Buildings

Buildings are machines that can be constructed by the Engineer using his Construction PDA. These buildings include the Sentry Gun, Dispenser, Jump Pads and Teleporter.

Overview

In order for a building to be constructed the Engineer must have enough metal. The Engineer has 200 reserve metal to start with, and is consumed upon placing a building. Extra metal can be gained through ammo packs, building Gibs and dispensers. Afterwards he can use his PDA to cosntruct a building. The Engineer can only place his buildings on reasonably flat surfaces with enough space. The Engineer can rotate buildings before deploying them (default key: MOUSE2). Each time the rotate key is pressed, the building is turned 90° counterclockwise. Once a building is placed, the Engineer can hit it with his Wrench in order to speed up construction. Multiple Engineers can stack this effect. Once a building is fully completed it immediately begins operation.

Like players, buildings have health and are destroyed when it is reduced to zero. Buildings gain health as they construct, so Engeineers can leave buildings to build themselves, for example leaving a teleporter to construct while they find a spot to build. Players can focus their crosshair on a building to determine its current health just like other players, though weak buildings also display visible signs of damage such as smoke, sparks, and flames.

Buildings can be repaired, upgrades and in the case of the Sentry Gun, reloaded by hitting them with a Wrench, if the Engineer has enough metal. Buildings such as Jump Pads cannot be upgraded at all. Repairing a building takes metal priority, then resupply and then finally upgrades, with limits to how much metal can go per strike. Upgrading a building takes a total of 200 metal and increases its health by in addition to improving its abilities. Buildings can be upgraded twice to reach level 3, with the exception of the Jump Pad. Buildings can also be used for vertical mobility; a dispenser can be placed and used as a stool to reach higher ledges.

Buildings can be disabled by the Spy's Sapper. If a Sapper is applied to a building, it immediately ceases functioning and alerts the owner, in addition to being drained of health. Sappers can be removed by an Engineer's melee weapon, which restores the building's operations in 0.5 seconds. Buildings cannot be repaired, reloaded, upgraded, or manually demolished while being sapped. A sapper takes approximately 3 hits to remove.

If the Engineer wishes, he can destroy any of his buildings with the Demolish Tool. This instantly causes the building to explode as if it were destroyed by an enemy. The building's gibs can be picked up as ammo and/or reused as metal. Buildings being sapped cannot be demolished. The Engineer's buildings are not vulnerable to his other weapons or to his Sentry Gun (unlike the Engineer himself).