Gigantophis, The Constrictor and Egg Tyrant

[RaptorRapture19]

What is Gigantophis?

Gigantophis is an extinct species of constrictor, living around 40 million years ago, it was the largest snake discovered until Titanoboa was found. Gigantophis was roughly around 35 feet long putting it near Whale Shark sized! Gigantophis were believed to of fed on the early relatives of elephants called Moeritherium.

More Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantophis

 

Gigantophis Dossier

Wild: Gigantophis Comprimens unlike Titanoboa exornantur prefers to spend its days basking in the sunlight waiting for its next meal. This immensely large snake prefers to constrict its prey crushing every single bone in its body, once it has its coils wrapped around you, there is no way of escape, just death. This creature is regularly seen preying upon the likes of Paraceratherium, Stegosaurus and even Triceratops but it won't pass up the opportunity to grab a nearby survivor.

Tamed: Whilst tamed Gigantophis is a viable asset, I have seen survivors using it as sort of upgraded chain bola which holds creatures in place but due to Gigantophis constrictor nature, it slowly crushes the creature. Personally I have been using mine as a sort of make-do tent protecting me from the elements, it is a terrifying thought but the babies are so cute with their little goofy smiles, you will get immediately attached to them.

 

Behaviour

Due to Gigantophis being a predator, it is highly aggressive, and relentless. It will attack any survivor or tame which is within reach of its thick coils. They are mainly found in riverways and open plains (when nesting). A nesting mother will not attack unless you are very close to it.

 

Appearance

Gigantophis looks like a modern day Anaconda but super sized, they tend to be solitary and ambush their prey with thick coils which disable prey, if the prey is larger than it, they bite it with their rows of needle teeth preventing the prey from moving.

Taming

Gigantophis is a passive tame and requires special precaution. It is advised to bring tames with high hp which you don't mind losing for example Moschops'. You must first find a mother Gigantophis coiled around its nest, the level of the mother represents the level of eggs inside the nest. Whistle your Moschops towards the mother, the mother will agro to the Moschops and start to coil then kill it, you must keep sending Moschops until the mother's taming effectiveness is at 100%. Once it is at 100%, the mother will spawn an egg and you must send one more Moschops to distract the mother from the egg. Gigantophis mother go up to level 225.

 

Combat

It is advised to use high ground against Gigantophis with a decent shotgun or use a large tame which deals a lot of damage, so you do not get constricted by Gigantophis.

 

Attacks

Primary: Is a bite attack which deals bleed damage similar to the Deinonychus.

Secondary: Coil attack which coils around creatures and hold it in place, you must press the button again to start constricting, inhibiting their movement whilst giving a bone break effect after a while and slowly increases in damage as time passes.

Tertiary: Latch attack, only for large creatures, you bite and latch onto the creature then press the coil button to start constricting the creature. You can also just use it to slow down your target.

 

Abilities - PvP

Soaker counter: Gigantophis can hold soaker in place preventing their movement so you can kill them more easily. Whilst constricting, if Gigantophis is damaged, it will let go and leave the tame with a bone break effect.

Movement restrict: Gigantophis can latch on to large creatures like gigas and slow/prevent their movement allowing you to kill them easier.

Unaffected by picking: Due to Gigantophis being so low to the ground and the position of the rider, you are immune to creatures like Desmodus picking you off your mount.

Tank: Due to Gigantophis' girth, it has a large hp value and can take quite a lot of hits, this is especially useful against hard hitting tames.

 

Abilities - PvE

Make-do Shelter: Ever had that horrible feeling of not being able to get back to your base in time when servers are about to update, well Gigantophis acts as a shelter and bed, all you have to do is access its option wheel and choose the shelter option, whilst in this mode Gigantophis gains the apex buff meaning you will be mostly safe.

Egg Collector: Gigantophis is a necessity for breeders who aren't at base, Gigantophis will collect your fertilized eggs while you're away and keep them safe until you need them.

Boss Fighter: Due to Gigantophis hp stat and its decent damage, it is a viable candidate for any boss fight.

Underwater Mount: When Gigantophis is in the water it gains a significant speed buff and it does not lose oxygen.

Meatrunner: Gigantophis is a reliable meat runner being able to carry a lot of meat without getting encumbered!

Tame Helper: Using Gigantophis coil attack, you can reliably hold most creatures down so you can tranq them out.

[WitheringSoul113001]

On 4/12/2023 at 7:47 AM, TuxedoToad said:

Do we really need another Snake? We have 2 already in-game. I feel like there’s so many other species or genera that deserve more representation.

I agree we dont need another snake, but if we were to get one it should be one that fits a desert not one thats sea snake turned desert constrictor

[WitheringSoul113001]

On 4/11/2023 at 3:04 PM, Winter1577 said:

All I'm saying if this don't win, I've lost hope in this game 😭

First they massacre my boy, now this sick snake won't get in. I'd cry, seems like such a cool concept to not be added in

Its a sea serpent turned desert constrictor, there are many different extinct snakes that would have fit better over this one

[WitheringSoul113001]

On 4/9/2023 at 11:43 AM, R0m said:

Love this idea, creative, unique and fits in very well with Scorched Earth as a whole. Lets get this in!

It does not whatsoever fit SE. Its a SEA SERPENT turned into a desert constrictor lol, theres absolutely 0 way for the real world extinct snake to fit into SE, there are many better choices for the map than this

[aR0y2810]

AMOGN US

[sploingus]

if its a constrictor then why would it have venom?

[RaddieDaRat]

I like snakes

 

[katann77573]

I am not a fan of snakes or bugs myself.

[Aferist]

I'd like to see more serpentine like this in the game.

I'm most interested in the coloration of these creatures at the moment, the pattern of their skins. Perhaps it allows them to become invisible, like the rock drake does?

[AlCrazyboy95]

i think this creature should win this event im very interested in it way more than the others. 

[Dodorex03]

Awesome 

[FireDefender]

I absolutely love most of the idea's given. I 100% agree this shouldn't get venom at all. One of my biggest disappointments in this game was the fact that the snake(s) were all venom based, including the boa which is actually a constrictor. Along with the fact that they weren't all that useful, and the only special one was the Basilisk, yet it is quite bulky and feels weird to use, which was another great disappointment, because I absolutely love snakes (got one as a pet too), and not seeing them the way they could have been in this game is very sad...

To expand on other peoples comments and such, here is what I would think may be best for this creature:

Appearance:
Nothing too special. No spiky bits or other more strange deviations from what a more baseline constrictor like the boa or anaconda has irl (so no frills either, something I never understood the design choice of), as that would make it more like a serpent which we have - the Basilisk - along with making its appearance less friendly looking. It should to me have a look that makes it look friendly and cute, but a behavior that is usually considered less cute. This would for one make players who like/love snakes make the potentially stupid decision to approach it, as a friendly look would be a great deception. A color pallette along with the pattern that the first image in the submission has would absolutely do the job, with some minor deviations in color, along with the ablility for the player to breed them for different colors and looks like real life breeders are doing. 

Behavior (Wild):
Its wild behavior should be as an ambush predator if it isn't guarding eggs (only females should guard eggs, yet not all females found should be guarding eggs). With its attack pattern defined by how 'hungry' it is, therefore not always actively hunting prey, so that players may approach it without too many issues so long as it isn't hungry or defensive. Players should be able to know if it is hunting, defensive or just kind of chilling by looking at its behavior and movement or 'stance' rather than through a HUD indicator or a value on screen ('equip super spyglass > note low hunger value > likely aggressive' should not be the way to find out if it is aggresive, defensive or passive). This would hopefully set the stage for new kinds of creature behaviors which will make creatures feel like actual creatures, and not assets in a virtual world. Something ARK has so far failed to do horribly, making carnivores kill anything on sight the moment something enters their aggro-range is not immersive in any way, and it does not make you able to feel anything for said "creature". A carnivore shouldn't just kill if it isn't hungry, only act defensively on possible threats. Rather they should hunt when hungry, and live their life if not. 

As an ambush predator it shouldn't be easily seen, but rather trying to hide to then ambush its prey and constrict them when successful, including players when the Gigantophis is of a small to medium size. And mainly hunt medium to large creatures whenever they are their full adult size. Of course fully swallowing the prey rather than just bite-it-until-it-disappears. 

Behavior (Tamed):

As a tamed creature it should be ridable without a saddle, and instead give it a natural armor or resistance to counteract the bonus a saddle gives. I like the idea of an egg-gullet or spot where things could be "stored" without exposing them to the elements, this should be the kind of spot a player would be, bonus points if you have to be swallowed in a way to get there (snakes don't have arms, an external "pouch" wouldn't be sensible as there'd be no way to get anything in it without external help. In order to put its eggs in a safe spot it would need to swallow said eggs to put them in that spot, so the player would need to be swallowed the same way). This would make the mount/dismount animation more unique, and give an interesting 'ew' factor that would make sense in this context. You are dealing with a massive snake after all.

When ridden this way, it makes more sense when you would use it to constrict/subdue/hold prey of your choice in place. The prey it should be able to hunt should be decided by its size, introducing a new kind of growing system, where a creature is fully usable without being full size, and having certain benefits or drawbacks related to its current size.

At a smaller size, it shouldn't be ridable yet, it is too small to be directly controlled, this stage would be useful for hunting smaller prey, or as a pet, coiled around the player as an anaconda or similar size snake could be IRL. While mostly having a mind-of-its own, "imprinting" should be done by having the snake wrapped aound you as the player, with it giving larger and larger debuffs while it grows in the way of increasing the amount of weight the player is carrying, decreasing the movespeed, and making it harder to do many things, combat and agility being affected the most, then resource gathering and the players ability to use their hands or tools (decreasing player crafting speed, slowing tool use or eventually making the player unable to use tools or weapons while carrying the snake at later stages of growth). 

At a medium size, (about 80% to 120% the size of the Basilisk) it should be ridable and usable as such, no longer able to constrict or wrap itself around smaller prey and instead able to hunt medium to medium-large prey. This would make it so that you could stop it constricting your tribes creatures by using smaller creatures en-masse in PVP, especially if it is constricting one of your tribes medium-size creatures, therefore giving it a kind of counter, yet smaller creatures would be easily defeated whenever it isn't constricting due to its crushing weight and nasty defensive bite to encourage players to manage their small tames and make strategic decisions, and give small tames an actual use. While this mechanic carries the risk of an army of snakes of different sizes being very powerful and very difficult to beat, I am of the opinion that this should absolutely be the case, instead making players have to use smart use static emplacements in strategic positions and player-held firearms to fend the snakes off instead of powerful creatures.

At full size, it should be able to constrict  medium-large creatures at minimum, and very large creatures at maximum (with a few exceptions). Making some extremely large creatures a good counter, and making medium creatures the "small" creatures of the previous size. Small creatures should be useless here, dealing absolutely no damage whatshowever while being killed without a thought. 

Main balance to prevent spamming, while maintaining full immersion:
Feeding them isn't done the usual way of just toss meat in their inventory and you are good, instead they should be fed through live-feeding your other tames (They are still predators who swallow and constrict prey for food of course, and this should be reflected while tamed. Demanding respect toward the snake, and making the larger sizes hard to sustain for early-game tribes). The size of the tames changing linearly with the size of the snake. Therefore ensuring that keeping them is limited by your tribes ability to breed prey creatures for food. I feel like having it eat eggs of other creatures should't be an option, as we have 2 egg-eating snakes already, and I'm up for something never done before.

At the small size this should be smaller sized prey, like dodo's or similar sized creatures and earlier stages of growth, and humans at the mid- to late stages. Which means that yes, the snake may decide that you are prey when it gets hungy while wrapped around the player, which will add the needy mechanic in a unique way. This will encourage players to either keep being the prey every time it gets hungry, or to tame other prey creatures for food to prevent you from becoming its food. This would be a great risk-reward situation, where having the snake coiled around you will be the way to imprint on it and gain powerful bonuses, with the risk of becoming the food if you didn't pay attention to its behavioural indicators. They should be obsecure enough that they could be missed if you don't pay attention, but not too obsecure where you need to continuously be paying an extremely close attention to it, so that it could still always cause for a funny moment where you got too distracted no matter how experienced you are with it, yet not annoying so that it happens all the time you aren't looking. What may also be a really cool feature is that, if you carry the snake around a lot, it may decide to coil around you on its own when the imprinting is high enough (50%>). Giving it a more animal-like feel, and not so much an asset like that plant in your greenhouse.

At the medium and large size it should be the normal size prey according to the snakes size. Still risking other tames not meant for food, or the player themselves when they attempt to ride it when it is hungy, making the snake opt to consume the player instead when swallowing.

The tamed abilities are a simple bite attack for defense, a lunge-and-coil for either constriction, subduction or immobilization of prey, and the simple damage caused by it moving over creatures small enough due to its crushing weight. It should be possible for it to swallow and "store" tames for safe transport as well, provided there are no eggs in the gullet already.


Gender diversification can be done through colors, patterns or - what I would vote for - snake size and tail type. IRL, male snakes grow to smaller sizes and have the end-portion of the tail less smooth, and more a thick tail and a sudden "drop" in thickness, due to the reproductive organ that is located at the end of the tail. And female snakes are much larger, and have the tip or end-portion of the tail end much smoother, linearly decreasing in thickness until the end.

Taming wild snakes should only be possible by stealing an adult female snakes eggs, or by finding a smaller size snake and attempting to gain it's trust through passive taming by petting it, protecting it against larger nearby predators, and by eventually handling it the same way you imprint on smaller snakes that you tamed by breeding wild or tamed eggs, while carrying the same risks. 

Breaking free might be better done through external means, like dealing damage or scaring the snake with loud roars from certain creatures to encourage it to release the held creature. I believe it wouldn't make much sense for a creature that is stuck in the coils of the snake to have the ability to escape and break free themselves, they are immobilized and likely getting weaker by the second. In this situation the prey is completely at the mercy of the snake and not in a position to break out without external help. When a wild snake has released a creature or player, it should instead seek to get away as fast as possible to prevent getting killed. When a snake has forcefully released something, they should be unable to wrap around anything for a period of time (45s to a minute would make the most sense) along with getting a debuff to damage dealt, a buff to movement speed, and an incoming damage modifier of 200%, to encourage players to attempt to escape as well.


Let me know what you think, I don't know if the submission could still be altered, yet I read that the devs will read through the discussion for the potential final design. And regarding the sea-snake arguments, they are valid, yet tbf I don't think ARK looks all too well at realism with other creatures for that to be a weird thing. I mean they made the boa a venomous snake with frills. Like, really? C'mon!

(also I realize I'm very late to the party, in my defense I didn't even realize there was another submission until now lol)

Edited April 22, 2023 by FireDefender

[chr4th]

I think it should be able to suffocate players until they pass out, then be able to carry the player around like a living cage, releasing them when they run out of stamina.

instead of being able to break out buy killing the snake, every punch makes the snake lose stamina but only when its moving.

[TerronScibe]

On 4/7/2023 at 7:28 PM, LadyMiko said:

Gigantophis in history was the first known sea snake. However, the Titanoboa was a constrictor snake in reality, however ark turned it into a viper. Why not flip the script?

 

No. Keep it a Sea Snake/Serpent. When I rented  a server I used to have Basilisks spawnin the ocean. They looked soo cool, yet would sink in the water. I definitely appreciate the idea of a Sea Serpent! Especially in Center, Island or any large water map.

[MonstersHunters]

While I do enjoy the idea of having variety amongst reptiles added to Ark, especially a viper-like animal that could replace the Titanoboa, until a future TLC update. I do have a few criticisms or details I would like to highlight towards the possible addition of Gigantophis. First of all, while Ark’s Titanoba definitely needs a TLC update, Gigantophis is not the same in any regards, apart from being a "boa". Gigantophis was an eastern hemisphere Madtsoiidae python adapted to the Paratethys Sea of modern Egypt and Algeria in the Sahara of the Eocene. Gigantophis was not actually a "sea snake" like Pterosphenus, Palaeophis, Archaeophis (which were actually some of the first known convergently evolved sea snakes in the fossil record) or Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae (sea kraits), but rather a large constrictor from the Boidae family that travelled through the water of the seaway like an anaconda snake (lacking a traditional tail fin/fluke, head shape or venomous bite). Feeding off anything small enough to be consumed or constricted to death, including fish, turtles and crocodilians.


https://twitter.com/HodariNundu/status/1416156547953020928

However, on the concept of a viper or venomous snake (for those who argue for or are interested in the Gigantophis having a venomous bite) that is quite large in size and could fit an addition to Ark Survival Evolved with Scorched Earth. I would recommend adapting or acknowledging principles of Laophis. Laophis crotaloides was the largest viperidae venomous snake to exist on Earth, from Pliocene Northern Greece (a habitat covered in grassland, hills and steppe that I would consider more similar to Scorched Earth in compairson to the lush, tropical habitat of the Paratethys Sea of the Sahara that Gigantophis thrived in). Growing up to 9 to 13.8 ft in length and weighing more than 57 pounds, this reptile was a formidable predator in its habitat. Note, A snake doesn’t have to be massive in size to take down prey like constrictors, but have an effective enough neurotoxin or venom to shut down the circulatory or nervous system. Laophis would make a great addition to Ark, having features adapted into a similar animal that follows its premise. Cobra and rattlesnake venom could be used as an inspiration for this new snake that makes it more deadly in some regards to the Titanoboa, being smaller, yet having a stronger venomous bite that does not apply a narcotic effect. Instead, the venom produced from these glands damages organs, specifically the kidneys, heart and lungs. Resulting in necrosis and damage to the tissue that leads to fatal injuries and the death of the Laophis’s prey. Some vipers such as the Russell's Viper and Saw-Scaled Vipers are also haemotoxic, which means that this venom disrupts blood clotting. Increasing haemorrhages and the chances of bleeding out to death or exsanguination. The concepts suggesting the addition of features prevalent with the Spider-Tailed Horned Viper or Pseudocerastes urarachnoides, the Saharan Horned Viper or Cerastes cerastes and the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake or Crotalus atrox, would actually work for Laophis as all three examples and this genus belong under the Viperidae family. The Saharan Horned Viper example could also make the Laophis contain a cytotoxin that targets cells of a player and inhibits healing. With all these different ideas, the Laophis could be designed to switch venom types (similar to the ingame TLC Stegosaurus concept) with specialised modified glands in its mouth that can either operate venom as a cytotoxin, haemotoxin or a neurotoxin to target certain status effects or apply conditions that affect its chosen prey differently.

While we do have two current snakes or serpents in Ark, I would recommend a third species, as long as it is not similar in any regards to the current Titanoboa or Basilisk as a python or boa that has been fully genetically modified as a subspecies or is a fictional rendition. Rather I would recommend a subspecies of Laophis that follows the venom aspect of the concept for the Gigantophis suggestion.
 

Otherwise, I do enjoy the characteristics and ideas for this creature, I would though suggest Laophis rather than Gigantophis for certain details, especially the venom argument.

For a constrictor, I wonder consider Titanoboa receiving a TLC update similar to DjayMasi's artwork below:

^{https://www.deviantart.com/djaymasi/art/ARK-TLCs-Titanoboa-849984997}

Gigantophis should remain an "aquatic python" (not a sea snake), being adapted to swamps and marshes (not a desert) replacing the titanoboa in these habitats and possibly being adapted to feeding on fish, waterbirds, small crocodilians like Kaprosuchus and the occasional phiomia, hiding within the mangroves until prey stumbles by.

Though for a Scorched Earth subspecies of Gigantophis, the animal would have to thrive in and around oasis's (hiding in water bodies) or canyons. Cooling itself off from the constant heatwaves that bombard the heights of the Ark. The Ball Python (Python regius), the Indian Python (Python molurus) and the Central African Rock Python (Python sebae), I would recommend otherwise as suggestions for this animal.

Keep up the Great Work, Beyond my Suggestions!

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by MonstersHunters

[CutePredator]

there are just not enough snakes in the Ark. I would really like to see this beast in action))

[katann77573]

I think the 2 snake critters we have in Ark is enough, to me they are useless other than the loot we get from them for boss fights, I did tame a Bassy and she is cool but I do not do any thing with her at all, she is just a base ornament so that is my thought on the snakes. That being said if this critter was a water type I would be more inclined to vote for it maybe depending on what it dose in the water to help the humans as tames but other than that, I hope for one of the birds wins myself.

Edited May 2, 2023 by katann77573