Introducing...the Psittacosaurus! The Distracting Lure!

[RaephClark]

Common Name: Psittacosaurus

Species: Psittacosaurus mongoliensis

Time: Early Cretaceous

Diet: Herbivore

Temperament: Skittish

Wild

Psittacosaurus, or the “parrot lizard”, is perhaps one of the cutest creatures I’ve ever seen on the ARK. Their derpy faces and sweet disposition can only be rivaled by the Otters. While sticking together, they’ll happily graze upon plants and seeds. But if none of their kind is around, they’ll find the closest herbivore herd for protection.

An intriguing feature of the Psittacosaurus is their hollow, brightly colored bristle-like structures on their tails. At first, I thought they were used only for display, but recently I noticed another use for them. If a predator approaches their group, one individual will draw the attention of the predator by waving its tail and put the creatures in a trance, giving the rest of the group time to escape. I have only seen this happen when predators are aggressive towards them though, so could it be a psychological display as well?

Domesticated

While creatures like Sinomacrops are great for scaring off predators, the Psittacosaurus is built for luring them away. No matter how big a creature is, they can’t help but be drawn in by the Psittacosaurus’ unique display, making anything helpless for a short period of time. I’ve seen Tribes utilize the little guy’s capability by drawing wild creatures into pens so they can be tamed later or luring domesticated ones off cliffs to their doom. And better yet, one sea-faring Tribe has tamed then for the sole purpose of having a “parrot lizard” on their shoulder! My dreams of becoming a pirate have certainly come true!

Details

As a new shoulder pet, Psittacosaurus can be utilized as a passive lure against aggroed creatures, wild or tamed. They will shake the bristles on their tails and hypnotize any creature that is aggroed towards them, distracting them for at least fifteen seconds (less or longer if need be). Wild Psittacosaurus will do this to wild or domesticated Dinos to give the rest of their group time to retreat. And if there are no others in their group of the same species, wild Psittacosaurus will find the closest herbivore herd for protection against any predators.

Wild Psittacosaurus will be skittish around Survivors, much like Oviraptors if approached too close, so your best possible option is to bola them and tranquilize them. Their favorite foods are seeds or kibble. Once tamed, you can have them on your shoulder and carry them around like a pirate captain. And if you set them up properly, they will lure any aggroed creature to it, even while walking. However, you and the creature will need to face each other directly otherwise the trance will wear off if you turn around. Though this may not work on all creatures like the any of the invertebrates, Nameless, Deathworms or Golems (bigger list will come out later). However, if a Giga was in its rage state, you can easily cancel it out by hypnotizing it with the Psittacosaurus!

The Psittacosaurus will be perfect for luring creatures into taming pens (unless they can’t be aggroed) or luring creatures off cliffs to their deaths. Plus they are cute and are perfect pets to have on any sea-faring occasion.

If anyone has any other thoughts, feel free to comment below!

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psittacosaurus

[PaulStewart]

I drew what I intended to be part of a dossier, but I didn't get to finishing the actual dossier part. But I love psittacosaurus and I'm so glad you did submit it! Feel free to use this, and if you want the transparent version or want me to add your text for a full dossier let me know and I'll put it together!

Edited July 8, 2023 by PaulStewart

[PaulStewart]

Some more ideas for psittacosaurus usefulness!

Utilizing quills to craft arrows

Giving seeds from Arks various plants to psittacosaurus allows the dino to create special quills in its inventory which can be used as arrows

• Narcoberry/Ascerbic Mushroom - similar to tranq arrows or slightly more potent
• Plant Species Z - Either a flashbang of glowstick that can be fired from a crossbow giving increased range and accuracy

Gem Gathering (to decorate their nests!)

Psittacosaurus can gather gems from roll rats without gaining aggro, as well as pick up items from earthquakes. They can also pick up gatherable stones (the ones you can pick up by hand) on the ground and have a chance to find gems while doing so.

Vocalizations

In addition to the parrot-like ability to mimic and call other species, psittacosaurus also squawks out warnings whenever it senses a coming earthquake, poisonous mushrooms nearby, or high amounts of radiation

[LittleSpicyOreos]

Ok, I don't have any of this in any super-organized fashion as I was literally just jotting down all thoughts as we brain-stormed and never made it around to fleshing it out into a dossier/well-written format but I'm just going to type up all the notes we made on abilities. So, if you see something you like and want to make it smoother, feel free!

 

* Could be shoulder mount but would also like to see it Ark-dilo-sized with "saddle bags" like hyenadon

*Herd (pack) bonus ("alpha" called Scout? Lookout?)

* Diet = seeds (and mushrooms?)

*Temperment = Curious (but wary, defensive around young)

*Limited mortar & pestle? Definitely craftable special items in inventory

 

**Ability= CALLS: Can mimic animal in distress to add aggro from aggressive animals to lure them in (for help trapping). // Can mimic aggressive roar to startle other creatures away. // Can sing/coo serenade to reduce breeding cool-downs.

**Ability= BURROW: defensive to burrow itself (only tail out?) to hide and disguise and only quills available for enemies to "bite" (which then would take damage from attacking the quills)

**Ability= QUILLS: naturally can stick into predators and cause irritation (minor damage) over time for short period. Quills lost regrow over time.

> QUILLS AS ITEMS: various craftable "coatings" can be applied to harvested quills to use them as glow sticks or tranq arrows for example.

>> fed narcoberries/ascerbic mushrooms - slightly more potent tranq arrows; fed items with charge - quills become glowstick that can be placed precisely on ground or attached to things with a slightly brighter range and minor "glow aura"; fed Z fruit/seeds - flashbang arrows with greater distance than throwing the fruit; etc!

**Ability= CARRY: can carry shoulder pets in arms held against its belly (this would help so you could bring more than one glow pet into an area with you at a time!)

**Abilitiy= OH, SHINIES! : Can gather gems from roll rats without gaining aggro & pick up "bits" from earthquakes (the idea behind this being that they might use shiny objects to decorate their nests in the wild to impress potential mates). Also the ability to gather stones with a chance of getting crystal passively when left to wander which could be used on other maps.

**Ability= WARNINGS: like jerboa, can detect & warn about earthquakes and radiation areas as well as poisonous mushroom spots by squawking and flaring tails in different visual displays. (they had very good senses of smell and so may translate to being highly perceptive of dangers in-game)

**Ability/Mode= NANNY: mate-boosted pairs can help raise young decreasing baby food needs and increasing imprint/growth speed. If camp/babies attacked, they will defend them.

Attacks: bite, tail swipe, kick?, calls.

[LittleSpicyOreos]

Oh, nevermind, you've got it already submitted, my friend! We'll add our ideas to yours!!!!

[Wordsaying]

Psittacosaurus： a living flash-bang

Common Name: Psittaco
Species
Psittacosaurus Fulgurcauda
Time
Early Cretaceous
Diet
Herbivore
Temperament
Skittish
Wild
Psittacosaurus lives in the middle part of the large cavern where predators of all sorts roam around alone side the alien-like blue crystals. At first, I can hardly imagine how such a small and vulnerable herbivore survive the hunt of the tricky predators down there until I discovered its ultimate escaping skill: Flashbang! This primitive ceratopsian seems able to store magnesium-rich substance from the seeds it ate, which are produced by the strange glowing plants nearby, in the glands among the bristles on its tail! When the Psittacosaurus is under attack, it will release such substance and quickly ignite it with bio-charge, generating an extremely bright flash illumination. Many predators are adapted to hunt in low-light conditions, and often get dizzy when exposed to such bright light, giving the small dinosaur some time to flee. Interestingly, even though the light is as bright as lightning itself, it won't affect you when you are at distance and not staring at it.
Domesticate
Psittacosaurus love to rest on their owners' shoulders, and make them decent traveling companions. Their special "flash-bang" skill can prove life-saving in desperate moments. Some survivors trained their Psittacosaurus to release the "Flash-bang" on command to temporarily immobilized their enemies and turn the tide of the fight. Meanwhile, the Psittacosaurus' powerful beak makes a useful tool as well: Its eating habits make them often need to grind wood and even rock, allowing it to serve as a "living grinder", many survivors use this feature to grind wood into the thatch and rock into flints for better utilizing of resources. 

In-game
Wild:
-Inhabit the blue region of the cavern, often found near Plant species Z
-timid, release flashbang when under attack
-Creatures and players within its affected range will be flash banged, and the flashbang effect is the same as that of the fruit of plant species Z.
-When players are out of that range, they won't be flash banged, unless the flashbang is at the center of the players' sight (screen center) 
-KO to tame, Plant species Z seeds work the best, mushrooms are less effective, berries are more inferior.
Tamed:
-Set the dinosaur to aggressive or whistle "attack this target" to enable the Psittacosaurus to use flashbang. 
-Flashbang cannot be used continuously, there will be a cool-down before the next one triggered
-If on the shoulder, flashbang will be triggered when enemies are close enough
-If on the ground, Psittacosaurus will move towards the target and use flashbang when it gets close enough.
-Level up the dinosaur's melee damage to increase its flashbang range
-level up the dinosaur's stamina to shorten the cool down between flashbangs
-Put wood\Fungi wood in the Psittacosaurus inventory and use the Grind option to produce thatch(similar to that of a Tropeo)， and rock into flints.

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Wordsaying

[Fairy210]

I like how it actually looks like. It‘s like a Trike but also different

[TestingMan20]

I LOVE the look of this creature so much!!

[AmanaTishala]

Maybe could add the "flashbang", "specialized crafted gear", "primitive ceratopsian" (there does seem to be a lot of ceratopsian love in the community wanting another in the game ) , "radiation detection" all as tags to try to help it get some notice? 

I love all the art in here and all the ideas are fun!!!! Seems the community as a whole really enjoys flashing, glowing, hypnotic ideas for aberrant creature submissions!

 

Also, I think IF this guy were to get an "aberrant version" it should have a false eye spot glow behind its eyes, maybe its cheekbones, and a peacock eye pattern or some fun striping on its tail quills to glow for sure!!!!

[SilverEmberWolf]

Looks pretty cute

[schnuggelmaus39]

really good. i like it

[CrocodileScale]

The taco

[Sovira]

I seriously adore this little cutie, an actual dinosaur shoulder pet and it's absolutely adorable ❤️ VERY underrated!