I don't have that skill, but I'm thinking of hopping on board as soon as the play-test reopens. It takes a while to learn, but it's critical to making blocks and bricks -- which is almost always needed in the first phase of a new street project.
So if the answer to "Do I like to participate in new street projects?" is "Heck yeah!" then the answer to "Is Engineering worth it?" is also a "Heck yeah!"
Eh. I still need to learn Tinkering III before learning Engineering or BMing. I've only got FMing done. Engineering and BM look incredibly complicated XD
Last test all I did was help with street project so its drained my resources and currants so I think I'm going to pass on them for this week's test.
even if the project needs bricks, it is the gathering of the resources for the bricks that takes a lot of people. only a handful of people with the blockmaking skill are needed to convert the resources into useable bricks.
the engineering skills are very useful for project participants, don't get me wrong, especially if you're into the trophy hunting more than piling resources beside a block maker for someone else to convert, but in terms of pure utility i would recommend grabbing Teleportation 4 over learning Engineering.
It is really fun to use the blockmaker...well worth the effort. There is a community room in Grodle (?) with block machines nailed to the ground as people used to disassemble them and make off with the parts.
Where else can you use fireflies and barnacle talc?
Right now engineering skills have very limited use: they are only good for projects, so if that isn't something you spend alot of time on I would skip them for now. If you do participate in projects, and find yourself wishing that you could make blocks and bricks for them, then go for it--otherwise, focus on something else for now. In the future, the skills may be used for other things (like upgrading your home) but for now that's it.
I just got blockmaking myself last test - stopped by the machine room specifically to set a TP point. Looking forward to fiddling around with it this test...
I'm hoping that blockmaking will be a more useful skill once we get to build out/design our homes skills/options after reset...it would make sense, but who knows what they have planned...
Would just like to reiterate that you don't necessarily have to have a blockmaker if you have the skill (though they're not terribly expensive) -- you can use the blockmakers in the community machine rooms AND use other peoples' blockmakers at projects. For people who do projects, donating blocks and bricks are big gainers.
At projects, what usually happens is that one or more people set up a blockmaker when necessary (e.g. not all the blocks or bricks have been donated) and anyone who can use it uses it. Impromptu community forms and people who have fuel to donate do so, regardless of whose machine it is, and people who can contribute some but not all resources do so to the people who are making blocks, and blocks are passed around in return.
I won't lie -- I love my blockmaker and the process at projects. Then again, I've never had my blockmaker stolen. :)
(you can also substitute fuelmaking for blockmaking, above -- same info holds true)