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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lg_engineer__poster.jpg]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Attack of the 50-Foot Engineer]]]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ->''"Hey look, buddy, I'm an Engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "what is beauty?", because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve '''practical''' problems. For instance, how am I gonna stop some big mean mother hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind? The answer: use a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun. Like this heavy-caliber tripod-mounted little old number designed by me, built by me, and you best hope... not pointed at you."'' |
| 11 | -->-- '''The Engineer''', ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNgNBsCI4EA Meet the Engineer]]'' |
| 12 | |
| 13 | In war, equipment and engineering are an essential part of victory. From obtaining tents and latrines to building bases and fixing vehicles, no army can fight solely with infantry. They need tools, new infrastructure, and people to build and maintain and move it. The average soldier actually does not have full knowledge of how his equipment works, let alone have the knowledge or time to maintain said equipment or build a bridge. Bigger and badder pieces of equipment require even more know-how and maintenance. There are also myriad obstacles, situations, and types of terrain and climate which a group of infantry cannot handle or even be equipped to handle on their own. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | So, behind the glamorous officers and the rough-and-tumble enlisted soldiers, there's one man who will always be there to give them a technologically and mechanically empowered hand: The Engineer. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | The Engineer is the go-to guy for getting, building or fixing anything in this man's army. Just as TheMedic takes care of any''one'' and their wellbeing, the Engineer takes care of their equipment to make sure that the Medic is needed as little as possible. He's also the one that constructs shelter and support machines like turrets and gun emplacements to give the infantry cover and a little extra oomph. Perhaps most importantly, the Engineer is usually the main mechanic, handling upkeep and repair of vehicles. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | The Engineer is rarely TheProtagonist, since the frontline soldiers are the ones that usually get the spotlight. However, if the Engineer is in a story, he will always be an ''essential'' character, and you can expect his skills to be crucial for victory at some moment in the story. Engineer characters also usually tend to be older, more experienced soldiers who are [[AFatherToHisMen a father figure]] to younger soldiers, be they frontline soldiers or younger engineers. They can also have elements of the [[DrillSergeantNasty drill sergeant]], demanding constant effort and discipline from his crew, although this is not surprising considering the frontline soldiers depend on the equipment they service to survive. Younger engineers can have [[HotBlooded a tendency to be very passionate about their work]], and have the gift of creativity and tenacity on their side. Expect young Engineers to come up with new technologies and strategies using existing technology that will give their allies a new edge in combat. Sometimes, an Engineer will [[AscendedExtra get the spotlight on him.]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | If an Engineer decides or is forced to fight, expect it to be ''awesome''. As it turns out, knowing how to build and fix machines and put structures together also gives you a wealth of knowledge in how to ''break'' them. Engineers are also the guys to call when terrain needs to be modified. From building roads to blasting obstacles, Engineers will clear the way. Combat Engineers and Sappers (explosives-oriented engineers) are a thing to behold: with their capacity to utterly destroy enemy equipment and fortifications and their specialized equipment, they can cause massive panic amongst enemy forces. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Engineers can also be... [[BunnyEarsLawyer a little eccentric]]. Sometimes, they can [[CargoShip show more caring for a piece of equipment than a human being.]] If they're [[DemolitionsExpert particularly skilled with explosives]], they may also be [[MadBomber a bit too quick at suggesting them]] as [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer a solution to any problem]]. They can also have, in more fantastic settings, a little bit of [[MadScientist mad scientist tendencies]], [[GadgeteerGenius inventing and testing new technologies that may or may not make a difference]]. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | In the UK and Commonwealth, the stereotypical engineer is a burly BraveScot, a notion which has its roots in the early part of the UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution when many educated Scots went south to escape endemic poverty and ended up working for the early railroads and factories, with many later returning to Scotland to found the 18th/19th century equivalent of a Silicon Valley startup. In Australia, a similar stereotype exists for New Zealanders, though the reasons for this aren't as clear. In the US, especially in comedies, they are often a SouthernFriedGenius, instead. In Indian works, expect him to be a Tamil [[note]] The Madras Engineer Corps was the very first unit of its kind established in India, and is also the originator of the Bangalore Torpedo mine [[/note]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Note that this trope is about The Engineer as a particular type of character, not as a profession, so it would not actually comprise ALL that army engineers do. An engineer who deals with sanitation and construction of things like storehouses and office/administrative buildings would [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible usually but not necessarily be outside this trope]], and most characters referred to as "engineers" in media are actually closer in function to mechanics in the civilian field then they are to civic engineers. This trope applies primarily to Engineers as a palpable force in combat, be it as support or participating in battle. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | There are various types of Engineers which feature heavily in media: |
| 30 | * ''Combat Engineer:'' This is the Engineer that's right in the middle of it just like any other soldier. However, unlike his fellows who rely on more conventional weapons, the Engineer will utilize lots of specialized equipment not available to the average soldier, like [[DemolitionsExpert demolition explosives]], [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]], and [[TheTurretMaster gun emplacements, sometimes automated]]. He will also assist in the maintenance of his fellow soldier's equipment (a duty that is never neglected, no matter what type of Engineer it is). |
| 31 | * ''Support Engineer'': This is the Engineer that remains on stand-by for when he is needed, working on equipment maintenance and ready at a moment's notice to jump into the field to help his fellows. Support Engineers don't see as much combat as their other brethren, but they fulfill essential duties in preparation for major offensives, like constructing shelter and destroying obstacles that impede troop movement. This is the most [[TruthInTelevision true to life]] interpretation of what an army engineer is. |
| 32 | * ''Mechanic:'' DO NOT piss off The Mechanic. No other type of Engineer is as essential for the maintenance of troops' ability to attack and move, and no other type of Engineer has a shorter fuse. The Mechanic is the king of the motor pool, every vehicle is one of his babies. Bring a vehicle in a sorry state and prepare for a massive butt chewing at best and a wrench on the side of the head at worst. They have a tendency to spout TechnoBabble at a moment's notice, and can make a CoolCar, CoolPlane or [[TankGoodness Cool Tank]] repaired and ready for use at a moment's notice. |
| 33 | * ''Chief Engineer:'' The naval version. A mix of support engineer and mechanic, as he is responsible for ensuring the ship is running smoothly. Don't expect to see him above decks too often, except for staff meetings, or talk too much. When he's at his post, though, expect him to miraculously push the engines beyond their limits. On all but the smallest boats, he'll have a staff of other support engineers and mechanics under his command (hence ''chief'' engineer), but very rarely will those subordinates even have a speaking role. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Useless trivia: Combat engineers are also called '''sappers''' or '''pioneers'''. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Not to be confused with Angela Spica, a.k.a. [[SecretIdentity The Engineer]], of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' (although with her SwissArmySuperpower and [[GadgeteerGenius knowledge]] she fills the "engineer" role for them). Anthropromorphic examples include ResourcefulRodent. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | ---- |
| 40 | !!Examples: |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 45 | * ''Anime/CodeGeass'' features Rakshata on the side of the Black Knights, and Lloyd Asplund for Suzaku. |
| 46 | * ''Eikou no Napoleon -- Eroica'' has Antoine de Phélippeaux, who directs the repairs of the walls of Acre and the construction of an entire new set of artillery-resistant walls inside the first. Napoleon himself praises his skills -- just as he curses the fact he's in Acre, as ''Napoleon'' is the one attacking the city. Acre resists. |
| 47 | * Gai from ''Manga/GetterRobo'', in all his incarnations, is the main engineer in charge of maintaining the Getter Machines. He also becomes an AscendedFanboy when he ends up in the pilot seat of Go/Neo Getter-3 and Shin Getter-3. |
| 48 | * The maintenance crew in ''Anime/{{Godannar}}''. Also a major source of comedy and {{UST}}. |
| 49 | * Seiya Uribatake of ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' is the person in charge of maintaining the ship's mecha and gets very angry when one of them gets banged up. |
| 50 | * Von Herder of ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'' keeps all of the Moriarty crew in equipment, from Moran's air rifle to cars, to radio earpieces, and who even knows what else he's got up his sleeve? |
| 51 | * Franky from ''Manga/OnePiece'' is the crews shipwright, responsible for the upkeep of the [[CoolBoat Thousand Sunny]] (which he designed and built, of course). He's a Combat Engineer by virtue of turning himself into a cyborg. |
| 52 | * Heihachi in ''Film/SevenSamurai'' who lacks martial experience, but fights with engineering tech instead. |
| 53 | * ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series often have at least one engineer to take care of the mecha. Pilots may or may not carry out some maintenance. |
| 54 | * The [[CampGay faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous]] Leeron of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. For the first half of the series, he practically takes care of all the Gunmen, the Gurren Lagann AND the massive Dai-Gurren all by himself! And post-timeskip, he's even MORE talented. |
| 55 | * Jou Kurumada in ''Anime/TomicaHyperRescueDriveHeadKidouKyuukyuuKeisatsu'', who is the chief engineer to the Mobile Rescue Police, following in his father's footsteps. He's borderline MarriedToTheJob, and is always maintaining the machines and building new ones, occasionally working as a strategist and even [[ActionDad getting into the action]] when need-be. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' has a few examples: |
| 60 | ** First of all, the Evronians. As in ''[[PlanetOfHats the entire race]]'': two dimwitted warriors once built a two-man flying saucer capable of flying from Earth to the asteroid belt in hours using nothing more than hammers and ''scrapped cars'', normal soldiers are often seen assembling complex weapons, a group of commandoes improvised a forcefield capable of keeping [[PhysicalGoddess Xadhoom]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu imprisoned]] by repurposing ''their ship's engine'' (interestingly, they had no idea of how powerful Xadhoom actually was, they just knew that she was really powerful and apparently invulnerable, so they created that forcefield with the intention of letting her inside to starve and die. ''Then'', after being captured and having observed the thing, Xadhoom realized what kind of forcefield they had assembled), and a group of ''actual'' engineers (that is, low-ranking members of the scientific caste) once built from scraps a fleet capable of weathering the entire nuclear arsenal of the US ''in less than a week'', with the only Evronians who haven't shown unexpected engineering skills being those members of the scientific caste specializing in other fields. There's a few reasons why it took a PhysicalGoddess to defeat the Evronians in spite of their initiative troubles, and one of them is their knack with technology. |
| 61 | ** T9, a [[LaResistance resistance]] leader in a race conquered by the Evronians, has shown himself just as good as his conquerors. {{Justified}} by him being a robot. |
| 62 | ** Technically-minded Xerbians qualify by virtue of coming from [[PlanetOfHats a planet of scientists]]. |
| 63 | ** {{Subverted}} by Paperinik: he knows a fair bit about technology, he's a skilled mechanician, and completely outclassed by the incredibly advanced technology he deals with. |
| 64 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': |
| 65 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': For a few years the alien mechanic "Glitch" was the one doing repairs and improvements on the robot plane, and occasionally fixing up other planes and spaceships for Diana and Steve. |
| 66 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': H'Elgn acted as the engineer of Diana's Sangtee Empire rebellion, fixing up stolen Sangtee ships and crafting new tech and gear for the revolutionaries. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 70 | * Averted in ''Film/BattleOfTheBulge'' when the Combat Engineers are summarily slaughtered by the SS infiltrators before they can do anything. |
| 71 | * Creator/JohnWayne's 1944 film ''Film/TheFightingSeabees'' illustrates the trope perfectly. |
| 72 | * ''Film/HostileWaters'' features a pair of the naval version - Gennady, who advises his captain on all technical matters, and "Pumps", who spends his time sitting in front of a wall of valves, transferring ballast from one part of the sub to another and equalizing the pressure in the various compartments. |
| 73 | * In ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', there is Seaman Jones, a master of SONAR and sound detection technology. When he encounters the Soviet Union's ''Red October'' with its new stealth propulsion system, he invents a way to detect and track it within ''hours''. |
| 74 | * ''Film/InTheArmyNow'' focused on water-purification military engineers. |
| 75 | * ''Film/IronMan3'' makes the point that ''this'' is Tony Stark's superpower (and what makes him a super hero), and that building suits of PoweredArmor is just one aspect. He Engineers himself out of most of the film's dilemmas, usually [[BroughtDownToNormal without the armor]]. It is {{Lampshaded}} by Harley Keener with the quote, "You're a mechanic, right? So why don't you just build something?" |
| 76 | * Q from the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies. Seriously, where would 007 be without him? |
| 77 | * There is an extended sequence in ''Film/TheLongestDay'' when the American troops are trapped on the beach by German barbed wire and concrete walls. Naturally, they bring in the engineers, who destroy the obstacles with a combination of [[StuffBlowingUp satchel charges, Bangalore torpedoes]] and HeroicSacrifice, allowing the Americans to break out of the beach into the countryside. |
| 78 | * An engineer also briefly appears in the ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'' beach sequence clearing a tank obstacle. |
| 79 | -->'''Capt. Miller:''' All the armour is foundering in the Channel! |
| 80 | -->'''Engineer:''' Orders, sir! You go somewhere else! I'm clearing ''this'' one. |
| 81 | * The German film ''Film/{{Stalingrad 1993}}'' follows a platoon of combat engineers, known as ''Sturmpioniere'', fighting in the eponymous city. |
| 82 | * In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', Montgomery Scott is looking to be as brilliant a chief engineer as in the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]]. The same cannot be said for his position's [[RedShirt predecessor]]. |
| 83 | * Yori in ''Film/{{Tron}}''. She ran the Solar Sailer simulation, and a "blink and you miss it" ChekhovsGun in the beginning of the movie indicates she helps control the laser. |
| 84 | * In ''Film/{{Zulu}}'' a key plot element revolves around sleeves-rolled-up Lieutenant John Chard, Royal Engineers, having to take command in desperate circumstances by virtue of a few months seniority over snooty my-grandfather-was-a-general Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead. |
| 85 | * In ''Film/TheEnglishPatient'' Creator/JulietteBinoche’s character’s LoveInterest is an Indian sapper played by Naveen Andrews. |
| 86 | * Neil's profession as an engineer is a major focus in ''Film/FirstMan'' and one of the reasons he's chosen to be an astronaut. One of the military pilot candidates refers to him as an "egghead," which sounds amusingly odd given that the audience has already seen him as an AcePilot. |
| 87 | * Private Hudson in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. He is responsible for most of the technical work in the colonial marine squad, including hacking the colony's main gate, operating the motion sensor, and setting up the automated gun turrets. |
| 88 | * The LI in ''Film/DasBoot''. Underneath him is Johann, the chief mechanic who is absolutely obsessed with the U-boat's diesel engines. |
| 89 | * ''Film/SavingTheTitanic'' tells the story of the titular ship's engineering crew, as they work to buy time for help to arrive after the collision. |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 93 | * ''Literature/ConradStargard'' is about how a single 20th century engineer thrown back to 13th century Poland manages to introduce heavy industry. |
| 94 | %%* Engineer is a character class in the original ''Literature/DreamPark'', and S.J. Waters's character class. |
| 95 | * ''Literature/TheEngineerTrilogy'' by Creator/KJParker features an engineer as the central character. Set in an alternate MiddleAges, engineering pervades the story: design, manufacture the application of machines (particularly war machines) are all tightly interwoven into the plot. Ziani Vaatzes, the titular engineer is a subtly [[TheChessmaster terrifying genius]] who [[BatmanGambit applies]] his deep understanding of mechanics to manipulate everything from people to empires to achieve his own ends. |
| 96 | * Creator/HarryHarrison's "The Ethical Engineer" -- of course a double entendre regarding 1) the behavior of the protagonist, and 2) the things he was engineering. |
| 97 | * Hugh Farnham, the protagonist of ''Literature/FarnhamsFreehold'', had been an acting Lieutenant Commander in charge of a Seabee battalion during WWII building runways in the Pacific. When the war ended, he resigned from the Navy rather than return to his permanent rank of CPO. He started a successful home building firm based on his expertise. |
| 98 | * Malakai Makaison from the ''Literature/GotrekAndFelix'' novels is a Dwarven engineer [[DeathSeeker Slayer]] who hauls around such exotic weapons as a Gatling gun, grenades, and a rocket launcher. He also built an airship that plays a major role in several novels. |
| 99 | * The novel of life in the Royal Navy, ''Literature/HMSLeviathan'', has Commander(E) who keeps his head down, stays out of the office politics in the wardroom, and focuses on keeping the ship running, usually from a long way below decks. |
| 100 | * The Chief Engineer variant shows up a lot in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series since every ship has one in charge of the Engineering Department. |
| 101 | * While there are no major Engineer characters in Creator/JohnRingo's ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'' -- at least after the first significant Earth landing -- the Posleen nonetheless quickly learn to fear the sigil of the US Army Corps of Engineers thanks to their ''other'' specialty, explosive devices. |
| 102 | %%* Master Klopp in Scott Westerfeld's ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}''. |
| 103 | * Not a military example, but Mimi Ma from ''Literature/TheOverstory'' is an engineer who joins an environmental activist group, and is accordingly assigned the tasks of building forts and barricades for them, and later doubling as the DemolitionsExpert when their actions grow [[EcoTerrorist more radical.]] |
| 104 | * Julio Poertena from the ''Literature/PrinceRoger'' series by Creator/DavidWeber and Creator/JohnRingo maintains all of the gear used by the titular prince's bodyguard unit, from plasma cannons to PoweredArmor. |
| 105 | * ''Literature/ReleaseThatWitch'': Roland was a mechanical engineer by trade in his former life, and he uses his knowledge of the field and other random knowledge from years of studying various subjects for fun to help him design guns, engines, factories, and so forth. |
| 106 | * Daylen in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror'' eagerly took to his father's work, becoming an engineer as well. In his setting, that would have meant finding new uses for the {{Magitek}} of the world in peacetime ... but when Daylen later founded [[IndustrializedEvil the Dawn Empire]], he turned his skills to designing engines of war instead, eventually becoming an EmperorScientist. |
| 107 | * Captain Hogan (later promoted) from the ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'' novels is combat engineer and spymaster for UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington. |
| 108 | * Orhan, the protagonist and narrator of ''Literature/SixteenWaysToDefendAWalledCity'' is an experienced army engineer who needs to defend his city (never named, but pretty clearly Constantinople) from an enormous hostile army that has already wiped out the rest of Orhan’s own army. |
| 109 | * In ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'', Johnnie is enthusiastic upon learning he may be interacting the engineering corps on a mission. He states the unit's mottos ("Can do!" and "First we dig 'em, then we die in 'em.") to be literal truth, even calling out their bravery under fire. High praise indeed, from an [[BadassArmy MI]]. |
| 110 | ** Also Johnnie's regular duties with the Roughnecks between drops was assisting the platoon armorer to maintain the power suits, makimg them both equivalent to the unit's mechaniccs. |
| 111 | * In ''Literature/TeamYankee'', the titular unit encounters a company of combat engineers during a night march who are repairing a bridge they need to cross. When the repairs are completed, the engineers direct them to cross the bridge one tank at a time so as not to cause additional damage. Engineers are also sometimes mentioned as having prepared defensive positions the team is occupying, such as during the defense of the Langen Gap, where a company of engineers also lays mines and digs an antitank ditch prior to the battle. |
| 112 | * Creator/JulesVerne's books are an ode to the Engineers. Expect every major character to be one. |
| 113 | * Leo Graf in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' novel ''Falling Free'': At first he wonders what he can do, as just an engineer, to save the Quaddies from their plight, but then he realizes that it ''is'' an engineering problem, and that he's just the engineer to solve it. |
| 114 | [[/folder]] |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 117 | * ''Series/The100'': The delinquents sent down to Earth would have been pretty screwed if expert mechanic Raven wasn't sent down to join them; she's responsible for building almost everything the 100 need to survive, chiefly of the blowing-stuff-up variety. Monty fills this role to a lesser extent in Season 1, but becomes more prominent as the engineer inside Mount Weather in Season 2. That season also sees Wick joining Raven as an engineering buddy. |
| 118 | * BA fills this role for ''Series/TheATeam''. Mainly he's the Mechanic, but he's also the go-to guy for building small electronics like listening devices. |
| 119 | * Episodes of ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' have shown the Army Corps Of Engineers helping infantry and cavalry move. Also makes it an example of TruthInTelevision. |
| 120 | * In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', Barry Garner, former chief engineer, is promoted to commander of battlestar ''Pegasus'' after the death of Commander Fisk. In a bit of a subversion, his way of running the ship is to obsessively micromanage every bit of the crew, and nearly leads to ''Pegasus''' destruction after he blindly jumps into an ambush. [[PercussiveMaintenance He saves the ship by hitting its malfunctioning FTL drive with a wrench,]] [[RedemptionEqualsDeath dying from lack of oxygen in the engine room.]] |
| 121 | -->'''Admiral Adama''': In your opinion, off the record, what was Garner's flaw? |
| 122 | -->'''Major Lee Adama''': He was used to working with machines. Command is about people. |
| 123 | ** Chief Galen Tyrol also exemplifies this, particularly "The Mechanic". He spends most of his appearances fixing one thing or another (usually vipers), is very possessive of the vipers, and has an entire crop of newbies to mentor. The few times he does go into combat mode, it's like watching Gordon Freeman. Then there's the time when he put together a working stealth fighter out of spare parts... |
| 124 | * ''Series/DangerUXB'' is a case of the engineer as protagonist. Lt Brian Ash is an engineering student who GotVolunteered into the command of a BombDisposal section in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. |
| 125 | * ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' has Charlie, a Fire Department fleet mechanic and he ''really'' gets annoyed when the firefighters [[DoomItYourself try doing his job themselves]]. |
| 126 | * ''Series/TheExpanse'': Amos the ship's mechanic frequently risks his life to keep the [[CoolStarship Rocinante]] flying. |
| 127 | ** Naomi Nagata. She's so used to things needing constant upkeep that suddenly finding herself on an advanced military vessel leaves her idle and frustrated. |
| 128 | ** The Belters as a whole. Owning to the dangers of full-time living and working in space and on rickety spaceships and stations, being mildly obsessive about maintenance and having at least some knowledge of various aspects of engineering is pretty much a requirement for survival. |
| 129 | * WrenchWench Kaylee serves as this aboard ''[[{{Series/Firefly}} Serenity]]'', a ship that can barely even hold together. |
| 130 | * In ''Series/{{Helix}}'', the CDC's army liaison, Major Sergio Balleseros, is from USAMRIID and a member of the Army Corps of Engineers. He identifies himself as a systems engineer, who's job it is to analyze building infrastructure to discern structural methods of viral transmission, balancing out the CDC's team of biologically-oriented scientists. He explains to one of the CDC's team that his skillset means he doesn't see a lot of combat. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | * The multitude of engineering officers in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe. They've proven their worth many times over. |
| 133 | ** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': The first and most famous example was Scotty. Much like Kirk, he's become a legend even within his own universe. The character made such an impression that he's remembered through PopCulturalOsmosis alongside [[PowerTrio The Big Three]] of ''TOS'', and it's impossible to imagine the show without him, even though [[WhatCouldHaveBeen he almost wasn't a part of it at all]]. Creator/GeneRoddenberry didn't have any interest in having an engineer on the ship, and Creator/JamesDoohan (among others) had to convince him otherwise. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqedcvB8MKw In one interview]], Doohan claimed that 50% of the students attending at least one university's engineering program went into the field because of Scotty. |
| 134 | *** Legend has it that the only thing that was the same in the ''Enterprise'''s tech manuals and the manufacturer's originals was the line "Warranties void if evidence of tampering is discovered." |
| 135 | ** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': |
| 136 | *** Geordi La Forge from Season 2 onward served as Chief Engineer. He uses his VISOR to help distinguish problems no one else can see, spends his free time helping Data with side projects and tinkering, and once worked with Scotty to get a 75-year-old crashed derelict up and running to save the ''Enterprise''. The writers described him as the kind of guy "who fumbles around women, but is in love with his '57 Chevy." |
| 137 | *** Before transferring to Deep Space 9, Miles O'Brien was firmly established as ''Enterprise'''s top expert on the transporter systems, and is implied to be the lead CPO of the department. When Picard is thrown back in time to relive the events of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E1EncounterAtFarpoint the pilot episode]] in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings All Good Things...]]", he's finds that ''Enterprise'' is having engine troubles, but the ship's chief engineer hasn't come aboard yet. To save himself some time and hassle, he immediately puts O'Brien in charge of the engine room, despite his not yet actually being a member of the engineering staff. |
| 138 | ** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': |
| 139 | *** Miles O'Brien is the station's Chief of Operations, which is the equivalent of a Chief Engineer. Miles has an almost intuitive knack for machines which is brought out best by difficult circumstances. He even states that the perfect condition of the ''Enterprise'' bored him, and that he much prefers the many troubles and challenges that the station poses. |
| 140 | *** There's also [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Rom]], the [[TheDitz dim-witted]] Ferengi who's [[GeniusDitz something of a savant when it comes to machines]]. His son Nog seems to have inherited some of his mechanical aptitude here, seeing as he was made a [[spoiler:Starfleet]] Engineer. |
| 141 | *** Indeed, the engineers have attained a WorthyAdversary status amongst the Dominion Vorta officers, one of whom claims to have heard that Starfleet Engineers can turn "rocks into replicators" in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E02RocksAndShoals Rocks and Shoals]]". |
| 142 | *** While his primary role on the station is TheCaptain, Benjamin Sisko started his Starfleet career as an engineer. He served as Chief Engineer of the USS ''Okinawa'' before becoming that vessel's first officer. Later he helped design the ''Defiant'' class of starship and oversaw construction of the [[FlawedPrototype prototype]] which he would eventually command. |
| 143 | ** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': [[WrenchWench B'Elanna Torres]] is a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Klingon]], former Maquis Engineer who's a genius at working with limited resources and coming up with creative shortcuts. Janeway's original choice for chief engineer is Starfleet Lt. Joe Carey, but B'Elanna is promoted as a way of integrating the Maquis into the ship's crew, but also because she figures out how to solve the problem when they're trapped in a black hole, when Carey can't. |
| 144 | *** Then there's Ensign Harry Kim, fresh out of Starfleet Academy, who's nonetheless quite a gifted Engineer with particular talents for designing technical specifications and holo-technology. |
| 145 | *** Seven of Nine, who, while more of a scientist, is still relied upon to perform mechanical tasks on many occasions. |
| 146 | *** Tom Paris is also rather skilled at Engineering, at least when it comes to propulsion and other flight-related issues. An AcePilot who [[AMasterMakesTheirOwnTools designs his own shuttlecraft]] kind of has to be a skilled Engineer as well. |
| 147 | ** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': |
| 148 | *** [[SouthernFriedGenius Trip Tucker]] helped build the engine that powers the ''Enterprise''. |
| 149 | *** Tactical officer Malcolm Reed has a fair amount of engineering skills of his own, usually applied to building things that blow other things up. |
| 150 | ** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': |
| 151 | *** USS ''Discovery'' is a special case, since it has a prototype experimental drive alongside the usual impulse and warp drives. The drive's designer, Paul Stamets, is assigned to ''Discovery'', and an onscreen graphic in 1x05 "Choose Your Pain" identifies him as "Chief Engineer", but it's not known if Stamets also serves that function for ''Discovery'''s impulse and warp engines--and the producers, when interviewed in the "Ready Room" behind-the-scenes show, have since said that the "Chief Engineer" graphic was a mistake or at the very most applies to the spore drive ''only''. |
| 152 | *** Season 2 introduces [[WrenchWench Jett Reno]], the chief engineer of a crashed Starfleet vessel who has rigged together life-support systems for the injured survivors, floating drones that can navigate the chaotic gravity of the asteroid, and can use her engineering skills to ''perform surgery''. Starfleet engineering training at its finest! She is later transferred to ''Discovery'' and, though she's definitely part of the engineering team (and outranks Stamets, until he's promoted between seasons 3 and 4), it's not clear what her actual role is. Presumably she's now the Chief Engineer of everything that isn't the spore drive, having taken over from either Stamets or another never-seen engineer who'd been performing the functions before her arrival. |
| 153 | ** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': Ian is the Emergency Engineering Hologram on ''La Sirena'', and in his introductory scene, he's working on the ship's engines. |
| 154 | ** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'': While we know that Scotty will take over as chief engineer of the ''Enterprise'' eventually, this prequel series shows us some of his predecessors: |
| 155 | *** Lt. Hemmer, an Aenar (Andorian subspecies) who ran the ''Enterprise'' engine room off of pure uncut snark |
| 156 | *** Cmdr. Pelia, a Lanthanite (human-like but near-immortal alien) notable for deducing within seconds not only that the ''Enterprise'' crew were planning to steal their docked starship for an unauthorized mission, but how they planned to do it... and then helping them pull it off, because she was bored and it was something to do. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 160 | * Agent Engineer in ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG''. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 164 | * In the boardgame of ''Battlestar Galactica'', this is (unsurprisingly) the role of Chief Galen Tyrol. His unique ability is to take another action after using a Repair card, and since he draws 3 Engineering cards a turn (where all the Repairs are located), he'll get them a lot. His second action can be anything from using Consolidate Power (a Politics card that allows him to draw 2 cards of any skill), to giving someone else a turn with Executive Order, to using the Weapons Control he just fixed to shoot down an enemy basestar. If the game is going well and you don't get many chances to use said Repair cards, he gets a little boring, but in the middle of a high action situation, nobody shines brighter. |
| 165 | * The oft-ignored campaign rules for ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' include provisions for maintenance of the [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]], with each 'Mech lance/star requiring both a certain number of Techs and [=AsTechs=] and a certain amount of money and downtime for repairs and general upkeep. This often makes up a bigger part of the stories in the [[Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse related novels]] than it generally does in actual gameplay, however. |
| 166 | ** In the ''Tactical Operations'' optional rules, Combat Engineer infantry platoons can be deployed for building or demolishing bridges or fortifications, firefighting, clearing mines, or operating remote sensors. |
| 167 | * In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' this shows up with the Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) skill. This skill is basically a character's knowledge regarding Engineering. An example from the System Reference Document: "''A weakened ceiling can be spotted with a DC 20 Knowledge (architecture and engineering) or DC 20 Craft (stonemasonry) check''". Other specifically mentioned examples are "identifying weakness in a stronghold"[[note]]''Complete Warrior'', p122[[/note]] and "design and build a ship"[[note]]''Stormwrack'', p85[[/note]]. If the player is smart, and good at coming up with wacky ideas, the Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) skill can be ''incredibly'' useful. A good example of an in-combat use for this skill, courtesy of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html Working out how many pillars can be "accidentally" knocked out during a fight with an enemy before the roof starts to come down on top of it]]. |
| 168 | ** This skill can also be a major annoyance to [=DM=]s who send their players into dungeons very often. For example, the skill can identify that there is sufficient space missing around the staircase that there may be another room in there. This might be a clue to a secret door, a hidden trapdoor in the floor above, or a hiding place for a monster set to ambush the [=PC=]s on the stairs. In addition, if a player has 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering), they get a +2 bonus on Search checks made to find secret doors or hidden compartments. |
| 169 | * Creator/GamesWorkshop games: |
| 170 | ** In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', the Kharadron Overlords have the Endrinriggers and Endrinmasters of the Endrineers Guild are talented combat engineers whose job it is to keep their sky-vessels flying as well as defend it from any enemies and monsters that would attack it. |
| 171 | ** ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 172 | *** The Adeptus Mechanicus are a pseudo-scientific/religious order that placates the "machine spirits" of tanks and devices with a mixture of prayer and consecrated engine oil. They are very competent at their jobs despite appearances, however, and even a basic Enginseer usually has a cutting torch and servo-arm that make for one hell of a [[ImprovisedWeapon improvised]] [[KillItWithFire meltagun]]. |
| 173 | *** Techmarines are Space Marines with a dual loyalty to both their chapter and the Adeptus Mechanicus, and are charged with maintaining their battle-brothers' equipment. On the tabletop they can repair damaged vehicles and bolster the defences of ruined structures, or since they're [[GeniusBruiser just as tough and lethal as their comrades]], blast apart the foe with ancient [[DeathRay conversion beamers]] or quad-barreled field artillery. |
| 174 | *** Among the original Space Marine legions, the Imperial Fists and the Iron Warriors are combat engineering specialists, in particular focusing on siege warfare, both in the construction and demolition of fortification as well as in the use of siege weaponry. |
| 175 | *** The Salamanders, however, ascribe to the Promethean Cult and its principles of self-reliance, emulating their primarch's background as a blacksmith. Since all battle-brothers maintain their own equipment, this leaves the chapters' Techmarines free to make technological wonders for the Salamanders' armory. |
| 176 | *** In the Chaos forces, Warpsmiths fill this role. They're basically Techmarines, only evil, and almost to a man they're obsessed with nailing meat, metal and daemonic essence together. |
| 177 | *** The [[RedShirtArmy Imperial Guard]] has Enginseers, Tech-Priests attached to the unit specifically to maintain their equipment. Like Techmarines they can perform battlefield repairs, though they aren't quite as effective in combat as [[PowerArmor power-armored]] {{super soldier}}s. |
| 178 | *** Among the multitudes of Imperial Guard regiments, this is the hat of the Death Korps of Krieg (aside from [[MartyrdomCulture suicidal dedication to the Emperor]]). They're specialists in siege a trench warfare, and expert sappers often called to be the ones to take down or break through enemy fortifications. [[ShovelStrike They're also notoriously skilled at bludgeoning enemies to death with entrenching tools]]. |
| 179 | *** The [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]] have Mekboyz, whose hard-wired mechanical knowledge allows them to construct all manner of smoke-belching vehicles or ramshackle weaponry, from [[MiniMecha Deff Dreads]] to [[TeleFrag Shokk Attack Gunz]] to [[HumongousMecha Gargants]]. They may not be able to tell you precisely how their devices function -- and indeed, some of their crazier creations may only work [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because the Meks think they should]] -- but they can get a disabled Battlewagon rolling by [[PercussiveMaintenance whacking it with a hammer]] and screaming at it. |
| 180 | *** Although [[HufflepuffHouse they have little-if-any representation in-game]], in the background material the [[FantasticCasteSystem Earth Caste]] fill this role for the Tau. The Farsight Enclaves, isolated from the main Tau colonies and military doctrine, sometimes take the unusual step of putting Earth Caste technicians in their [[HumongousMecha XV-105 Riptide Battlesuits]]. The Earth Caste pilots are much better at handling the mech's [[ExplosiveOverclocking Nova reactor]] and are more accurate at range [[AwesomenessByAnalysis thanks to their physics-heavy training]], but are [[CripplingOverspecialization even worse at close combat]] than ordinary Tau. |
| 181 | * Nearly any character in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' can fit the bill here, but special recognition goes to the Artificers, a whole organization of [[MadScientist Mad Engineers]]. |
| 182 | * Subverted in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': each Troubleshooter team generally has a designated Equipment Guy (among other Mandatory Bonus Duties), but it doesn't mean he's any good (especially when The Computer assigns roles based on ''who needs the most practice''). |
| 183 | * The most common archetype to pick up this role in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' will be [[DroneDeployer rigger]], who, among other things to do has to maintain both the team vehicle(s) and his [[AttackDrone multitude of]] [[SurveillanceDrone various drones]]. Quite some of these 'runners will also be rather capable in maintaining and modifying other gear as well, working with explosives, etc (especially in editions where such skills are necessary for modifications of aforementioned vehicles and drones). Sometime, the team hacker will know a thing or two about this as well, though they tend to keep themselves mostly to electronic gear team uses. |
| 184 | * Experts in ''TabletopGame/StarsWithoutNumber'' start out well-equipped to be this, especially if they pick the background packages that tie into engineering stuff like "Technician". Of course, they can also be statted into heavily social traders, but given SWN's heavy use of space travel it's rare to find a group where the first Expert is anything other than the navigation/engineering/tech support guy. |
| 185 | [[/folder]] |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 188 | * Any Engineer unit in any squad-based game, quite common in {{FPS}} games. |
| 189 | * Practically every {{RTS}} ever has at least one unit to build your base/defences or repair things. They may also double as the workers for its CommandAndConquerEconomy. |
| 190 | ** This is especially true to ''Earth 2150''. The ED Gruz and the UCS Mammoth can both carry out tasks like digging trenches and tunnels, building bridges and walls, etc. |
| 191 | ** The custom-map-only Engineer (but available in some [=WW1=] and 2 missions) unit in ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'' can repair buildings as well as construct bunkers and (pathetically weak) barbed wire fences. |
| 192 | * Tasuku Takato from ''VideoGame/{{A3}}'' is not only the resident MrFixit but also has been known to craft various devices to help Mankai Company members with their role study. Examples include a laser trap and an umbrella that is capable of shooting party poppers. |
| 193 | * Andy from ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars''. His [[LimitBreak CO Power]] heals and buffs all his troops. |
| 194 | * In ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', there is an Engineer class which can focus on miscellaneous benefits, including increase in hacking speed, better grenade usage, more ammo/health that can be taken from dead enemies, etc. It may not seem like much, but it adds up. |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/AMCSquad'' has Micky C, an engineer from [[AwesomeAussie Australia]] who joins the AMC Squad out of a desire to participate in their operations. He fights in the [[PoweredArmor S.M.A.R.T. Suit]], uses a mix of firearms and experimental tech to combat enemy forces, and can even deploy a SentryGun a la [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Engineer]]. His special ability even allows him to reuse toolboxes indefinitely, in contrast to every other agent using the toolbox only once. |
| 196 | * ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' has Dr Rho Bowman, who employs weaponized scientific principles in battle and is your go-to girl for any advanced devices that needs to be messed with. |
| 197 | * Creator/LeonardoDaVinci plays this role in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII''. He shows some HEAVY [[MadScientist mad scientist tendencies]], inventing a FLYING MACHINE and all... |
| 198 | ** TruthInTelevision, the flying machine was based on sketches Leonardo made in his notebooks. [[RuleOfCool On the other hand, those sketches never actually produced something that really worked...]] |
| 199 | *** It's heavily implied in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' that he deliberately put flaws in his sketches after being forced by the Borgias to build them advanced weapons. |
| 200 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' has a myriad of mechanically proficient characters: |
| 201 | ** Storyline-wise, Moxxi, Scooter and Ellie play the role of the mechanic for the protagonists at some point in the Borderlands franchise. All of them are mechanical genii who are (at least in part) responsible for most of the technology the Vault Hunters use and encounter in their travels. |
| 202 | ** Each game usually features a playable character or two whose action skill centres around deploying some robot or automated assistance in combat. Roland and Axton [[TheTurretMaster both deploy turrets]], [[DroneDeployer Wilhelm and Zane deploy Drones]], Gaige summons her Deathtrap and Moze can climb into her [[MiniMecha Iron Bear mech]]. |
| 203 | ** The Crimson Lance Engineer enemy summons a turret to help them out similar to Roland. It's stated in the [[AllThereInTheManual Official Guide]] that Roland was a former Crimson Lance Engineer. |
| 204 | ** Combat Engineers are common mooks in Hyperion occupied areas and come equipped with exosuits that offer them more offensive capabilities than your average bandit gunner. |
| 205 | * Eddie Riggs of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', in an unusual example of The Engineer being the protagonist. Sure, he can fight, drive, lead armies [[spoiler:and turn into an ass-kicking demon]], but the main reason he's so valuable to the Ironheade army is his knowledge of mechanics and capacity for building stuff. He's a perfect example of how Engineers help turn the tide of battle through usage of technology. Later in the game, Mangus and Jack (the Headbanger with the hydraulic car jack of death) are examples as well. |
| 206 | * Lucca from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger.'' She invents a teleporter and a device to control time portals, she built a prototype battle robot, and she can repair more advanced robots from over a thousand years in the future -- all despite coming from a kingdom that's still using steam-powered ships. |
| 207 | * ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' had the much-hated [[DemonicSpiders Malta]] Engineers, who can summon a durable gun turret unless beaten immediately. The Sky Raiders' Engineers summoned an equally-annoying force-field generator. Players could use these powers as well, through the Devices and Traps powersets. (Devices had the gun drone; Traps had the force-field generator, as well as an acid turret, explosive drones, and a healing turret). |
| 208 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'', the Engineer is a vital upgrade to the Settler class, able to build roads, railways, irrigation canals, mines, and cities twice as fast. |
| 209 | * Engineers in ''VideoGame/CivilWarGenerals 2'' build and remove obstructions, fortifications, and bridges, but are poor fighters. |
| 210 | * In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' titles, engineers are used to either sabotage/capture enemy structures or instantly repair one's own. |
| 211 | ** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'', the engineer in fact became the lynchpin of the cheapest tactic in the game. In what essentially becomes a great all-or-nothing game of chicken, if one puts 100% of their resources into making engineers and storms the other base before they have enough time to prepare defenses it is possible to convert the entire enemy base to your own, thus winning instantly and within minutes of starting. Conventional attacks in this early-game phase do not work at all due to buildings having sufficient hitpoints. On the flip side, this can be countered by pouring all your resources into defense, which leaves a deficiency in technology... |
| 212 | ** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade'''s multiplayer, Engineers are indispensable: they can help defend and maintain the base, repair vehicles, and are an essential component in any APC raid on an enemy base. Just ''try'' playing a game without making use of them at all. |
| 213 | ** The ''Aftermath'' expansion to the original ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' added Mechanics. While not ''essential'' to the maintainance of vehicles -- since one of the prerequisite buildings to train mechanics had the purpose of repairing vehicles -- they could be useful by both being able to repair units on the front ''and'' not draining money while doing so. Given the advantage the Soviet tanks had over Allied units, every little bit helped. |
| 214 | ** ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'' gives each faction a mechanically separate engineer, though they're all amphibious and used to capture/repair buildings. |
| 215 | *** The Allied Engineer doubles as a field medic, deploying a first-aid tent to regenerate nearby friendly infantry. |
| 216 | *** The Soviet Combat Engineer has a pathetically weak gun and can build a bunker that stores up to 5 infantry. It doesn't require energy like base defenses, but it's still vulnerable to garrison-clearing weapons. |
| 217 | ** The Imperial Engineer is a {{Salaryman}} with no defense except speed, able to suddenly sprint away but needing to rest afterwards. |
| 218 | * In ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'', regular American Engineers and Wehrmacht Pioneers constitute each side's starting units, and while they aren't very impressive as-is, they can get a big firepower boost once upgraded with [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]]. Not to mention, their repair abilities make them absolutely vital to any armored campaign. The British and the Panzer Elite in the expansion pack play with the trope a little: ''every'' jack-of-all-trades Panzergrenadier is an engineer as well as an experienced soldier. The Brits split the difference -- their basic infantry build basic defences while the dedicated Sappers don't arrive for a while but build ''[[StoneWall really good]]'' defences and repair stuff faster than their opponents. Each individual British Engineer is just as good at fighting as a British Rifleman, with the Rifle Section only being superior due to have an extra soldier, grenades, and access to the Bren LMG, though the Engineers make up for it by having access to the PIAT anti-tank weapon and by being [[BraveScot Scottish]]. |
| 219 | * Max from ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'' is an engineer. The gameplay based around him doing a MacGyvering, building robots, upgrading, and customizing weapons. He's also using a wrench as his weapon. |
| 220 | * In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'', the unit type you start with in multiplayer can repair. That is it for going into the trope for them, as they are otherwise just supposed to fight; aside from the Eldar Guardians and Imperial Guardsmen who can build cover. The SpaceMarine Techmarine and Ork Mekboy commanders are definite ''Combat Engineers'' though, being capable of getting some impressive ranged weapons, creating turrets and some interesting tech abilities. |
| 221 | ** Imperial Guard Enginseers in the expansions to the first game are the toughest builders available. Other factions tended to use various types of slaves or drones or other squishy units. |
| 222 | * Nick Ramos, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/DeadRising3'' and an auto mechanic, is another example of a leading Engineer. While Chuck Greene had the ability to construct Combo Weapons before him, Nick doesn't require a workbench to combine materials, as well as being able to create Combo Vehicles. |
| 223 | * Isaac Clarke of ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' is another protagonist engineer. His partly-armoured spacesuit is designed to allow him to work in extremely hazardous environments. As it turns out, said armour also helps protect him against undead monsters. What's more, some of his tools prove more useful against [[OurZombiesAreDifferent the creatures]] than 'actual' weapons. Take his trusty Plasma Cutter -- designed to cut through Starship hulls, it makes short work of mere fleshy, albeit mutated and monstrous, limbs. |
| 224 | ** After being mostly an InformedAbility in the first game, Isaac gets to show off his engineering chops fully in the second game, [[GadgeteerGenius fashioning]] a plasma cutter and stasis module out of [[MacGyvering jury-rigged]] surgical tools salvaged from a hospital, as well as hacking various machinery during his travel through The Sprawl. |
| 225 | ** In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', Isaac uses his technical know-how to create his own customised weapons from salvaged materials. |
| 226 | * ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'': |
| 227 | ** The Engineer is the most straightforward example, being the {{Gadgeteer Genius}}-flavored class. This [[TheTurretMaster Turret Master]] can build sentry guns to lock down control of an area, potentially supplemented by proximity mines or reprogrammed Shredder {{attack drone}}s, but the Engineer also boasts a Platform Gun that fires blobs of "plascrete" that rapidly expand into horizontal discs upon impact with a surface. This allows an Engineer to make ledges high on the cave walls that a Scout can grapple up to in order to mine hard-to-reach minerals, create staircases the team can use to scale cliffs, fire a chain of platforms to make a bridge across a chasm, fill in gaps in the floor or ceiling, block off passages, and so on. |
| 228 | ** The Driller, meanwhile, more closely fits the skillset of a military pioneer or sapper. Every dwarf carries a pickaxe that can destroy terrain, but the Driller sports two large handheld power drills that let him [[FastTunnelling rip through solid rock as fast as he walks]]. A Driller can make a DungeonBypass to the DropPod or other hard-to-reach areas, flatten terrain to give his team better firing lines, dig trenches or bunkers, dig out some elbow room around an objective to be defended, and so forth. He also carries high-explosive {{satchel charge}}s that do immense damage to terrain and enemies... and teammates, if he's not careful. |
| 229 | ** The two remaining classes, the Gunner and Scout, are more focused on combat and movement, respectively, but still carry items that support the team. A Gunner can set up ziplines to reach out-of-the-way places, letting his team quickly descend cliffs or cross chasms in safety (so long as no enemy is spitting acid at them), and in combat can throw down shield generators to provide a temporary safe zone. While every dwarf carries glowsticks for illumination, the Scout has a flare gun capable of lighting up an entire cavern, which can be critical in spotting Cave Leeches on the ceiling. |
| 230 | ** Certain missions demand a degree of mechanical ability from ''any'' dwarf assigned, regardless of class. On-Site Refining requires the team to build and maintain pipelines between what is essentially an oil refinery and several pumps, while Salvage missions have the dwarves gathering the parts to rebuild broken equipment, which includes the Drop Pod they use to leave the cave. Additionally, any dwarf can aid an Engineer in building their turrets to get them up quicker. Lastly, all DRG employees are responsible for the maintainence and upgrading of their own equipment, such as by using a futuristic forge to expand the abilities of fully-upgraded weapons even further with overclocks (or just new beard options). |
| 231 | * ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has the Demon Hunter class, which, while mostly focused on archery and shadow magic skills, also has several abilities that give them an Engineer vibe. For instance, they can drop an automatic sentry ballista, hurl grenades of various kinds, and set complex traps to slow and damage foes. One of their passive abilities, which improves their Sentry and traps, is even called "Custom Engineering." |
| 232 | ** ''VideoGame/DiabloII'''s Assassin can also specialize in creating traps and sentries to destroy her opposition. |
| 233 | * ''VideoGame/DirtyBomb'': All of the Objective Specialist Mercs in the game can complete Arm, Disarm, and Repair objectives faster than any other Merc. [[note]]One thing to note -- Engineers are the only support class for whom there is no free Merc for all players to start out with. To compensate, there is always one engie in the game's Free Rotation.[[/note]] |
| 234 | ** Proxy's shotguns (and one submachine gun) and machine pistols (or Desert Eagle) are nothing to scoff at, and with one of the fastest movement speeds in the game, she can function as a fast-attack class. However, with 90 HP, Proxy is so GlassCannon her official profile mentions the trope by name. Her special ability is to drop proximity mines that, once they arm, produce the most powerful non-Fire Support explosion in the game when tripped. |
| 235 | ** Fletcher is a popular pick amongst pro players thanks to his [[LightningBruiser 110 HP, only slightly slower movement speed, and access to the deadly Sticky Bombs.]] These stickies can [[PineappleSurprise stick to enemies]] or surfaces and are remote-detonated by Fletcher manually. |
| 236 | ** Bushwhacker packs along a fast-deploying SentryGun for the ride. This, combined with his use of the game's best submachine gun, mean he can set up [[MoreDakka deadly crossfires]] on offense or defense. |
| 237 | ** Turtle is the only engineer with a purely defensive ability as he deploys a one-way shield that blocks enemy's bullets. |
| 238 | * A protagonist engineer appears in the expansion pack for ''VideoGame/Doom3''. |
| 239 | * In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', rogues can take the Artificer specialization, which focuses on building and using complex traps and mines. |
| 240 | * The Mechanic from ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'' is an example. He has the basic attack skills of the original Gunner, with the added bonus of several robots that he can send out to fight for him, such as a turret emplacement, a small exploding 'bot, and a floating gun that follows him and shoots blue energy orbs, or it can turn into a set of 3 hovering droids that zap enemies with electricty or a group of circling laser guns. The female version focuses more on the floating helpers, while the male version prefers to [[StuffBlowingUp blow everything up with the exploding robots and turrets.]] |
| 241 | * In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', having to manage nearly all aspects of running a fortress means you have to account for every element of logistics, from making/buying the equipment to building a defensible fortress, resulting in several support dwarves serving this role. And following the historical usage of the word engineer, you can have [[SiegeEngines siege engineers]] setting up catapults and balistae. |
| 242 | * Jeff from ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' uses guns as primary weapons, and instead of having PSI attacks like the other party members, he is the only one able to use some kinds of items, like rockets. Also, he is able to fix broken items. |
| 243 | * Most games in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series give the protagonist the option to develop some amount of engineering skill, but it's especially prominent in ''VideoGame/Fallout4''. By mid-game, you'll be modding your equipment, maintaining your own suit of PoweredArmor, and building settlements from the ground up and linking them together in a supply chain spanning the Commonwealth. One DLC gives you the option of tinkering with your RobotBuddy companions or even building a new one. |
| 244 | * The Worker in ''VideoGame/FatPrincess''. Not only are they absolutely ''essential'' for harvesting resources and upgrading structures, general consensus actually has them as the game's best combat unit. A team composed of upgraded Workers and [[TheMedic Priests]] supporting them is pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut. |
| 245 | * Most of incarnations of the character "Cid" in ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' are engineers, except for ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII VIII]]'' (who's a headmaster of a MilitaryAcademy) and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII XIII]]'' (who's a commander of Main/LaResistance). |
| 246 | ** In [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI I]], Cid of the Lufaine is a background character known as a legendary scientist who built the first airship. |
| 247 | ** In ''IV'', Cid Pollendina is the inventor and head maintenance guy for Baron's airship fleet and makes various upgrades to the party's airships. Fittingly, his weapon during his stint as a party member is a hammer. He's also a bit of a ParentalSubstitute for Cecil and Rosa. |
| 248 | ** In ''V'', Cid Previa is the inventor of the crystal amplifiers (something he is not proud of) and refurbishes several vehicles, including an ancient airship, for the party. |
| 249 | ** Cid del Norte Marquez of ''VI'' is distinctly darker, as he's the creator of {{Magitek}} -- something which relies on draining the life-force of sentient magical beings. Like Cid Previa, he repents of this. |
| 250 | ** Cid Bunansa of ''XII'' is head of Draklor Laboratory, TheEmpire's airship/weaponry/nethicite research facility. He is firmly on the antagonist side and has a propensity for pulling oversized war machines out of his pocket to fight the party. |
| 251 | ** Cid nan Garlond, of ''XIV'', is a gifted engineer who joins with Eorzea in their fight against the Garlean Empire. In addition, the ''Heavensward'' expansion allows players access to the Machinst class, which lets them fight with a combination of high-tech guns and automated turrets. |
| 252 | ** King Edgar Figaro of ''VI'' is also an example of the trope. His mechanical, sand-diving, transforming castle just by itself is an example of how incredibly COOL an Engineer can be. |
| 253 | * ''VideoGame/{{Forge}}'''s Tinker class is a fairly rare fantasy-setting example. Her abilities are all about building traps or barricades, and naturally she also has a turret she can deploy to distract enemies or support allies. |
| 254 | * The Robotics class from ''VideoGame/GlobalAgenda'' can be pretty much any type listed at the top of the page. They can carry multiple types of turrets, semi-automated killer drones, stations that provide health and energy to their team, force fields and giant mobile suits. They can buff and repair anything mechanical with ease, and are the best or only choice for using a vast array of field gear in a particular gameplay type. The only things limiting them are a limited number of stat points, forcing them to choose a specialty, and being able to only carry three devices at any given time. Like many classes in this game, the Robotics class can best be described as the VideoGame/TeamFortress2 engineer [[RecycledInSpace in space]]. Well, "in space". |
| 255 | * ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' features the Engineer as a playable class. They have access to pistols, rifles, and shields as equippable weapons; [[DemolitionsExpert grenades, bombs]], and [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]] from their tool kits; [[GadgeteerGenius gadgets]]; and [[TheTurretMaster turrets]]. They're also accomplished [[AlchemyIsMagic alchemists]] in this game, with a variety of elixirs and an elixir gun that can be used to heal and buff allies, or damage and debuff enemies. Of the player races, the Charr and Asura are best suited to the Engineer class. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Charr]] destroyed their old gods with their new machines of war, and the [[InsufferableGenius Asura]] are a technologically advanced race that craft golem companions and speak in {{Technobabble}}. |
| 256 | * Kate Wilson from ''VideoGame/{{Hydrophobia}}'' is a protagonist engineer. She has to scavenge her only weapon, but she brings her Mavi -- a device that allows her to hack cameras, doors, computers, and virtually every other kind of automated system. |
| 257 | * ''VideoGame/LocksQuest'', being from a tower defense genre, also has an Engineer protagonist, along with Engineers being a core part of society. Also unlike the present examples, Lock starts out as a freshman to Engineering, over the course of the game developing bigger and better guns, walls, and traps. Though mostly working as a Support Engineer, Lock is also expected to help out in the frontlines, to collect [[PowerSource Source]] used to build more towers, pre-engage MechaMooks, and stop [[AdvancingBossOfDoom Boss]] [[EliteMooks Mooks]] from reaching your defenses and the source wells/pathways you are guarding. |
| 258 | ** In fact, nearly any protagonist of a tower-defense game could be considered an Engineer of sorts. |
| 259 | * ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'' has Mechanics as a class of PlayerMooks. They're the ones who patch up your vehicles between battles, though you'll need [[MadScientist Professors]] to improve them. Oh, and they can do field repairs with giant wrenches. |
| 260 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 261 | ** Party member [[WrenchWench Tali]] is acknowledged to be a mechanical and programming/hacking genius, even landing the job of Chief Engineer on the ship in the second game. [[PlayerCharacter Shepard's]] class can also be engineer, giving you numerous technical skills, though you still mostly use them to blow stuff up. There are 2 main indicators which show just how brilliant Tali is at her job: |
| 262 | *** Tali is one of the best engineers from her species. Her race, the quarians, are considered the most expert of all the species in the game at engineering. It's their biggest [[PlanetOfHats hat]], which they need it to cover the baldness of their rickety, jury-rigged antique space vessels and complete reliance on [[LatexSpaceSuit environmental suits]] to compensate for their atrophied [[BizarreAlienBiology atypical immune systems]]. |
| 263 | *** In the endgame, the player has to select a party member to [[spoiler: infiltrate through a series of tubes to hack into a huge door blocking the team's progress]]. The three "good" choices are Tali; [[spoiler: Legion, a brilliant [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data-style robot]]; and Kasumi, the galaxy's best thief, assuming you have her downloadable-content mission]]. |
| 264 | ** The main point of Tali and Engineer!Shepard is to hack enemy robots' IFF targeting systems and make them go on a berserk rampage through their own lines. As well as remotely rigging enemy weapons to explode when they try to fire them. |
| 265 | ** As well, there are a number of minor examples who are engineers for the Normandy. Gabby and Kenny in particular within ''2'' serve as ThoseTwoGuys (well, That Guy and Girl.) with humorous conversations. |
| 266 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': If this as picked [[AnAdventurerIsYou as the player's class]], they can make their Overload ability from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' into ChainLightning, and can also throw a WeakTurretGun across the battlefield. |
| 267 | ** Also from ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Cerberus Combat Engineers are a new type of EliteMook that, while not too difficult on their own, can deploy [[DemonicSpider stupidly powerful auto-turrets]] if given half a chance. Because of this, and that they can repair damaged [[MiniMecha Atlas walkers]], give them [[ShootTheMedicFirst very high target priority]]. You can thwart their turret placement doing so, or at least hose off the turret while it's still deploying. Or if you're an engineer yourself or an Infiltrator [[note]] A sniper and stealth expert cross trained as an engineer [[/note]] or have an engineer on the squad, [[HackYourEnemy help yourself to the turret to cause hilarity to ensue.]] |
| 268 | ** In the ''Omega DLC'', Engineer!Shepard gets the '''only''' ever class-specific Interrupt, allowing them to stop General Petrovsky in the middle of his HannibalLecture and shut down the overloading reactor in a matter of ''seconds''. |
| 269 | ---> '''Petrovsky''': Rerouting the power to maintain the other systems? [[WorthyOpponent It's commendable]], [[ResistanceIsFutile but it might take a while--]]\ |
| 270 | (''the reactor shuts down'')\ |
| 271 | '''Engineer!Shepard''': Maybe ''if'' I was a stupid grunt... |
| 272 | ** In the fourth game, Alec Ryder was an N7 Engineer who designed a BrainComputerInterface for himself and his twins that augment their bodies to suddenly get really good at certain combat styles. He intended this to be used by the Andromeda Initiative’s Pathfinders who are supposed to be a combination of Soldier, Engineer, Explorer and Diplomat. |
| 273 | * ''Super VideoGame/MondayNightCombat'' has the various Defender classes (the Support, the Combatgirl, and Leo), who each combine elements of this style of gameplay with TheMedic. The Support can call in airstrikes and deploy a powerful turret that can be upgraded to heal allies and overclocked to shoot faster. The Combatgirl can deploy up to four weaker and more fragile (but faster firing) "Combat Kitty" turrets, which can stick to walls and ceilings. She can also fortify deployed Combat Kitties to keep them from being destroyed while on the defensive. Leo has a slow-firing homing rocket turret, but his gameplay focuses more on him as a RobotMaster, able to buff allied bots and turn enemy bots into allies. Each of them has a primary weapon that can hurt enemies and heal allies, with Leo being a notable CombatMedic because his Mona Laser's healing pulse is charged by doing damage. |
| 274 | * ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has Torbjorn and Symmetra, who specialize in building machines to support their teams. Torbjorn is more of a typical turret-building engineer, focusing on building one powerful turret to defend an area; while Symmetra can place up to three small wall-mounted laser turrets that are more akin to traps (doing minimal damage but slowing down whatever they hit), and she is also able to to build portals that get her team to the action as quickly as possible and a device that shields the entire team. |
| 275 | * Barik in ''VideoGame/{{Paladins}}'' is one of the pioneers of Crystal-based technology in the Realm, helping to create mechs used in Splitsone Quarry among other things. In-game, he deploys turrets, can heal said turrets when he's close to them, and can deploy a shield to protect allies and provide a speed boost like a speed gate. Barik also has a skin and voice pack that turns him into '''The Engineer''' from the above-mentioned ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', and his Codename in the game's files is also "Engineer". |
| 276 | * ''Panzar'' has Sappers, Dwarves with great technical expertise. They sneak behind enemy lines to sabotage their foes rather than helping their allies on the front. They have a variety of machines, structures, and traps they can put to use, including land mines, walls that block enemies, totems that empower allies, and steamhammers that interrupt enemy magic. Their ultimate ability allows them to build a freaking ''mortar''. |
| 277 | ** Complimenting Sappers are Gunners, Dwarf combat engineers who deploy and man huge cannons. They have access to a couple of traps, but their game basically revolves around building, upgrading, and naturally ''using'' those cannons. They can also build golems to help build and repair allied structures. |
| 278 | * In the ''VideoGame/PanzerGeneral'' series of games, Allied engineers and German pioneers (and bridging engineers for both sides) are very valuable units. |
| 279 | * ''VideoGame/PlanetSide 2'' has the Engineer class. Equipped with a carbine and other (largely) short-range weapons, their chief task to repair friendly [[PoweredArmor MAX exosuits]], vehicles, and base equipment. They can also deploy (manned) anti-infantry or anti-vehicle turrets and carry several types of explosives. Their special ability is to toss out a box of ammo -- which is annoyingly, tied to the same button as direct combat abilities for other classes, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory leading to engineers often tossing ammo boxes at enemies]] -- to allow allies to [[EasyLogistics reload any handgun and rocket launcher]]. ''Planetside 1'' had no dedicated classes, but had tools dedicated for engineering -- vehicle and armor "[[HealingShiv glue guns]]", multipurpose deployable tools -- mines, auto turrets, detectors, et cetera -- and heavy deployables like cloaking fields and tank traps. |
| 280 | * ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesGardenWarfare'' introduces the Zombie Engineer, clad in a hard hat and an orange safety vest. He's the only Zombie class that can build teleporters and sentries in "Gardens and Graveyards" mode, similar to his [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 TF2]] counterpart. However, the teleporters and turrets only exist in that specific gamemode, otherwise the Engineer's role is diminished to being the DroneDeployer, being able to scout ahead and bring DeathFromAbove with his AttackDrone. In [=GW2=], he doesn't even have the drone ability anymore, replaced with a manned stationary turret called the "Big Bolt Blaster" |
| 281 | * ''VideoGame/RedOrchestra'': |
| 282 | ** ''VideoGame/RisingStorm'' has engineers as a limited class exclusive to the US Army and Marines. Their loadouts come with a Satchel Charge by default, and their task is to destroy Japanese defenses such as artillery pieces, pillboxes, and barricades. |
| 283 | ** ''VideoGame/RedOrchestra2HeroesOfStalingrad'' has engineers for both the Germans and Soviets. Their loadouts include a submachine gun, satchel charges, and, on maps where tanks are present, anti-tank grenades. |
| 284 | ** ''VideoGame/RisingStorm2Vietnam'' has the Combat Engineer for the Southern forces, and the Sapper for the North. Both specialize in area denial, explosive handling, and close-quarter combat. |
| 285 | * In ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'', the Engineer is the most important class in multiplayer, since they are the only class that can plant and defuse dynamite, which is the only weapon that can destroy objectives. They gain more support roles in the ''Enemy Territory'' expansion, where they can lay mines, build support structures, and repair damaged equipment. |
| 286 | * The {{Player Character}}s in ''VideoGame/ScrapMechanic'' [[ExaggeratedTrope are all engineering specialists]] marooned on an automated agricultural world. The robots staffing the planet's facilities have run amok, and the Mechanics are the only people around to do anything about it -- [[GadgeteerGenius but with their ability to build anything they can imagine]], [[RightManInTheWrongPlace their presence is more than enough]]. |
| 287 | * The Formers in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' have the ability to raise and lower terrain. With this simple tool, they can change rainfall patterns, create new land for themselves, destroy their enemy's lands, and even destroy enemy cities not protected by Pressure Domes. |
| 288 | * Bentley of the ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' series. In the first game he is mainly much needed Support, but in the second and particularly the third he outfits himself with some sleep darts and explosives and heads out into the field, proving himself to be truly badass in Combat as well. In the third game, the Panda King and Penelope are brought on as the DemolitionsExpert and as a specialist with RC vehicles. |
| 289 | * Tails from ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog,'' moreso as the series has gone on. Even though the Tornado plane is actually owned by Sonic, it's essentially Tails' plane thanks to all the modifications and upgrades he has been able to give it over the years. Besides that, he packs quite a bit of other technology such as his "Miles Electric" tablet and remote-controlled assist vehicles. |
| 290 | * The worker units in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' fulfill the role of engineers, but it is the Terran [=SCVs=] that follow the trope most closely, being piloted units dedicated to construction, mining, terrain-forming, and unit repair. One of the short stories has a group of stranded [=SCVs=] fortify a mining outpost by digging massive trenches, deadfalls, etc. to keep a zergling horde at bay and crush them by virtue of being three times their size (shame they can't do any of that in game, even if they do the same amount of damage). Science Vessels and their succeeding equivalent in the sequel are worth mentioning too, as their detection capabilities are invaluable, and their abilities are no less useful in harassing the enemy or supporting allied troops. |
| 291 | * Engineers are one of the 3 player classes in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''. Most of their abilities on the ground have to do with creating machines and coaxing other machines into overpowered glory. In space, most of the abilities involve reworking the ship's power systems into short bursts to increase defenses and otherwise help keep the ship in one piece. It's a mostly defense oriented class, but not quite up to the traditional title of "tank". |
| 292 | * Combat engineers in the ''VideoGame/SteelPanthers'' series of tactical wargames are better at clearing minefields and other obstructions than standard infantry. They also tend to have absolutely brutal short-range weapons like submachine guns, sabot rounds, and flamethrowers, making them useful in assaults on entrenched positions. |
| 293 | * Quite obviously, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Engineer]], Dell Conagher (and both his father and grandfather, likely to be a family tradition, considering a few images seemed to imply that his father is the engineer from ''VideoGame/TeamFortressClassic'') from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. He specifically is a mix of a Combat and Support Engineer, [[TheTurretMaster locking down key areas]] with a powerful SentryGun and helping his team keep the pressure on with health/ammo dispensers and {{flashy teleport|ation}}ers. |
| 294 | ** The Engineer is generally better at defense than offense, though he can become a more effective "Battle Engie" with the right load-out (specifically, the Gunslinger for its fast building Mini-sentry and the Frontier Justice/ the Widowmaker). Skilled engineers can still use the full sentry as a powerful offensive tool, however, as having to deal with a level 2 or 3 sentry and the rest of the team at once can break a defense. |
| 295 | ** The Demoman is also an engineer of sorts, as the resident DemolitionsExpert. He's certainly one of the best suited classes for dislodging a well dug-in Engie. |
| 296 | ** Also, the Pyro uses a flamethrower, a traditional engineer weapon. He/she/it's (still up for debate) also the best ally of the Engineer, being extremely adept at unmasking enemy Spies, who can easily bring down the Engineer's building by sapping them, and disable said sappers. Additionally, Pyros using the stock flamethrower or Degreaser can use a compression blast fairly frequently to dislodge enemy stickybombs, [[AttackReflector reflect rockets/grenades/almost any projectile right back at an enemy]], and partially nullify Medic's [[NighInvulnerability Stock]] [[LimitBreak Ubercharges]] by blasting the enemy away from buildings/each other, covering virtually all standard weaknesses of Engineers and their buildings. On the other hand, he's also pretty poor at attacking Engineers due to his short range weapons, though he can reflect a level 3 Sentry Gun's rockets with good timing. This results in something of a TacticalRockPaperScissors of engineers countering each other. |
| 297 | * ''The Thing: The Game'' where it is one of the three classes of NPC helpers, and they are essential for opening doors. As [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] put it: "There are three kinds of guys: The Engineers, who you ''need'' to keep alive, [[TheMedic Medics]], the guys you really wanna keep alive, and back in there, there are [[CannonFodder Soldiers]]..." |
| 298 | * In ''VideoGame/TorchlightII'', the Engineer is not only capable of making turrets but is also the resident [[SuperToughness Tank]] wearing {{Steampunk}} PoweredArmor while wielding hammer-like [[WrenchWhack wrenches]] or [[{{BFG}} cannons]]. |
| 299 | * ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' kappa show signs of every sort of Engineering, depending on the story in question, from building all the technology for the {{youkai}} of the mountain after ''Subterranean Animism'' to Nitori's GadgeteerGenius use of tools like [[RocketPunch extending arms]] and Optical Camoflauage. Kappa are the standard HandWave explanation for how anything gets built in fanon. |
| 300 | ** A good canon example of this in the realm of {{Magitek}} comes from Patchouli Knowledge in ''Silent Sinner In Blue'', who created a working spaceship out of essentially plywood, duct tape, a whole lot of magic charms, and a {{miko}} channeling the power of Gods of Voyage for an energy source, as well as a backup thruster in the form of [[CuteWitch Marisa]] and her [[KamehameHadoken Master Spark]]. |
| 301 | ** In the PC-98 exclusive games, there were six human characters other than Reimu and Marisa. Of these, ''four'' use technology instead of magic, [[ScienceVersusMagic in the land where science is heresy]]. Rika in ''Story of Eastern Wonderland'' builds youkai-powered tanks for battle, and not only manages to [[YouCantThwartStageOne destroy the Hakurei Shrine in stage one]], she comes back later as the [[{{Superboss}} EX Boss]]. In ''Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream'', Rikako is a wannabe MadScientist who builds a working jetpack, while Chiyuri and Yumemi are visitors from a world without magic and are here to study it... and rebuild their own technology to imitate it so they can battle the heroines (and Chiyuri is also not above [[CombatPragmatist simply pulling a gun on them]]). |
| 302 | * The Engineers in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''. Isara, Kreis, Zaka and Leon are the biggest examples, storywise. Isara, Kreis and Zaka in particular also participate in battle as tank drivers, and have important roles in the main story. But other than them, there's also Engineers who are actual footsoldiers in the battlefield. They are essential units for their capacity to repair tanks, disarm mines, construct shelter and resupply soldiers with ammo. Engineers also have bigger Ragnaid capsules than the other units, so they're also the designated [[TheMedic medics]]. In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesII'', Engineers can actually specialize into Medics. |
| 303 | * The Gnomes and Goblins in the ''Franchise/{{Warcraft|ExpandedUniverse}}'' universe are known for being experts in engineering. Engineering is also an optional job you can train in. You can make [[RuleOfCool fantasy motorcycles]] that way. |
| 304 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Vietcong}}'' series has a combat engineer, who in this case refills your ammo. Doubles as the DemolitionsExpert. In the second game's multiplayer mode, he's TheTeamBenefactor, providing ammo and repairs. His C4 doesn't count because the Commando class has his own. |
| 305 | * Focused and Methodical, ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'''s Vauban is the Tenno's resident engineer, taking his namesake after the renowned french military engineer Marquis de Vauban. While his engineering prowess is [[InformedAbility seemingly informed]], he excels at defending a point, boasting a wide arsenal of traps that can stun, displace and even crush those who oppose him. |
| 306 | * ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' has Dr. Raymond Shen, the chief engineer of the XCOM project. He and his team design and build all the equipment used by your soldiers, putting the technological breakthroughs created by your research team into use. The ''[[VideoGame/XCOMLongWar Long War]]'' mod adds combat Engineers as a solider class who specialize in grenades, both explosive and support (such as smoke grenades and flashbangs). |
| 307 | * ''VideoGame/XCOM2'': |
| 308 | ** The late Dr. Shen is succeeded by his daughter Lily. In addition to designing and building XCOM's equipment as usual, she also doubles as the "naval engineer" archetype, as her efforts keep the ''[[AirborneAircraftCarrier Avenger]]'' flying. She also gets into the "combat engineer" role in the ''Shen's Last Gift'' DLC and some ''Tactical Legacy Pack'' missions, during which she takes to the field as a max-level Specialist. |
| 309 | ** Specialists in general are a variant of combat engineer (when they aren't leveled as {{Combat Medic}}s), as they can use their drones to damage enemies regardless of cover, [[HackYourEnemy hack robotic units]] to shut them down or temporarily take control of them, or reveal hidden foes. Their ability to hack mission objectives from a distance can let Specialists save a mission from failure, if none of their teammates can physically reach a computer terminal before the time limit runs out. |
| 310 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' |
| 311 | ** Valdi is nominally the commander of Colony 30, but he was promoted to that position solely on the strength of his engineering ingenuity, and spends the majority of his time designing and tinkering on Levnises (the setting's equivalent to robots and tanks). He generally leaves the actual administration of the Colony to his beleaguered lieutenant Yuzet. Of course, Valdi had overseen some decisive victories in combat over rival Colonies Iota and Lambda on the strength of his machines, though [[AchievementsInIgnorance none of this was really intentional on Valdi's part]]; in fact, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday he doesn't even remember the events himself]]. |
| 312 | ** The Kevesi Nopon Riku is a very skilled engineer/mechanic who – amongst his many jobs – repairs and maintains Blade weapons, power frames, Levnises and Ferronises, being primarily responsible for Colony 9 before leaving with the party. In Taion's sidestory, he is able to revive an almost completely dead Ferronis and add some additional tweaks for its battle against the Consul's forces, in about thirty minutes. Valdi calls him "Chief" for a reason. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
| 314 | |
| 315 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 316 | * Every major character in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. Even the mad ''social'' scientist has a [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100917 built in pulse cannon]], so presumably has at least some practical engineering skills since sparks tend not to be keen on allowing other sparks to operate on them. |
| 317 | ** Certainly the vast majority of the cast of ''WebComic/GirlGenius'' qualify, but the biggest and best example is Moloch von Zinzer, your average guy ''without'' the Spark who acts as the OnlySaneMan in a ''lot'' of cases. He's regularly horrified at what Agatha & co. do, he's terrified of the effects of the Spark, and he is very, ''very good at his job.'' Even the Castle likes him -- and that's saying a ''lot.'' |
| 318 | * Sev'vil of ''Webcomic/{{Juathuur}}''... but not for juathuurs, who don't use any form of technology. |
| 319 | * ''Webcomic/LegostarGalactica'' has [[ColonelBadass Colonel]] Shauna Finelli, Chief Engineer of the Starship ''Muffin'', GadgeteerGenius and WrenchWench par excellence. |
| 320 | * Both Kevyn Anderson and Para Ventura of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' are terrifyingly competent engineers. Kevyn especially, having built, amongst other things, a distributed telescope array from stocks of torpedoes; thereafter known as the Very Dangerous Array. |
| 321 | * Cleansers in ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'' are essentially combat engineers. Their job is to go into monster-held territory and burn and/or blow up anything that may contain a monster's nest, while scouts and hunters track and kill the actual monsters. |
| 322 | ** Among the main cast, the role is shared between Tuuri and Emil, with Tuuri being the Mechanic, and in charge of maintaining and driving the Cat-Tank, whereas Emil (who is a Cleanser by profession) is the Combat Engineer. |
| 323 | * Minnow in ''Webcomic/ValAndIsaac'' is the engineer for Val's ship. |
| 324 | [[/folder]] |
| 325 | |
| 326 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 327 | * The neogician class from ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' basically combines this trope with TheGunslinger, whith a little BioAugmentation extra for those that play in the technologically advanced faction. |
| 328 | * In 2013 the ''Website/{{Toy Soldiers|Unite}}'' added an Engineer regiment to the existing Soldier, Nurse and Toy Scout regiments. |
| 329 | [[/folder]] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 332 | * The character [[EveryoneCallsHimbarkeep known only as]] the Mechanist in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fills this role. His inventions, many of them SteamPunk or [[{{Magitek}} powered by bending]], are decades if not centuries ahead of their time, gave first the Fire Nation and then the Gaang a technological edge in the Hundred Year War, and helped spark the industrial revolution that accounts for the much different setting in the SequelSeries, ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfKorra''. [[TheSmartGuy Sokka]] and his father Chief Hakoda show shades of this as well, but it's not their main shtick. |
| 333 | * Gadget in ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers''; she’s able to turn any house appliance in all sorts of rodent-size machinery like airships, rockets, weapons and vehicles. |
| 334 | * The Reptools of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinotrux}}'' are all small reptile/tool hybrids extremely good with machines, making them excellent medics for the larger dinosaur/vehicle Dinotrux and also extremely good at designing construction plans for practical buildings. |
| 335 | * Gruffi in ''WesternAnimation/GummiBears'', the place they live in would be torn to pieces without him. |
| 336 | * ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'': |
| 337 | ** ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'': Entrapta designs most of the technology for the Horde, and while not a main character, she appears quite frequently. |
| 338 | ** [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerEntrapta Entrapta]] returns in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', but this time she creates technology for ''[[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor both]]'' sides. |
| 339 | * Cedric in ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'', he even designs a solar-fueled car and his father's mansion security system. |
| 340 | * Ray in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters''. He's always using his scientific knowledge to design different devices and often suggest the use of already existing equipment in new ways needed for the occasion. Egon has a little bit of that but is more like TheSpock of the group, whilst Winston is the everyman and Peter is a psychologist so his work is normally be TheFace of the team. |
| 341 | * Gossard from ''WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles'' is pretty much the patron saint of this trope. |
| 342 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'': Handy is able to do advanced machinery, steampunk vehicles and robots! with medieval-level technology. |
| 343 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': Andy Billups is the Chief Engineer of the ''Cerritos'', and much like his live-action Trek counterparts is a genius as keeping the ship in one piece against all odds. Ensign Rutherford is in awe of him as one of the best engineers in Starfleet. |
| 344 | * Wildcat in ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', Higher for Hire's resident mechanics and everyman, capable of fixing almost anything in minutes. |
| 345 | * Max Why Why, the father of Baby Victor in Creator/SabanEntertainment's ''The Why Why Family'', is not only an engineer, but he's also a GadgeteerGenius and an expert on mechanics and electronics. |
| 346 | [[/folder]] |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 349 | * Obviously TruthInTelevision. No major military operation since the dawn of time has advanced without the help of engineers, even if the term didn't even ''exist'' at that time. Any operation where terrain needs to be modified, fortifications built or machines and equipment used, engineers have made their mark. |
| 350 | ** In fact, until relatively recently, ''all'' engineers were military engineers. The term "civil engineer" was coined in the late 18th century and originally referred to any engineer who wasn't associated with the military. |
| 351 | ** For a long time Engineers and artillery were the distinctively [[BadassBookworm intellectual]] types of warfare. Cavalry and Infantry officers thought of themselves as warriors rather then technicians. |
| 352 | *** As a matter of fact, the earliest heavy artillery, ie: Catapults and Trebuchets and the like, were referred to as Siege Engines. Engineers were the guys who set up and ran them, hence the term '''Engine'''er. Thus, the earliest artillerymen ''WERE'' Engineers. |
| 353 | *** To this day, the British, Indian, Canadian, and Australian engineer and artillery corps all share a common motto: ''Ubique''. This is derived from the tradition of ascribing honours to units for the battles in which they fought. "Ubique" means ''"Everywhere"''. |
| 354 | ** Combat engineers are also the guys who in 1915 invented the [[KillItWithFire first flamenwerfer]] and used it alongside [[{{Irony}} Volunteer Fire Department members]] at ''Verdun''. In some of the armies that still field portable flamethrowers, the engineers are the guys manning them. |
| 355 | * The earliest engineer ([[RenaissanceMan and architect, and physician]]) in recorded history was Imhotep of AncientEgypt, who lived in the ''27th century BC'' and is credited as designer of the very first pyramid, which still stands today, almost 5,000 years later. |
| 356 | * Zhuge Liang, strategist extraordinaire for the [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms Kingdom of Shu]], was also known as a gifted inventor. He is recognized as the inventor of Mantou buns, a staple of Chinese cuisine, as well as a rudimentary landmine and the Kongming lantern. Many of his inventions were used as strategic staples in many battles. Keep in mind, this was between the first and second centuries CE. |
| 357 | * In his ''Memoirs'', retired Lieutenant General (and former President of the United States) Ulysses S. Grant gives the lion's share of the credit for America's victory in the Mexican War to the Combat Engineers. |
| 358 | ** The Engineers have traditionally been the elite of the US Army: From Bull Run to the Battle of the Bulge, the last ditch has always been defended by the engineers who dug it. |
| 359 | * U.S. Navy Construction Battalions (Seabees) during WWII earned 33 Silver Stars and 5 Navy Crosses for heroism in the Pacific Theater, and were active throughout the globe. The phrase most associated with them, and now seen on their memorial, was "The difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a bit longer." Their main motto is "Constriumus, Batuimus" (Latin for "We Build, We Fight"). |
| 360 | ** The Seabees were arguably ''the'' single most important element of the Allied "island-hopping" strategy in the Pacific Theater, as without them, the transformation of small Pacific islands into "unsinkable aircraft carriers" in record time would simply have not been possible. |
| 361 | ** A story goes that the Americans once took a Japanese soldier prisoner, but the guy would not talk and had an unshakable belief that Japan would win the war. He only broke when he saw the Seabees at work, using bulldozers and heavy machinery to finish major projects in a fraction of the time the Japanese military would have needed with slave labor. |
| 362 | * The US Air Force has its Civil Engineers, generally tasked with maintaining bases, along with the airfields, buildings, and utilities which operate on those bases. Some CE units specialize as either Prime BEEF[[note]][[FunWithAcronyms Base Emergency Engineer Force]][[/note]], specializing in rapid repair to airfields and facilities in the event of an attack or disaster, and RED HORSE[[note]]Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron Engineer[[/note]], specializing in forward deploying to establish front-line bases, often recently acquired from the enemy, or in providing deployment skills training to CE troops and other support personnel who might deploy with them. |
| 363 | * One of the things that gave Rome an edge was its war engineering. One of Caesar's less heard about claims to fame is his decision to ford the Rhine into Germania... by ''building a brand new bridge across it.''[[note]]And even less commonly noted, he had it taken down again at the end of his campaign, specifically to make the point that the Romans didn't ''need'' to keep a permanent bridge around to attack again if they needed to.[[/note]] Romans could also get a fully functioning fortification up and running by nightfall, though admittedly this is more akin to more modern "digging in" than a permanent fortification. In fact, the adage "all roads lead to Rome" was ''literal'' at one point in history: Caesar, when invading another country, would just have his engineers build roads from Rome to the invaded country and just drive his army there. |
| 364 | ** Sorta, Roman Legions ''were'' the engineers of the empire. Their military road construction relied heavily on the fact that after six thousand (or more) men have marched, lock step with iron studded boots, along the exact same route there will be a road there, regardless of what was there before. Then after whatever battle they were marching to was won, the legionnaires would go to the local quarry, mine as much stone as they could carry (in carts and by hand) and put them along the exact path they took to get there on their way back. In modern times we use steamrollers, the Romans used [[{{Pun}} fancy footwork]]. |
| 365 | ** Many have commented that the Roman Legion's greatest weapon was the ''shovel''. Those shovels certainly got more use than their swords ever did, since it was customary for a legion on campaign to build a fortified encampment for protection before bedding down for the night. Often these encampments became permanent forts when the Empire decided to keep that legion in place for a while. |
| 366 | ** The greatest feat of engineering of the legions was during the siege of Masada. The fortress was placed on top of an isolated rock plateau and impossible to reach without using a very narrow and easily defended road, so it was considered impossible to take through military strength alone. Having to conquer it from the Sicarii to put an end to the Great Jewish Revolt and the Sicarii's raids against civilians (including Jews), the Romans built a wall around the plateau to prevent escapes and ''their own mountain to reach the fortress in strength and with their siege engines''. [[OhCrap Upon realizing what the Romans had just done]], [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled the Sicarii killed themselves before the Romans started breaching the wall]]. The ramp the Romans built to breach Masada is still there to this day, and is by far the easiest way to climb onto the plateau. |
| 367 | ** Another massive feat of engineering came at the Battle of Alesia. In order to besiege the high-walled city, Caesar's army built their own wall around it to cut off all supplies and prevent a breakout, all within a span of a couple of days. Then, when Caesar learned of a Gaul relief force coming to break the siege, he had a ''second'' wall built around his first wall before they could arrive, and repelled the relief force. The Gauls eventually had to surrender, because they couldn't overcome the incredibly complex and well-constructed Roman fortifications. |
| 368 | ** The Romans also used their Legions as engineers in peacetime, since tens of thousands of idle soldiers are a waste of money and tend to get into trouble if left to their own devices. When they weren't marching or fighting, the Legions were often employed in construction to not only keep up morale but also keep them in fighting shape. One of the biggest examples of this was Augustus using the Roman Legions to rebuild Egypt after a century of neglect by the Ptolmeic dynasty left it in ruins. The Legions built massive networks of roads, caravan stations, forts, and watchtowers to secure the trade infrastructure, which turned Egypt into one of the most prosperous provinces in the entire Empire. |
| 369 | * If not for Master Orban [[note]]the Hungarian engineer who had made the greatest cannons of its time[[/note]], [[UsefulNotes/TheFallofConstantinople Mehmed the Conqueror could never have conquered]] IstanbulNotConstantinople. |
| 370 | * The EOD aspects of this trope are currently being automated in the form of the PackBot, of iRobot (creators of the Roomba) fame. The robots save so many soldiers' lives that they're treated as squadmates and have been on occasion ''mourned'' by their squad when destroyed by bombs. Apparently, there's nothing so terribly heartbreaking as seeing a hulking soldier crying over shreds of a robot, asking if it can be repaired. |
| 371 | * The "Trường Sơn trail", also known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, was considered one of the deciding factors of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. This supply trail, largely located in Laos was maintained by a literal army of North Vietnamese combat engineers, supplying North Vietnamese forces throughout both North and South Vietnam. They kept the supply line in operation despite it being located in some of the most remote and inhospitable territory in the world and [[TheDeterminator getting nearly constantly air-attacked and assaulted by U.S Special Forces]]. Many -- including the American NSA -- consider it the greatest feat of combat engineering of the 20th century. |
| 372 | * The most famous artists and scientists of the Italian Renaissance were almost all military engineers including Michelangelo and Leonardo. |
| 373 | ** The tradition remains alive to this day, as shown by the many intervention of the Italian Army whenever a natural disaster hit. And in the past they've done things worth of the Romans: for example, in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Royal Italian Army built a number of hiking trail for the express purpose to bring artillery on the top of mountains supposed to be too high for that. The achievement is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strada_delle_52_Gallerie Road of 52 Tunnels]], [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an hiking trail made of 52 tunnels and connecting path]] dug in the massif Pasubio ''because the one they had '''just completed''' was exposed to enemy artillery'' (and let's not speak of the many galleries Italians and Austro-Hungarians dug in the attempt to blow up the enemy-held mountains under their feet...). |
| 374 | * In the Finnish Army, almost all conscripts who are selected to become engineers do have some extent of engineering or mechanic background already in the civilian life. Almost all of those who are trained to become reserve officers, are engineering university or college students. |
| 375 | ** Engineer Corps and Signal Corps are treated as Technical Arms in the Finnish Army, and they tend to overlap (and co-operate) ''a lot''. The colour of the collar plates of both engineer and signal corps is purple, and Signal Corps conscripts tend to be more electronics and IT oriented while Engineer Corps conscripts are more mechanical, chemical and construction oriented. The external forms of discipline on both is somewhat more relaxed than on infantry or artillery, but they can be real badasses when required. |
| 376 | * Lt John Chard of the Royal Engineers of the British Army was in command of Rorke's Drift where his puny of force of 139 soldiers successfully held off 3000-4000 Zulu warriors in the UsefulNotes/AngloZuluWar. |
| 377 | * This trope also applies to certain types of military vehicles. Many popular tanks have engineering variants designed with a focus on vehicle repair and recovery (with the weapons switched out for hoists, towing gear, etc.), route clearance (plow blades, bridge-laying gear, demolition guns designed to fire a big high explosive round rather than a fast armor-piercing round, etc.), and other tasks. |
| 378 | * "Hobart's Funnies" were a complete armoured division (the 79th) of specialised armoured engineer vehicles, mainly tanks, which were crewed by the Royal Engineers and used as specialised assault vehicles to breach German defences during the Normandy assault and the break-out into France and on into Germany. The range of specialised engineer vehicles, developed by the British, were offered freely to the US Army who largely refused them for a variety of reasons. This lack was keenly felt by the Americans when they had to beseige German-held ports in Brittany and on the French coast and had to call for British armoured engineer assistance. Canada was not so myopic and took all the Funnies they could get for Juno Beach, which is part of the reason why the Canadian Forces were able to punch through so quickly on June 6th, 1944. |
| 379 | * As mentioned in Anime and Manga above, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Le_Picard_de_Phélippeaux Antoine Le Picard de Phélippeaux]] is the man who stopped Napoleon in the Campaign of Egypt purely by rebuilding Acre's fortifications. [[WorthyOpponent Napoleon himself credited him with stopping from conquering the whole Middle East]]. |
| 380 | -->“Without him, I would have had taken the Key to the Orient, I would have marched on Constantinople, I would have rebuilt the throne of the Orient.” |
| 381 | [[/folder]] |
| 382 | |
| 383 | ---- |
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