ENGINEERING STAFF
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 Station Engineer |
Difficulty: Medium Requirements: 4 hours in Engineering Access: Maintenance, Engineering, External Extended Access: Atmospherics Supervisors: Chief Engineer Subordinates: None Duties: Maintain and fix the Station, make sure the power doesn't go out. Guides: Guide to Construction, Guide to Power, Guide to Atmospherics, Hacking |
ENGINEERING STAFF
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 Technical Assistant |
Difficulty: Easy to Medium Requirements: 4 hours of playtime. Access: Maintenance, Engineering, External Extended Access: None Supervisors: Chief Engineer, Atmospheric Technician, Station Engineer Subordinates: None Duties: Learn the basics of managing the station's engine, as well as repairing the station's hull & power. Guides: Guide to Construction, Guide to Power, Guide to Atmospherics, Hacking |
Nobody cared who you were until you put on the Yellow Jumpsuit.
Welcome to the Engineering team New Guy. Your job is to listen to the higher-ups, learn the ropes, and try not to blow someone or something up.
Your two greatest tools as a technical assistant are 'listening' and 'eagerness.' Listen closely to what the engineers are telling you, listen to what the Chief Engineer is advising. Follow an engineer out to do Solars, help with the AME setup, ask atmos if you can learn how to repair, maintain or set up the distro network.
The station engineers are in charge of rebuilding walls, fixing windows, repairing airlocks and fixing hull breaches (spaced areas), as well as setting up and maintaining a power source for the station.
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.
You start with a tool belt filled with every tool you'll possibly need. Head to the nearest engineering locker and open it. You'll need the insulated gloves in there to protect you from electric shocks while screwing around with wires. It's also recommended that you take a t-ray scanner for checking under-floor pipes and cables, a stack each of LV (Low-Voltage), MV (Medium-Voltage) and HV (High-Voltage) cables in case of power outages.
You could take half a stack of metal and glass however they are generally better reserved for usage across the department, so don't keep them in your backpack unless you are going to use them soon.
Starting the Power
Main article: Guide to Power
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. This is absolutely essential to keeping a well-functioning space station from descending into darkness, chaos and villainy. It is recommended that the start of the shift you, or a fellow engineer, set up the The Antimatter Engine as quickly as possible.
During the shift, and more likely in the first half of it, you will have a lot of free time. This excess time can be spent working on the solar panels which are most of the time a forgotten source of free power.
You also might have to work with a more dangerous power generator, the Gravitational Singularity Engine.
Fixing Hull Breaches
Repairing hull breaches is a tricky task as when an area gets bombed or dismantled and exposed to space all of the atmosphere in said room will get almost instantly sucked out into the void. Squishy players of various species need that atmosphere not only to breathe but also to prevent parts of their body from boiling and bruising.
Preparation
When you get the report of a hull breach (or that an area has been "spaced"), the first thing you should do is get your magnetic boots (magboots), a hardsuit and hardsuit helmet (engineering & salvage hardsuits have built-in helmets; fire suits and fire helmets work in a pinch) and put on an internals mask and oxygen tank (it's recommended that you use the one on your locker, you also start with an emergency kit containing these in your backpack that have a highly limited supply). After that grab some steel, LV, MV and/or HV wires (depending on the place bombed: for example, for maintenance grab HV wires or for the hallway grab LV and maybe HV) and optionally glass. Go to the place with the hull breach and, before opening the firelocks, examine and check it yourself. Are there walls broken? Windows? Which floors need fixing? Do you estimate that you have enough materials? Are your internals turned on by putting on your mask and switching your breathing tank open? Are your magnetic boots activated? Do you happen to see any casualties, and are they still alive and gasping for air? You might want to get them out first, if feasible.
DON'T OPEN IT UP YET.
Check if there is someone without a hardsuit on nearby and kindly make them leave. You're going to create another, hopefully temporary, hull breach when that firelock opens- which is likely to result in the room you and them are in getting firelocked as well. If they don't have a crowbar they won't be able to leave once that happens.
Structural Repairs
Now pry open the firelock to the spaced area using a crowbar. If you didn't have magboots on and activated, atmosphere flowing from behind you may push you around as the room you left depressurizes. It's highly suggested that you manually pry the firelocks behind you closed as soon as your through, in case any air vents were still operational in that room.
Floors
If there are areas without a floor or lattice open the Crafting menu (default G) and make "metal rods" from steel and place them in said tiles. Now that any voids to space have been latticed, click on the lattices with steel sheets. They should now turn into plating which will seal that tile against space from below. Walls and windows cannot be directly built on tiles that don't have plating.
Walls
Once all of the lattices has been plated you will need to seal any lateral breaches due to missing and damaged walls or windows. Wherever these lateral holes are you should have placed plating beforehand.
To construct walls open your Crafting menu again and find "wall". Select it to see it's instructions, then hit "Place Construction Ghost". A blue planning grid will overlay your screen and you will be able to place planning ghosts. Simply click each tile that you need to build a wall on to place ghosts. When you're done, right click to exit the planning mode. The ghosts will remain- use steel sheets on them to first construct girders, then use steel sheets on the girder to complete it. Repeat for all walls. Reinforced walls require plasteel to create, which isn't possible to craft by hand. Windows work similarly with the caveat that you should probably use reinforced glass to make reinforced windows. Follow the same steps as before. Reinforced glass can be crafted by hand using metal rods and glass- in a pinch, you can re-form any broken shards of glass nearby using a lit welder to create new glass sheets and rods.
Further Repairs
If all has gone well, the area should now be safe(er). Double check that there are no holes to space anywhere, and you should be good to re-open any firelocks nearby. Be aware that this may trip further firelocks as the atmosphere between adjacent sections of the station equalizes.
Now see if the power is correct and if not fix it.
You will want to make sure that any Atmospherics piping and distribution equipment is repaired.
Work with the Science department to rebuild any destroyed machines, such as computer consoles.
Fixing Electronics
Main article: Guide to Hacking
It is possible, and very likely, that engineers will be called to various machines in the station to fix their wiring after a pesky disruptive Traitor decided to fumble with the wires to get access to certain places, or things, they shouldn't.
Most of the time it's easily done by pulsing or mending the Access and Power wire to re-enable those.
Emaged Airlocks
The Syndicate Item called the cryptographic sequencer, or emag, is a powerful tool that can zap open a lot of stuff, including airlocks. Thankfully it isn't very complicated to fix. Here are the steps:
- Open the maintenance panel using a screwdriver.
- Turn off and on ACC, by cutting and mending it using a wirecutter. It should stop flashing.
- Pulse BOLT using a multitool so it gets unbolted.
- Turn off POWR, by cutting the corresponding wires using a wirecutter.
- Using a crowbar, close the door.
- Turn on POWR, by mending the corresponding wires using a wirecutter.
Things To Keep In Mind
- Engineering is a very extensive department and has a lot of duties. Try spitting them up with your colleagues to save some work.
- Don't be afraid to ask! You and the other engineers won't know it all so if you need a helping hand just ask, most people will likely be eager to help.