Well i thought about the following:

1.Battle between rines and aliens don´t last enough, they are over after at most 2 secs on average = no fun.
2.Aliens are just rushing around the map not camping as they are supposed to be.

So here is the idea that fixes both:
Canging the Carapace upgrade in this way: It slows the alien down (like HA does to rines) (2.x versions) and it boosts the armor of the alien way more and enables a higher absorbtion rate.

This way:
Cara Aliens are really tough baddies (even skulks should be) that you have to take down with teamwork h4x
Cara aliens are not very fast, so if tehy charge you from a long hallway, they will be gunned down for sure (or for more than now )
Cara aliens can heal faster/stronger at the hive or by gorges, since they armor gets worn down (like HA) much more before HP so they would need only one tick for HP healing and for the rest they get the armor healing boost (1AP>1HP) (If they retreated soon enough, so that they still have aror left over (still very much HP)

Additionally this would deny Marines rfk in the early game, since a skulk with cara is more likely to escape after killing someone than an uncarapaced.

So with this change aliens have to camp more (since they are slower)
Marines would have to move in groups (++teamwork) since they have little changse if ambushed by an caraalien.

The Armor boost and speed decrease should be quite much so that its a real change in style and behavior.
Fade should have somewhat ha like qualities in both walking speed and toughness, so that with this upgrade he would become really the shock trooper of the aliens and is devastating one he has closed the distance and is in close combat.

Onos would be slower than HA and extremly tough, even mroe than now, a real tank.

I think this would balance combat as well, since early cara regen fades are way to overpowered, because they are much to fast to get all their HP/AP down in time [not that i care about combat. if you disagree, please ignore the above paragraph]

If you think this would overpower aliens to much for a 2 res upgrade think about this:
1. All things are subject to playtests
2. Who says that really good treats should only cost 2res? focus in combat has rines to the double cost, so if really needed, we could apply such a thing here as well (reswize in ns pointwise in co)

And the best of all:
ITS OPTIONAL!
You can coose if you would like to be the slow moving behemoth or the fast ninja, its up to you.
Nobody urges you to a way.
Additionally it would add diversity to the aliens the rines encounter, wich is always nice. Both teams would have to adapt to this canges and i think it will make the game much more enjoyable.

What do you think?
Only constructive critizisms please!

thx

I think this would be a cool idea and would make carapice more useful one thingto note though by you above mentioned paragraph u stated that it would make aline more ambushing but once a persion get mt u cant really ambush any more

I quite like this idea but can you clarify one or two things for me?

A fade with carapace under the new system would walk more slowly but would he also blink more slowly. Blinking is the way to go and if it doesn't penalise this then your back to square one.

Also how would celerity interact with carapace? Would they return to normal speed but with nice beefed up armour?

MT is always a problem regarding ambushes but to risk going off topic that could be tweaked as part of the change (detecting only fast moving aliens - e.g. not ones at walk pace or run with carapace)

I like the idea and it'll make cara or regen a bigger choice.

Carapace already slows aliens down a little, or did. Unless it was changed back again.

An Onos with Carapace gets 900..just imagine it with you're new idea "1200" that's alot of amour

considering that a hmg at lvl three could take down 1200 armro in 5 sec its not bad

Well what you mean is that the skulks will get slower and have more armor. Well it is a good idea BUT. The skulks are ment to be fast and light, stealthy and Deadly. They are the ones that should attack silently and not rushing camping more. And the alien players thats rushing the marines not a good idea. They should wait andtake outthe marines silently. So i dont think it would be nessesery to makes this carpace. Beacuse then the teamwork of the aliens would fall. The aliens are ment to attack in swarms not one and one and one ...... So if you upgraded the carpace then the teamwork of the aliens would fall alot. So i dissagree whit this idea.

I like this idea because it would make the aliens more diverse, and more able to adapt to the situation; and after reading the manual, that's the impression that I really got of the aliens, that their whole existance is based off of adapting.

A situation could be three skulks want to rush marine start, or a forward base, so they send in one skulk with regeneration as a scout, and a distraction. And after the distraction is in full effect, the three heavy skulks with carapace come in and attack.

Maybe some sort of a model change for carapace would allow the marines to identify the carapace vs. not-carapaced aliens, and react accordingly.

Carapace should affect all forms of movement i.e. blinking, flying, charging. I think the combination of carapace and celerity could just return the alien to normal speed, depending on how much carapace slows them down.

bring back 1.04 cara

What Carapace Is:
Alien runs in, smacks some stuff, then flees five seconds later to the Hive for a minute.

What Regen Is:
Alien runs in, smacks some stuff, flees five seconds later to stand outside for 10 seconds, then returns. Repeat ad nauseum.

What Carapace Should Be:
Alien runs in, smacks some stuff, gets shot at alot, smacks some more stuff, then flees.



There is almost no advantage to going Carapace. If you're going to be fighting for an extended period of time, such as against marines with weak weapons or bad aim, Regen is better. Over the period of the battle, you will have regained more HP without fleeing than Carapace would have granted you. If you're going to be using hit and run tactics, Carapace MIGHT allow you to take down a TF by sacrificing yourself, whereas Regen would DEFINATELY allow you do to that by just running away and returning two or three times.

Carapace is only effective on EXTREMELY skilled Fades, Skulks in the early game, and early Gorges (but Redemption is better for them.) FIX!

2 hives Fade with Cara is the correct choice. Metabolise your HP back up when you need to, and armour is more effective with more hives.

1 Hive Fade, best option is regen, because you will have long dashes (read: blink) back to the hive to heal, and generally marines are doing a little less damage early game.

ok please...lets stop talking about Carapace Fades at the current Version. Letstalk about the Carapce Change Suggestion.

Hmm i like everything that increases ambushes! So *thumbs up* for this idea!

- I really like the Skulk idea

- I would make Carapace fades slower BUT i wouldn`t make them blink slower. fades dont allways blink! Often they attack you by blinking in and Slashing you once. You jump back/sidewards and the Fade chases you BUT not blinking! He walks! So this walking should be slower with Carapace.

- The gorge should be slower too...

- Now the biggest Problem i see is the Lerk...Slowing him down would make him useless! because he is a fast Attack unit. im not talking about the Suppport-Lerks. I mean the Combat lerks. If you make them slower using carapace DCs first would ruin the CombatLerk gameplay! unfortunately i dont have a solution to this...

- Onos-->well i like the Killertank Thing!

Instead of 1 ap = 2 hp, guess what!

1 ap = 3 or 4 hp

I think this is an interesting idea, though it would need a lot of numbers tweaking(thus why it's in the Future Versions forum I guess). I think it'd be difficult to balance because aliens really need to be able to escape to survive, but they'd need a lot of armor to allow that with the lower speed. But if the armor is too high then they'd be unstoppable on the ambush. If you got it balanced out I think it would make cara a little more interesting an upgrade.

Haven't got much to say apart from that I'm very interested to see more comments about this. At the moment I'm about 70:30 for this idea, but that could change with the next post...