MONGOLARACHNE: THE WASTELAND ARACHNID

[PxrpleLightning]

THE MONGOLARACHNE

Basic Info:

When you think of Extinction, you usually don't think of a normal dinosaur-looking creature. Unlike most other maps, the vast majority of new creatures introduced with the Extinction map are completely different looking creatures, meaning that a new basic dinosaur creature wouldn't fit the theme of the map. Instead of a dinosaur, however, there are many other types of prehistoric animals (and bugs) that can be used as a substitution. The Mongolarachne was a large spider-like creature with unique features making it fit in with other Extinction creatures such as the Velonosaur, Gacha, and Managarmr. 

Wild Creature Info:
The Mongolarachne is an intelligent creature living in the wastelands and relying on other creatures to weaken its prey before it hunts. Since the Mongolarachne does not want to waste energy or its life attacking things that are bigger than it, it waits for its prey to become weak enough for it to snatch it up before the other creature hunting its prey is able to kill the prey. This would obviously upset the creature hunting, however the Mongolarachne is fast enough to escape any threats before it's attacked.

When the Mongolarachne is attacked, however, if it does not have any prey, it will attack back. But, if the Mongolarachne is carrying its prey, for example if it's running away with its prey after stealing food from another creature, it will not attack back, but instead it will carry its prey and run away. However, if it gets weak enough, it will drop its prey and run.

The Mongolarachne will also have a damage reduction for ranged weaponry, and can be used to counter the Velonosaur.

Taming Info:
To tame the Mongolarachne , the player must be of low enough health while near one, and then the Mongolarachne will grab the player and start running off with them, in an attempt to bring the player to a safe place to eat. However, when the Mongolarachne finds a place to eat, if the player is carrying a creature, the Mongolarachne will begin to eat the creature that the player is carrying, giving the player time to run away. This process must be repeated until the Mongolarachne has been tamed.

Tamed Ability Info:
Web Shooting
Like the Araneo, the Mongolarachne has the ability to shoot webs, however these webs deal damage for as long as the target is stuck. For players that are webbed, there will be a large web blocking a large portion of their screen, making their visibility sharply decrease. These webs can be cut by a sword or other melee weapon and silk is needed as ammo for the web shooting.
Wall Crawling
Although many other creatures can crawl up and around vertical walls and terrain, the Mongolarachne is different. When crawling on these spaces, the Mongolarachne will become hidden, making it difficult to spot for creatures that are both hostile and passive. When the Mongolarachne shoots webs or attacks, its hidden ability will wear off, making it vulnerable to being seen by enemies. This hidden ability also works on other player turrets and dinos, decreasing the range that other players turrets and dinos can detect the Mongolarachne from.
Cave/Nighttime Buff
When inside of a cave, or during nighttime, the Mongolarachne will gain a buff. Wild Mongolarachne cannot receive this buff since they live primarily in the wastelands where it is always daytime. This buff will decrease the amount of damage intake the Mongolarachne has, and increase the duration of the webs that the Mongolarachne shoots.

Underground Burrowing
Like the Purlovia, Basilisk, and a few others, the Mongolarachne has the ability to burrow underground and hide from other creatures or players. This burrowing ability can be used to store items, however when inside of this burrow, the Mongolarachne is extremely vulnerable to explosives and surprise attacks, and if attacked while in the burrow, the Mongolarachne will come out of the burrow and drop any items that are in its inventory.

Let me know what you think of my creature, and vote for it if you would like to see it in Extinction! Thanks

[Xtreme1171]

Forgot about the creature submission lol.

Mongolarachne Jurassica – The Net Casting Titan

Arachnophobes beware, for the Mongolarachne is here! Coming from the Middle Jurassic time period, the Mongolarachne has gone through many classifications since its first discovery in 2013 as only two fossils of the animal have been discovered. The general consensus though is that the “Mongo” could be a stem-orbicularian meaning that the webs it would weave are closely resembling the orb webs certain modern spiders can weave. They have been noted on having a cribellum which would have allowed them to weave silk that is, although fine, could be weak when slack but when prey is caught it could harden and stick to any prey caught in the webs as modern spiders with a cribellum operate. One of the more fascinating theories about the Mongo is that it could potentially also be a Deinopidae or a “net casting spider” also meaning that it is the latest Deinopidae ever discovered! Net casting spiders will weave a net out of their silk and after securing the net to their front legs, will launch themselves at prey before chowing down.

Dossier:

Wild: Today I witnessed a truly horrifying sight. The Mongolarachne. As I was out surveying, I nearly became this massive beast’s next meal as I unknowingly wandered into one of its web traps it had lain under the tree it was currently descending from. I could not even scream before its web net was around me but before the silk hardened, I was able to grab my gun. My bullets had next to no effect but by pure luck my flashlight scared it away, leaving it dazed enough for me to escape. Interestingly it showed similar signs to that of a seizure for a few seconds before climbing back up its tree.

Domesticated: I have yet to see anyone successfully tame a Mongolarachne, but I do believe that taming is possible as it shows heightened levels of intelligence. My theory stems from its willingness to recruit other creatures of this ark as they can both mutually benefit from the relationship, mostly to make getting a meal easier. I suspect that with a combination of certain bright lights as well as the direct puncture of the underbelly with any number of narcotic weaponries, the rapid assault on its nervous system should send it in a shock in which it could then be nursed back to health. Other ways of overloading the nervous system may be possible but I’m not going to risk my hide to test what does and doesn’t set it off. When tamed I suspect the Mongolarachne could be extremely useful for the taming of many of the creatures around the ark as well as a safe alternative to help bring down some of the more dangerous ones.

Taming: One of the main ways to “stun” a Mongo is to use bright lights head on, as many Deinopidae (net casting spiders) are very susceptible to light and the Mongo will rear back exposing its underbelly where tranqs can be shot at into it to start knocking it out. In a lore sense most spiders have a large amount of their nervous system along their underbellies, so by flashing it, it overloads the nervous system allowing it to then be affected by narcotics. This will take several stuns to pull off as well as lots of tranqs as they will have a high torpor drain when not stunned, akin to a Giga’s torpor drain and it will have a very large torpor pool. The Mongo will gain a buff where it cannot be stunned until a timer runs out so it will not be stun locked, real world Deinopidae are able to regrow burnt optical organs after a period of time.

Saddle: Driver is sat on top of the Mongo’s head, with two passengers along the side of the head/main body to give them sightlines on things that are caught in the net.

Location: Can be in both the sunken forest as well as the desert dome

Countermeasures:

·        Weak to bright sudden lights: Bright lights stun Mongos for an increased time, with them exposing their underbellies so that extra damage and torpidity can be done. Damage to the underbelly can only be done by projectiles, players with melee weapons, small to medium sized tames, bleed can be applied to underbelly. (Lights include Flashlight, Electric Prod, Z fruit, Charge Lantern)

·        Placed Charge lanterns and Light Pets can provide a nice deterrent from prowling Mongos

·        Other possible stuns: Both Pachyrhinosaurus scents at once, plant x + plant y at once, Many narcotic traps at once

·        Immobile while pounced: While pounced on prey the Mongo cannot move and will not be able to until the net is broken, the Mongo releases the net, or the prey is eaten

·        Stamina drain while pounced: In order to keep something captured both immobile and defended a constant stream of fresh webbing is required to keep the net in top shape. The Mongo constantly produces a stream of fresh webbing and gets tired over time doing so if the prey is awake. Knocked out creatures will not constantly drain stamina as they are no longer fighting against the webbing.

·        Web Net cooldown: A Mongo both tame and wild will have a cooldown before it can weave another web net onto its front legs so as to not allow consecutive pounce attempts.

·        Slow speed: The Mongo is slow moving in both walking and sprinting with its main form of movement being large jumps allowing for quick getaways as long as you watch where the Mongo is launching itself

·        Very slow swim speed, can be attacked from below for extra damage in water

·        Affected by Large Bear Traps (not plant y, plant y only helps stun not root)

 

Perks:

·        High health pool

·        Large stamina pool

·        High weight capacity

·        Far jumps

·        Can climb

·        Takes reduced damage from all sources when not stunned and not hit in the underbelly (high defense)

·        No fall damage

·        Has tough plated chitin to reduce fire/megatherium bug bonus damage to normal

·        Immune to bleed when not attacking underbelly

·        Immune to Shadowmane poison, Cnidaria and Electrophorus shock

·        Immune to Freeze, both Mana AND Snow Owl (its fuzzy)

 

Symbiotic Relationships:

·        Beelzebufo: Species of Tarantulas have been seen using frogs to guard their eggs from bugs that want a quick snack and in return protect the frog from its predators with its size. The Beelzebufo could sit on top of the back like the babies can and could obtain cementing paste at an increased rate. It could be a way for the Beel to get free food while protecting the main course the Mongo is trying to eat without any annoying Meganura getting at it first

·        Araneo: Could help reduce the amount of time the spider silk produces in the Mongo's inventory for each Araneo on the back and could reduce the time the Mongo takes to weave bigger webs, but only SLIGHTLY less

·        Bloodstalkers: Could help reduce the stamina drain per Bloodstalker on prey a Mongo is holding down as they could help lighten the load, and help fight against the creature trying to escape

Buffs would be shown with a percentage increase/decrease for the respective change

Appearance: Male Mongos will be slimmer than female Mongos but the same size. The Mongo will be based mostly off a Tarantula with it being a bigger, thicker build than the other spiders of Ark. It will have a fuzzy coat like a Tarantula. It will have patterning and spikes like many Orb Weavers have. Its eyes will resemble that of a jumping spider but still have the Chelicerae(jaws) of a Tarantula. Its front two(2) legs will be elongated like the fossil and Deinopidae arachnids have but will be slightly slimmer than its other six(6) legs but still retain the fuzzy look. While weaving a web net before a pounce you can see a noticeable change in the Mongos movement where the start of the charge will be a slow movement of the front legs and as the size of the web net increases the faster the legs will move to help players visualize what stage the net is in. While in the web trap laying mode the spines at the back of the abdomen around the Cribellum will flash the color that they are to indicate to players that the Mongo is about to lay traps in the area.

 

Hunting: A wild Mongo will lay down traps surrounding the area as it wanders, waiting for something to trip the web where it will then aggro onto the trapped entity and weave a web to then pounce on it. Wild wandering Mongos will lay up to three(3) web traps on the ground. If flying or gliding in the vicinity of one it will attempt to launch itself into the air, where quick reactions to dodge the incoming giant will determine whether you are caught or not. It will also attempt the pounce on gliding tames but their speed should take you out of range before they are able to pounce on you but be careful not to land near it. It will always try to trap its prey first as being an intelligent being it knows its chances of a meal are higher when the odds are in its favor but if anything happens to escape it will chase and bite at entities until it is ready to weave another net. They can also be found on redwood trees and cliffs with them having one(1) web trap directly under the surface they are on.

 

The Pounce: When a wild Mongo senses a web trap has caught something or something in the air catches its eye it will weave a web net around its front elongated legs where it will create the right size net and then launch itself in the direction of the entity. An entity caught by the pounce will slowly be wrapped up by the Mongo where it will then start biting into whatever it caught dealing high damage as well as torpidity. Captured entities can still perform attacks for a time before the net hardens as most webs produced from a spider with a cribellum have the ability to harden and dry out after touching prey for a time. In this brief time a player can stun the Mongo to instantly break out of any net/web trap they or any creature are stuck in, freeing them, and giving them time to escape while the Mongo pursues until outran. A mounted creature that is wrapped in a net before it hardens can be dismounted but if the creature is not dismounted before the net hardens the rider loses the ability to do any actions or be interacted with by any outside force. A mounted creature will be attacked first without the rider being attacked but if the mount is killed the rider will be freed to flee. A mounted creature that is in a net cannot do actions for a time that starts when the Mongo has fully webbed the tame, when the timer runs out the rider can then attack to try to break the web and rapidly decrease the Mongo’s stamina. When a Mongo’s stamina is depleted, any entity caught in the web net is freed. Mounted creatures will not be targeted by creatures that would aggro to it while caught in a Mongo web so as to not have a successful escape met by a group of predators to immediately chow down on you and your tame. Players and creatures that escape the Mongo’s web are given the “Terrifying Presence” buff to signify the nullification of aggro. A Mongo will raise its head slightly if it is pounced which can protect the rider from attacks from the front. The Mongo can utilize its webs differently depending on the drag weight of the creature with a drag weight of 600 being the largest a Mongo can successfully pounce and wrap up.

 

Web Trap: Functioning similar to a small/large bear trap or Y plant trap, any creature that walks over the web trap will be stuck for a time with the ability to break out of the web with enough attack actions. If pounced while stuck in a web trap the Mongo will be able to wrap up a creature faster than it would if it was pounced on without a web trap. For creatures the Mongo cannot tie down in its grasp, creatures that walk on web traps have reduced movement speed for a short time period. As it is a spider web it will not have a decomposition timer like a Y plant trap does, but a trap spotted before something is caught in it can be broken easily. Wild Mongos will approach the area of a broken web trap and will eventually re-lay more traps in the area as it wanders.

 

Food Chain: The Mongo is an apex of sorts, preferring forests and canyon areas that prefer to lie in wait for prey to wander into web traps rather than outright pouncing on everything in sight, with the exception of flying and gliding entities. They will attack and pounce on everything caught in web traps even Rexes. Bigger predators such as Rexes and Gigas can aggro onto the Mongo.

 

Maneuverability: The Mongo would be about the same speed as a Theri and much in the same aspect as a Theri, it will be able to outlast other large tames in a race but can still be run down if caution is not taken. The Mongo is able to climb as well as jump very high like a Karkinos or Reaper giving it very good maneuverability.

 

PvE Usage: A tamed Mongo can be manually made to start weaving a net with a crosshair indicating the direction the spider will pounce, no aim assist will be added like with raptors as the Mongo’s size will give it a large capturing radius. With the two seats on the side of the Mongo’s saddle, two passengers will be able to use ranged weaponry on whatever the Mongo has trapped in the net allowing for easy taming with the ability of the hardened net to prevent wild dino damage to be done to the captured creature as well as having smaller prey animals not be hunted by predators while caught in a Mongo’s net, preventing any reduction in taming effectiveness. As this is a tame and not a building, this living trap can help tame creatures in areas where other tribes’ structures are located. Structures cannot be placed near a Mongos legs if something is caught.

 

PvP Usage: In tribe fights, a Mongo with enough silk in its inventory can produce a minefield of web traps that will stop anything that passes over it in its tracks, leaving things an easy target for attack. With its ability to fully capture a tame, it can force enemies to have to focus on freeing their comrade giving more opportunities to attack, with the Mongo able to retreat to the backlines to heal with its large jump. If not on the frontlines trapping enemy tames, the Mongo could use its bulky defense to defend the flanks and rear of your tribe by setting traps around your friends and with its damage reduction it is able to stall out most high damage dealing dinos giving your friends time to react to the surprise threat. The Mongo will also have the ability to pry open dino and behemoth gates, leaving them “webbed open” for a brief time to make entering a base’s defense easier. The webbing on the door is set on a timer and cannot be interacted with by either parties. Webbed open gates when freed will have to be manually closed by the owner.

Breeding: Mongos are able to breed naturally and will produce an egg akin to the Araneo and Mantis eggs. Unlike most spiders the females will NOT eat the male after breeding. After the egg is hatched the baby Mongo will have the option to sit on a mother spider to rest on the abdomen with a maximum of three baby Mongos being able to be sat like a Maewing and fed until Juvenile where they are separated. Baby Mongos while on a mother’s back will have increased imprint done to it. (Placeholder risk for breeding: Males will have to shed their exoskeleton to regrow their “bits” leaving them knocked out with their damage reduction buff removed and having extra damage and debuffs able to be applied anywhere.)

Incubation and Maturation: An infant Mongo’s life cycle will take around over three(3) days on 1x including incubation and maturation

Imprint: On 1x, imprints will count for 20% of the bar, with a baby on a mother’s back gaining 40% for an imprint. Baby Mongos on a mother’s back will only ask to be fed raw and cooked prime, raw and cooked mutton, cooked prime meat jerky, Superior kibble, narcotic, or biotoxin. If a baby Mongo is removed from the back of the mother, the extra buff will not be applied upon the feeding of the baby as to not allow rerolls for easier to obtain items.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR THOSE INTERESTED

Concept: While the real-world Mongo is only a few inches in length, Ark is not afraid to upscale creatures, so I say why not go all out and have the Ark Mongo be a bit bigger than a Rex. Its appearance would take from a mix of real-world spiders including Tarantulas, Orb Weavers and others, while also retaining the elongated front legs from their fossils. Their main form of attack would be to weave a web net around their two front legs before doing a pounce not unlike that of the Raptor where it would then wrap the prey up before starting to attack. The Mongo would be a very high health, high damage creature with a large stamina pool but slow movement speed. To add a bit more utility and to help its lack of speed, the Mongo would be able to set web traps on the ground, acting like a bear trap or a Plant Y trap. In the wild it could leave a few in the area it is spawned in, and if a creature steps in the web, it is stuck but has the ability to attack out of the web such as players are able to break out of a Bloodstalker string before the web hardens. While tamed the Mongo could also passively generate spider webbing in its inventory which could be used as a replacement for fiber, but at certain thresholds it could craft and place the web traps with a player also being able to take it out of the Mongo’s inventory and place it themselves. For the web net, it could weave different sizes depending on how long the action key for the weaving is held going from small, medium, large, and extra-large, with the small web net being able to capture players and player sized tames. Like the Rhyniognatha, the size of the web woven could affect creatures of different drag weights with the extra-large webs being able to hold down Spinos and Reapers and other similar drag weight creatures. While pounced on a creature the Mongo is immobile and will not attack the webbed creature unless manually done by the rider or set on aggressive. The saddle of the Mongo will hold three players with the driver set on the top of the head and the other two along the sides of the torso so that they are able to attack webbed entities from range. It can also climb walls.

 

The idea: As both a PvP and PvE player and mostly PvE, one of the staple aspects of progressing through the game is the taming of new dinos. In PvP we are able to pick up creatures and drop them into traps in order to make the taming process easier. In PvE however the ability to move a creature into a trap in such a way is disabled, so my main focus was to create a perfect taming companion tame to help offset the inability of PvE players to easily trap dinos to tame, while also adding enough utility as to not have it be outclassed by other tames in PvP and to bring something unique to Ark. For PvP, there are so many really good offensive tames where there are little to no counters to them, with the skill set that comes with the Mongo, it is a high skill counter to many of Ark’s more annoying metas while not being an outright damage steamroller as with its many strengths it also has many weaknesses that can be exploited.

Terrifying Presence (“Something horrible is near”): The buff given to any entity that is pounced on by a Mongo, a timer is started when an entity escapes the pounce webbing. Prevents creatures below a drag weight of 600 and NOT on the aggro list of the Mongo from being aggro’d to the entity.

Radiation: The Mongo WILL be hurt by radiation if brought to Aberration or any other area with a similar effect.

Interactions with Reapers and Reaper Queens: Reapers can be fully tied down by Mongos but when damaged the Reaper’s acid blood can damage the web even when hardened, allowing for an easier but not free kill. A “Melting” bar will appear and fill as the trapped Reaper takes damage, when full the Reaper escapes. Reaper Queens cannot be fully tied down and are the one of the biggest creatures a Mongo can web down, they are able to bite, shoot from the tail and impregnate when health is low enough. Reaper Queens cannot move or tail spin while in webs. Reaper Queens can be damaged without risk of breaking the webs, but in return Reaper Queens acid blood will damage the Mongo in order to not give a free impregnation. “Dissolving” debuff will be shown when Reaper Queen is caught and damaged, Mongo will take damage over time not affected by the high armor.

 

Button input (Console, can be swapped to appropriate key input for PC):

·        Right Trigger: Bite (High damage)

·        Hold Right Trigger: Narcotic Bite (Torpor attack, decent damage, good for a last-minute torp, will not be a free knockout on creatures as the torp/damage ratio will result in the creature dying before knocking out if only attacked with the Narcotic Bite)

·        Left Trigger: Quick pounce where camera is facing with small sized net. Pounce cooldown is shown in the bottom left of screen

·        Hold Left Trigger: Crosshair appears, and Mongo starts to increase the size of the web net over time with the size of the net displayed in the bottom left of screen with S, M, L, XL indicating the changes, release to pounce.

·        Hold Left Trigger after creature is Pounced: Cut webbing to set the creature free. Pounce cooldown is shown in bottom left of screen

·        A Button: Jump

·        Hold A Button: Charged Jump with crosshair

·        Click in Left Stick: Sprint, while sprinting can climb surfaces

·        Tap Left Bumper (Mine Laying Mode Toggle): Shows indication of how many web traps are in Mongo’s inventory, back spikes will start to pulse when active, tap again to toggle off and back spikes will no longer pulse

·        Right Trigger after Left Bumper (Mine Laying Mode is ACTIVE): will place a web trap directly behind the Mongo, if the Mongo is on a surface the web trap will fall as if a net projectile was shot downward but will become a web trap when it lands on a surface or if it collides with an entity, falling web trap will spawn relative to the rear end of the Mongo

·        Click Right Stick: Roar

·        Click and hold Right Stick: Pry open enemy gates

Taming Foods:

·        Favorite: Exceptional Kibble

·        Raw Mutton

·        Spoiled Meat

·        Raw Meat

Drops when killed:

·        Spider Silk

·        Organic Polymer

·        Chitin

·        Pelt

·        Raw Meat

Aggro’d creatures:

·        Basilisk

·        Karkinos

·        Spinos

·        Rock Drakes

·        Reapers, R-Reapers, Reaper Queens, R-Reaper Queens

·        Nameless

·        Rex

·        Gigas

·        Charcars

·        Rhyns

·        Wyverns (Not Crystal Wyverns)

·        All hostile water creatures

·        Deathworms

·        All bosses

·        Magmasaurs

·        Rock Golems, X-Rock Golems

·        Amargasaurus

·        Megatherium

·        Attack and Defense Drones

·        All Corrupted

·        Fasolasuchus?

·        Enraged Ferox

·        Giant Bees (if hive is broken)

·        Griffin

·        Insect Swarm

·        Lamprey

·        Leech

·        Seeker if charge pet is active

·        Summoner

·        Therizino

·        Voidwyrm

 

Thank you for reviewing my creature submission! Sorry for the info dump but me and my friends brainstormed hard to think of mechanics that would make it unique while also finding ways to help balance the creature into a fun, fair, and useful tame, to be viable in both PvP and PvE as well as to help it stand out from the others currently in Ark. Any and all feedback is appreciated, and I will try to respond to comments whenever possible.

Links:

·        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolarachne, Mongolarachne description and history

·        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribellum, Cribellum description

·        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinopidae, Deinopidae spider information

·        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3889289/, speculation on Mongo traits

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Xtreme1171