves. There's a few pairs laying around engineering, and more in the electrical closet. Lock the closet when you're done unless you want the clown and mime to steal all the remaining pairs.
Industrial Welding Tool: Grab this from the welding locker next to the electronics locker; it has double the capacity of a normal welding tool. Throw the normal one you spawn with on the floor to be like every engineer ever. (Or put it away neatly for bonus points with the CE.)
Welding Mask: You need this to avoid going blind while welding. Note if you have the hardsuit on, it works as a welding mask you don't have to flip up/flip down.
Metal & Glass: Basic building blocks. Carrying just stack each is generally fine, and convert it into floor tiles, bars, or reinforced glass as necessary. If you take one stack to yourself, pay close attention to the radio so you know where they are needed.
Optical Meson Scanners: These illuminate everything structural in range, showing you the layout of dark maintenance tunnels and such. Note that in the darkness, you will only see one tile around you in every direction, so don't think you're getting free x-rays out of these and don't be surprised when John Q. Changeling appears out of nowhere while you walk through maintenance without your lights on. You can find one pair of these laying around engineering, and two more in the engineering locked lockers.
Gas mask: Basically the same function as a breath mask, but with the added bonus of protecting you from pepper spray, acid sprays to the face (once), and some of the diseases the virologist inevitably releases. Also keeps you on your feet a little longer in high concentrations of N2O, so make sure you have one in your inventory if not on your face for roleplay reasons. Note, syndicate voice changer looks exactly like it, so don't be surprised if Security asks you to take off your mask to verify you are who you say you are. You can find them in engineering lockers, laying around in engineering and in maintenance tunnels
Extended-capacity emergency oxygen tank: These canisters hold a LOT of air. The hardsuits can hold full-sized canisters which hold more, but two of these filled up in your bag and there's very little chance of you ever running out of air. To fill up: place it in the oxygen tank, click the oxygen tank and turn the pressure all the way up, open the valve, then close the valve. Once you're sure it's closed, remove the tank. Click the tank in your hand and lower the mask pressure to 16 KPA, which will give you the most possible use.
Power Cell: Needed to repair a fully broken APC, or just get an APC working in a drained area. Good to have one on hand.
Flashlights: These light up the area, even in your pockets. Two flashlights in your pockets and your helmet light on and you'll light up a huge area, very helpful to general crew when you're doing repairs in a freshly-darkened crater so they don't walk into the vacuum and freeze.
Hazard Vest: An archetypal item, it serves no purpose except roleplay and that you can buckle an extended capacity emergency oxygen tank to it. Definitely do so if you aren't in a hardsuit or firesuit.
Power control module: You need this to repair a fully broken APC. Some sit by the SMES modules.
- Airlock electronics: You need this to construct an airlock. Having one on hand can save you a long trip back if you run across a broken door. Some by the metal and supplies, and one by the SMES modules.
Firesuits can no longer be carried in bags, and it's unsafe to firefight without them, so just run to the nearest firefighter closet in the advent of a fire to gear up -- There is one close to nearly everything everywhere in the station, learn their locations.
Note that some of these are for roleplay reasons only. Roleplay too determines if you're a good engineer or not -- When talking with people face to face, pop the helmet off and carry it a bit -- hardsuits look pretty cool without the helmet on. Write down things you figure out like the door wires and photocopy them, distribute to the other engineering staff as a memo. Engineers have some great roleplay as the people that fix everything when everything else is going to hell. Take advantage of that camraderie and the ludicrous nature the situations you will find yourself in. A robotic mute-guy-fixing-everything playing style is efficient of course, but it isn't nearly as fun for everyone.
Doing Your Duty
You have a few things you should do, if you don't want to be robusted, before doing what you want to do. Repairing things is what engineers do, and so is setting the station with power. Without any engineers doing a little work, the station will crumble.
Starting the Engine
This is an extremely important task. Luckily, it is laughably simple. Make certain you follow the instructions precisely; an engineer who accidentally sets the singularity free is not a popular person.
Working on the Solars
Read the guide, make sure you have wire, internals and a space suit. Best of luck.
Fixing the Station
Is there a hole in the wall? Are floor tiles broken? Did an idiot break a window to get into the medbay? Are people complaining about electrified doors? Are cables torn up leading to an APC? Are the APC's themselves fried? Is it more than thirty seconds into the round? The answer to two or more of these is always yes.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SIZE ENGINEERING REFERENCE
Engineering Reference Map
As an engineer, you're sometimes called to put the station back together again after a bad fall. Sometimes, that's a problem because what use to have an identifiable shape now is just a mess of shattered tiles, exposed space, and broken dreams. This map highlights the important bits of machinery running under everything so you can fix any section that gets broken. Also useful when power goes out in a section for figuring out where the damn clown cut a cable.
Quit reading "The Lusty Xenomorph Maid" and get to work!
Getting the Man Out of Danger... Alive!
It's your job to save lives when they cry out for help.
Firefighting
Engineers get access to maintenance hallways, which contain several firesuits and extinguishers. If a fire breaks out somewhere, put it out. Firesuits allow you to walk in almost any fire. Extinguishers have a limited capacity. Refill them with water tanks, which can be found all around the station.
Physical Rescue
If someone cries that he can't get out of somewhere and no one can get him out, then it's your job to do so. Hacking airlocks, deconstructing walls, basically whatever it takes to get to them. I don't need to point out that you should never put others or yourself at risk in doing so!
Space Recovery
A body's been spaced? Well now it's your job to recover it. Ask the AI or captain to get a jetpack and space suit from EVA and go after the body. You'll most frequently find bodies either somewhere near the derelict or the AI satellite. Drag them to a teleporter and get them back to the station. The use of lockers will help greatly, as lockers do not drift like bodies do, but cannot travel across Z-levels. ALWAYS have tools, glass and metal with you when doing this! Some teleporters need to be rebuilt and some bodies float around randomly and need floor tiles to be build in their path to actually stop
Traitorneering
Being a traitor engineer can be both the easiest and hardest task on the station. On the one hand, you can go almost everywhere on the station, and have easy access to the tools to get rid of any pesky doors (or walls) in your way. Also, many crew members don't bat an eyelid when they see an engineer wearing a jetpack, or standing in a hole in the wall. Any curious crewmen are usually deflected by saying you are doing engineering work ("I need this to repair hull damage, Captain!")
On the other hand, Engineers lack weapons. Stungloves, however, are the hidden weapon few ever search for, which can give the upper hand in a fight. Stungloves are gone 5ever, but stun prods can be made from basic tools! In addition, cable restraints may be constructed from cable coils. In a pinch, the welding tool is a fairly powerful weapon which causes burn damage when turned on. Secondly, engineers loitering near their target may quickly arouse suspicion, especially if you are far, far away from a maintenance tunnel. Engineers are also one of the few jobs which retain their maintenance access, making travel around the station significantly safer, faster and easier.
And finally, if you truly hate the station, it is within your grasp to release the kraken singularity, and generally sabotage the power supply of the station.
