Welcome back coastal critters!
These past two weeks, we accidentally left the oven on... but thankfully snappin and NISIS decided to use it to really cook! Sphyrna splashed-landed into ASA's oceans, alongside some reworked animations for Ambulocetus. But that's not the only thing we're reworking on the blubbery puppy, Ambulocetus is receiving a complete visual overhaul/TLC! We also have new concept art to share: reworked Blue Whale and Pterygotus feature pieces and a new Sunken variant: the Sunken Karkinos! Enough hyping though, keep reading to see all the amazing things we have to share!
If you're new to our little community, this paragraph is for you! You're probably wondering what this "Sunken Scoop" thing even is! It's essentially our fun way of sharing updates on modding progress, in a community-crunch style format. We try to release one every two weeks!
If this is your first time diving into the deep end, we are a dedicated team of individuals who are looking to spruce up the ocean biome in the same way that Scorched Earth offered a unique, biome specific challenge to survival. New creatures, resources, structures, items and more, all set on a huge custom map, we're looking to give ARK's oceans the TLC they deserve! The main goal is to bridge that huge gap between early and late game ocean exploration, and make it much more viable and more fun to live a life beneath the waves! This is unofficial content and is only related to our mod. It is in no way related with the official game and its content releases.
Let's dive into the scoop!
SPHYRNA HAS ASCENDED!
Stop! Hammer time! Sphyrna was released in ASA last week, so it's the perfect time for a creature feature! With its literal hammer-head, it can smash clean through any rocky resources beneath the waves, all while swimming laps around the sluggish Dunkleosteus! While it has less weight reduction than the giant placoderm, an additional ability to detect oil and metal nodes with electroreception makes it an excellent undersea gatherer! In addition, its rough skin is the perfect texture for filing down materials, leading most survivors to turn its saddle into a mobile smithy!
Sphyrna are simple KO tames. Just fire some tranq arrows into them, then feed them meat or Regular kibble. They much prefer a nice cut of fish meat over prime from a land creature though!
TSW'S FIRST TLC
I'm not the first, nor will I be the last to say this. NISIS cooked so hard on this thing. After TSW released to ASA, we received a lot of feedback about our loveable land whale that encouraged us to revisit its design. After adjusting its mechanics so that they weren't so powerful, we decided to update its visuals to be more in line with ASA!
We've given Ambulocetus way more features that link it to its real world counterpart, while still keeping some of its more adorable ARK-ified traits like its blowhole-nose. Honestly though, there isn't much to say about the blubbery puppy when a picture paints a thousand words! Look at NISIS' amazing modelling work!
In addition to the updated look, Ambulocetus is also getting a brand new saddle! Why not bring some ARK II inspired saddle designs to ASA, with some hollow-bone storage compartments and prehistoric-themed decals! While all these features are only visual, they sure are awesome to look at!
Ambulocetus' New Groove
This part of the TLC deserves its own section! Alongside Sphyrna releasing, snappin also worked on overhauled animations! Below are some comparisons between the old and the new. While usually it's bad to have too many cooks in the kitchen, snappin and NISIS working together for this TLC is truly something amazing! In order of appearance, we have the reworked Level Up and Metabolic Rush animations, then the brand new eating animation! There's also a few more for you to discover in game!
NEW CONCEPT ART
Blue Whale
Now that is one big boy! ZCI has reworked the Blue Whale's feature piece to really sell the absolute enormity of the lad! It's not everyday you can see a creature that dwarfs a Leedsichthys. In addition, you can even see growths of algae and barnacles on the giant whale, which are part of its organic-Tek-Stryder-like mechanics!
Pterygotus
You'll have to get your forklift/Pterygotus certification to ride this beast! Once again, ZCI has delivered another incredible piece of invertebrate art! The reworked feature piece serves to showcase Pterygotus with much more detail and personality! But who's that in the corner fighting this giant eurypterid...
Sunken Karkinos
HOLY CRAB! After a very convincing presentation from ZCI, we decided it would be in our best interests to give the Karkinos a classic TSW themed rework! Sunken Karkinos will be able to jump far better than its cavernous cousin while underwater, and can switch up its style of fighting by alternating between a pair of slashing or crushing claws! And with some inspiration from Kraken's Better Dinos, we're giving it a small platform saddle as well! In addition, we're going to try our hardest to allow it to grab aquatic creatures!
COMMUNITY CORNER
There still seems to be quite a lot of buzz in the ARK community regarding TSW! It's been really awesome seeing how much love has been coming our way! If you have anything you'd like to share, feel free to send over some screenshots, artwork/fanart, videos or anything in between! There's a submissions channel in our Discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken or with the hashtag #sunkenscoop on Twitter!
Clips and Videos
Creator: PANDA_WZ
A wonderful video from the French side of our community that showcases the taming and abilities of the first three creatures in the mod!
That's all for this edition of the Sunken Scoop! Certainly lots to be excited about in TSW's future. We can't wait to release the visual part of Ambulocetus' TLC! If you want to see more TSW content, why not come hang out in our discord! Have a wonderful timezone!
If this is your first time seeing TSW, check out the links below to find out more! Please note that if you want to play our mod, you need both the map and creature mod active. Discord: https://discord.gg/BAkvgc7 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArkSunken Map Mod (ASE): https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759 Creature Mod (ASE): https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728 Creature Mod (ASA): https://legacy.curseforge.com/ark-survival-ascended/mods/the-sunken-world-additions