Here we are kids, the final day of the Engineer Update. I cannot wait until I finally get a chance to get in game and try all the new weapons, feast on the little bug fixes that will be slipped in, and play all three of the new maps.
The third Payload map was revealed today; Thunder Mountain. The caption “Really long track” suggests that it is a multi-stage map, but apart from that that is all that is known.
The name of the community contributed wrench has been revealed as being called Southern Hospitality too. It has a bleed effect, which is slightly shorter than that of the Tribalman’s Shiv, has no critical hits, and makes the user more vulnerable to fire.
The official weapon release today is an interesting one. Entitled The Gunslinger, this robotic hand (and not a guitar like I expected) replaces the wrench, and does a few things. First up, it grants the user 25% additional health (which will no doubt be subject to buffs and nerfs as time goes on), and every third punch in a series of attacks is guaranteed to be a critical.
In addition, it “Lets the Engineer drop mini-sentries instead of normal sentries”. These mini-sentries look similar to normal sentries with a blue light on their top. The differences being:
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It only costs 100 metal to build
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Cannot be upgraded or repaired
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Builds four times faster
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Deals half the normal damage
The gun is designed for the offensive engineer who builds and rebuilds in random places to try and catch the enemy off guard. The low cost means it’s not detrimental if the Engineer planned on building something elsewhere, and the fact it cannot be repaired, while a negative, means the Engineer doesn’t have to concern himself with coming back and repairing it, or guarding it.
Unfortunately, because of the negatives this isn’t a viable option for classic defensive engineers, which explains the addition of the Southern Hospitality in the update.
The update is out today, and you can read all the extras that were added on the official patch notes, or in this blog post I’ve conveniently written here.
