ashgcy

Welcome back sunken survivors! The past two weeks have really flown by for us! No, seriously, why is 2024 moving so quickly? I swear it was just January last week. Unfortunately, the speed of the past fortnight has caused most of the TSW team to be caught up in a ton of real life stuff. There's still plenty to share with you, just no fancy new pictures to show off. However, we've got a ton of fun stuff coming soon! Read on to find out what's coming next to the ASA branch of the mod, learn about the AMA we're hosting and see the behind the scenes development of Henodus! 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! WHAT'S NEXT? More creatures. No, seriously. Jokes aside though, the release of Scorched Earth may lead you to believe that the prospect of new TSW creatures is looking a bit dry at the moment, but it's quite the contrary! Snappin is currently working on porting all of our lovely fish from ASE to ASA. Bothriolepis, Lepidotes, Materpiscis and the mean annoying one Saurichthys are coming soon to a body of water near you! And if you're on a desert ARK with barely a drop of water in sight, after the fish have settled into the sea, Protoceratops will be making its debut on Scorched! In less cryptic terms, we're working on porting over the fish first, and once those are done, Protoceratops will be coming to Scorched Earth! Below is an old teaser of the fruit-addicted ceratopsian from ASE's devkit! TSW TEAM'S AMA What's that meant to stand for? Abnormally Massive Anomalocaris? No! That's an Ask Me Anything! Over in our Discord, we've been getting a ton of really engaging questions from the community over the past few weeks, which have been super enjoyable for us to answer! It really means a lot to us seeing how everyone is just as excited as we are for the future of TSW! So, we thought we should open the floor to any burning questions that people have about all the factors that go into TSW. There's a new temporary channel in our discord to ask us about anything from our creature design process to modelling and more! We'll answer everything we can, except for things like ETAs and release dates. Those aren't fun and interesting questions, and come with the curse of ARK release dates. COMMUNITY CORNER In a solar eclipse, people get the chance to witness two planetary bodies align, in an incredibly rare and beautiful event. But a Sunken Scoop with a Community Corner is even rarer! Go check out the fun submissions we've gotten these past two weeks! In addition to the AMA we're hosting, if you have anything else TSW related you'd like to share, feel free to send over some screenshots, artwork/fanart, videos or anything in between! There's a submssions channel in our Discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken or with the hashtag #sunkenscoop on Twitter! Clips and Videos Creator: DarkEdgeTV DarkEdgeTV is back with another feature, and this time everyone's favourite pancake is getting its time in the spotlight! Make sure to give her Henodus stacking challenge an attempt! That's all for this edition of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Lots more to come in the next few weeks, and please do come over to our discord to ask us those questions! 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

Seems the alien invasion is over! And since we're free from ZeepZorp's influence, we can drop the April foolishness and get serious again! We've been slowly chipping away at the Ambulocetus TLC over the past two weeks, and we've taught Ambulo that it's okay to be an individual! What do we mean by this? We've added in a system that adds randomised individual variation to the loveable whale-dog, meaning no two Ambulocetus are the same! In addition, we've also further developed our very old Wyrm egg concept art. 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! BUFF, FAT AND GRUFF Here's a teaser of Ambulocetus' newfound individuality! Snappin has once again blessed us with his devkit wizardry, and added "Buff", "Fat' and "Gruff" variation to our blubbery boy. Buff gives a bit more mass to the arms and legs, Fat rounds out the belly, cheeks and tail, and Gruff gives more definition to the chin and eyebrows. These variables are randomised for every single Ambulocetus, and are intended to be retained even when cryo'ing them up, so your pet water puppies are even more special! The differences are purely visual, and aim to make TSW's wildlife feel just that bit more unique. We're currently experimenting and ideating on what other creatures could get these unique attributes! Once the TLC'd Ambulocetus model is complete, it will receive the same variation that is pictured above in our old model! HAPPY EASTER! (TAKE THESE EGGS AT YOUR OWN RISK) There's a little guy wriggling around in there! With so many draconic creatures in ARK, we thought it'd be a great idea to give our Wyrms a little something to separate them from the rest! Wyrm eggs will have a translucent section of shell that allows you to see the little bundle of joy growing inside. Thanks to ZCI5250 for refining our old concept for the sea serpent spawn! COMMUNITY CORNER Nothing to show off from the past few weeks this time around! However, 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 submssions channel in our Discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken or with the hashtag #sunkenscoop on Twitter! That's all for this edition of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Snappin's devkit magic is really making Ambulocetus' TLC something special! Lots more in store for TSW in the near future, so why not come chat about it all 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

Scorched is looking incredible! Excellent work on both it and Bob's Tall Tales, the latter especially feels like a real labour of love! Really hoping to see some Scorched Earth achievements popping up on Steam though! Since all the ASE DLC is included now, I'd love to see map specific achievements to get!

ᔑℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ᒷリℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ ⍑⚍ᒲᔑリᓭ! Your precious broadcasting system has been hacked teehee! I, ZeepZorp am expanding my domain on the galactic maps! It's time to impose some new rules on this "Sinking Biomass". ZEEPZORP REPROGRAMS TSW No More Ocean With the power of ZorpTechTM, I am draining the ocean! I require water to power my technology, and I heard that you don't really care for ocean creatures anyways. My water now. (note to Zeep, invest in stronger water receptacles). BIG Fish I discovered a really big egg in the ocean, and infused its DNA with Zeep Brand Growth Hormone! I have now made a new species of coelacanth, 50x as big! This is an entirely new species and it is something I made. Some humans tried to tell me that my cool chair is actually a "box" that has a "book" inside, with "writing" called a "dossier" by "Helly Nah". They also said this big fish is called a "Leads itch fish". I know the truth. My Friend I taught this creature how to fly. That is all. Sunken Ichthyornis Hungry BirdZorp These creatures seem to have an insatiable appetite. The humans seem to hate their prescence, so I trained this one to eat more than just their food. I will call it BirdZorp! After it learns how to eat tools and weapons, I will use my Zuplication Technology to make an army of them. FELT ZEEP, MIGHT ZORP LATER COMMUNITY (ZEEPZORP) CORNER Such a handsome organism such as myself tends to have lots of fans. The humans made some wonderful images of me. Please celebrate them. Artwork I love ZeepZorp by NOT ZeepZorp (note to zeep, humans are gullible and they will believe this) Happy Thanks Giving by snappin me a. Nd my Friedn! -zeepzofrp by ZeepZorp "I commissioned you with ZorpBux, but please don't tell the humans" by ZCI5250 ZeepZorp Strikes by Bowman2099 Clips and Videos I CAN'T BELIEVE THE HUMANS CAUGHT ME ON CAMERA Happy April Fools from the TSW team! Normal scoop coming at the usual time this week :)) 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

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

Welcome back ascended aquatics! Who ordered the three consecutive weeks special? It's certainly been a very exciting past week for the TSW team! To all the new faces, welcome to the Sunken Scoop! This our unofficial version of the Community Crunch, releasing every 2-4 weeks (though we've been really good at keeping it at a fortnightly pace!), where we show off what we've been working on! So what have we been working on? Well, remember the WIP of the cute little anky-turtle in Scoop 14? Because thanks to NISIS, Liaoningosaurus' model is complete! Read on to see the loveable lug in all its glory! We have even more content in the works, but we've been so busy following our release on Ascended it's not ready for showcase just yet. Stay tuned for the next scoop because things are really scaling up to be something awesome! 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! LIAONINGOSAURUS MODEL REVEAL I LOVE HIM GIVE ME 100 PLEASE! As mentioned above, this absolutely incredible model is all thanks to NISIS! We can't stress enough how much applause you should give this absolute wizard! Liaoningosaurus is planned to be a defensive shoulder pet! With one of these tiny ankylosaurs on your shoulder, you'll receive no ranged damage from behind! In addition, their feisty attitudes keep pesky thieves at bay. That's right, your new best friend scares off Ichthyornis and Pegomastax! You'll be able to tame one of these by dragging it some delicious fish corpses! And don't worry, it won't be as painful as Hesperornis taming! COMMUNITY CORNER After the big release last week, we have quite a few exciting things to share with you from our community! We love seeing what you get up to while playing TSW, so please feel free to share! We totally aren't narcissitic or anything. We accept screenshots, artwork/fanart, videos and 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: DarkEdgeTV DarkEdgeTV has given Ambulocetus and Anomalocaris (our favourite problem child) excellent showcases in these two videos. Taming, abilities, utility and more are shown off in the videos. Be sure to keep an eye out for her Henodus showcase when that releases! Creator: PlayiNkZ Hopping over to our Spanish community with this feature! PlayiNkZ gives a brief rundown of each creature currently in the mod! There's also some sneak peeks at the WIP creatures hiding in the mod's files! Definitely worth a watch, even if you have to turn on translated subtitles like I did! Creator: Freyn If you're looking for more mods to try in ASA, this video is for you! Freyn shows off some excellent creations made by fellow modders, and also recommends a somewhat unknown one called "The Sunken World"... I wonder what content that one has to offer? That's all for this edition of the Sunken Scoop! We hope you're just as excited about seeing Liaoningosaurus in game as we are! We genuinely can't wait to tame ourselves an adorable ankylosaur. If you're looking for more TSW content, 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

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am so happy with how Gigantoraptor looks, acts and plays. Truly the best I could've asked for in terms of a faithful execution of my submission! For those still going "I want my maewings", I feel like it's important to mention the actual abilities of the big chicken (not the cryptic hype building teaser included in this crunch): Gigantoraptor can feed babies, you just need to have them be in the saddle baskets, and they'll eat food right outta its inventory. Gigantoraptor is more single target while maewing is more of a trough, but it's still better than nothing! It can also incubate eggs like an egg incubator! Capacity is limited once again to the saddle baskets, but by placing fertilized eggs in its inventory and clicking on em, you can transfer them to the baskets IT IMPRINTS YOUR BABIES!! While it may not be in the same way as my submission, I honestly find it way more fun and rewarding. Taking your babies on a little murder spree, watching their adopted parents fight, nets you an instant 30% imprint progress. And when Desmodus comes out, sanguine gives another 30% too, which means that Sanguine Elixir + Gigantoraptor would give you a relatively easy 60% imprint Imprint refresh is back! Should be well known enough by now, but just for people in the back, G-raptor's call refreshes imprint requests! Whatever your stance on big chicken, I love it, and that's more than enough for me! Just feel like not enough people know the full extent of the Battle Nanny's abilities. ALSO TSW MENTIONED LETS GOOOOO

OH MY GOODNESS MY SUBMISSION IS HERE AND IT LOOKS INCREDIBLE SHE'S PERFECT I'M IN LOVE THIS IS AWESOME

Hang on, today isn't a Wednesday... Welcome to a very special edition of the Sunken Scoop! Let's cut right to the chase, we're out on ASA on all platforms! You can find us here: https://legacy.curseforge.com/ark-survival-ascended/mods/the-sunken-world-additions! Read on to find out what's included in the mod's initial release! 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. RELEASED CONTENT First things first, a massive thank you to snappin for all the work he's done getting TSW Additions ready for release! The guy has been a one man army when it comes to coding for the mod, so he deserves all the praise. The TSW Team wouldn't be the same without you dude! Onto the creatures though! As we've been teasing over the past few weeks, the current version of the mod contains Ambulocetus, Anomalocaris and Henodus! Until the TSW map releases, all our creatures will spawn in temporary areas on the Island. We've made a couple changes to some of the mechanics of these creatures compared to ASE, so read on to find out more! Ambulocetus Talk about a whale with a pep in its step! This blubbery boy can commonly be found lounging around, but it's not as lazy as it appears! Its unique metabolism allows it to kick its systems into overdrive, moving at greater speeds at the cost of its food reserves! And much like any other dog with a dolphin tail, they love a bit of affection from their owners! Petting this loveable lug gives your nearby creatures a bonus to their experience gain, and it's able to keep up with your pack far better than a Lystrosaurus! We're planning on adding an oxygen stat to Ambulocetus later down the line. We have a lot of speedsters in the mod, and we want to have a way to ensure each has their own pros and cons. Think Andrewsarchus/Casteroides base level of oxygen. Enough to last them a good amount of time underwater at high levels, but they'll still have to come up for air every now and then. To get yourself your own whale-wolf, knock it out and feed it meat! They're quite partial to Regular Kibble too. Ambulocetus can be found all over the snow biome! Anomalocaris SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Anomalocaris, right? This little parasite is more than just a nuisance, as its unique choice of a blood based diet means it has some adaptations a survivor can exploit! Humans are well known for their inability to breathe underwater, but with an Anomalocaris on your back, you'll find that you'll never run out of O2! These Cambrian-era predators seem to have an uncanny ability to regulate blood oxygen levels as they feed, making them the perfect primitive SCUBA tanks! In addition, these adorable little bugs have the perfect sized heads to wear man made hats. This, coupled with the lifesteal that their attacks have, makes a swarm of Anomalocaris a decently powerful addition to your underwater arsenal! Anomalocaris' taming mechanic is temporarily changed from its ASE version. Previously, to tame yourself a scuba shrimp, you'd have to weaken it to the point where it would latch onto you, put narcotics in your last hotbar slot, then allow it to slurp up your torpor-laced blood to get it to knock itself out. In ASA, the latching and unique KO mechanics worked completely fine in testing, but after the fact Anomalocaris would become completely unable to be interacted with. This certainly made feeding it difficult, in addition to the fact that they'd just exist in stasis forever. For now, Anomalocaris is a conventional KO tame until a fix can be found. They love to eat anything blood-based! Ammonite Bile, Leech Blood and Blood Packs are their preferred food, in that order. Anomalocaris can be found in the ocean. Henodus Now that's what I call a houseboat! Henodus is more than just a giant pancake, this early game creature is the perfect way to explore the waves from the comfort of your own home! Functioning just like a raft that doesn't draw the attention of the boat-munching Leedsichthys, you can safely sail the seas on this turtle-lookalike's shell. In addition, it can use its giant flippers for more than just swimming, as it's also very proficient at digging! By burrowing into the ground, your Henodus takes drastically reduced damage and produces air bubbles in an area around itself if underwater! This allows you and your tames to breathe in your house below the waves. Even more useful is the fact that this property also extends to any tames-to-be that decided to wander into the water in the middle of getting KO'd! This peaceful plesiosaur relative is an herbivorous passive tame, feed it any kind of berry to convince it to be your friend. I've heard that they really flip out for Regular Kibble too! Henodus can be found in rivers and lakes. Henodus was perfect as it was, no balance changes to this loveable placodont! As we are still a heavy WIP, please make sure to report any bugs you might find! We did our best to stomp out all the ones we could find, but this is ARK. Some are bound to pop up when we least expect! COMING SOON So, what's next? We still need to upscale the models for all our ASE creatures, including these 3, but after that it's time for some new creatures! You've seen our WIPs of what we have in store, so we hope you're just as excited as we are for the future of TSW in ASA! During the upscaling process, we are planning on having some small visual TLCs as well! We'll keep you posted as things develop! YEAHHH WE'RE FINALLY OUT ON ASA!!! Thanks for all your support and understanding as we've worked on the port! Have fun with the newly released creatures, we've got a ton more planned (as you can probably tell by all the previous scoops) so keep sticking around to see what's in store! Also, come to our discord to share in the ASA experience of TSW. We want to see what you guys get up to with our creatures (and maybe feature it in our community corner too)! 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

Welcome back aquatic a-fish-ionados! After a long two weeks out at sea, we've reeled in a monster... a giant edition of the Sunken Scoop! So let's catch you up on what we've been working on for the past fortnight (and why we're saying more fishing puns than usual). We've added 8 new custom creatures to our roster! While such a huge number sounds ambitious, the new additions aim to tackle something that is lacking in ARKs oceans, ambient life! While oceanic giants are spectacular in their own right, a lot of feedback and requests we've gotten have asked us to add more of the little guys. There's no sense to a ocean TLC without adding wildlife that makes the waters feel less like a deadzone no matter where you go. These new additions are all going to be their own animals, unlike the many fish schools we have on ASE (and will bring to the map in ASA), and will all have their own roles to play when tamed! Read on to find out more! 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! I THOUGHT THE ROSTER WAS FULL... You've probably heard us say many a time that our roster of over 40 custom creatures is full to the brim, and we aren't able to add in community requested creatures... so what gives adding in a boatload of fish? The answer is quite simple. Adding in a fish is a lot less resource intensive than our more ambitious creatures like the Wyrms, Omnidens and so on! They tend to have only a handful of animations, are generally easier to model, and are relatively easier to code! In addition, they make for excellent ambience that makes the ocean feel more alive! With that explanation out of the way, let's move on to the hook of this scoop, what do all them fish do? CATCH OF THE DAY As said above, each of these fish will be separate "entities", like the Coelacanth or Lepidotes. In addition to their individuality though, each will have a simple niche that they fill! For ease of workload, the abilities these fish have will either be underwater-ified existing mechanics or simple, but interesting ideas. The thought process is that these little guys will be fun/useful additions to your school, but won't steal the show from the main mascots of the mod! Also, please note that the ideas we're proposing aren't set in stone, and could be subject to change. We've had you waiting with baited breath for long enough, let's introduce the first fish! Calamostoma Excuse this fella's cold attitude, it's been asked "why the long face" way too many times! Meet Calamostoma, the arctic-dwelling, brine-blasting pipefish! These prehistoric seahorse relatives live in the cold waters around the Ice Caps, protecting themselves from predators with an icy-blast of superchilled water. Tamed ones make for perfect guard dogs to slow the flow of enemies through your defenses. Brinewing who? Artwork by ZCI5250. Doryaspis That fish is looking sharp! The point of adding Doryaspis was to add a bit more danger to the map! These spikey little scavengers live deep in the trenches of the map. Be warned, their serrated chin-spike and pectoral fins are more than just for show, a "swim-by" from one of these fish will really leave a nasty mark! Tamed Doryaspsis are like undersea Dimorphodons, directly attacking the rider instead of the creature! In addition, wild Doryaspis have a small chance to drop a very awesome sword skin! Artwork by ZCI5250. Haikouichthys Fish for the brine pools. An ancient, transparent friend. The Haiku-ichthys! Pretty much everything you need to know about the Haikou is in the opening line, but something that was missed is that these ghostly fellows will passively produce bio-toxin over time! With Cnidaria being so much rarer on ASA, perhaps a school of these Cambrian-era fish will solve your Shocking Tranq Dart deficiency! Artwork by RexMyPet. Oceanic Sunfish No thoughts, fish empty. A unique fish from the modern era, the Oceanic Sunfish is here to brighten up TSW's seas! Functioning like a fun-sized Leedsichthys, a sizeable school of these will allow you to scrape enough fish meat to feed a whole village! All you'll need to round them up from the open ocean is their favourite food, bio toxin! Artwork by ZCI5250. Stenoprotome We've been trying to reach you about your Steno's extended warranty. The headgear on these fellows is more than just for show, as they make for the perfect handlebars to have them ferry you around! Slightly smaller than the average survivor, these colourful reef-dwellers are strong enough to drag the weight of a person and still keep swimming at full speed. Great for moving around your base with ease! Seaglide who? Artwork by WaterWitch. Tek Coelacanth An old vanilla staple gets a major version update! And unlike a Tek Parasaur these guys don't need to breathe, making them the perfect underwater element dust farms! We would like their sizes to be inheritable so that you can breed some absolutely colossal fish! However, please note that this role could be subject to change due to the fickle nature of ARK's code! We do have some other ideas for a replacement niche, which we will reveal if ARK decides to... well, ARK us :p. Artwork by ZCI5250. Tek Gebrayelichthys Gibby fish. I ain't writing that long ass name again. The nosejob isn't just for show either! These fish will use their squeegee attachments to good use, cleaning up and repairing structures for you! Artwork by RexMyPet. Tek Trilobite Man this roomba looks kinda weird... A robotic clean up crew of these fellows will do more than keep your base tidy, because they can convert your random garbage into valuable resources! While less powerful than the producing powers of a Gacha, a constant flow of valuables isn't something to scoff at! Artwork by ZCI5250. WHERE'S THE ASA NEWS? We are super close to the ASA release! There isn't much to report compared to the last scoop, just more really annoying, game breaking bugs that we are trying to stomp out. Almost unsurprisingly, the culprit is the loveable problem child, Anomalocaris. We hate to be those guys just spamming "soon", but we're working on alternatives if the major bugs aren't able to be fixed! COMMUNITY CORNER While we have plenty of content to share, we'd love to be able to share some things from our community! We accept screenshots, artwork, videos and anything in between, and we'd love to feature your work in the next scoop! There's a submissions channel in our Discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken or with the hashtag #sunkenscoop on Twitter! That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Hope you're excited with the net gain in creatures! Why don't you come to our discord to hang out? Definitely not fishing for compliments or anything! 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

LOOK AT MY BIRD CHILD SHE’S SO PRETTY! I’M SO EXCITED TO TAME GIGANTORAPTOR AND EXCLUSIVELY GIGANTORAPTORS WHENEVER I PLAY ARK FROM NOW ON

Welcome back sunken survivors! Another two weeks has passed, which means it's Sunken Scoop time! With all the work we've been doing to get the ASA release out, alongside work for brand new creatures, January has really flown by! While we've been working, we've received quite a few recurring questions about ASA, so we'll answer the most common ones and share off how work is going too! In addition, we've also got a brand new model (WIP) to share off. Read on to see the model reveal of the amazingly loveable Liaoningosaurus! 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! PREPPING FOR ASA SoonTM. No seriously, we mean it! In the past week we've been hard at work identifying all the current bugs with the test branch, and are now in the process of getting everything fixed up for the public release! You best believe we're going to squash every single one... buuuut knowing ARK you may run into some when we do release (and if you do, please report them)! As the public release is getting closer and closer, we've been asked quite a few common questions, so we thought we should confirm our plans through the scoop so everyone is on the same page! Will TSW be free to play? Very early on, we decided we'd always be free to play. The premium mod program seems very promising, however we aren't about to go and make our mod, which we've offered free of charge since the beginning, suddenly locked behind a paywall. If we do end up making paid content it will never impact the main mods, and will most likely be side content or completely unrelated to TSW. No plans for that currently though! Will TSW be cross-platform? Yes! We want everyone to be able to play our mod, however file size may end up being an issue later down the line. Currently in ASE we only have two mods, the map and an all encompassing additions mod that contains all the resources, creatures, etc. However, cross-platform mods have an upper size limit for each mod, as consoles don't have the same storage space as PCs. We may have to subdivide the mod further on for ASA depending on those constraints. What kinds of biomes will be on the map? We went in depth on some of the biomes you can expect to see in Sunken Scoop 8, but to summarise; you can expect to see almost everything from real world and science fantasy ocean habitats! From natural areas like coral reefs, hydrothermal vents and seagrass meadows, to more fictional biomes inspired by other media like the Seagrass Island and the Shroom Glades, the ocean is going to be a lot more interesting to explore! You may also encounter the remnants of an ancient civilisation that used to dwell on the ARK... What creatures are coming next after Ambulo/Anomalo/Henodus? As mentioned in previous scoops, we're currently in the process of upgrading and upscaling the models of creatures previously in the ASE branch. This is in addition to the new models we're making for yet-to-be-revealed creatures! Our current plans for creatures after the three releasing in the first wave of the public branch are on a "release them as they're ready" basis. We may do "pack" releases like how we did back in ASE, or you may just see a slow trickle as we complete their coding, animations and so on. However, snappin is our only ADK coder, so we are heavily bottlenecked in that regard. If you know anyone experienced in the ARK Dev Kit, let them know TSW is looking for em! LIAONINGOSAURUS MODEL TEASER Is... is this what love feels like? NISIS has truly gone above and beyond for this little ankylosaur turtle, and we can't wait to see it in game! These adorable little dinosaurs will function as a protective shoulder pet! Just give them a little harness and Liaoningosaurus can piggyback on your survivor, protecting you from thieving creatures and ranged damage to your backside! (Side note, if you know of any amazing animators please send them our way, we really want to make sure this guy feels alive when it comes to ASA) COMMUNITY CORNER In a surprising turn of events... nah just kidding still empty over here! Please feel free to submit something yourself (we're so desperate please submit something for us to share)! Screenshots, artwork, videos and so on are all fair game, and we'd love to feature your work in the next scoop! There's a submissions channel in our Discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken or with the hashtag #sunkenscoop on Twitter! That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Liaoningosaurus is adorable. That's all this end text needs to say. Come to our discord to talk about your obligatory new favourite TSW creature, or just to hang out! 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

PUTTING THE W IN TSW KING GREAT JOB WRITING THE SCOOP WHILE I AM OUT AND ABOUT TSW IN ASA SOON WHOOOOOOOOOO

Woah! We haven't seen you since last year! Cheesy jokes aside though, it's time for another edition of the Sunken Scoop! Since we last saw you, after we shook off the holiday laziness, we've been working hard on the big ASA release! While we don't have a release date (for fear of summoning the curse that haunts all ARK releases) expect to see the creature mod very soon! In addition to the update on our porting status, we've also got some new pieces of concept art for you! The lovely Liaoningosaurus has gotten a redesign, but that's not the only thing that's gotten a facelift! It's a well known fact that many aquatic vanilla creatures are in dire need of TLCs... and Sunken Plesiosaur and Pelagornis' new concept art will give them the love they deserve! 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! WHAT'S THE PROGRESS ON ASA? We've gotten a lot of questions recently about when we'll be coming to ASA. So we thought we should report that progress is going good! Currently we're in the process of upscaling all our old models from the ASE branch to the same resolution as ASA, alongside porting over the code for our creatures. This upscaling is only needed for our previous models though, we've been making everything else with ASA in mind, so once all the older creatures have been polished up, it'll be smooth sailing! While our team is quite large, Snappin is the backbone of getting things in game, as he's our the one in charge of all the creature work in the ARK Dev Kit. He's the only coder on the team, which means the brunt of the workload has been on him. We're definitely looking for more coders to help spread out the work though, so if you know anyone who's experienced in the ADK, send them over to the applications section in our discord (links at the bottom of the scoop)! Our release plan is still the same, creatures/resources/items first, map later. In terms of progress on the map, we're currently doing tons of research on the real world counterparts to our biomes to provide a strong foundation for some massive science-fantasy worldbuilding! The Sunken World in ASA is going to be amazing! As mentioned above, expect to see TSW Additions on the mods list in the very near future! LIAONINGOSAURUS REDESIGN We took "New Year, new me" quite literally for Liaoning! We felt that the pint-sized ankylosaur needed a few tweaks to its design to really sell its semi aquatic nature! This loveable little turtle lookalike makes for the perfect bulletproof backpack, carry it around to deflect any ranged damage from behind! Despite their small size, they're incredibly feisty, so having one on your back will ward off any small thieving pests too! NISIS, the newest member of our team, is the one behind this adorable visual TLC. SUNKEN PELAGORNIS CONCEPT What would TSW be without some feathery fishing companions? The Sunken Pelagornis is the best bird to bring on your next oceanic adventure, and it's a lot less scared to get its feathers wet compared to its vanilla counterpart! You heard that right, S. Pelagornis can not only paddle on the surface, but divebomb and give chase to any piscine snacks below the waves! And any excess fish that you catch can be put on its bill, literally! A pelican-like throat pouch, alongside some very large baskets on its saddle, can store up to 4 fish at a time for easy transportation across the map! While you fish right off the back of your buoyant bird, save the prized fish for your ornamental ponds! Your troughs will be overflowing with enough fish meat to feed a whole army of picky piscivores! The feature piece above and the bonus sketches below are thanks to ZCI5250! SUNKEN PLESIOSAURUS CONCEPT Gone are the days of the plesiosaur having a face only a mother could love! In the move to ASA, we'll be giving Sunken Plesiosaurus' model a much needed visual TLC and will be improving its mechanics to make it a much less overshadowed tame! In ASE we already gave S. Plesiosaurs a much kinder temperament, only attacking players if attacked first, but we felt these aquatic giants needed a bit more love! Expect your S. Plesiosaur to be much more manoeuvrable than their vanilla counterparts, with an added dash attack and the ability to quickly turn and bite in the direction your camera is facing! Aquatic combat can get incredibly floaty at times, and giant creatures with a low turning radius make it a lot less fun to try to hit moving targets. The S. Plesiosaur will still be able to utilise a platform as well, however the added weight will prevent you from using the dash attack. Hopefully the changes we make will allow it to become a much more viable tame! Artwork thanks to ZCI5250. COMMUNITY CORNER The Corner is open! Here's some fan submissions from all you wonderful supporters of the mod! Feel free to submit something yourself! Screenshots, artwork, videos and so on are all fair game, and we'd love to feature your work in the next scoop! There's a submissions channel in our discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken with #sunkenscoop on Twitter! Artwork Tylosaurus Fan-Art by Fug1 A lovely fan rendition of Tylosaurus' old design with some ice armour to match! That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Big things coming in 2024 for TSW! We can't wait to share the excitement with you all! 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: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArkSunken Map Mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759 Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728

Welcome back festive fish! And Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings to you all! Looking back as we come near the end of 2023, it's truly been a wonderful year for all things Sunken! It's been so humbling to see how many more people have joined our little server and shown their excitement and interest in our project! A massive thank you go to you, our community, for all the wonderful support, videos, artwork, screenshots and love that you give us when you share how you feel about our project! Sappy, end of year thoughts aside though, what would Christmas be without a gift? While progress has slowed a little going into the holiday period, we've got another ASA model to share with you, the Marine Iguana! In addition, we'll be doing a creature feature on the top dog theropod of TSW, Altispinax! We're also including a section to look back at all the stuff we've done this year, in case you missed some of the previous scoops and to really give 2023 a proper TSW-themed send off! 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! MARINE IGUANA SNEAK PEEK Your search for the perfect early game companion ends here! When your Raptor is too scared to get its feet wet, and your Parasaur is too picky to eat salty seaweed, this loveable lug of a lizard has your back! The Marine Iguana will be the premier semi-aquatic mount of early TSW survival! These giant lizards may seem lazy when they're lounging under the tropical sun, but they're more than ready to dart off in a flash! These starter tames are able to gather a healthy abundance of seaweed and can protect you from most medium sized predators with a powerful whip of their tails. Definitely an invaluable way to start off your journey on the Sunken shores! Massive thanks go to Nitz for his work bringing the Marine Iguana to life! And for those of you interested in a little hint to TSW's lore, these docile reptiles are commonly used by tribes all around the archipelago as an introduction to taming the wildlife. Mastering taming is key to surviving on the ARKs, and it's a lot safer to go after a skittish herbivore as your first choice than a giant predator! New arrivals to the ARK network are subjected to a "rite of passage" where they have to successfully domesticate a Marine Iguana before they can be trusted to survive on their own! ALTISPINAX CREATURE FEATURE This theropod seems to have narcissistically declared itself as your favourite TSW creature... Altispinax is the self imposed ruler of the surface regions, and is one of the strongest semi-aquatic tames available in the ASE branch of the mod. But what was the behind the scenes production like for the High Spined General! One of Altispinax's most iconic traits is its roar, which has the ability to dispel the pack bonuses of any nearby pack animals. We decided very early on in its development that we needed a solid counter to pack tactics. Pack creatures in ARK are powerful and fun... unless you're on the receiving end. Creatures with high enough pack bonuses are very frustrating to kill, even with tames waaay above their weight class (looking at you Artifact of the Cunning cave!). And after WC gave the most common creature in the ocean a pack bonus, we knew a proper anti-pack creature was sorely required! While the anti-pack creature niche was solid, executing the mechanics was a little bit bumpy. In early testing, while the debuff that Altispinax applied successfully removed pack-related effects like Pack Mate, Pack Leader and gang bonuses, after it ended the bonuses wouldn't come back! Another key part of Altispinax's kit is its slowing bite. From the start, we knew we didn't want this to be another bleed creature. Bleed was a great mechanic when it was first introduced, powerful against large tames but rare enough that it wasn't oppressive. However, it's been a long time since the first bleed creatures, and now a decent chunk of ARK's creature roster can bleed their foes, and we didn't want to add to the oversaturated pile. However, coming up with what to replace the bleed with had us stumped. We tossed up a variety of ideas, from an RTS mode to an ability to shoot fish-based projectiles, before finally settling on the slowing effect. Underwater combat can be quite floaty at times, so being able to slow down an opponent is invaluable if you don't want to be swimming in circles! Thankfully, the Crippled debuff was much friendlier on the code than Altispinax's roar! TSW'S 2023 It has truly been a very busy year for TSW! 2023 started with us releasing a huge update that added in Ambulocetus and the model for the Sea Scale Armour. After a few months of bug fixes and balance changes, we then added 3 more creatures too! In late April, Altispinax, Henodus and Materpiscis made their debut on TSW, along with an enormous Seagrass Plains biome below the Ice Caps in the northeast. Then in late August, we released one of our largest updates to the mod! Sunken Spino Coral Golem and Sea Urchins swam onto the scene in the brand new the Tropical Archipelago biome, alongside returning features like currents and revamps to the map's environments and resources. In addition, we even added some custom music themes for morning, noon and night! And that's not even mentioning the start of the Sunken Scoop way back in early August! Crazy to think that our little team has been running it for over 4 months, and we're really excited to showcase a whole YEAR of scoops in 2024! See below for a recap of all the scoops! Links are provided if you want to check back on any you missed too! Sunken Scoop 1 introduced the scoop, revealed the winners of our creature vote and added new creatures to the roster Sunken Scoop 2 shared concept art of various creatures on the roster and showcased Edestus' model Sunken Scoop 3 brought with it the Tropics Update and all of its new creatures and features Sunken Scoop 4 showed off model progress for WIP creatures and gave a behind-the-scenes look of Anomalocaris' development Sunken Scoop 5 showcased even more model reveals and a look into the devkit for Edestus' flaming attacks Sunken Scoop 6 was where the plan for ASA was revealed, alongside concept art for Magma Turtle Sunken Scoop 7 revealed updated concept art for Thalassocnus and Tyrant Shrimp Sunken Scoop 8 was an almost documentary-like exploration of all the new biomes coming to our ocean TLC mod Sunken Scoop 9 was when the wyrms slithered onto the scene with some awe-inspiring models, as well as sharing custom art a dynamic, volcanic duo Sunken Scoop 10 brought the wyrms to life with some incredible animations, alongside marking the completion of custom artwork for our entire roster of 40+ custom creatures I'll try to not be too cheesy, but thank you for all your support this year. TSW is our labour of love, and seeing how much our fanbase has grown this year has been really heartwarming and humbling. If you've made youtube videos, drawn fanart, taken screenshots or even just hung around on our discord, we'd like to extend a massive thanks to you, the community! Here's to an amazing 2024 for TSW and beyond! COMMUNITY CORNER The Community Corner will open back up again in 2024. We're very excited to see the TSW content you create in the new year! Big things coming, and we're more than eager to share in the excitement with you! That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve, and we can't wait to see you in 2024! 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: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArkSunken Map Mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759 Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728