I've read about switches and about finding keys to unlock doors in the game. But so far I've been unable to find either of the two in this game. Granted I haven't looked that hard. But is there something you need to do in order to find these?

Also, my engineers have been rather worthless at their job so far. There's not alot of locks that they are able to pick, and enemies always know if a mine has been placed or a door has been boobytrapped. It's hard to boost that skill as there's not enough material to use in order for the engineer to get better.

I don't know how far along in the game I am, but I just recently got panzerkleins. Will the game go on for much longer? Some tools seem to require 60 or even 90 in skill. Doesn't feel like I'm going to get that good before the game ends.

You don't specify whether you're playing the Allied or Axis campaigns. Not sure about keys but one of the Allied missions where PKs can be obtained has two switches (an elevator and an alarm). The 'master engineer' trait supposedly lets you use any item. However, there are some threads on the net indicating both the engineer and medic skill trees are 'broken' (I haven't found any specific info).

Engineers can be useful as substitute medics, and they gain levels quickly. They can also be very useful PK drivers. In my current campaign I gave L.A. a sniper rifle early and have just slotted her into a sniper PK - she's "bleedin' deadly", as Elf would say ☺.

There is a universal "key": if you can't unlock some doors you can always keep shooting at them with a machine gun until they are destroyed or place a grenade/mine on the door, walk a bit further away and shoot at it (this works even with metal doors). That's true. By default engineers and medics are pathetic in the game. I would personally recommend the following mods to make them actually useful:
* Easier Medical and Engineering Items - makes the better engineer and medic items easier to use, as they require an impossibly a high skill in vanilla.
* Skill Watchdog hack - makes your characters gain skill without forcing them to use the skill so many times. Your soldiers will have the same skill as the soldiers you don't recruit (because they get skill without seeing combat, which is retarded).
* Class Skill Changes - revalues some combat skills to make the game more realistic.

You don't have to start a new game to use them. You can just use AddMod to add them to your current save.

Thanks for all your suggestions, might give those mods a try. But next time I probably won't bother getting an engineer and go for two snipers or soldiers instead. My medic is actually fairly useful as his extra healing skills often save the day.

I'm already at the last level I think, if so the game is really poorly planned. The Panzerkleins are dull as dirt to use and to fight but still I've spent quite a bit of time collecting various gear for them, which can't be used most of the time. If this is indeed the last level I could've gotten through the game fine without using them at all.

I don't think soldiers are really good too as they are mostly good with SMGs, LMGs and bazookas which are not that effective in this game (detailed character guide is ). The best units definitely are snipers. My team usually consists of 3 snipers, a grenadier (they are really useful when [url=http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/grenade-range-increase/]Grenade Range Increase mod is used), a scout (at the beginning of the game they are pretty good at spotting the enemies and later on, because they can hide so well, they are unstoppable with their silent SMG or katana/some other good melee weapon) and either medic or engineer (actually I find engineers a bit more useful as they can be used for lockpicking, spotting mines and the unit can be also used as a medic). I always play with No-Panzerklein Modification. It's a lot more fun to play without the PKs.

I always pick my Hero is an Engineer.

They get levels faster and they are best inside PKs, first PK I find I always give to him.

So it is possible to use multiple mods at the same time in the same game? Thanks in advance.

Yes, it is. As far as I can remember I used AddMod Tool for that.

Thank you, Hakim.

Does anyone know how to properly install the "Skill Watchdog" mod? I have unzipped it into the S2 folder, but it does not seem to be available when I try to add it with the "Add Mod" mod?

Thanks in advance.

From the README file:

Thank you so much Hakim. I really appreciate it.

One problem with this.... if you just copy and paste the script he wrote into the main file... then what the hell is the other file in the package for? It doesn't tell you to do ANYTHING with it in the read me.

"silent storm swd.xls" is an MS excel spreadsheet. Ever heard of one? You open it with MS excel and usually it contains some human readable (at least for some humans) formulas.