Ship Engineer

ENGINEERING STAFF

Ship Engineer

Access: Engineering, Power Equipment, Tech Storage, External airlocks, Construction Site, Maintenance, Telecoms Additional Access: Atmospherics Difficulty: Medium Supervisors: Chief Engineer Duties: Start the supermatter, wire the solars, repair ship 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 ship deserves, because Security is lazy. Guides: Engineering items, Guide to Construction Materials, Guide to Basic Construction, Guide to construction, Guide to advanced construction, Guide to power, Supermatter Engine, Hacking, Guide to Telecommunications, Department Standard Operating Procedure Quote: I'll fix the power as soon as I'm off my lunch break.

Effectively, you are an assistant on steroids, and need not fear any electrical things with your gloves. You can, however, affect the ship, 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.

Bare minimum requirements: Fix hull breaches, fix the power grid if power goes out in an area. Don't just run off with the damn space suits before the 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 turning on the pumps while another engineer is still trying to set things up is a good way to get yelled at.

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 retrieve your corpse when syndicates blow your head off.

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, or leaving other engineers out of the task by taking too much.

Here's a suggestion how you can be prepared for stuff on the ship:

This is an image of the tools every engineer should be trusted to have on him at all times. Empty pockets can be used for tools, flashlights, etc

And if you're planning to go fix stuff in space, or a room is depressurized

Container	Contents
Utility belt	Screwdriver, wrench, wirecutters, multitool, cable coil, crowbar, welding tool.
Backpack	Internals box, welding helmet, metal, glass, high-capacity power cell.
Box	Breath mask, epinephrine medipen, T-ray scanner, airlock electronics, power control module, cable coil, flashlight.

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 lying 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. Again, lock the lockers when you have what you need.

• Industrial Welding Tool: Hack the engineering vendor to yield two of these. It has double the capacity of a normal welding tool. Throw the normal one you have on the floor to be like every engineer ever (or put it away neatly for bonus points from 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 one stack each is generally fine; 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 you can only see the details of a room if they're illuminated and you could see them otherwise, 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. A variant of these exists that combines Mesons with a T-Ray scanner, though you will have to switch to Meson mode when around the engine. A couple of these can be found around Engineering and Engineer 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, the 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.
• 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 in Engineering Equipment.

• 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.

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 on the ship, 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 -- 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 camaraderie 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 ship up with power. Without any engineers doing a little work, the ship will probably fall out of orbit.

Starting the Engine

This is an extremely important task. Luckily, it is fairly simple (or at least it should be; it just needs babysitting). Make certain you follow the instructions precisely; blowing up Engineering is a good way to be hated by everyone forever and shorten the round to mere minutes.

I set up the supermatter, why is command still telling me to set up up "the engine"?

They might be referring to the FTL engine, which is down, left, and down again from the supermatter room. This needs to have plasma flowing to it in order for the ship to go anywhere.

Working on the Solars

If and when Solars are put on the ship, you'll have this (outdated) guide to use!

Fixing the Ship

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.

Quit reading "The Lusty Xenomorph Maid" and get to work!

Fixing the Power

The supermatter and/or the solars (if they ever get implemented, which they probably won't) provide more than enough energy to fully power a state-of-the-art battle cruiser -- unless something goes wrong, which it almost always will. Whether it's due to shoddy wiring, a powersink, a bomb, an assistant cutting cables, an exploding supermatter lmao good luck, or simple engineer laziness, power outages are a common problem that is your, YES, YOUR, job to fix. See that Power Monitoring computer? If people complain of power outages, it should always be the first port of call -- assuming it hasn't already been devoured by the rampaging maw of Lord Singuloth, or the Supermatter's infernal and explosive rage.

See the guide to power to learn how to get into power and, more importantly, how to fix everything.

Getting the Man Out of Danger... Alive!

It's your job to save lives when they cry out for help. You've got the big RIG, use it! You won't be able to save everyone, but make your intention to help clear to them so they know to stay in their body for cloning.

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 are supposed to be common or just liter the hallways with extinguishers while you grab a new one like the filthy cretin you are.

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 but has somehow got caught on the shields? 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 sitting within the confines of the shield, otherwise they're kinda gone forever. The bodies should be close enough to the ship that you can just jetpack to them and drag them back. 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 bodies float around randomly and need floor tiles to be built in their path to actually stop.

Tips

• To get maximum camera coverage, you only have to place one camera every fifteen tiles. If there's a wall between them, use an analyzer on the assembly after you weld it to the wall to create an xray camera. Otherwise, count seven tiles from where the previous camera disappears from view and build a camera there.
• Tired of asking RD for circuit boards? Robotics has a circuit imprinter in it.
• How to make an airlock with selected access: Get a hold on the airlock control circuit and click it in your hand, use your engineer ID to change settings on it and pick the access you want it to have.
• Had a power sink? Found and removed it? Good, now turn the output of every SMES off - and then turn the output back on. Sounds silly and IT-crowdish, but it works. If you do not do that some APCs may not recharge correctly.
• Arriving half an hour into the round and no one cba to setup the engine? Engineering SMES are drained entirely, thus the emitters just won't go online? Grab the plasma from engineering storage, put it into the PACMAN. Drag the PACMAN to the tile south of the engineering APC, use a wrench on it, set the output to 10000 and turn it on. With the 30 sheets the game starts with, you now have a good while to supply enough current to the emitters to get the engine working.
• For most construction/deconstruction operations (Mining, wrenching chairs/tables, deconstructing walls) you can click on multiple spaces to take things apart or build multiple things at a time.
• You can put windows directly on grilles.
• You can also pry up 4 floor tiles and weld them together to get a metal sheet, which you can grind down for iron. Glass for silicon. Reinforced glass for metal and silicon. Wood for carbon.
• Cell chargers give power to inserted cells faster than it takes power from the APC, meaning it generates some power from nothing, and you can alternate between two cell and keep an APC running forever.
• Power testing:
  • The most power the system will drain seems to be around 225000 W. (Tested this by using the Make All Areas Un-powered secret, then the Power All SMES secret.) With most of the ship's lights shut off, except for medical and security areas the system drains around 150000 W. (Tested that by shutting off lighting for every APC except for those areas.)
  • I've also been messing around with the PACMAN type generators and have discovered that, if created with the best parts you can make, each generator will produce:
  • P.A.C.M.A.N generator = 60000 W
  • S.U.P.E.R.P.A.C.M.A.N generator = 180000 W
  • M.R.S.P.A.C.M.A.N generator = 480000 W (Probably enough to power Meta on it's own, but I dunno.)
  • They will also hold 450 sheets of fuel. Meaning, if you've maxed out research you can power the entire ship with one SUPERPACMAN and a PACMAN (240000 W), or the entire ship minus lights with one SUPERPACMAN.
  • So if you're playing sandbox and you wanna power your own ship, put those solar panels away.
  • Also, the solar panel crate in engineering only starts with 13 solar assemblies instead of 21 like solar crates ordered from cargo. A proper solar array is made up of 61 solar panels (including the tracker), so it takes 60 supply points to completely replace one.
• It is possible to upgrade the AI's cameras by using certain items... For example, you can give them x-ray properties if you apply a ultra micro laser or analyzer to them. Pretty useful if the AI needs eyes in maint and you actually have the research to produce them. Watch as the AI freaks out when it realizes it now sees EVERYTHING in the dorms. There is also a proximity sensor upgrade. Install a proximity sensor upgrade on a camera and the AI will be immediately alerted if anyone comes in view range. Insert solid plasma and the camera will be EMP-proof!
• You can make a voice-locked door by making an airlock, attaching a signaler to the bolt wire, creating a voice analyzer-signaler assembly and keep it on you, when you speak the code word, it toggles the bolts. You can also just use a signaler but that's no fun.
• Here's a hint for noticing power sinks before anybody else does:
  • always set up the SMES so that all the APCs stay full all the time (100 000+ output each)
  • if you see an APC go red (i.e. not charging), check if it is still connected to the power grid
  • if it is connected, go check the total power load on the ship (either via PDA or a power monitoring console)
  • normal load for the entire ship is <200 000W. If you see the load steadily rising to well above 500 000W start thinking about wiring the black hole into the grid
  • during a power sink, load tops out at around 1.4MW; so get the singularity to ouput at least 1.7MW or so.
  • Note that even after the sink has been removed, the system is still all wonky and buggy. Disconnecting the singularity from the grid again, may make it look like there's a second sink in place, causing power alarms all over the ship, depending on how well charged the APCs are. Feels like some APCs simply break down after such stress - best course of action is to just keep the singularity wired in...
• Power output is a function of singularity size and the amount of total plasma in collectors.
• How to be a good engineer:
  • Get singulo stable at stage 2, set all SMES units to 200K in 110K out.* How to be a manly engineer:
  • Get singulo stable at stage 3, set all SMES units as above... including the 4 solar SMES units. Wire singulo and all 7 SMES units to grid directlike. Stroke your beard in satisfaction.
• You can screwdriver wooden flooring to remove it without breaking it.
• If a window is not attached (Screwdriver, Crowbar, Screwdriver), you can use a wrench on it to deconstruct it.
• You can turn one color of wire into another color easily.
  • Get a color of wire you want, and a color of wire you have
  • Add the color you have to the color you want to increase the amount of the color you want

Traitorneering

Being a traitor engineer can be both the easiest and hardest task on the vessel. On the one hand, you can go almost everywhere, 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 ship significantly safer, faster and easier.

And finally, if you truly hate everything, it is within your grasp to overload the supermatter and build hold back the tides of people who want your head, and generally sabotage the power supply of the ship.

Jobs on FTL13
	Command	Captain, Executive Officer, Bridge Officer
	Security	Head of Security, Security Officer, Master-at-Arms, Detective
	Engineering	Chief Engineer, Ship Engineer, Atmospheric Technician
	Supply	Quartermaster, Cargo Technician, Shaft Miner, Munitions Officer
	Science	Research Director, Scientist, Roboticist
	Medical	Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Chemist, Geneticist, Virologist
	Service	Janitor, Bartender, Cook, Botanist, Clown, Mime
	Civilian	Assistant, Lawyer, Chaplain, Librarian
	Non-human	AI, Cyborg, Positronic Brain, Drone, Personal AI, Construct, Adamantine Golem, Ghost
	Antagonists	Traitor, Changeling, Nuclear Operative, Wizard, Shadowling, Abductor, Xenomorph, Revenant, Space Ninja, Holoparasite, Swarmers, Blob, Devil, Clockwork Cult
	Special	Centcom Official, Death Squad Officer, Emergency Response Officer, Ian
	Races	Humans, Lizardperson, Flyperson, Plasmaman, Podman, Miscellaneous