Buildings
| “ | I built that.
Click to listen
— The Engineer
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” |
Buildings are machines that can be constructed by the Engineer using his Build Tool. These buildings include the Sentry Gun, Dispenser, and Teleporter.
Contents
Overview
In order to construct a building, an Engineer must first have enough metal. He can then use his Build Tool to choose a placement for the building; buildings can only be placed on reasonably flat surfaces and must have enough horizontal and vertical space to operate. Once placed, buildings are erected automatically. The construction rate can be almost doubled by continuously hitting the building with any Wrench; multiple Engineers doing this simultaneously stacks the effect, and hitting the building with the Jag increases its construction rate by a further 30%. Dispensers and Teleporters take twice as long to deploy as Sentry Guns. Once the building is fully deployed, it will immediately begin operation.
Like players, buildings have health and are destroyed when it is reduced to zero. The health of a building increases from zero to its maximum while under construction, so it is easier to destroy a building that is incomplete. Players can focus their crosshair on a building to determine its current health just like other players, though weak buildings also display visible signs of damage such as smoke, sparks, and flames. Buildings are immune to critical hits and mini-crits as well as damage drop-off and ramp-up, so excluding splash damage, any attack on a building will deal a constant amount of damage from any distance. Buildings will not activate the on-hit or on-kill effects of any weapon when damaged or destroyed (with the exception of the Widowmaker's).
Buildings can be repaired, upgraded, and (in the case of Sentry Guns) reloaded by hitting them with a Wrench, if the user has sufficient metal. Metal priority goes to repair first, then to resupply, and finally to upgrades, with limits to how much metal can go into each task with each strike. Upgrading a building takes a total of 200 metal and increases its health by 20% in addition to improving its abilities; buildings can be upgraded twice to reach level 3.
Buildings can be disabled by the Spy's Sapper. If a Sapper is applied to a building, it will immediately cease functioning and alert the owner, in addition to being drained of health. Sappers can be removed by any Engineer's melee weapon or the Pyro's Homewrecker/Maul/Neon Annihilator, which will restore the building's operations in 0.5 seconds. Buildings cannot be repaired, reloaded, upgraded, or demolished while being sapped.
Buildings can be downgraded by the Spy's Red-Tape Recorder. Buildings with a Recorder attached will begin deconstructing themselves by going through any applicable upgrade animations in reverse before going through the building process in reverse, resulting in the building being reduced to a toolbox pickup. The process moves at half the speed of construction. If the Recorder is destroyed, then the building will resume proper construction, though any levels lost will not be regained unless an upgrade animation is in progress.
If the Engineer wishes, he can destroy any of his buildings with the Demolish Tool. This instantly causes the building to explode as if it were destroyed by an enemy. The building's gibs can be picked up as ammo and/or reused as metal. Buildings being sapped cannot be demolished. The Engineer's buildings are not vulnerable to his other weapons or to his Sentry Gun (unlike the Engineer himself).
Buildings function normally underwater, though Teleporter Entrances cannot detect when a submerged player is standing on them, and Sentry Guns cannot see through the water's surface in either direction.
During setup time in Mann vs. Machine mode, buildings cost no metal to place and finish construction immediately as level 3, with Dispensers being fully stocked. Using a Buildings Upgrade Canteen will also instantly send all existing buildings to level 3, even if they are still constructing. Engineers can also upgrade the health and abilities of their buildings at an Upgrade Station.
Specifications
| Building type | Cost in metal | Health points | Scrap Metal when destroyed | ||||
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| Build | Upgrade | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | |||
| Sentry Gun | Stock | 130 | 200 | 150 (450) | 180 (212) (540) | 216 (270) (648) | 15 x 4 (60) |
| Combat Mini-Sentry Gun | 100 | N/A | 100 (300) | N/A | 0 x 4 (0) | ||
| Dispenser | 100 | 200 | 150 | 180 | 216 | 10 x 5 (50) | |
| Teleporters | 50 | 200 | 150 | 180 | 216 | 6.25 x 4 (25) Entry 6.25 x 4 (25) Exit | |
| Building type | Build time (seconds) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial construction | Initial construction + boosted by  
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Initial construction + boosted by
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Initial construction + boosted by
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Redeployed | Redeployed + boosted by
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Redeployed + boosted by
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Redeployed + boosted by
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Upgrade | ||
| Sentry Gun | Stock | 10.5 | 4.2 | 3.75 | 6.0 | 3.5 | 2.333 | 2.1875 | 2.8 | 1.6 |
| Combat Mini-Sentry Gun | 4.2 | 2.625 | 2.442 | 3.231 | 2.333 | 1.75 | 1.667 | 2.0 | N/A | |
| Dispenser | 21.0 | 8.4 | 7.5 | 12.0 | 5.25 | 3.818 | 3.621 | 4.421 | 1.6 | |
| Teleporters | 21.0 | 8.4 | 7.5 | 12.0 | 5.25 | 3.818 | 3.621 | 4.421 | 1.6 | |
Building construction speed = Default construction speed / (1 + sum of all boosts)
- Default construction speed (Sentry Guns): 10.5
- Default construction speed (Dispensers and Teleporters): Sentry Gun speed x 2 = 21.0
- Redeployment boost (Sentry Guns): 2.0
- Redeployment boost (Dispensers and Teleporters): 3.0
- Mini-Sentry boost: 1.5
- Stock wrench boost: 1.5
- Jag boost: 1.5 + 0.3 = 1.8
- Eureka Effect boost: 1.5 / 2 = 0.75
- The first and second hits on a stock sentry gun will save 1.5 seconds, while all others will save 1 second. On dispensers, the first hit will save 2 seconds and all others will save 1 second.
Times assume wrench boosting is in constant effect. As the builder cannot swing their wrench until their weapon switch delay wears off, these values will be slightly slower in practice. Each additional Engineer adds their own personal wrench boost to the formula.
HUD
The Building HUD provides at-a-glance information on the Engineer's buildings and any enemy Spy's Electro Sappers. The status of different aspects of the building is indicated by an icon.
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
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Sentry Gun: Number of kills, followed by number of assists in parentheses. |
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Sentry Gun: Percentage bar of bullets remaining. Dispenser: Percentage bar of current metal reserves. |
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All buildings: Percentage bar of upgrade progress. (levels 1 and 2 only) |
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Sentry Gun: Percentage bar of rockets remaining. (level 3 only) |
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Teleporter Entrace: Percentage bar of recharge progress. If fully recharged, instead displays number of successful teleports. |
Hauling
Buildings can be packed up and moved by their owners by pressing the alternate fire button while looking at and standing next to them. This mechanic allows for redeployment without having to completely reconstruct the building, thus saving metal and time, and also preserving any score tallies a building may have. Packing up a building is instantaneous, and the Engineer will appear carrying the building's toolbox on his shoulder to all players, while from his first-person perspective he will still carry the toolbox as a normal building construction. Damaged buildings can be packed up, but buildings being sapped cannot. A building is capable of being hauled when a gray tab is displayed alongside the building's name on the interface (see right). In addition to an icon for the building and a hand, the tab also displays which key or mouse button alternate fire is currently bound to.
One building can be hauled at a time, and doing so will sensibly reduce the Engineer's speed to 90% (270v), regardless of type and/or level of the building. Additionally, the Engineer cannot switch to any weapon or item until the building is redeployed. It is still possible to use Teleporters (either his own or a friendly Engineer's) - unless, of course, the Engineer is attempting to use a Teleporter whilst the other end is being hauled.
If the Engineer is killed while he is hauling a building, the building is also destroyed, and the Engineer will drop a toolbox which will act like a large ammo crate if picked up. A special kill icon representing a toolbox will be shown alongside the Engineer's death.
Redeploying a building is similar to a normal construction, except that the building will construct itself at twice the normal rate (plus an additional 50% speed for Dispensers and Teleporters), and the Engineer can speed up the process even further. Higher level buildings will have to cycle through all their upgrade animations before becoming operative, and cannot be packed up again until ready. Damaged buildings retain their health at the moment they were packed; they cannot be repaired during redeployment unless they take damage during it, and even then they can only be repaired up to what health they had before being packed (until they are fully redeployed). In Mann vs Machine, hauling does not slow the Engineer down and buildings redeploy themselves instantly.
The three phases of building redeployment (packing, hauling, and redeploying) are accompanied by specific responses.
The Rescue Ranger has the ability to haul buildings from any distance (provided a direct line of sight) at the cost of 100 metal; it also forces the Engineer to take mini-crits while hauling buildings, whether via the long-range pickup or not.
Destruction
A building can be destroyed by his owner using the Demolish Tool or by an enemy attacking it with any weapon, or using the Sapper. A building can also be destroyed if an Engineer is carrying a building and a player kills the Engineer. A destruction is worth one point to the destroyer and is recorded on the player's scoreboard. A destruction cannot be assisted unless the building has been sapped (in which case the Spy who sapped it will get the assist) or the building has been destroyed while hauling (in which case the assister will be the same as the one of the Engineer's death).
Destruction points are not awarded to Engineers who destroy their own buildings. Furthermore, destructions do not count during the Setup Phase in terms of the scoreboard, though any other events (such as revenge crits) will trigger as usual. Should an Engineer decide to use the loadout screen to change his melee weapon to or from the Gunslinger, his Sentry Gun will be demolished the moment the new melee weapon becomes available (either by the Engineer respawning or touching a Resupply locker). All of an Engineer's buildings are demolished when a player switches from an Engineer to another class, from one team to another, or leaves the server.
When a building is destroyed by an enemy, the Engineer responds with one of three responses, alerting his nearby teammates.
Related achievements
General
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Foundry
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Claim Jumper Capture a control point within 12 seconds after exiting a teleporter. |
Scout
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Soldier
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Pyro
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Demoman
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Heavy
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Engineer
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Medic
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Sniper
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Spy
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Mann vs. Machievements
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Update history
- Fixed Sentry muzzleflashes not drawing unless sentry was near the map origin.
- Fixed bug with placement of Teleporters that could result in players being unable to move.
- Demomen grenades now collide with players and Engineer buildings after the first bounce, but still won't explode on contact.
- Engineer buildings now explode when the Engineer dies during sudden death.
- Fixed scoring problem where destroying a buildable added a phantom point, not attributed to any scoring bucket but still included in total score
- Fixed some edge cases where grenades could go through player or buildings
- The Engineer's "build X" commands will now behave properly when bound directly to keys.
- Fixed a bug in scoring Engineer building destruction.
- Engineers no longer earn points for using their own Teleporters.
- Fixed exploit that allowed players to teleport with the intelligence.
- Fixed building bone merge cache from dormant entities. Fixes weapons in SourceTV attached to wrong bones
- Sapped buildings now take slightly less damage from the Spy who sapped them.
- Fixed the teleporter's player shaped particles not drawing.
- Added server log entry for buildings destroyed by their owner.
- Fixed Sentry Gun shadows being clipped.
- [Undocumented] Changed Engineer buildings to detonate when a player disconnects instead of blinking out.
- [Undocumented] Fixed Engineer being able to detonate buildings that are being sapped.
- [Undocumented] Fixed potential client crash for players being healed by a Medic or Dispenser.
April 29, 2008 Patch (Gold Rush Update)
- Teleporter effect no longer shows up on invisible or disguised Spies.
- Fixed "times used" entry in Teleporters maxing out at 32.
- Mapmakers can now place Engineer buildings directly into a map, with an option for them to be invulnerable.
- Teleporters can now be upgraded to level three. It will recharge faster the higher level it is.
- The Engineer's Dispensers can now be upgraded to level three. It will give out metal and heal faster as it is upgraded.
- Added teleporter sounds for level 2 and 3 Teleporters.
- Fixed teleporter entrance/exit effects being drawn when they don't have a matching teleporter entrance/exit.
February 24, 2009 Patch (Scout Update)
- Added the sounds for upgraded Teleporters.
May 21, 2009 Patch (Sniper vs. Spy Update)
- Spies can now use enemy Teleporters.
- Fixed Spies not being telefragged when standing on an enemy teleporter exit with the Dead Ringer enabled.
- Fixed Teleporters not being buildable in some places where they should be (such as within the pit at the end of Badwater Basin).
August 13, 2009 Patch (Classless Update)
- Fixed Sentry Guns firing at a fully cloaked Spy if they're still the closest target.
- Engineers wrenching a teleporter will repair the other end as well, and remove Sappers from both if they exist.
- Fixed being able to burn buildings that are in the water while standing outside the water.
- Fixed teleporting Spies getting stuck in enemy players standing on the exit.
- Fixed server log not listing telefrag kills as weapon "telefrag".
- Killing yourself with your own Sentry Gun no longer increments the Sentry Gun's kill counter.
April 29, 2010 Patch (119th Update)
- Fixed Teleporters not reverting to level 1 when their other side is destroyed.
- Fixed Teleporter exit using the wrong particle effect.
- Fixed the Engineer being able to build more than 1 of each type of building.
July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)
- Engineers can now pickup & move their buildings.
- Fixed a server crash related to carrying buildings.
- 'Wrenching' a Sentry Gun now upgrades, repairs and restores ammunition all at once per Wrench hit, prioritizing repairs and upgrading if not in possession of enough metal.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed Engineers to build level 2/3 mini Sentry Guns.
- Fixed a bug that allowed sapped buildings to be picked up by the Engineer.
- Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 Sentry Guns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.
- Fixed a bug where players would go into reference poses when switching classes while carrying a building.
- Engineers can no longer pick up buildings while stunned or in loser state.
- Fixed an issue where Wrangled sentrygun effects wouldn't be attached to the sentrygun.
- Fixed a server crash in the player death code, related to building carrying.
- Fixed a server crash related to carrying buildings at round start.
- Fixed players picking up buildings before a round has started.
- Fixed an exploit where Engineers could create level 3 Mini-Sentry Guns.
- Fixed a problem with not being able to pick-up buildings in Arena mode.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with Wrangled Sentry Guns.
- Fixed a bug where Teleporters could be given more than their normal amount of health.
- Fixed a Sentry Gun exploit that let Engineers build multiple Sentry Guns.
- Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-Sentry Guns using the Wrangler.
- Fixed another Sentry Gun exploit that let Engineers build multiple Sentry Guns.
- Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 Mini-Sentry Guns using the Wrangler for real this time.
- Fixed Engineers being able to destroy sapped buildings by issuing the command directly in the console.
- Added the mini-sentry kill icon.
- [Undocumented] Several particle effects, including critical rockets, pipes, and stickies, were altered to appear brighter. These changes do not apply to ATi graphics card users and some others.
- Fixed the Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas achievement not counting Wrangler and Mini-Sentry kills.
- Fixed being able to place buildings in nobuild zones.
- Fixed a bug that allowed buildings to be built in nobuild/respawn volumes.
- Fixed floating arrows on carried objects.
- Fixed missing HUD sounds for Engineer building status panel.
- Fixed buildings not always being downgraded at the same rate by the Red-Tape Recorder.
- Fixed buildings destroyed by the Red-Tape Recorder not always displaying a death notice.
- Fixed grenades not dealing consistent damage against buildings and Mann vs. Machine tanks.
- Fixed being able to pick-up buildings while reloading the Panic Attack.
July 2, 2015 Patch (Gun Mettle Update)
- Teleporters and Dispensers redeploy +50% faster (2.5x without Wrench boost, 5.5x with Wrench boost).
- Building pick up speed penalty reduced from 25% to 10%.
- Building repair costs increased from 20 metal to 33 metal to repair 100hp per Wrench hit (from 5HP per metal to 3HP per metal).
- Level 2 and Level 3 Sentry Guns have less passive damage resistance against Heavy miniguns. Level 2 Sentry Minigun resistance changed from 20% to 15% and Level 3 Changed from 33% to 20%.
- Fixed a case where buildings would not go active if they were sapped while being built.
- Level 1 teleporters now cost 50 metal (previously 125).
Unused content
- The Repair Node was a building that was considered as an addition to the Engineer Update, but was scrapped during development.
Bugs
- A redeployed level 2 or level 3 Sentry Gun will attempt to target enemy players during the brief instant between reaching a level and starting the animation to upgrade to the next level. If the Sentry is directly facing an enemy, it may even be able to fire before the upgrade animation.
- If an Engineer changes classes, his buildings simply vanish; this is inconsistent with the behavior of the Engineer changing his melee loadout, changing teams, or leaving the game, where his buildings are destroyed.
- If a building is packed up while it takes damage, then redeployed, the building HUD may report it as damaged even after it is fully repaired.
- The metal cost of repairing a building during redeployment is not affected by how much health can actually be replenished, making it easy to waste metal while attempting to speed up redeployment.
- Buildings are not affected by gravity or physics; if the floor underneath a building is removed, the building will remain floating in the air, and moving platforms will pass through them.
- Heavily damaged buildings may still show signs of being damaged (such as sparks and flames) that remain present even when the building is fully repaired. Hauling the building may remove them.
- When a building is first upgraded to level 3, it spawns with 1 extra point of health, for a total of 217. When it is picked up and replaced, or rebuilt, it keeps this extra point of health. However, if it takes damage and is then repaired, it repairs to its base health, 216.
- When connecting to a server, it may for a brief amount of time show the disposable sentry in the Build HUD from Mann Vs Machine.
- If a Spy saps a building while it is upgrading to the next level, it will not actually disable the building. However, the Sapper will still damage the building and it can't be destroyed - the only way to remove the Sapper is to haul the building.
- Losing connection while hauling a building may cause the building being unable to deploy.
Gallery
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Related images: |
Sentry Gun (Level 1)
Sentry Gun (Level 2)
Sentry Gun (Level 3)
Dispenser (Level 1)
Dispenser (Level 2)
Dispenser (Level 3)
Teleporter (side view)
Hauling a building.
