These are the ideas I had for engineer unlockable weapons, copied and pasted from where I posted them on the Steam forums. just curious what this community would think. Constructive criticism welcome.
Steam Gun
Level 10 Contraption (Replaces Shotgun)
Has this ever happened to you? You spent a fair amount of time lovingly setting up and upgrading each of your buildings, having a nice little nest and guarding the point, only to have some mouth breathing, ubered Heavy wander in and blow it all up? After this were you forced to cover your escape with nothing but a shotgun? Well this weapon aims to end all that. When fired the steam gun, surprisingly, releases a cloud of steam roughly heavy sized in dimmensions. Any enemy passing through the cloud will be slowed down by 10%(i.e. a class that moves at 100% speed goes down to 90% speed). Also, any projectiles that pass through the cloud lose speed and fall faster, effectivly trimming thier range down to a point where the engie can escape without a back full of shrapnel. It is also impossible to see to the other side of the cloud, although if you are in it then it you can see other people in it. Also, sentries will not fire on those in the cloud, but will trace them back into it should they re-enter. However, the news is not all good. This device only holds 1 shot at a time with an extra 10 in reserve and takes twice as long to load as a shotgun.(not sure of the exact time, what seems reasonable to you guys?) Also, the gun has no range beyond point blank and does only about 5-10 damage. The steam cloud will only linger for 5 seconds. In summation, this is provides a way for the engineer to escape unfavorable fights, but also removes his ability to fight at all to a certain extent.
The Wrangler
Level 5 Lasso (Replaces Pistol)
Ever wish you could move your machines up without having to disassemble and rebuild everything? Now you can! With the wrangler, a lasso crafted from the finest advanced synthetics, you can rope anyone of your buildings and drag it for a full 15 seconds, after which time the lasso snaps, taking 25 seconds to repair itself. Further more, all wrangled buildings still function, although a bit slower(sentries fire slower, dispensers dispense slower, teles recharge slower...)While you drag a building you will move at unspun heavy speed and be unable to use any other weapon, until the rope snaps by itself or you snap it early. Sappers work the same and repairing(by other engies) works the same while wragnled, but buildings in the lasso cannot be upgraded. Basicly, you get to move your buildings without wasting any metal, but become a huge target while doing so. Really meant for more offensive engies.
The Rattlesnake
Level 10 Wrench (replaces wrench)
Another tool for the offensive and ninja engineers. When you hit an enemy with the rattlesnake you gain 25 metal and he loses 1/4 of the reserve ammo of his current weapon.(If his current weapon doesnt have an ammo count or is at 1 then he doesnt lose any and you gain only 15) Upon a kill with this weapon you gain 50 metal. The tradeoff is that this wrench does only about 30 damage and never randomly crits. Basicly, you get a tool for harvesting metal in ammo poor areas(i.e. almost every arena map), but you have to risk going in with a poor battle weapon.
Just my ideas, thanks for taking the time to read them.