Cara?

Icicle7x3 · August 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Still useful?</div> Since no longer we go DCs first, most of the time MCs, Cara Skulks arent used that much, and late game with Onos I will get Regen or Redempt, before 2.0 I always got cara for Onos, but now the only time I ever think of getting Cara is with a fade, but that still isnt a big boost...

Do you still use Cara in 2.0 and if so, with what aliens?

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/fade.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='fade.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'>

Stoneburg · August 2003

I pretty much only use cara with gorges (they get the biggest boost from it) but even that is rare. I pretty much go regen with everything after the nerf to cara. I don't think cara is worth it anymore, but that's just my opinion.

lagger · August 2003

I dont use cara at all... regen seems to always do the trick. Maybe cara/celerity skulk once in awhile although I ushally dont even get upgrades for the skulk.

Deacon · August 2003

Carapace is now awful for skulks, since it slows your movement. When attacking a rine, you basically have two zones:

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'> |------get shot------||-kill-| <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'>

When in the Get Shot Zone, you can't deal damage and are easy to hit. When in the Kill Zone, you can do damage, and are hard to hit.

Carapace leaves you in the Get Shot Zone longer, in exchange for a tiny amount of armor.
Celerity reduces your time in the GSZ.
Ambush upgrades (Silence/Cloaking/SoF) reduce the size of the GSZ.

Personally, as a skulk, I prefer the latter two.

I do take carapace as a fade, though, since careful use of blink can easily negate the movement penalty.

Stoneburg · August 2003

I doesn't slow you down.

The_Finch · August 2003

I use carapace for Skulks, Gorges and Fades. Skulks because regen feels way to slow and doesn't help against upgraded weapons. Gorges because they get a huge benefit, have a small redeem zone and are always around DCs and hives. Fades because they have metabolize, a redeem zone that's too small for comfort and they can't stand up to weapons that well.

Lerks are always regen and Onos depend on the situation, but it's regen 85% of the time.

Swift_Idiot · August 2003

Carapace doesn't slow you down. Someone would have noticed by now. Like me. Or other people who use Cara on skulks. Regen for a skulk can be slow, and it's not like if you die you won't respawn as a skulk again. Also, I hate waiting. I want to go in, do my damage, and either run after killing anything that moves, or die after taking some big bloody chunks out of people. Also, Cara Skulk rushes are murder. Get five or six of them on a base full of marines, and have each skulk go after each marine. Most people who haven't learned how to fend of skulk rushes as part of a team will be unable to pick one target out of five, least of all when one of those targets is all up on his grill. Cara lets you soak a few more stray bullets, which there will be plenty of, and also makes it highly likely that your marine meals will run out of their clip before dispatching one or two of you back to the hive. Hopefully, that means easy pickings for you.

Cara is also pretty gnarsty on Onii, at least when you have a large ammount of 8-DC walls hidden around the level. If you have a pair of folks on your team who save up 100 res only to go gorge and spend it on towers and chambers, you can try using Cara Onos and as long as you aren't trying to block marine rushes, chances are you'll be in fine shape. 250 armor adds QUITE a lot of life to your 500 HP.

And of course, Cara Fades are great if you have a proficiency with blink and a few DCs paired with Meta across the map. You won't be an Onos, but you'll be able to hit, run, and exploit marine weaknesses in places that a big hulking Onos wouldn't be able to, forcing them to either react, or write off their losses and try to proceed onward. They are Super-Skulks, and frankly, that can be a very good thing to have on the team.

Cara Gorge is fine, since it does give you some survivability, however, I'm often a bit worried about even spending 10 res to change species without some insurance in the form of Redemp. Also, you should usually try to build a DC first whenever you're far from support, so that you can jump around like mad heal-spraying while the DC helps you survive.

Cara Lerk isn't my cup of tea. I use this so infrequently (READ: NEVER) that I don't even know how much armor they get as a result. Since they are high mobility, if they had enough armor, they could take a few hits and back off to a hive or DC, however, in their role as support aliens, they work best when they can back off only a few feet, heal up with Regen, and be back in the fight in no time. Plus, since they can reach nasty little ledges they can hide in, Regen paired with Umbra lets them heal up faster than bullets can penetrate the happy yellow cloud.

Cara has it's place. Like most chamber upgrades, it's all in what role you intend to be in, and what your goals are. Go Silence Regen if you want to be a cieling fixture of death near the marine base, go Celerity Regen if you want to be so fast, you will regain health while the marines try to hit you and empty their clip, go Celerity Cara if you just want to run at someone and bite their head off. Cara is the lazy-alien's choice, for when you just want to run in the front door, say "HI GUYS, WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS ROOM?", and tear it up, and then probably die. Thus, unless you plan on being able to run away and repeat the process or act as a bullet sponge, it's best used on low-cost aliens, or aliens that can compensate for not regaining health at regular intervals.

Deacon · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Stoneburg @ Aug 19 2003, 06:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I doesn't slow you down. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
I could have sworn that made it into the release build of 2.0, however I can't find it in the pinned changelog in General.

Bizarre.

Edit: <a href='http://www.readyroom.de/fullnews.php?newsid=6584' target='_blank'>Go, go, gadget google</a>. Looks like it got dropped in 1.1Q.

Stoneburg · August 2003

Or you COULD just get cara in game and find out that you move just as quick. *sigh*

Deacon · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Stoneburg @ Aug 19 2003, 10:09 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Or you COULD just get cara in game and find out that you move just as quick. *sigh*  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
It was faster to search the changelist for "carapace" and google for "carapace slow" than it was to join a game, wait for someone to drop DCs, and try to time myself to see if I was unknown percentage slower.

The_Finch · August 2003

The real benefit of carapace isn't so much the additional armor points, but the increased armor absorbtion. 150 armor becomes far less impressive if you die with 1/3 of it left.

Without carapace, your armor absorbs 30% of the damage you take. With level 3 cara, it absorbs 60%. The next time you die without carapace, look at your armor. There's always armor left over, which means it wasn't being used effectively. Get carapace and when you die, look at your armor. You're armor's almost always completely gone, so it was used to it's maximum effectiveness.

Why do you think HA is so badass? It's because it has a 95% absorbtion rating. Say I xenocide a heavy. That's 200 damage (we'll assume I was sitting on his head). 95% goes to armor and 5% goes to health. For this exercise, we'll assume a full health/armor marine with level 3 armor.

5% of 200 = 10
95% of 200 = 190

Damage to armor is halved, so 2 damage = 1 armor. So the marine takes 10 damage to health and 95 damage to his armor. His stats go from 100/290 to 90/195. Now, that armor is repairable, so if his buddy has a welder, he's at 90/290 in two seconds.

Necrosis · August 2003

Generally I use cara on my skulkbombs, and regen for everything else. Mostly because I'm a support/sniper, so I don't intend to get shot at.

taboofires · August 2003

The cara slowdown was dropped (or at least severly reduced) in one of the beta versions just before release. It was in for a long time, but now it's not.

Cara is most useful when you have access to healing, ie: there are forward dcs nearby, the battle lines are in your territory, there is a gorge following you around, or you are fast enough for it to not matter. Carapace onos are only useful when there is healing nearlby, because they are painfully slow (and not even fast enough to run across the map with celerity or charge), but carapace skulks can heal quickly and easily. Carapace is almost required for fades once you start fighting shotties or hmgs. Gorges are usually best with carapace if they have something to protect them or redem if in the open, and similar logic applies to lerks.

Carapace definately has its uses. It's no longer the uber-upgrade it used to be, but it's still helpful.

bugulu · August 2003

yes cara seems to be rare now.im only using it on fades

SinSpawn · August 2003

Geting upgrades depends on Situation, location of where you go/attack or map.

Some people might just be fond of Cara and use it all the time while others are lazy and go for redempt, depends on the players attitude also

MaxGallagher · August 2003

I like to use carapace for Lerks. They are so damn fragile, even the carapace doesn't exactly make them tough. But if you get caught by surprise by a marine, sometimes the carapace is just enough to keep you alive while you get out of his field of view.

Javert · August 2003

cara are good for lerks and skulks (cause they're so weak) and gorges (in case they're ambushed).

Fades need regen. cause they're properly hit-and-run fighters. So they hit, take some damage after killing some, blink away, regen., then repeat.

Onos should get redemption to annoy marines again and again. (cara. for onos is overkill)

The_Finch · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Javert @ Aug 23 2003, 11:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> cara are good for lerks and skulks (cause they're so weak) and gorges (in case they're ambushed).

Fades need regen. cause they're properly hit-and-run fighters. So they hit, take some damage after killing some, blink away, regen., then repeat.

Onos should get redemption to annoy marines again and again. (cara. for onos is overkill)  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Lerks: Lerks get almost no benefit from carapace. It takes 18 base LMG shots to kill a Lerk without cara. It takes 23 base LMG shots to kill a Lerk with cara. You're better off with regeneration, since Lerks tend to pop in and out of vents, giving them plenty of cover and time to heal.

Fades: Regen is of less value once they get metabolize. If you hold down meta, regen won't function. A Fade without carapace goes down to 33 level 1 LMG shots. Or a few shotgun blasts, depending on range. That extra 50 armor points and 60% absorbtion rate really helps out.

Onos: Regen is the best all-around upgrade, not redemption. Annoying marines over and over again is about all you'll do, since you'll spend most of your time healing at the hive and running back. Carapace and redemption have their places, but they're far more specialized.

Cara?

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