ashgcy
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Posts posted by ashgcy
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Welcome back cephalopod connoisseurs!
Why the sudden squid theming this scoop? Well, we've been very busy over the past two weeks creating some new friends that will come to the mod in the near future, lots of progress has been made since we last updated you! The psychedelic Parapuzosia has been sighted in the sunken waters, but don't let its spectacular shades of colour distract you! Hippocampus has also made a sneaky appearance on the coral reefs, so keep your eyes peeled for a moving mass of coral! In addition, we'll be giving you a sneak peek into the dev kit as we develop Edestus' conflagrant capabilities! And if you're willing to brave the depths, there's even more new faces to meet!
If this is your first time jumping 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 this enormous scoop!
HIPPOCAMPUS MODEL REVEAL
Don't be fooled by its camouflage! You're not just looking at a mass of coral, that's Hippocampus! This majestic water horse finally makes its debut on The Sunken World (or was it always here, just really well hidden... hmm), and will be an invaluable early game companion. They say the best way to hide is in plain sight, and Hippocampus's natural disguise will mean most predators will simply ignore your prescence, allowing you to cruise the ocean waters in relative safety! I mean, who would want to take a bite of a ridiculously hard chunk of coral?
Filling a similar role to an underwater Trike/Equus hybrid, the Hippocampus will be effective on the battlefield too, with males and females sporting sexual dimorphism, giving their impressive headgear different utility! Do you want your war steed to have the dangerously serrated horns of the male, or the torpor inducing headbutt of the female?
Thanks to the dynamic duo, Nitz and Snappin, for their work creating this reveal!
PARAPUZOSIA MODEL REVEAL
While Hippocampus subtly came onto the scene, some creatures just want to have a flamboyant entrance...
Introducing Parapuzosia! This giant ammonite is a living kaleidoscope, both in its looks and in its colourful array of abilities! Its enormous shell stores a variety of inks, which it can either use to afflict its enemies with debilitating effects, or spray onto its allies to provide a variety of buffs! You can use it in combat to redirect your enemies attacks, pacify a predator in pursuit of your allies, use it as an highly adaptable taming tool or even allow it to function as a moving infirmary on the battlefield!
We can't wait to see you breed up colour mutations on these things! Again, the dynamic duo strikes again! Nitz and Snappin, you guys are legends!
A FIERY PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Since Edestus last showed its face back in Sunken Scoop 2, Snappin has been hard at work coding its mechanics! Here's a look at the kind of havoc you could unleash from the back of this volcanic shark! Edestus will be able to heat up its impressive nasal "horn" and impale your enemies with a fiery fury!
This literally hot-headed fighting style will be fueled with a new resource, Thermite, a chemical that can burn even underwater! Make sure to have a supply available to keep your Edestus nice and toasty on the battlefield, and your shark will be able to hack and slash through your foes with deadly efficiency!
VOLT SQUID MODEL TEASER
Volt Squid also makes its first debut, adding another cephalopod to the surprising number of squids this scoop! Much like Parapuzosia, it also has found a unique use for its ink, though rather than variety, it specialises in delivering a one of a kind, flashy show... literally. Prepare for an organic flashbang if you ever meet this squid in the deep sea! We're excited to show you more in the near future!
OMNIDENS CONCEPT ART
If one creature on the map embodies thalassophobia, it's Omnidens! The titan of the deep has gotten a major glow up thanks to ZCI, and now makes its terrifying debut! This absolutely enormous creature patrols the endless seafloor, just waiting to snap up its next meal. Stay on your toes survivor, the abyss just got a whole lot scarier...
Though, why not rule the deep? Omnidens is planned to be a tameable creature, and will fill a niche similar to the Reaper, a powerful predator with huge amounts of natural damage reduction! For those brave enough to try to bring this Cambrian superpredator to heel, you'll never have to worry about being on the bottom of the food chain again... unless you run into a bigger Omnidens of course!
COMMUNITY CORNER
We've received some wonderful submissions over the past two weeks! It's been really humbling to see how much love people have for our project, and we can't wait to see more of what you create! Feel free to submit any screenshots, artwork, videos and the like to be featured in the next scoop! There's a submissions channel in our discord, or you can tag us @ARKSunken with #sunkenscoop on Twitter!
Clips and Videos
Creator: Pyroha
Looking for a guided, "Attenborough but more casual" styled guide to the creatures of TSW? Look no further than Pyroha's Wildlife Guide, a lovely showcase of all the residents of the Sunken seas!
Artwork
"How Hungry" by ZCI5250
Screenshots
Predator of the Coral Reefs by Pyroha
That's all for this giant issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Hope you're excited for all these new reveals! Feel free to come to our discord to talk about em, or just come in 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: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759
Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728-
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On 9/12/2023 at 4:18 AM, Eli said:
We discussed issue 2 at length and ultimately had to ask ourselves : is our creature submission event supposed to focus on the creature or the person who submits the creature, to which the answer echoes what a few users in this thread have already stated. If a user's submissions prove popular enough with the community that multiples of them manage to make it into the top 10, then that just means that by their merit they provided multiple creatures that the community would like to see.
In regards to disabling downvotes, it is unfortunately tied to how posts gain upvotes. The system in place only asks our end on what user groups can rank topics/answers, and does not distinguish between ranking them up or down.
I think a really good system for the votes would be, during the RankedVote stage, two winners were chosen.
Of course this would mean more work for the team to implement, but it could help with a lot of the false comments from angry voters saying "rigged!" because they don't understand the vote process.
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The first winner would be the same as how it currently works. The design that the average amount of people would be the "most okay with". Since, to my knowledge, that's how RankedVote works, it averages out the choices until you get the one most people would be mostly happy with.
The second winner would be whoever was on top in Round 1 of the RankedVote. Whatever wins in Round 1 is the one that the most people across the board liked the most.-----
To use an example, in Aberration, in Round 1 I believe Maevia had the most votes, so that would count as it winning. Then after the results were averaged out, Yi qi (now Yi ling) was the winner. Giving the two winners
In the case of the final winner being the same as the Round 1 winner, it could either be a case of letting whoever was 2nd place in Round 1 be the additional creature, or using discretion say it'd be the only winner.
Both of these creatures won fair and square, one with a majority, one with an average. Adding both in wouldn't be pitying one or the other.
I really think this system would vastly improve the voting process and help reduce all that "OH MY GOD RIGGED BECAUSE MY FAVOURITE LOST" type response
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Welcome back watery wanderers!
After the reception of the tropics release, we've been hard at work getting ready to populate the map with lots of new creatures! For this peek behind the curtain, Aquilolamna makes its debut, Ferrodraco's animations are well underway and we'll be doing a deep dive into the design process of Anomalocaris!
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. With that out of the way, let's explore all the new features that came with the tropics!
AQUILOLAMNA MODEL REVEAL
Sighoptera has been hard at work improving his modelling skills! This is his first fully custom model, and everyone in the team is really proud of his incredible work! As mentioned in Sunken Scoop 1, Aquilolamna will be like the Tropeognathus of the sea, a jet propelled shark to get you where you need to be!
Below is a selection of images, showing this shark's unique proportions, and its proposed patterns posed in the Dev Kit!
SOMETHING METAL THIS WAY COMES
You might want to start checking the sky for danger... Ferrodraco's animation work is well underway! Hauki has been breathing life into the terrifying pterosaur in the form of Idle, Walk and Level Up animations!
With its giraffe like proportions, it's been an interesting challenge to give it a more "accurate" gait and make it a true terror! Though these animations don't have a sense of scale... this beast will tower over you as it walks, it's as tall as a Rex!
The model shown here may look a bit different to our previous reveals. This is because a lot of animation work is done with a lower quality version of the model, called a "lowpoly". If the high quality model was used, it would take far more time to render, as the animation program would have to load up much more data (textures, more intricate details etc).
ANOMALOCARIS CREATURE FEATURE
Time for a deep dive into the development of everyone's favourite little scuba tank! While the concept may seem simple enough, there were some surprising difficulties we encountered (and still encounter :p) when designing this invertebrate!
The biggest difficulty on an aquatic themed map is "how are you going to breathe". It simply wouldn't be fun to have to wait all the way until you get scuba to be able to swim. The main design principle for Anomalocaris was introducing a creature that would allow you to explore the sea much earlier than in the vanilla game without the same limitations. However, living scuba had to come at a cost, so the original plan was to have Anomalocaris drain your health while you used it, alongside its tendency to wear down the durability of your chestpiece.
The issue we ran into was that in vanilla, while a player is swimming they will never regenerate health naturally. This posed a huge problem for gameplay because... well you need health to live. After debating other options, we chose to allow Anomalocaris to regenerate your health, stamina and oxygen, at the cost of causing your food to drain down much quicker.
Another difficulty we ran into was how to keep an aquatic shoulder pet underwater. When Anomalocaris first released, the animal would remain on your shoulder even after you left the water. Throwing it off while on land either caused it to be stuck there until picked up again, or fly off into the distance. In addition, if you were on land and tried to throw it into the water, it would skip along the surface like you were skipping a stone! Thankfully we've introduced a check that boots the animal off your back when you hit the surface of the water, but knowing ARK as the glitchy mess we know and love, sometimes you might see your Cambrian compadre fly off into the realms unknown!
I guess you could say Anomalocaris really put the "bug" in buggy.
Seriously... why is the most important creature on the map such a problem child
COMMUNITY CORNER
While there may not be any screenshots or artwork to share, we've seen some really incredible WIPs in the discord, and can't wait to share the talent around! As always, feel free to submit your content in the channel in our discord, or tag us at @ARKSunken using #SunkenScoop to be featured! Screenshots, artwork and Youtube videos welcome!
That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Let us know if you enjoyed the more in depth view of our creature design process! 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: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759
Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728-
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Honestly I think the biggest issue of the votes is the complete lack of "easy access" information on the finalists in round 2.
Put it simply, it seems no one can be bothered to read for like 15 minutes which hurts the chances of pretty much every submission because people love to just assume "Oh it's just exactly like this existing creature from what I briefly looked at for 2 seconds".
Including pictures of the finalists, or links that actually work, or just a brief description of how the creature would actually be implemented in game (to avoid the "oh it doesn't share mechanics though" argument) would improve things soooo much
Also, only point I don't particularly agree on is the multiple submissions. To a point, it makes sense, but with how hit or miss the voting process is to getting into the top 10, if someone is lucky enough to get things into the top 10, I say that's just how it goes. At the end of the day, it's a competition about creature design, and if creature designs are being voted into the top 10 (without outside influences) there's nothing wrong with that-
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1 minute ago, Beelzebufo522 said:
Stop calling it an ankylosaurid it's a nodosaurid!
Garuga literally calls it an anky in the first sentence of the post and an "ankylosaurid" within the post
We're aware it's more specifically a member of Nodosauridae, no need to get nitpicky on it lol -
Excellent ankylosaurid rep with an interesting and fun sounding attacking style!
I think a taming method that involves causing its powder-y body to explode, dealing torpor, would be appropriate. Something like using fire damage or explosive damage to deal torpor! Could be quite cute if its favourite food is focal chili rather than kibble as well (this fellow has some firey abilities, why wouldn't he love spicy food)-
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SECRET TUNNELLLL SECRET TUNNEL!
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Welcome back seaside survivors!
It's been a busy two weeks for us, following the release of the tropics update last Wednesday! There's a whole new paradise for you to explore on the map, alongside some new friends to bring into your tribe. Whether you're exploring the reefs, surfing the ocean currents, or just enjoying some fun in the sun, we're glad to see how much you're enjoying the new update! Just don't forget to do the "survival" part of ARK Survival Evolved while you're enjoying your getaway!
If this is your first time getting your feet wet with all things Sunken, 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. With that out of the way, let's explore all the new features that came with the tropics!
NEW CREATURES
This update brings two new critters to add to your menagerie, the Coral Golem and the Sunken Spino! These two creatures are Sunken Variants, water-loving animals that have adapted to a life even more at sea! The Sunken Variants are our map exclusive creatures, and serve as both a way to make some animals more appropriate for a map that's mostly ocean and a way to breathe some new life or even TLC some of the underappreciated aquatics. To give a little insider look into their makeovers, we'll be going in depth on our design process for these beautiful beasties!
Sunken Spinosaurus
What happens when an ARK suddenly floods, drastically changing the environment to a much more oceanic one than before? Well, you'd expect the Spinosaurus to ascend to the title of an apex predator! The Sunken Spino is our take on what would happen if a Spinosaurus had to evolve to live a life at sea. It shares most mechanics with its vanilla counterpart, however, due to its much squatter frame and stronger disposition for swimming, it is much less capable on land. It has some difficulty moving its far heavier frame across dry ground, using more stamina while running. This is a nod to how some animals, like seals and penguins, have to make sacrifices to parts of their mobility in order to be much more agile in their preferred habitat.
With most of its time spent at sea, our Spinosaur had to evolve a way to track down its prey. Much like modern toothed whales, the Sunken Spino uses echolocation to hunt! This trait is very useful if you're pursuing a target that tries to hide in the inky darkness of the deep sea, and great for survivors to expose people trying to get the jump on them!
In short, Sunken Spinosaurus is what we think could happen in the ARK universe if a Spino was forced to adapt for an oceanic life. However, it's still not all the way to a fully aquatic lifestyle, so it serves as a transitional species to what might become a more whale-like animal in the distant future!
Coral Golem
The Rock Golem is one of the last creatures you'd expect to find deep under the sea for the mere fact it sinks like, well, a rock. And yet, they've adapted wonderfully to an oceanic life! Living underwater has mellowed out Coral Golem's temperament, meaning it is docile until provoked. Essentially a miniature, walking coral reef, perhaps it just likes the company of the small schools of fish that follow it around. Don't understimate it though, if you're foolish enough to pick a fight with one, it's just as dangerous as its land living counterpart! While it can no longer launch boulders with the force of a catapult, the coral growing on its body seems to be able to react to its command. From its left arm, it can grow an enormous coral shield to protect itself from aggressors, and the spiny corals that grow on its right hand are able to quickly grow at will to deliver a devastatingly powerful punch!
Unrelated to the golem in the foreground, but equally important to mention are the creatures riding the ocean currents above! Currents have made their return in this update, and these oceanic superhighways will greatly increase your speed when you travel with them. Just go with the flow!
A LOOK AROUND THE MAP
Pretty self explanatory what's in this section. While we want you to explore the map yourself, here's some pictures of some things we don't want you to miss! The tropical islands aren't the only new shiny thing this update!
On some nights in the Pacific Inlets, the moon isn't the only thing to light up the darkness! If you're lucky, you might get to witness the glow of bioluminescent plankton turning the sea an ethereal blue! This event has no purpose other than to look pretty, but let's be real, sometimes a beautiful moment is all it needs to be!
Don't forget to poke your head underwater when you visit the tropics! While it's tempting to lie in the sunshine on the white sand beaches all day, the coral reefs in the island chain are to die for! Try not to get lost in the dizzying colours and towers of living limestone!
COMMUNITY CORNER
As mentioned last scoop, we have started our own community corner! Here's the first features from our community! We'd love to see more though, so please submit away in the channel in our discord, or tag us at @ARKSunken using #SunkenScoop to be featured! Screenshots, artwork and Youtube videos welcome!
Screenshots
Tuso in the Twilight by Pyroha
Coral Golem in Golden Hour by ashgcy (I'm still a member of the community after all :p)
That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! We hope you enjoy all the new content! As with any update, no matter how much bug squashing we do, some are bound to pop up. Please feel free to report them in our discord, or just come in 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: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759
Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728-
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23 minutes ago, L4nc3C4RM4CK said:
if the hermit crab wins the center vote, will the sunken version still be implemented, or will it pivot to be a sunken variant of the official version?
We're not entirely sure yet, we'd most likely just have to wait and see (though we'd obviously prefer to make our own haha)
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Welcome back denizens of the deep!
As you can probably tell by the image above (thank you ZCI!), this scoop is a big one! We've been hard at work these past two weeks getting mechanics mostly finalised for the winners of the creature vote, alongside polishing up some concepts for the other creatures in our mod. In addition, a new fiery friend will be making his debut!
To those gracing the Sunken Shores for the first time, 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. With that out of the way, let's get into the news!
VOTE WINNER CONCEPTS
Two weeks ago, an unthinkable tie occured in our own little creature contest. Rather than pick one or the other, we decided to throw caution to the wind and just add both! Introducing the finalised concepts for Diving Beetle and Shonisaurus! Once again, massive thank you to ZCI for the art!
Diving Beetle: The Ballistic Motorbug
Common Name: Diving Beetle
Species: Dytiscus scaphopelta (Shield Boat Diving Beetle)Diving Beetle is our homage to an artillery arthropod of creature votes past with our own unique spin! This critter is a lot more whimsical than it's stoic cousin, loving the thrill of zooming across the waves. The Diving Beetle has evolved to almost be like a sea turtle, returning to land to lay its eggs, with the young hiding out in jungles until they've grown large enough to enjoy the surf under the tropical sun. A Bastion Beetle homage wouldn't be complete without a cannon, though with its much smaller and agile frame, shooting the thing can be a challenge. Your beetle will most likely spin out from the strong recoil of its cannonball shooting saddle, though hopefully you'll find this trait as endearing as the TSW team did when we designed it!
Taming will involve passive feeding the babies in the wild, then letting them grow up under your care before taking your new Beetleboat out for a test drive! Aside from its powerful artillery, when tamed you can steal a breath of air from underneath its elytra in emergencies!
Shonisaurus: The Vortex Hunting Ichthyosaur
Common Name: Shonisaurus
Species: Shonisaurus voragovenator (Whirlpool Hunting Lizard from Shoshone)This enormous ichthyosaur has a hunting strategy as dangerous as its emboldened allies. Always followed by a group of its smaller relatives, its prescence seems to greatly boost their attacking power, turning otherwise skittish sea reptiles into a dangerous pack hunters! And while you're dealing with an angry group of Ichthyosaurs, their giant commander will be pulling you in! When Shonisaurus opens its maw, it can create a vortex that sucks in smaller creatures, or holds large animals in place! The hapless prey will then either get torn to shreds by the Ichthyosaur swarm, or engulfed by its colossal cousin.
To wrangle one of these oceanic giants, allow it to create a vortex and pull you in, then drop as many narcotic items as you can to knock it out before it swallows you! Apart from its powerful arsenal, the Shonisaurus also has enough saddle room for all your friends!
EDESTUS MODEL REVEAL
Introducing Edestus! This magmatic goblin shark will rip and tear through your enemies with a flaming nose-sword as hot as a 1000º knife through butter! We're very excited for you to be able to ride into battle on The Volcanic Blade! Thanks to Snappin for putting together this reveal and Nitz for bringing the creature to life with his incredible model.
NEW CONCEPT ART
In addition to the vote winners, we also have a bunch of new and revamped concept art for other creatures on the roster! We've reworked the older art of the Blue Whale, Marine Iguana and Orthocone, and finished our official concept for the Hullrender Hermit Crab!
Blue Whale
This creature will be the largest living creature on the map, and we've redesigned its niche to be a bit more interesting. Like an organic Stryder, this enormous animal will be host to all kinds of different lifeforms (attachments), which give it different abilities depending on what takes root on its back. Homing fish swarms, nourishing algae and more, this creature will either be a powerful war submarine or your own personal island paradise! Thank you once again to ZCI for the rework!
Marine Iguana
The lovable semi-aquatic reptile gets a fresh coat of paint! It retains its former niche, an early game mount that's equally comfortable on land as it is in the sea, but we felt the Marine Iguana needed a little more ARK-ification to fit in to our cast of creatures! Thanks to WaterWitch for breathing some new life into our salty sea-beast!
Giant Orthocone
Orthocone also recieves a long overdue rework to its design. Properly ARKified with a design that is more fitting of its niche, a giant oceanic battering ram that gets stronger the faster it moves! Of course our resident cephalopod enjoyer, ZCI, is the one that graced us with the updated artwork!
Hullrender Hermit Crab
A previous vote winner itself, our Hermit Crab finally has some art to call its own! Essentially a giant coconut crab (which are members of the hermit family themselves) even its impressive armour pales in comparison to some of the giants that inhabit the waters of the Sunken World. This means it takes to the habits of its smaller relatives, wearing shells as armour. In addition though, it is commonly seen using old shipwrecks that litter the seafloor to use as defense as well!
Its powerful claws are skilled at tearing apart shipwrecks for wood, or pinching an enemy into submission! Thanks to RexMyPet for creating this crustacean's concept!
COMMUNITY CORNER
While we may not have anything to show off yet, we'd love to feature your artwork or videos in the scoop! We'll be opening up a submission channel in our Discord, and will also be accepting any submissions through Twitter (tag us @ARKSunken or with the #SunkenScoop)! We hope to see some of your creations related to all things Sunken!
That's all for this massive issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! Hope you're just excited as we are for all the content reveals, and if you'd like to discuss them further, our discord is the best place to do so! 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: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759
Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728-
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21 hours ago, Joebl0w13 said:
There's nothing wrong with using AI art. Nor does anyone have to declare that's it's AI art.
I strongly agree, there is nothing wrong with using AI generated images. Given time constraints for the contest, I can understand why people feel the need where, when they are unable to commission an artist, they take to AI generated images. It's very quick and easy, gets an "okay enough" result and with WC redrawing designs anyways, some individuals don't care for making a fleshed out concept in their submissions (though as the Gigantoraptor guy I can attest, art matters because they really did my boy 1:1). Getting back to the topic though, I won't fault people for choosing to use AI images.
However, the issue is that a lot of AI image generating websites have to take their data of what art looks like from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually from the work of other artists without their consent. There isn't anything inherently wrong with using it, however trying to pass it off as your own work, intentionally or not, just hits the wrong nerve for many artists, especially when for a lot of them, art is a livelihood and drawing is a passion for them. It's essentially taking credit for something you didn't do, which is the part that is wrong.
Imagine you've spent some time baking some delicious cookies for a party. You've really put your heart into making said cookies, and you're excited to share them with your friends. Then, someone else comes to the party with cookies they bought from the supermarket, and starts showing them off as if they made them themselves.Sure, there's nothing inherently wrong with trying to tell people your store bought cookies are homemade, hell most people won't care, but to people who really care about baking and making some sweet treats for people to enjoy, it comes off as super scummy and rude. The worst part about AI generated images is that it's like if someone took your cookies, another partygoer's cakes and yet another partygoer's muffins and tried to pass them all of as their own work. Hopefully you can understand why many artists are commenting some very upset feelings because they have every right to be upset.
I'm curious as to why this was moved to a separate thread. I think it is a very important discussion to have within threads and something that needs some serious thinking about being included in the contest rules. Being moved into a separate thread like this makes people feel even more like their very valid concerns aren't being heard, and instead are being pushed under the rug. However I do understand why it's off topic and needed to be moved. I hope it can be put forward in some way to WC or the like.I'm personally not talking for outright bans on AI images, but clear and obvious disclaimers when using them. I think a lot of artists will share the same sentiment. Much like how many submissions give credit to the actual artists that were commissioned, it's just the polite thing to do to be clear where you got your art from. The lack of acting on obviously stolen work like the many instances people have straight up ripped the concept art, dossier work, etc from mods like ARK Additions is already bad enough, we don't need more to spoil the pot.
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As a massive enjoyer of this beastie, a word of advice
Put the dossier art at the very very top of the submission page, then have the title underneath. That way, when people hover over the thread, the first thing they see is part of the dossier art and they'll be compelled to click into the sub to have a closer look.
Lots of people just don't bother readingand I'm not against employing some trickery to get them to click into this amazing sub-
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Someone get me this cephalopod into the top 10 stat!
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11 hours ago, Romuluas said:
I believe that means that say if someone had already won a creature (like the Fasolasuchus, Gigantoraptor, and Yi Qi) they cant make another creature and win.
(but im not an admin this is just my input on how I perceive it)
11 hours ago, Cedric said:This is correct
As the guy who submitted Gigantoraptor, personally I'm not too much of a fan of the new "no winning multiple times" rule.
I understand why it was put in place, but it feels like a bit of a "punish the whole class" vs a "punish the actual problem people" situation.
90% of us in the creature design community are just people who really enjoy making cool ideas or flexing our creative muscles. Outside of posting to various social media and hoping our idea gains traction, we don't have any unfair advantage for getting our stuff into the top 10, apart from the effort we put into our submissions. However there's at least one individual that comes to mind who's consistently used their audience to sway the votes for only their own benefit.
It feels really unfair to "put down" the creativity of people who are willing to put in the time to sit down and have some fun designing a unique creature that might gain traction. If the community likes the design of a creature, regardless of who made it, I say let it be how it is! There's still a huge portion of the community who just doesn't bother to read further than the title, I don't think the creators of the concepts are of their concern. Critter creators are already punished enough by people who won't give their really unique ideas the time of day due to their pre-concieved notions of what the animal would be, I think it's wholly biased to punish the "good" and "skilled" creature creators even further.
It really removes the fun of creature design knowing that your idea won't even be considered, even if it wins fair and square.-
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4 hours ago, AnkleShark said:
This gives me a subnautica feel. I would love if they did a bit so that we could easier make underwater bases and survive under water.
We’re going to be introducing a new structure tier that functions as primitive vacuum compartments for base building! This will be accessible faaaar earlier than vacuum compartments and will let you settle under the sea without worrying about tek.
In addition, there’s creatures currently in the mod that function as primitive scuba tanks/produce oxygen underwater.
Our anomalocaris is a living scuba tank, and our henodus is a platform creature than can bury into the sea floor and make oxygen for you to breathe-
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Welcome to the very first Sunken Scoop!
So what is the Sunken Scoop? Well, much like the official Community Crunches, we at the ARK: The Sunken World (TSW) team thought it'd be a swell idea to release fortnightly/monthly updates on all things Sunken! We may be moving away from the informal concept art/model/etc reveals we do in our discord if people are liking this format!
To those unfamiliar with the mod, 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. Now with that out of the way, let's get into the news!
CREATURE VOTE WINNER
Creature votes have been all the rage (in both popularity and some people's attitudes at winners :P) recently, and TSW has joined the bandwagon. This week, we hosted a smaller community vote between 5 creatures: Magyarosaurus, Diving Beetle, Shonisaurus, Cretoxyrhina and Odobenocetops.
Well, the results are in... and in an unprecedented turn of events, it's a tie! Our winners are the Diving Beetle, everyone's favourite Ballistic Motor-bug, and Shonisaurus, everyone's equally loved Vortex Hunting Ichthysaur! Due to this unexpected turn of events, why not throw caution to the wind... we're adding them both! A highly manoeuvreable arthropod mount, able to be saddled up with some additional torpedo launchers, and the mothership of the marine reptiles, with a powerful vortex-creating hunting strategy, are going to be wreaking some havoc in TSW's seas! We'll polish up the looks of the two winners in the coming days/weeks and you'll see them join our official roster very soon!
Don't fret too much about the other contenders too! We'll be placing them in our "Fish Locker", a collection of shelved ideas that we'd love to add to the mod if time and resources permits us to. No promises, but your favourite may have a shot at redemption!
For those curious how the voting went, see here. Big thanks to ZCI for the mockups for these community favourites!
NEW CREATURES
In addition to the vote winner, we are also adding two new creatures to our roster! Introducing Aquilolamna and Cartorhynchus! Read about their mechanics below, and thanks to ZCI5250 for providing the concept art!
Aquilolamna: The Jet-Powered Eagle Shark!
Common Name: Aquilolamna
Species: Aquilolamna velociptera (Speedy Winged Eagle Shark)
Summary: A gracile oddball of a shark that can be found lazily cruising through the sunlit waters. Do not be fooled by its slow speed however, for with a flick of its powerful fins, an Aquilolamna can become the fastest creature in the oceans. It is also surprisingly agile, and is able to turn 180º in an instant. This shark is even able to barrel roll in the water to momentarily give itself a speed boost. On top of that, most Aquilolamna riders fit their saddles with bloody rockets that allow them to boost out of the water and travel impressive distances! Just be careful not to crash into the floor, as your Aquilo will be heavily damaged.Cartorhynchus: Your New Best Friend!
Common Name: Cartorhynchus
Species: Cartorhynchus adorabilis (Adorable Shortened Snout)
Summary: A small inquisitive ichthyosaur found in reefs and deep ocean biomes, they can harness the bioluminescence on their bodies to function as living spotlights. These semi-aquatic reptiles can be domesticated by playing with them. Cartorhynchus seem to be naturally attracted to crop plots and other planter structures, and when domesticated, they'll happily gather from your gardens and distribute fodder crops to nearby feeding troughs.WHAT WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON
In addition to the community vote, we've still been hard at work on our huge roster of creatures (with these new additions we're up to 44 custom creatures excluding variants). The big thing we've been working on recently is Ferrodraco ferox - The Feral Iron Dragon. This terrifying pterosaur will be the apex predator of the volcanic islands, and we've given it a quite literal glow up! Here's what the brute's facial patterns and glow regions might look like! This wonderful work was done by Nitz, a highly talented modeller we're lucky to have on the team!
Perhaps it'll be safer to live under the sea with this fellow flying around...Thanks for tuning into the first edition of the Sunken Scoop! Please let us know your thoughts on this new way to deliver news, and 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: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759
Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728-
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Man I can’t wait to see what I’ll have to do to wrangle one of these beasties!
Cant believe so much of the concept I made was preserved down to some of the lines in the dossier text!
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1 hour ago, imahuntya said:
Trust me, a large amount of birds were flightless...
I know a large amount of birds don't fly, I more meant the fact that it's from a group that has predominantly flying relatives. Kinda like how the kakapo is very strange in that it's a flightless parrot
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1 hour ago, Robin12143 said:
me parece un concepto extraño.
3 hours ago, Exuvia said:Suena extraño
That's the point, it's meant to be extra strange like all the other animals on aberration
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3 hours ago, Aazodus said:
Concept is cool ^^ I think need art for it
mm, art is coming soon!
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OH MY GOD HULKODILE I LOVE THIS
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Now this is the kind of concept we need for Aberration.
Cephalopods are weird, cephalopods on land are even weirder, and cephalopods that fly with an ink rocket? Now that is an aberrant animal right there!-
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I personally feel like the jellyfish immunity doesn't do much when the only area the jellies live is the element water, which nothing can swim in anyways.
Not the biggest fan of how it invalidates a lot of already underused semi-aquatics in the game already.
Excellent art though!-
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A flightless owl is the perfect addition for Aberration! What's weirder than a bird that doesn't fly!
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Sunken Scoop 5: Suddenly... Squids! (and other sea creatures)
in General Discussion
Posted
No underwater tek, but we're adding primitive vacuum compartments!
What don't you like about the hippocampus?