Hive and Swarm still MIA? + an idea to discuss

[UDGxKnight]

Warning Long Read Ahead!

Hive and Swarm:

So this may seem odd to people who don't know about it, but there is a creature hiding in the dev kit that hasn't been used yet and I am just sitting over here wondering where they are. Back in August of last year when the Phoenix made it into the game officially they said it would get added after but we have yet to see it ? It is strange indeed as I honestly think  a strange creature like these would fit perfectly on Extinction being a symbiotic element infused pair of creatures. Maybe its still planned who knows.

If Anybody knows anything I dont please let me know.

(Full disclosure this secondary topic is just and idealized topic, not to be taken as I dont understand game building/mods/etc. just an idea I thought was cool)

So secondly I wanna talk about the idea of creature variations. Now hear me out. So we all know the basic idea of how a creature gets added to the game and such, is it useful/is it unique/does it add a needed mechanic/etc. Now lets talk about the idea of Creature Variants, which would be a separate creature that is basically the same as another but different in appearance. 

Example: Say you like Triceratops and their mechanics but they aren't your favorite Ceratopsid and instead its Torosaurus or maybe the Kosmoceratops.

What I would like as an idea is not  brand new creatures with unique abilities but instead a re-skin of sorts. Almost like what they did with the skins that added Styracosaur/Brachiosaur/Stygimoloch but instead of just being skins being actual creatures. 

See one of my things with Ark is that sometimes it seeps Quality instead of Quantity. Now that is not a bad thing in ANY way, except that we get left with little "new." Take the Island for example, Thriving with creatures everywhere and all of them unique in their own way about 120ish of them give or take and is the best of both worlds of quality/quantity. Skip to Scorched Earth 13 unique creatures(boss, alphas, and variants excluded except for Wyverns) and the rest are reused island assets. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with that since it saves time and some of the creatures do indeed make sense being there, but what if instead of Sabercats being there what if we just re-skinned them as Cave Lions or instead of Dire Wolves why not re-skin them as Andrewsarchus.

Now I'm sure you are wondering, Why even do this? Seems like a waste of time. Well yes it does, but what it adds is options. Bear with me here cuz this is gna be a stretch. You play Destiny, ESO, Diablo, Mass Effect, any game with any kind of customization and most people adore being able to pick their favorite appearance. What if in the case of Ark this choice in appearance was with the creatures themselves as well? Variety adds life to a game even in small amounts. Say one tribe adores the Stegosaurus and they are known for it but another tribe prefers the look of Wuerhosaurs even though the two creatures are exactly the same except in appearance. WildCard has only done this type of thing once really in Aberration with the Glow Pets, they all literally do the exact same things and their only difference is appearance but it was perfectly done. Then you and your group of friends could all have different opinions on which you preferred. If you wanted the ugly pug frog, the gecko, the twinkle bird, or tiny mistake rudolph then you could.

Now you could argue Aberration does exactly what I am talking about but a parasaur that glows is still the exact same parasaur when it couldve been a Corythosaurus instead. I am however of the mindset that Aberration was a chance for them to go all out and make all kinds of crazy mashup creatures or unique ones since the theme was mutation and such and skip the whole Aberrant variants idea in the first place.

As I am typing this out I realize how silly it sounds but its just something I thought Ark was missing sort of. The reason I even bring it up and want to discuss it instead of suggest it is to get a feel for how everyone feels about it.