Return of the Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.)

[M.Warren]

<EDIT: Please take note that this is an older thread and points out certain concepts that would not entirely coincide with the new v0.8 build. Rather than restructuring the whole thread, please make a mental note of the following:

The Engineer Repair Truck's specialilzed deployable vehicular supply crate be reduced to only being able to rearm the vehicle. The Engineers must now perform the repairs on the damaged vehicle units instead.>

I'm a big fan of the Engineer kit, but ever since the removal of the Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) something big has been missing from the hearts of our most dedicated Engineers. I have not heard any word if these will ever make a comeback, but as time goes on I can't bear to wait any longer. And I'm sure our most dedicated Engineers will agree.

But why were they removed in the first place? I can understand why and I agree at that point in time in the v0.6 patch was making Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.'s) essentially a "clown car" as it just trailed behind every armor unit. But if something mobile can repair or rearm vehicles, players will use it just like that. The only thing to blame is the way it's been made to do the job.

Repair trucks should be left hidden or far back away from the front lines as they simply cannot survive something massively hostile as an armor battle. They should remain on stand-by until called for, or do something else in the meantime. Like build bunkers, set up mines etc. In order to do this, the Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) must be altered.

My suggestion? Remove the repair and rearm function from the Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) itself and replace it with a deployable supply crate that will perform the same action instead. So how do we go about this? The driver is in control of the vehicle and he should have access to 2 forms of supply crates.

A. The Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) driver has control of the vehicle, horn and supplys.
B. There is 1 Large Vehicle Supply Crate for vehicular rearmament and repairs.
<Note: Cannot be used to build bunkers like a Support Truck can.>
C. There is 2 Small Ammo Dumps to rearm infantry.
<Note: Primarily for Engineers so they are able to deploy mines.>

Basically if a tank crew is becoming low on ammo, damaged and too remote to get to a Bunker/Firebase/Command Post (If there are any.), an Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) can meet up with them and also perform repairs while nearby. I would recommend setting the rearm distance from 10-20 meters, as the Command Post has a fixed range of 20 meters.

So are you worried about people piling these crates up in one area so they can camp thier tanks nearby? Don't worry, as these Large Vehicle Supply Crates should be set to automatically despawn in 1 minute's time. It takes atleast 1 minute to fully rearm any empty vehicle. However, the Large Supply Crate will despawn before the repairs on the vehicle are complete. This will prevent players from just dumping off crates to repair a vehicle entirely. The engineer must dismount and assist in the repair process. The Large Supply Crate simply helps reduce the amount of time it takes slightly.

Just as an advisory, I had also spent some time on a local server testing the reload times of several vehicles on different maps off of the Command Post. After this observation it has been noted that Battlefield 2 has a fixed reload time for all vehicle weapons to be fully rearmed from an empty state in a flat 1 minute. So unless you manage to drive around the map with a completely unloaded vehicle, you'll never have to worry about the despawn time of the Supply Crate. Providing it was deployed right next to your vehicle to begin with as it should be.

Also limiting the Large Vehicle Supply Crate so only 1 can be carried at a time will force players to have to return to a Bunker/Firebase/Command Post to rearm the repair truck. This will prevent players from remaining in the field indefinitely. The Large Vehicle Supply Crate must be limited to having no more than 1 being able to exist in the world at once. This will prevent players from parking the Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) next to a Bunker/Firebase/Command Post and begin spamming repair boxes out the rear.

Hope this has helped, maybe we'll see a brighter future for the Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) in the future patch. After all, adding a supply crate dispenser to the back of an E.R.T. is probably one of the more simple solutions PR has to face.

[[R-COM]Deadfast]

And here comes another great suggestion from Warren. Wish all the guys would be like this .

Yet again I have to agree with all of the points.

[[R-DEV]Drav]

Yep I like it too. Not much use on the small maps, but would prove invaluable on the large combined arms maps like kashan/Quinling. A well thought out idea, I like the idea of the truck having to return to an asset to resupply. Aside from the bonus for engineers here, I see a great opportunity for spec ops/scouts to ambush the truck, or even follow it to the firebase/tank....


Much prefer this to the recovery idea....I couldnt even get through that post without getting confused

[LtSoucy]

sorry but no, the engineer truck was removed because it didn't fit PR anymore.

A. The Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) driver has control of the vehicle, horn and supplys.

Yes like every other thing
B. There is 1 Large Vehicle Supply Crate for vehicular rearmament and repairs.
<Note: Cannot be used to build bunkers like a Support Truck can.>

No,would require alot of coding

C. There is 2 Small Ammo Dumps to rearm infantry.


<Note: Primarily for Engineers so they are able to deploy mines.>
No same thing as one above.

[Sadist_Cain]

I dont like the thought of the truck aiding auto repair however I WANT that truck back so IMO it should be able to assist an engineer in repairs... There's always been something amiss about a totalled tank being fixed with a spanner, If the truck can be reimplemented to assist in repairs of stuff thatd be rather groovey

[[R-COM]Deadfast]

Actually Soucy you're quite wrong. At least with the second part.

Those crates are already there so I see no problem coding wise.


The fist one might be a bit trickier but nothing impossible.
We could always use the supply crate as it was in vanilla (would just despawn very quickly).

[DeltaFart]

Yeah soucy they coded support trucks, repair trucks shouldn't be much harder

[M.Warren]

Originally Posted by Deadfast

Actually Soucy you're quite wrong. At least with the second part.

Those crates are already there so I see no problem coding wise.

The fist one might be a bit trickier but nothing impossible.
We could always use the supply crate as it was in vanilla (would just despawn very quickly).

Originally Posted by DeltaFart

Yeah soucy they coded support trucks, repair trucks shouldn't be much harder

Indeed, almost all Jeeps and Support Trucks currently have the ability to drop Supply Crates or Ammo Dumps.

To copy this effect and apply it to a Engineer Repair Truck is not that hard. A few interface changes will need to be done. This includes alteration of the standard Supply Crate to offer repairs and ammunition strictly to vehicles but not infantry.

Also as another tidbit of information if some people aren't sure... But as I was digging through the Battlefield 2 editor there is an Engineer Repair Truck (E.R.T.) for the Militia aswell, we've never seen it though. So we won't need to create a new E.R.T. model for them. All these details are possible of being accomplished with relative ease.

[LtSoucy]

Originally Posted by Deadfast

Actually Soucy you're quite wrong. At least with the second part.

Those crates are already there so I see no problem coding wise.


The fist one might be a bit trickier but nothing impossible.
We could always use the supply crate as it was in vanilla (would just despawn very quickly).

#1 you didn't understand what i ment, ALL CARS AND TRUCKS that drop armmo/supply drops only drop one type not both. It would reqire teh ammo switch found in the tanks and APC's(Coding needed) Then i'm sure bugs would be found in them.

[[R-DEV]Duke]

I like the idea warren, sounds good.

I also recommend that the information about what's dooable or not should come from the actual devs, not soucy