I think I saw talk about a gametype where you all start on the arrivals shuttle and have to repair/construct the station? That would be fun. Give us engineers a chance to do our job large scale.
That's basically derelict off of BS12. No jobs, everyone spawns with internals (on) and a toolbox with wires and the like in the arrivals shuttle. You can restore functionality, or you can just do a scavenging run and leave.
And I like building, but I also like multiplayer. Being by myself or on a laggy server which will probably have nobody else on?
I mean, I can have enough time, but when I start building (With enough time), SOMETHING, regardless, goes to utter shit. I get the entrance partially built (Note: a small entrance) and the round ends due to something that is utterly annoying. Such as all the things I said above.
Only way I can think of getting it to work is to have an RCD. Guess what I can't have? As CE, I'm expected to NOT piss off and do stuff like that. And everyone else isn't expected to do have the RCD. Why the hell would a captain be running about with one?
SUPPLY, bro. SUPPLY. Damn, I've been talking about supply a lot these past few days. What does Supply have that the CE doesn't? Well, for starters, it has an RCD which you can continually make ammo for, hardsuits for space construction, and metal/glass for whatever. Cough, well, I suppose the CE has that too, but people let you do it too! People just bugger off and pretend Supply doesn't exist, except for the scientists and roboticists. Y'know what's even better? You can satisfy pretty much the whole station and still have enough supply points for yourself if you do it right.
So, a crate of metal costs 10 points, right? Well, you get 5 of those back if you take the metal and send the crate back. You get another 2 points if you stamp the manifest like you should be doing. That's only 3 supply points you lose and they can be easily gained back in the 2 minutes that the shuttle takes. If you're an active quartermaster and/or have cargo techs, you can jump back and forth from mining and sending shuttles so that you pretty much can order whatever you like. 40 sheets of metal and 20 sheets of glass is enough for a little more than 3 matter ammo things. With a bit of ingenuity and 30-40 supply points, you pretty much have the EVA's RCD in the palm of your hand.
And since you start with 50 supply points and have around another 50 points in the form of crates in the warehouse, it's almost a better option than CE in every way, shape, and form.
EDIT: On top of THAT, you have the AUTOLATHE, which ENGINEERING doesn't even have! You can make airlock electronics and all sorts of stuff with it.
AND ON TOP OF THAT, you also have cargo technicians who have about as little shit to do as YOU do, who can also work on it.
In fact, the only thing the CE actually has in comparison is the station blueprints and access to atmospherics. He has his engineers, too, but they're focused on the singularity and power, much of the time early on.