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GIGANTORAPTOR AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

LOOK AT HIM, HE LOOKS INCREDIBLE

Introducing Rheobatrachus volans, the Gliding Frog! This animal is based off of a combination of the recently extinct Gastric Brooding Frog and the living Wallace’s Flying Frog. Aberration is no stranger to downright weird wildlife, and what’s weirder than a combination of a frog that gives birth to live babies and a frog that can fly! If this creature was added, it’d certainly do wonders for ARK’s heavily lacking amphibian roster, along with adding something that Aberration sorely needs!

The biggest part of Aberration, in my opinion, is the unique methods of transportation that are imposed on the player due to the environment. While end game choices like the Rock Drake are everything you could want and more for cave exploration, I feel like early game creatures like the Ravager and Roll Rat are lacking. Their movement abilities are interesting, but are either incredibly niche in use or aren’t really the best for the map (for example, as much as I love the Roll Rat, on Aberration it’s very prone to just rolling off a cliff, and struggles to turn in tight passageways). Rheobatrachus will be the answer to your early game transport needs and add a new, if a little goofy, way to travel in style!

Let's hop into the concept!

Table of Contents
1. Artwork
2. Dossier Text
3. Potential Base Stats and Spawning
4. Taming
5. Abilities and Controls
  - A Flying Frog?
  - Abilities
  - Controls
6. Supplementary Links

Dossier Text

Common Name: Gliding Frog
Species: Rheobatrachus volans
Time: Holocene
Diet: Omnivore
Temperament: Evasive

Wild
Apart from the size, Rheobatrachus volans bears strong resemblance to its recently extinct relatives… except for the fact that this super-charged frog can fly! Well, more like fall with style. Much like other frogs, its sticky toe pads allow it to grip a variety of surfaces with ease. However, the webbing between its digits is specifically designed to catch the air like a parachute! This allows it to leap great distances, then gently float back to earth without a scratch. An excellent adaptation for staying mobile in these twisting caverns!

Somehow stranger than the gliding is its preferred method for avoiding predators…
weaponised charge light! Females will produce ammunition in the form of specialised eggs, which they swallow and store in their stomach. When threatened, they burp them up, and the resulting blinding flash caused by the eggs bursting open stuns predators long enough for them to make their escape! The males aren’t defenceless either, filling their vocal sacs with charge to put foes in a trance, then croaking loudly to send them running!

Domesticated
While not the most adept climber, or the fastest glider, Rheobatrachus is the perfect choice for those just starting to explore the depths! The giant amphibian is especially popular thanks to its unique reproduction. Giving birth to live young means that it is far less water-dependent than its kin, making them much easier to keep in captivity. Any added mobility in these caves is invaluable, and its affinity for defending itself with charge light has saved my skin more times than I can count!
 

Potential Base Stats and Spawning

Health: 225
Stamina/Charge Capacity: 300
Charge Regeneration: 150
Food: 1500
Weight: 280
Melee Damage: See "Abilities and Controls" section for base damage values
Torpidity: 175

Rheobatrachus would be found in the Fertile/Green Zones of Aberration. You may see this hybrid frog meandering along the ground, or resting in a lofty perch inside the caps of the giant fungal trees. I feel like having an animal, like the Archaeopteryx, that can be found roosting in trees would really help the map feel a lot more alive! All of the “activity” in ARK really happens at the player’s eye level, there’s rarely a reason to look upwards aside from trying to find a flyer. Having a creature that could bring some life to the tree canopy would be more than welcome!

Taming

While I love a good custom taming mechanic, an early game creature shouldn’t have anything too complex. Rheobatrachus would be a conventional KO tame, but I’d be open to any appropriate suggestions to spice things up!

However, there are a few things to note about taming yourself a froggy friend…

Diet
Rheobatrachus likes to eat, in order of preference:

• Plant Species Z Fruit (kibble)
• Mutton
• Prime Meat

I feel having it specifically require Z fruit as its kibble could make things a bit interesting. While intended to be an early game tame, if you really want to kibble tame it, you’ll have to wait till midgame to get a good one. Also, a few of its abilities would most certainly be useful for midgame and even into the lategame as a taming helper!

Mobility
These frogs are so fine tuned for movement, even bola-ing them down doesn’t stop them completely! I think it would add to the personality of the Rheo if it could still manage a (pitifully) slow crawl while trapped in a bola. Not the fastest or most dignified escape, but it’s all it can manage when its back legs are all tied up!

Abilities and Controls

A Flying Frog?

First things first, lets get this out of the way. I hear you, how does this thing not invalidate creatures like Beelzebufo and Rock Drake? Simple, it has its own niche! Below is a handy dandy chart detailing how its mechanics differ from the rest of the bunch! Art also thanks to RRG!

In terms of abilities:

The Rheobatrachus would be a wonderful way to get around the upper regions of Aberration! While its combat prowess leaves a bit to be desired, it more than makes up for it in its utility!

Both males and females can spread their webbed toes wide to catch the air below them, turning them into living parachutes! Both can also manage that awkward, but endearing, frog climb up a variety of surfaces! However, each has their own charge light themed abilities!

Males

Males are able to inflate their vocal sacs and fill them with charge light, turning them into a living lure that can slowly lead creatures to different locations. While the sac is inflated, you won’t be able to glide.

Females

Females will use their charge light stat to slowly produce ammunition, much like Rhyniognatha’s conversion of sap to resin. The ammo will be in the form of explosive eggs! These eggs can be shot out in front of them and create a flash of light, like Plant Species Z.
 

A unique feature of this amphibian is its reproduction. It will give birth to live young when bred!

In terms of controls:

• Left Click : A simple bite. 12 base damage. Harvests a good amount of chitin!
• Right Click : On males, this will do the equivalent of parasaur's scary honk. On females, it will be a small forward stomp with 20 base damage.
• C : Charge-based abilties! Males will glow and lure things towards them, females will shoot out a singular egg from their ammunition stockpile.
• Left-Control : Activates climbing mode. Being a frog, this fella can climb, just nowhere near as fast as creatures like the Rock Drake or Megalania. Really, its climbing is just enough to help you not have to take the long way round if you fall off a cliff.
• Spacebar : Leap! Can be aimed much like the Procoptodon's/Karkinos' jump. Holding spacebar activates the parachute.

Supplementary Links

Real world Gastric Brooding Frog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric-brooding_frog

Real world Wallace's Flying Frog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace's_flying_frog

Luring concept by Sophocles:

46 minutes ago, Teratus said:

I agree that they need TLC's, I've supported that exact thing for a long time.. albeit more on Steam Forums.

Water content is one of the things that is grossly neglected imo, not just in ARK but in a lot of games over all to be honest, and personally it bugs me a lot, especially when there's a general attitude like:
"oh it sucks anyway, why waste time fixing it when you can just make more content we already have an abundance of.."
That's not something I specifically hear often about ARK thankfully, but it is in some other games I play where Water content is neglected.

In my mind if I love a game then I want every single aspect of it to be amazing, I can understand if some people are not particularly fond of some of those aspects but I'll never understand those who actively want the parts they are not fond of to be so bad they put other people off enjoying them.

Personally I don't like the way ARK's PvP is, but I don't go around wishing it was garbage so nobody else could enjoy it.. that's just pointlessly spiteful.

 

But yes some new water creatures would be of some improvement though, certainly better than water getting nothing at all 

The problem with new water creatures is mainly the limited amount of maps they can even qualify for.

Island basically only has a border, though it does have two water caves which is at least something for water content.

Scorched Earth has no water content at all.

Aberration has pretty much no water content either.

Extinction, same thing.. basically no water content.

Genesis Pt1 does have the ocean Biome, and the only water boss creature in the entire game which is arguably the only serious attention water content has gotten since the first ARK map.
But it's just one small part of a larger map that has no other water content at all, so chances of a new water dino there are very unlikely as most people would prefer a creature that could be universally used in all the unique biomes.

And Genesis Pt2 has some underwater area's. but to be fair Genesis Pt2 has a severe lack of biome diversity in general which is truly a wasted opportunity considering how ridiculously massive the map is.

The sponsored Mod maps are where the good bulk of ARK's large water areas actually are, Rag in particular is, in my opinion the most fitting map that a new Water creature could have won on.
That's in part why I was disappointed the win didn't go to one.
Though I do admit i am also disappointed that of all the finalists many of which were unique creatures ARK has very little or none of, the creature that won was another Raptor.. a creature we already have so many variants of in the game already, along with a few different species.

That's not to say i'm not happy for those that really wanted this creature in the game, I am happy for them, even if I am personally disappointed and would have preferred any of the other finalist creatures to win instead.

Water deserves more love in ARK, creature TLC's, more content and new creatures too, and I know i'm not the only one who is calling for it.
There's quite a few of us who want ARK's Water content to be awesome, and terrifying 

I will say while Gigantoraptor may seem another "generic" raptor, oviraptorans as a whole are severely underrepresented in a variety of games, and the oviraptor we do have in the game is relegated to the glorious "stand around the base and make my kibble creatures lay eggs more" role

Gigantoraptor isn't as closely related to the dromaeosaurs like Utahraptor and Deinonychus, and there's tons of very unique dinosaurs that aren't being represented in the game, even if their names sound very similar to existing critters. The last large theropod to be fully feathered was the Yutyrannus (at least 4 years ago), and the last non-fantasy sexually dimorphic creature we got was the Ovis!

31 minutes ago, BlakeEIves said:

The proposed breeding help of the Gorgonops was probably going to be more useful. Plus, the ability to find, or track specific things, including discerning wild stats, plus other options that the game still does not have available to the players, is a lot more game play options than a large auto imprinter. So we get another creature with one useful ability, and no other uses? I really hope I am wrong, and they add some of the proposed abilities of the Gorgonops, or other vote creatures. It seems people want the H.L.N.A. stat reading ability, since it was proposed in two creatures this vote. Hell, I am getting tired of proposing good ideas that end up getting used, but also being done in the worst way possible. But here is another idea that will be taken, and should have been implemented long ago. There exists an item in Ark that is such a waste, that it may as well be offensive to veteran players. The electronic binoculars. The functions it says it has, do not work. So since everyone would love to have a spyglass that actually does not suck to use, take away the tek helmet options on it, and add the ability to use it while on the back of any creature, the same as the spyglass. Keep the ability to zoom, and remember the zoom amount, and add the H.L.N.A., and magnifying glass option to it. And since you cannot use the tek leg boost while anything is equipped, make that the button for turning on, or toggling through the night vision, creature stats, and target outline options. Or simply turn them all on at one time when you left click while looking through them with right click. Either way, people want a better spyglass, it exists in the game in a pitiful way already, so just fix it. And I hope people start voting for things we do not have, or badly need, rather than whatever metric people are currently making decisions by. I am shocked that a slower, less powerful, less versatile stealth creature than the shadowmane even made it that far in the vote(Yes it at least had the stat checker ability proposed). While alternatively, we do not have creatures that can help us tame cannon specific tames, or a creature that speeds up the growth rate of babies while also feeding them, rather than simply helping you imprint the babies. Over all, the decisions I have been seeing made recently has been baffling, and confusing with how bad the chosen decisions obviously are, especially when so many can see the train wreck choices for what they are, even before the choice is decided upon. It is frustrating when you see the potential of a prosperous future, but all help is ignored for illogical reasons. Simply frustrating.

The breeding functionality wasn't part of Gorgonops' design, that was Gigantoraptor's concept

Can't wait to see my bird child in ASA! Really hoping they make him just as feathery and fluffy as my concept work!

Man I'm so hyped to mess around with Fasola in ASA now, thing looks awesome! Really love seeing how the abilities of community suggestions make the cut with a classic WC twist.

Really hoping to see Gigantoraptor get at least 2nd for the carchar ruling (where it's been 2nd place twice, so people clearly want it and it gets added separately) this vote, feel like it's something that will really improve the breeding experience in the game if mechanics translate. Hopefully it's just as fluffy and feathery in the official version too!

6 hours ago, UnknowUserZ said:

If you Gigantoraptor regalimaia doesn't win in this creature vote, maybe it would be better next you reuse those same ideas but putting it in a creature  that would match more, like Maiasaura, would make more sense.

I would agree, if oviraptorans as a whole weren't known for fossils of them literally buried alive over their nests. The first fossils were thought to be them getting unlucky when raiding a nest, but on further research it was found that the eggs belonged to the buried parent.

Maiasaura is great and all, but people already know that they're great parents, it's literally in the name. Oviraptors still have that stigma of being egg thieves, and while some of them probably could've stolen eggs, it'd be nice to not have the exact same "I steal eggs" representation across almost all of paleo media

1 hour ago, taquito164457 said:

me gsuta la idea pero se me hace poco practico y algo no inovador la verdad y para el PvP se quedaria corto...

how so? breeding creatures is the only way you can get stronger, and having something to help you with that while you're away from the game would be invaluable for that

13 minutes ago, SCAvirus said:

Looks interesting, I don't think It will be that interesting to play with, it will just save time and resources. 

I think the combat part of the idea would be great fun, would be really funny to bring babies to the battlefield! I think it has a lot of potential if it were to be added

Also, that's the whole point of the idea. It saves you time and resources, because I think it's ridiculous that people have to treat a video game like a full time job when it comes to breeding. It's not fun and it's not healthy

2 hours ago, Thiranossauro said:

Eu simplesmente amo a ideia do Gigantoraptor, desde sua domesticação até sua utilidade. Seu design é lindo e entendo que a inspiração de um dinossauro da minha terra seria as penas nos ombros são do Ubirajara Jabutus 

Oh I LOVE Ubirajara! Such a cool dinosaur!

The inspiration for the fancy feathers on my gigantoraptor actually comes from birds of paradise, more specifically this bird, the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise

11 minutes ago, ElPINGUcubano94 said:

While I like the mechanics of this creature I think it’s stats are underwhelming for something that’s yuty sized or bigger. It should atleast have the base health of a yuty (1100) and it’s base damage should be around 50 or so, 25/30 for something of its size is very underwhelming. Make the mothers fury ability be useful by having its base damage double what’s indicated in the post. 

The stats are just a suggestion for WC. They could buff/nerf as they see fit!

The reason that the base damage is 25/30 is because the attack that does 30 hits twice, so it bumps up to 60, just in two separate hits of 30. That puts it almost on par with the rex's bite.

The health seems underwhelming, but the spino (strangely enough) only has 700 base health and is faaar larger than the yuty. 750 base health is my way of counteracting the fact Mother's Fury gives the thing an additional 20% damage resistance, which on top of imprint bonus and strong saddles could make it quite tanky imo. Didn't want to go too overboard on the bonus damage either because I don't want to become one of those "powerful for sake of powerful" folks in the contest. But if WC buffs the thing if/when it gets added? By all means!

Love hummers, but this thing uses a lot of AI/uncredited art. Would be great if credit was given to the original artists, plus some disclaimers where things used are clearly AI! AI stuff is fine for references, but don't try to pass it off as your own stuff

17 minutes ago, LVL1GAMERAL said:

Why more Rex clones? stop it. get some help. people cried and whined till they got a dino that didnt win a vote added, they developers even mentioned the 20+ versions of this kind of thing is already in the game. vote for things more unique. all these Rex Clones are getting annoying wasting space in the votes.

The mere fact you called it a rex clone tells me you didn't read the suggestion at all. I agree that "powerful for the sake of being powerful" creatures are boring, but this is not one of those cases.

Just becase an animal is a theropod, does not instantly make it a rex. The two theropods currently in the top 10 (gigantoraptor and this majunga) are both equally unique in their own right, and both offer something that would offer utility rather than just another left-click-chomper.


To summarise Majungasaurus for you, the proposed idea turns it into a highly invaluable scouting mount, with the ability to camouflage and read dino stats. The HLNA stat scan won't be available until gen 2, which isn't going to be released for at least another year, and having a dedicated creature that can do this until we get it would absolutely change the meta.

And before you say the very common "but WC never adds the ideas from a vote", they very much do. Every single creature has shared at least a handful of mechanics with its community made counterpart.

TL:DR, if you're going to be upset at something being an <insert creature> clone, don't just complain about it. You are allowed to make a countersuggestion in the comments if you'd prefer a different rendition of the animal to make it more unique. Also, read the suggestion

6 hours ago, AmanaTishala said:

I don't immediately think "Ragnarok " when I think of thus guy the way I do for the Bison (and I DESPERATELY want the Bison already!!!!) BUUUUTTTT I REALLY have fallen for this guy and want him in the game sometime too! I had the Moa as my top pick last time with this guy as a very close 2nd to me and wanted one or the other. I had a very Darth Vader "NOOOOOOOO!" Luke Skywalker "No! That's impossible!" super dramatic cry when I saw that this guy and the Moa were 2nd and 3rd in the ranked voting when I wanted them SOOOOOOOO badly and had the Faso down around 6th or 7th for me, personally. I don't have a problem with this guy being a therapod since it's not THAT TYPE that we're overcrowded with. 

So, while I'm very "Bison or bust!" for Rag I would not be disappointed if this guy finally took it this time either. And if not this map, I hope it comes in at some point. It'd be SOOOOOOO useful with the ideas you have for it, especially for my (and my tribe's) game play preferences/style. And it's cool looking. AND I feel a slight degree of "pity vote" for this and the gorgonopsid that were "planned but cut from the team". They deserve to be added now if they were already planned before ^^; . 

Thank you kindly! I will say that, since the wider ARK community is so vastly different to the ones who are out here commenting on posts in the vote, and the fact said wider ARK community voted this into a very close second, I think chances are really good for Gigantoraptor to get in!

As much as I'd love to win, I'm lowkey hoping to get second again so Carchar ruling can apply, where if something gets such a close second a buncha times they add it in cuz the community clearly wants it. That way, we'd get two awesome creatures from the vote!

I'm personally hoping the Bison comes through modded content, since that's going to be crossplatform in ASA. I don't hate the idea, but a lot of the utility-based mechanics are 1:1's of existing items in the game (beef=mutton, bison cheese=wyvern milk, etc), so I'd be worried that a lot of the more interesting PVE roleplay parts of the suggestion that people like wouldn't be added by WC since it'd just increase the size of the game without adding anything "technically" new.

Whatever the case though, thanks for the support and may the best creature win!

5 hours ago, NERDPotion said:

Can anyone tell me the font used in most of the creature submissions on the doss?

Hey hey! I imagine you may have already found it, but it's called DJB About a Boy

2 hours ago, Adgark said:

I love this concept, but I think that the eggs in the nest should be less top level than the fathers. For example, if the max dino lvl is 150, the max egg lvl should be 135. This, will encourage the people to do the nest defence.

Ooo, this is a great comment! I won't be changing it in the submission, but if G-raptor wins the vote, this could be an idea that WC uses when they check the comments!

I feel like getting an "easy" breed pair is enough incentive to do the nest defence, but I do love this idea!

6 hours ago, FutureBug96 said:

I love Giant Bison, but those ideas are just simply boring (except for the cart). It's treated as just a cow in every vote. I mean it is inspired by Bison latifrons, the largest bovid ever, it needs to have some distinctive abilities. This is what I would suggest:

Remove carnivore livestock raiding thing - I mean who even came up with this and thought other people would like this? It sounds very frustrating.
Make cows the "farm animals" that main use is to produce milk and feritilizer.
Make bulls the combat mounts with pack boost and stampede ability (so if there is a lot of them running they can instantly destroy trees, rocks and even maybe up to stone tier structures?).
A vertical type of knockback would also give it something uniqe.
Cold resistance for players? Useful for exploring Murder Snow areas.
Also something very unique would be to give the bison customizable haircuts and beards - wild ones spawn with random beard and haircut. Tamed ones can be stylized using scissors.

THIS. I'm personally withholding a vote from the giant bison because I feel it leans faaaar to heavily on the cow aspects of bovines, rather than leaning into the fact the thing is a literal meat tank with enormous horns, being a bison. Seeing what's basically a mammalian ceratopsian be little more than a farm animal is a bit disappointing.

These suggestions would actually give it the personality and arkification I feel the concept is really missing!

5 hours ago, NerdyGremlin said:

I enjoy this submission, somewhat because it reminds voters the suggestions aren't guaranteed (we've been in probably 4 votes already; you'd think people would get it by now. Sick and tired of people voting for submissions obviously pandering votes.) Also gives a good bit of variety for the creature, and having it actually be unique other than other submissions wanting a giant murder machine after receiving carcharo and rhynio, in an already extremely crowded role. In the previous vote, I preferred the moa over gigantoraptor for gigantoraptor being large theropod #11, but that's my only problem with it. Real contender right here. 

Thanks! I know a lot of people dislike it purely because it's a theropod, but I've tried to make it a lot more distinct from literally every other theropod in game. We only have a few fully feathered dinosaurs in ARK, and I think with ASA's graphical upgrades, feathered creatures are going to look incredible.

When it comes to these votes, I personally try to go for well thought out ideas and mechanics over the family, because sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised by what is otherwise a "boring" family group. Tons of really cool prehistoric creatures, belonging to families already represented in ARK, that deserve the spotlight!

5 minutes ago, ILikeReptiles said:

Yh it helps to imprint creatures ,but we always had 100%imprinted creatures it's not that hard to get even to imprint a giga.Don't forget that we will get desmod coming with Fjordur.Maybe we can get creature for imprinting but it should have other abilities too like increasing growth rate or increasing mutation chance,

Fjordur won't be for a while from what I remember though.

I understand it's really easy to imprint creatures, but the point is that it's hella time consuming and honestly quite ridiculous that you have to treat a video game like a full time job to do it. That's the whole point of the submission. You may have had 100% imprinted creatures, but with ASA being a fresh start it'll be nice to have something to help get the ball rolling for all manner of playstyles.

While a creature that increases growth rate or mutation chance would be nice, I feel like that goes over the line of balance for both PvP and PvE. The other functionality comes with the guarding and boss fight potential Gigantoraptor has. Also the fact that, while general vibe is preserved in mechanics, WC could end up changing things around to be more appropriate or incentivising for PvP. If you chuck a vote, it may end up getting an "increase growth rate aura".

14 minutes ago, ILikeReptiles said:

Gigantoraptor is useless for pvp

Can you please give me a bit more feedback than that? Don't see how something is useless for pvp when it literally helps with the one thing that you need to do to get stronger creatures

The sled saddle is the main draw for me! Having a creature that can help you transport KO'd tames is a sorely needed niche in ARK, and would really add something we're missing!

33 minutes ago, Xbone said:

I think it would be just a tad more unique if the gigantoraptor held the babies in its arms rather than via a saddle (maybe only have the option available once its saddled for balance etc.) Would be cool to see since the thing has huge arms as it is.

That could be quite endearing! Only issue is that it would mean it's unable to use its claw attacks while getting Mother's Fury, which is where a lot of its power comes from.

Could be something to consider though! Really like the idea of unridden/unsaddled ones being able to do it to get a slight power boost

9 hours ago, TyranntX said:

Oh look, it'd the creature that SHOULD have won last vote... yeah I'm still bitter about it so bite me... I've voting for it again

Fasola is pretty cool, but hopefully getting second last vote will improve the Gigantoraptor's chances! I'm feeling hopeful this vote, and I'm crossing my fingers that its mechanics will translate if it wins!

Even if the thing gets second again, we could have a Carchar rule where it gets added anyways too, so chances are (hopefully) good!

YESSSSS I LOVED THIS THING BACK IN THE OTHER VOTE, POP OFF SHOCKAL!!

Seriously though, this would be such an interesting creature to have, that perfectly combines a more modern "bland" creature with an arkified concept that really makes it shine!

With a bit of refinement/limits to what the creature can do, this would be a really goofy, but fun, addition!

I feel like the other feedback rings true, having it limited to more primitive things like manning a mortar and pestle or refueling a forge is where I'd draw the line. Having it be able to do everything a player can would make it quite powerful