4 years ago

Repair tool should be better

Probably one of the more least mentioned topics from beta, but enough of a gripe for me.

I played a few rounds with my friend, where he was the pilot on a chopper while I was on a passenger seat with my repair tool. He gets to do all the shooting, while I repair any damages. This was the strategy we used in BF3/4, and allowed me to unlock a bunch of upgrades for choppers in their respective games. Fun times. I remember in the past games the damage to the vehicle would out-do the amount of repair done, but w/ faster repair rate and no cooldown there was a longer chance of survival.

In BF2042 however, the repair tool felt pointless. On top of the slower rate of repair compared to past games (at least it felt that way), the repair tool can overheat and needs a cooldown. The cooldown took forever and that gave enough time for us to get shot at, usually with AA missiles that somehow got through the IR flares. The damage we took nullified any repairs I've done, and despite my friend being an awesome chopper pilot, most of the time it resulted in our deaths. We even tried having two engineers repairing, but it still wasn't enough. Whenever the repair tool got heated, I thought "Okay, might as well as provide extra firepower", and jumped onto one of the gunner seats to shoot down enemies. When I jumped back to the passenger seat, I saw that the amount of cooldown stayed the same.

As an engineer main who loved supporting ally vehicles and using various launchers since Bad Co. 2, the beta experience was painful. And it also made me question the very existence of having the repair tool in the first place.

I think they should either buff the repair rate or eliminate the cooldown.

discussion

16 Replies

ADIr2d2
Seasoned Novice
4 years ago
@FakeSympathy dice sid it will be more like bf3 or bf4 but its not, repair tool dont work and using grapling hook you do things like hook to chopper and shoot pilot i dont like it at all its like apex now people running on wall grapple to enything
trip1ex
4 years ago
maybe. maybe not.
it's just a starting point. stuff that proves too weak or too strong will ultimately get a buff or a nerf as always.
nickmajic
4 years ago
@FakeSympathy Solid point, this didnt even click to me. Hope it does work better come Friday.
rainkloud
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
This was by design and is a very good thing. The repair tool has been in need of reform for a long time. In V it was supposed to provide you with a means to repair your vehicle to full health outside of supply depots while in 1, 3 and 4 it was there to provide a means to get repaired at a faster rate than waiting for auto repair. What ended up happening though is that it was used for near instant damage nullification and damage sponging. I talk more about it in this post if you are interested:
https://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield2042/comments/o9lxi2/repairing_the_repair_tool/
nickmajic
4 years ago
@rainkloud Wait, there was a repair tool in V, i didnt even know.. i hated having to sit there and hold a button to repair the bluddy thing.
ElliotLH
Hero+
4 years ago
@nickmajic Yup, Support, Pilots and Tanker could all use it, including offensively against enemy vehicles lol.
S3SSioN_SoL
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@FakeSympathyAbsolutely agreed. Running a repair tool in place of another gadget that could be far more useful is simply not worth it.

Imo, all engineer 'classes' should get it by default but since that change is unlikely...
The repair tool needs a massive buff to make that 'gadget slot' justification worth while.

The only way I see it being worth it is if the cool down is entirely removed. With the repair rate increasing the longer it is used up to a certain maximum rate to balance it.
S3SSioN_SoL
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@rainkloudYeah BF V's repair mechanics were so weird.
If you were in a dogfight you could perpetually fly around the 'ammo' depot and never die, no matter how many times the enemy pilot shot you, by the time they had done almost enough damage to kill you, you would already have your 'instant repair' ready. It was so poorly designed.
Glad that 'instant repair' mechanic is not returning but nonetheless, the repair tool needs to be buffed and balanced accordingly to justify needing an entire 'gadget slot'.
rainkloud
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@S3SSioN_SoL No it most certainly does not. the repair tool in its 2042 "beta" form is pretty well balanced and provides a ***definite and demonstrable advantage over waiting for auto repair to kick in.*** It's a niche gadget that is great for drivers or passengers, but it is not nor should it be expected to be the dominant choice among gadgets. We have to remember that there will likely be around 10 options for gadgets so assuming even distribution of gadgets among players that would be about 6 per 64 man team. So yes you're likely not going to see a ton of them in the wild, but that does not mean that they are under-powered.

What we want to avoid are situations where a vehicle is down to 1 HP and then is full repaired a few seconds later. And, perhaps more importantly, situations where a repair tool user can conceal themselves during a firefight and provide constant repairing such that it effectively negates all the received damage rendering the tank near immortal.
99th-Kraken
4 years ago
In your post you're literally proving how the repair tool was broken. In 2042 it received a much needed nerf. I love playing support roles and everything but being able to completely nullify incoming damage and keep air support up almost indefinitely is absolutely broken.