Luux

Bones are essentially what I would call, the Primitive version of Metal. They are the strong, sturdy, sharp and versatile material. They'd be a great idea for a material, but, I'd say they fit more into the scenario of a new tribal-tech-tier level themed map like a Paleo/Ice Age, Tribal/Jungle or Primitive Plus reminiscent map that brings those elements into more focus and deviates from the typical technology progression. Bones like you said, could be used in very many things. From structural support, to a full mini or full entire tier of building, to a more advanced but still tribal tier set of weaponry, tools, armor and items. Harvesting Bone would be a bit different though, you can get it from basically any corpse, and of course all those Bone piles naturally found in map like Ragnarok and in deserts would have to be considered, but the way I see it is Bone can be collected 3 ways - 1 - Inefficiently, with any Carnivore or tool capable kf harvesting a corpse. 2 - Efficetively, with any Carnivore or creature with acidic or scavenging properties, so Argentavis, Arthropluera, Araneo, Basilisk, etc, essentially dinos that can either pick at a corpse naturally more effectively, less likely to damage the bones when eating it, or can just swallow creatures whole like a snake does, so the Basilisk would be one of if not the best Carnivore harvester for Bone. 3 - Effectively, with any Rock-smashing creature or tool that can harvest the bone piles in the maps like in Rag's desert. This may not be as effective as a Basilisk or scavenger depending on how you think it would fare versus that but I think this option is already set up.

Would love this too, or another option to help increase visibility under the water, I don't care if we have to wear a Noglin-like creature that doubled as an echolocation mask or something to see underwater, anything else but the blurry and messy water view or the Scuba Mask would be better. Might I suggest, if possible, maybe make one of (or make a new one) the shoulder pets capable of doing something like this. Would be so nice. Or make a new item to give us another way to do this, either by crafting, cooking a Stew, or, maybe even add the functionality to Lazarus Chowder? Or make it a rare or uncommon drop from either Alpha Megalodon, Ammonite or Eurypterid. Or just literally slap some magic seaweed in the ocean somewhere, if the devs have kept the Liopluerodon around for this long and added a literal Unicorn, the rest of the game lore aside, then we can have magic water-breathing seaweed.

I think we need a creature suggestion section for the game suggestions....since the archive for creature votes is locked and such, it would also make it easier to find them and sort them from TLCs. Plus give people a place to put them if they wanted besides general discussion or the votes alone. But I also would love another crustacean in Ark. Not a crab, but like the Lobster, Shrimp or (maybe) the Hermit Crab if it was different enough from the Karkinos. Another medium-to-small generally good tame about the power and role of a Bary would be nice. We usually only have very small or huge and dangerous creatures and not much in the middle ground for the Aquatic areas, especially as competent tames. Since we have no sea Turtles like Archelon from Ark Additions.

Would be really nice to finally have the devs actually implement a size based Aggro system at least for sea creatures. 7 years or so and Anglerfish still think they are the chosen fishtick who's gonna go and take a bite out of my tamed Mosa/Plesi/Tuso and live. I'm sorry buddy, but unlike Pegos I can't just walk past that, cause water physics dictate 1/3 times I get stuck in your hit box. This is really just several issues and is "Fix dino spawns" "Balance creature Aggro distance" "Balance sea creature aggro" Here's a table of how they could work (Some passive creatures are here for size reference, also to show what will and won't attack them) Tiny - Small, so small that they aren't even the size of a Survivor usually and are unlikely to attack even if provoked by anything bigger than one. - Coelcanth - Sabertooth Salmon - Piranha - Ammonite Attacks - Survivors or anything smaller Small - On the low end of size and power, these creatures are often opportunistic or mildly territorial, but quickly leave the scene if more formidable foes appear. - Icthyosaurus - Electrophorus - Anglerfish - Manta - Cnidaria - Eurypterid Attacks - Others of same size class or lower and survivors, as well as any small semi-aquatic or land/air dinos like Pelagornis/Otter/Beaver/Frog/Diplocaulus etc. Medium - Big enough to defend themselves from most threats except the Apex predators of the sea, or well equipped to escape if not. These creatures will attack each other and most common members of the food chain below them. - Megalodon - Plesiosaur - Dunkleosteus - Basilosaurus - Liopleruodon - Megalodon Alphas Attacks - Same class, lower and terrestrial dinos up to the size of a Carbonemys/Baryonyx. Large - These creatures are high in the pecking order and present a significant threat to anything that encounters them, as a result most things smaller than them will flee on sight. - Plesiosaur or Basilosaurus could be here, but Plesis should still have to fight Megas and Dunkys and that would give Basis another unfair advantage when they are already bloated with op stats and everything. - Mosasaur Attacks - Same class and lower, as well as any dinos up to the size of a Rex. Huge - These monsters are in a class above everything else and are feared/respected for the considerable damage their wrath can leave behind. For the biggest and strongest things to roam the deep. - Leedsicthys - Megachelon - Tusoteuthis - Shastasaurus - All Mosa, Leeds and Tuso Alphas On the other hand, some creatures should also have specific Aggro behaviors based on the dossier entries they still don't match up to. - Plesiosaur is said to ignore anything that isn't a fish. This could give it a nice aloof temperament until it's provoked, instead of relentlessly hunting you as soon as you're in render. - Anglerfish are said to be cowardly and skittish as well around anything big, but they clearly have no issues taking a bite out of giant squid and mosas as much as anything else. - If Cnidaria don't have the brain power to even be tamed, they shouldn't have enough to even vaguely drift towards people, I understand the idea of a living underwater mine, but it's ridiculous and annoying. Plus there is no counter besides killing them (which have you seen the options which only include crossbows basically?) Or riding a Basi, which is unacceptable. It's been years, Wildcard. Please just give us an applicable anti-sting gel to put on ourselves and tames like Bugspray or Wyvern Milk but for Eel and Jellyfish shocks. - Electrophorus have been broken and useless since they first launched, their AI is the worst in the game. Hopefully it's fixed, have not tested in ASA but I don't have high hopes atm. They also need a natural predator, same as Jellyfish, dunno why we haven't got that yet. Extra Notes - Megalodons should 100% be less common and have a smaller Aggro range, instead of being anything similar to the large probably lone predator it was irl it's like the direwolves but in the sea. Instead it should only be about 60-75% as common as it is, plus, make it so that their Aggro range is at the range it is normally when things get hurt or there are corpses, like Argies being drawn like missiles towards corpses, this could also apply to any bleed attacks, making them a way to draw Megalodon aggro onto a target either on purpose or accident, cause the blood would lure them in. That way if you get swarmed it's because you left bodies or were attacked by something that used bleeds and it's not cause there were 5 or more Megalodon in most places. I get that Ark has its own versions and such of these creatures but they really feel too common, it's more a sign that we may need another small to medium sea creature to fill in the niche of another lower but still threatening on the tiers creature in the oceans, like the Liopleurodon if it wasn't completely wasted as a creature to be a temporary sea unicorn... - Mantas should also not be as bloodthirsty as they are, make them just a bit less aggressive, and then they wouldn't be the nightmare of every ark player that has ever entered the sea, second only to Jellyfish and Eels.

To add onto the discussion about foliage...it feels like they went so overboard with adding so much of it and in such high definition that they kinda forgot to add the dinos. Like it's a ghost town sometimes on the Island. Mostly things on the beach are fine, but everywhere else it's so scarce, and mostly the large creatures you'll encounter are Brontos and the suddenly very invasive feeling theris that are lurking around every corner. Anyone else noticing this too? I can understand compies being hidden in the grass but most of the dinos are just..gone? I kind of wonder if the spawns may have been adjusted not just because it's a new version that they're tinkering with too figure out more optimal and fitting spawn numbers and locations, but if they've reduced it possibly or it's being crowded by wild baby spawns? Think about it, they're actually quite common. A little too much imo, and some even have multiple babies in a little train. Also, the spawns were a system that I myself used to use to my advantage while taming and such to keep things safe etc, don't kill the passive creatures around cause they block the spawns for more dangerous ones etc...I wonder if it even works remotely the same way.

It's what happens when you are going through issues at the time that grab your attention more, and you don't read the xplicit posts about it..I only heard about the game from mentions on YouTube at first and didn't bother digging much into it after that. So yes I did come up with this assumption on my own separately because I didn't actually consume much Ark content at all at the time. Still don't usually.

Game has barely come out. Game awakes to the world for the first time and is blasted with the sound of thousands of screaming apes. Game gets hit in the face by a Trex going 500 miles an hour. Someone left the stove on, their grilled cheese burned to ashes. Game does not know what a stove or a grilled cheese is but this Is already starting out to be a heck of a time to be alive. This is ASA'S launch in general. I will remind everyone who reads this, that this game and its franchise/spinoffs have been classified in the genus of Scuffed since they were born. Ark has been the standard for bugs for years. This has been the way its been for years. It's going to take a bit for the devs to finally move on from those limitations and be able to craft and polish a version of the game that is better, has not just improvements but room for improvement. I'm not gonna turn a blind eye to the stuff this game has been through and has suffered as well as the legacy of bugs and issues. But this is a new opportunity for the game to be remastered and made in a way that can actually last longer. 1. I will reiterate, it's not even a month old. I predicted that this game would release in Early Access easily, since from decades of experience seeing the train wreck manned by corpses heading into a river of Lava that is Blizzard and their descent into absurd disgusting insanity, games are not just made in a few months. Even if you have the game already and are just remastering it, this stuff takes actual time. You should really encourage them to take their time even, so many games and companies have been plagued by the suffering brought on them by rushed methods and deadlines that stifled any potential or quality work. A few extra months is precious for something like this. 2. Dino TLC will be coming eventually. But it is actually quite low on the list of serious priority. Would you rather they fix the bugs they can and get the game to function more healthily or would you rather they add dinos while people scream in the forums about how the game is broken every update, exactly how Ark Survival Evolved was? 3. The Physics weren't ever that good and were rudimentary at best, with the exception of some more advanced creatures like Rock Drakes and Bloodstalkers. It's something like this that I hope would get changes and improvements a lot. But you also have to realize that vanilla Ark relies on this type of combat, movement and physics system a lot for the way it functions. Simply 'upgrading' it to a Dark Souls style combat game would actually change it quite fundamentally. Things like even just adding climbing on all surfaces like Conan does without the need for a creature or tool like Climbing Picks would break the game a lot too and invalidate and outdate,, as well as trivialize all the old terrain and topography in the game. Who needs a flier or a kangaroo when you can literally just scale a mountain or a cliff with your bare hands. Ark doesn't work like this and there is a reason it has never had a hint of doing so drastically. That is what Ark 2 is supposed to be geared towards. However, I do think sometimes that minor adjustments and additions to the physics could seriously improve them game, including adding a minor momentum based mechanic to the movement of the game, so that tames, players and especially Aquatic tames would be able to move better instead of being stuck in whatever move range they have. Which for Aquatic dinos is just a forward and could be improved as well as letting them be displaced from the water without dying, to also save tames that just instantly die because of clipping bugs. 4. The AI is not much better, but this is mostly because the dinosaurs still need an overhaul and re-evaluation on their aggression tables and systems, and that they have almost no behavioral system. Nothing sleeps, nothing eats on any whim but randomness, nothing goes to drink, nothing panics and runs as a herd when carnivores attack or stand and taunt threats. They already need to make changes to what dinos attack what, especially the Aquatic ones who literally have no functional food chain mechanics at all and will attack anything that falls into their bathtub. Adding simple and rudimentary behaviors would be a way to improve the AI. Besides just the pathfinding and movement. Which will be improved with time, at least a bit. 5. I don't think removing speed upgrades was the soltuion, personally thinking just nerfing the increase by 25-50% would have been fine. I don't care that much, but I don't really think it makes sense with all the various dino speeds in the game. Now some things you'll never have a chance to outrun on foot, even if it's just barely over your run speed. There are fast dinos, and yes humans aren't the best runners in nature but it still feels a bit odd and out of place, maybe with time we'll see it improved or better integrated if they keep it. 6. Referring to the physics. Ark's combat cannot be improved very much without mods without fundamentally changing the game. It's an incredibly vital component to how the game functions and how basic things like attacking and defending with dinos, and Survivor vs dino fights work that it would require a very in depth re revaluation to make any changes without it going completely wrong and the way of Minecraft's combat system (which caused resounding mixed opinions in the playerbase, and split it in some cases for years) where it just changed and left people with the odd, poorly fitting new version of combat without taking into account the rest of the game. If Wildcard did this to Ark it could be extremely bad. They have to be careful with these kind of changes. Especially with something as important as combat in a survival game that has used such a basic system for years. They cannot make this the evergreen remaster of Ark while changing several core elements in ways that are wildly different and unfaithful to the original game that ostracized the original player base that it is made for.

Yeah, that hud size and the new fonts is really making it harder to see things in thr game. They're so blocked off in a weird color that is hard to reach quickly too...purple is a very bad color to use for things that are meant to be alarming or important, orange, yellow, red, green, or lighter blues need to be used instead. They are more easily read, Red, Orange and Yellow can all convey various degrees of danger or caution better and are easier to read than purple, and green and light blue are very easy for the eye to catch and lock onto or find. I know this from playing Overwatch for several years and my cross hair was a light cyan blue color that was very easy to differentiate from the game in front of me and the blue ally/red enemy outlines and effects, as it was also different enough from the blue to stand out and not blend in but not be a shock to the eyes or be very overly contrasting from Red or other colors. Also if it's not available already, color options to change for this might be useful too, especially for people who might be colorblind.

If this is already a problem on the Island, arguably the smallest (besides Scorched, which feels like a litterbox in comparison.) Map in the game, then imagine how bad this is going to be on Ragnarok, maps like Valguero that have multiple layers in major cave systems and the underground ocean, the insanely zoomed out and complex maps for Fjordur and Lost Island too that skimped on detail for the sake of showing the general biomes, points of interest and elevation. I know they're going to try to improve the maps for each of them most likely but still, this is only The Island. The others besides Scorched will be much more full of things to mark, layers of underground areas, entrances to things etc. In the meantime, if you want to mark something for later, and or for if they increase the limit on markers, you can use Banners and Flags to place in the world, and paint them bright colors and/or symbols that tell you there's something there even if the map can't do it for you.

An idea for saddle and equipment upgrade/customization that is different from just the quality system and is more primitive and tribal theme friendly. Would let you get access to saddle Upgrades a different way and differs between creatures etc, good for maps that have an absence of tek or Industrial technology and want a more paleo, tribal, medieval or Ancient feel to the game. War Saddle - A war saddle is a saddle version that can be crafted for many creatures that are rideable and comes with many ways to upgrade and augment it visually and functionally. Made by crafting an Artifact of any kind with a saddle, War Saddles have the unique ability to give a tribe-wide Alpha buff to all your dinos nearby when the creature uses their Roar ability, whether or not it has mechanics. They also can be upgraded with Trophies found from slain creatures. All the leftover bones, skulls, eyes, tentacles, feathers and scales you collected can now be used to decorate and customize the saddle, which also adds additional armor, damage or speed to the dino (depending on the piece). These are either added directly onto the saddle or crafted into items able to be added in the case of ones requiring multiple of a trophy such as Vertebrae, Feathers, Teeth or Claws. Examples being Alpha Raptor Claw - Damage Alpha Rex Skull - Defense and Damage Alpha Rex Tooth - Damage Alpha Megalodon Fin - Speed Alpha Mosasaur Tooth - Damage Alpha Tuso Eye - Decoration Alpha Basilisk Fang - Damage Argentavis Talon - Damage Sauropod Vertebrae - Defense Therizino Claws - Defense and Damage Thylacoleo Hook-Claws - Damage and Speed Sarco Scales - Defense Megalodon Tooth - Damage Tuso Tentacle - Damage and Speed Basilisk Scale - Defense Rock Drake Feather - Speed War Saddles can be somewhat customized beyond just the Trophies too. They each have 4 Slots. A head slot, a spine slot, and one for the sides (or hips/thigh/flank region on most dinos), and a 4th for banners or flags, the first 3 can be equipped with either a trophy or other items that can be used for armor, augmentation or pure decoration, which can all be individually painted before putting them on. Shields are another item that can be equipped onto the Saddles, working as you might expect one too realistically, they block and stop projectiles entirely, and are subject to the strengths of the material they're made of, meaning they may need to be repaired and some will be better than others. Shields tier Riot and above cannot be equipped onto War Saddles.

Yeah, the babies being literally free walking tames is insanely odd and aggravating. It makes it feel like you can just go shopping for free dinos everywhere and you end up with potentially way more than you even wanted or needed. A huge problem when we don't yet have cryopods or a way to store dinos efficiently. I'd say there should definitely be a taming process for babies too, maybe tailored to different temperaments suiting the animal. Try to throw food to or approach skittish ones slowly, gaining their trust over time. Carnivores could require feeding corpses by dragging them over and then possibly backing away at first, they progressing to feeding them the bodies by hand. Pischivores and aquatics could be tamed by hunting fish and doing the same. It's simply too easy to go literally murder a dinosaurs parents and then just get all the babies for free without needing to even tame anything at all. I know technically babies are hard and require attention to care for in the early stages of Ark (especially once again with no cryopods to quickly secure and keep them safe and transport them) especially since resources are much less convenient but it's still extremely easy. In addition. I would also like to mention that wild babies are not only abundant and easy to kill but also drop prime. This is a seriously horrible balance decision as it makes getting prime suddenly very easy and not requiring you to hunt down huge and or very dangerous creatures to get the higher tier meat for your carnivore tames early game, especially if there is not abundant ovis. It basically makes it stupid to even attempt to gather prime the old way when you don't have the means to easily kill Paracers or Swamp dinos in mass. Why when the meat is so much easier the other way, I personally wouldn't do it cause it's horrendous but I know others have had the idea occur to them that it's been undermined as a mechanic.

Troodons are one of the most left in the dust creatures in the game as far as any useful mechanics are concerned. Not only are they a pack based creature that is very low on the food chain but they are one of the most difficult (or rather annoying) tames just based on the preparations and conditions needed tk even tame them. Unfortunately, in comparison to how much effort it takes to get them, they hardly make up for it and end up being pretty low on the roster of creatures people will think of using. Since AI is getting overhauled and more TLCs are going to be rolled out in the future for ASA I thought it would be useful to lay out some ideas for the Troodon, for whenever or if it ever gets a TLC. Because in my opinion it needs one a lot. Almost as much as the Therizino needs a role assessment and overhaul. Troodons are pack creatures and operate best when unimpeded and allowed to take advantage of their element, swarming and quick damage that can quickly weaken and overcome underprepared enemies. Because of this they are most effective at night, when they get buffed and their pack buff on top of possible mate boost makes them strongest. They should be usable without this however. Furthermore many other pack based creatures overshadow them, mainly because they are rideable or larger. This coupling with their difficult taming method makes it extremely unlikely someone will even ever tame one let alone enough to even use. New Passive Mechanic - Strength in Numbers Troodons have a pack bonus, this gives them an edge and makes them viable in the niche of small pack hunters more than you'd think, they actually have quite a bit of good attack and hp compared to most other small swarmers. But they are still squishy and lack the ability to wear a saddle, something that critically allows small pack hunters like Raptors to be ridden and even give armor to creatures like Hyenadon who cannot. Troodons also do not have a unique Mechanic or benefit to using them as most pack creatures do each. Raptors have a pounce and high speed/attack speed, Sabertooth are tankier but still good all around, direwolves have high attack at the cost of armor and health, hyenadon have saddles for armor and a pet buff, Ravagers are extremely tanky and versatile along with high weight carry, etc. Troodons lack one. Therefore let's give them their own niche. They should be the prime on-foot non ridden companions. Most dinosaurs in Ark are mostly used for riding, or are carried on the shoulder. But Troodons can't do either of these, to make this a benefit, let's bring out their greatest strength, the pack bonus. When a Player is near Troodons that are in a pack of at least 3, they will themselves gain a portion of the pack buff too, this increases things the same way the pack buff does too. Making you more durable and deadly, and capable on foot. But this buff only applies IF you are on foot. Using this a player could be able to be off their mounts while being able to use pack dinos in a way that is more engaging and not spent entirely on the back of a tall dinosaur, while nice, is not the only way to go about it. This could finally give a good reason to actually be on foot as well. If this becomes hard to balance somehow becuase of PvP reasons, this could be toggled off by default for PvP, or it could even just apply to players who are not wearing heavy or more natural/raw resource based armor..so anything that is not Cloth, Hide, Ghillie, Desert, Fur or Chitin. Omitting the high tech and high armor sets. New Passive Mechanic - Adaptive Mimicry Troodons, despite being removed as a viable dinosaur from current paleontology, still carry the persona as a super smart theropod. With this, their brains should be a mechanic that makes them extra deadly. To both the common Survivor and for those brave and cunning enough to tke them. Troodons have high intelligence, in their depictions, and if Wildcard doesn't just scrap this concept entirely, they can expand upon it by giving Troodons a learning and adaptation system that allows them to actually hunt and 'strategize' or at least adapt to the situation intelligently without the need for complicated AI. This can be possible by simply checking for specific environmental Triggers and conditions. Aka - If a Troodon senses you have multiple allied tribemembers or a large and powerful dinosaur or 2 nearby, especially a carnivore, they will be likely to stay out of reach unless they can get behind you or may even abandon the hunt altogether. Running and relocating elsewhere. This kind of system is already kind of in the game in the Hyenadon via their opportunistic aggression that is based on the overall health of creatures and numbers and strength of both parties. They will also learn when you are about to use certain weapons, and be able to sense you about to shoot them with a Ranged weapon like a bow, gun or Crossbow. This applies to Troodons that are aggroed, not ones that are far away. Same thing applies to using shields, they will attack you from behind after failing to inflict damage through a shield after a bit. They will also learn to evade shocking weapons like Prods. Because of this kind of thing, Troodons will be able to adapt to certain things the player does and learn it to do themselves. - Stealth - Troodons will mimic the crouched position of players, crouching low to the ground to slink low and out of sight, reducing detection range, during this they will not attack unless whistled to or attacked, and wearing Ghillie will also give them the same buff as the armor if the player is on foot with the Troodons. - Fetching Corpses/Bags - Whistling them onto bags or picking them up yourself will encourage Troodons to retrieve any body bags left by corpses. New Ability - Tracking and Trailing Troodons currently have a tracking Mechanic, but it is poor and very clumsy to use. I understand that Ark Ascended added a tracking system for things. But personally I find it really unfitting for Ark and kills my immersion in the experience of the game. I understand that tracking things is difficult but it's also had literally no other option available ever. Except for the very sub-par tracking GPS with transponders you have to actually deploy on Dinosaurs that can literally be destroyed by damage, there is no other way beyond sight and sound to track something down. There is no footprints or scent system or anything even remotely useable. It's not that there's options, there are none. That's why it's so frustrating. The closest we have are Parasaurs, who can let out a ping every so often. But this isn't enough, it's also a fairly basic and primitive form of detection rather than proper tracking. In order to give the Troodon a good purpose and use besides being a small pack hunter, it should be given a new tracking system to compensate for the technology and improvements but make it an option that is not as terrible and short lived as the Transponder. - Sensing nearby creatures, this ability, not being on a cooldown unlike the old version will make the Troodons react to things and make indicative vocalizations based on what is nearby. If it is negligible or harmless, they will behave quite neutrally and put little effort to do much more than pointing out the creatures location. The presence of prey animals such as passive herbivores or moderately strong but neutral creatures will cause them to act more excited. For stronger, hostile or carnivorous creatures then they will act more aggressive, while substantially dangerous things provoke an alarmed or very alert response. This mode can be toggled off all at once for the whole pack by the Radial wheel or even a whistle. (It would be very useful if a whole dino command mini set of whistles or hand gestures could be used to signal your dinos when they are following/aka paying attention to you so you can more effectively move them about and ensure they don't run off in a stupid direction because the game tripped and fell into a bowl of spaghetti for no reason. Give them a reason to add hunting or tame whistles as a tool specifically for this purpose for more advanced commands and directions for dinos.) This basic proximity detection doesn't require the immersion breaking portraits that look terrible and function badly in crowded areas. But they can also track more specific targets using some very underused items. First, if you attack a creature, the Troodons will learn its scent and be able to track it for a while even if it runs. This can help when trying to tag a skittish creature that may run and you might not have the means or desire to trap it. Then being able to find it later. To tell them to do this you need a specific whistle to tell them to track scent while having selected the packs target in their Radial wheel. This can be either an inventory based or learned scent. However this can also be done without harming creatures, or alternatively by killing them. If you give your Troodons a Trophy item of a specific species it can consume the item and teach the scent to the entire pack of Troodons around it. Adding it permanently to their repertoire of scents they can track nearby. This particular Mechanic only works with Trophies and can be built up overtime. Another tracking form though is both far wider in scope but also focused. If you give a Troodon a Taxidermy sample of a specific creature they will be able to track not only that species but that specific organism. They do not need to consume this item to do so. Using this you can keep a DNA cabinet of every creature you own, and then use it to find it later if you ever lose them. Yes i know we literally have a tribe-wide tracking system now. But I still feel like this ability has a use in being able to effectively track dinosaurs both allied and wild. New Taming Method - Cooperative Hunting Because Troodons are such complicated creatures compared to most animals on Ark, it'd only be fitting to give them a still more unique taming method that is less hair pulling. Using a similar system as thr Carchar, you should be able to gain the Troodon's interest by throwing Trophies of killed creatures onto the ground, the higher tier the more effective, they will eat them off the ground like Honey. Troodon packs are also tamed as a whole. So any wild troodons grouped together will share taming progress each time it is made. Once a packs taming progress reaches 30% they will become neutral to the player and act like Carnos that have been rallied by a Yutyrannus or a Carchar that has been fed. Following the player at a short distance and watching with interest at what they do. Once you have their curiosity piqued you can then start killing creatures in order to fill the taming progress the rest of the way. Each kill fills it more and stronger creatures give more effectiveness and progress. Eventually the pack will join in on the kills and assist at 50 or 60%, speeding up the process until the pack is tamed.

The Campfire has been the lonely resident of its tech tier for ages. Being one of the only 2 stations that cooked items, with the only other option being the Industrial Forge, Grill and Cooker for the other stations like it. Who only have one very basic and rudimentary version and then a huge jump to the industrial tier with nothing in between, but things never worked like that in real life. There were more interactions and evolutions of technology between the gap of such stages in improvement and innovation. Ark sorely needs its tiers of different technology and items to be fleshed out, the crafting stations such as the Campfire and its lineage are a prime example. We need more gap fillers for things between Thatch Beach Bob Chic and Industrial Waste Plant Warehouse style. Campfire has only one true upgrade and a few branches that themselves also only have one upgrade that leaves a huge gap where efficiency suffers and nothing is able to pick up the slack, even a little bit, and these are things that are not even very extreme that im talking about, like just adding a few extra slots to put more things in, or increase the output of processing to 2 per tick or 3. Not needing to smelt 20 bars of metal at once or cook 50 steaks with 100 slots. To start off the Campfire only has the Fireplace as its successor. Nothing else. The Torches don't count either, they're just accessories to the category of lighting. They don't cook anything either. That's not exactly something you think of when you think the upgraded processing and uses of a Campfire in terms of cooking or burning resources to turn them into other forms. For this I think we should have a large burning pit, or a proper firepit that has the functionality, not just a pile of sticks in a ring of rocks. What's more tribal dufus men surviving on a dinosaur island than a big bonfire? This would basically be just a bigger Campfire, more sturdy, bigger stones to line it, and when piled high and set ablaze it gives off a farther reaching light that could even repel insects or dinos adverse to fire more effectively too, being easier to catch things on fire if they touch it obviously since it's not just an open flame on the ground but a full blazing bonfire. It would obviously have more health, bigger radius, about that of 2x2 or 1.5x foundations in circumference. Big enough to cook large amounts of food, burn large piles of wood on etc. It wouldn't be as fast or efficient as the Grill or Industrial Forge, since it is still a more primitive tier structure, but it could hold way more in its inventory, having at the very least 10-20 slots. Cooking food in batches of 6 per tick as opposed to the 1 in Campfires and 12 in Grills, and does the same for Charcoal. Being extra efficient at burning it. In addition, it could have the benefit of more interactivity. Using fire-based weapons, tools or creature abilities (coming soon in the future with Scorched Earth and Ragnarok etc) will actually interact with the bonfire and can light or even extinguish it. Aka breathing on it with a Fire Wyevrn, or using a Phoenix on it will make it momentarily burn faster too as a result when focusing on spending your time boosting it, maybe at the cost of some singed meat or ashes left by the force of the flames, but it would still be better than just spamming Campfires or Fireplaces. You could even throw a torch or use a torch to light it too for consistency's sake. One additional mechanic could be that it gets brighter, hotter and stronger the more fuel and/or the more stronger fuel is used. Thatch would get you a decent fire, but Wood would be your best bet without powerhouse fuel like Sparkpowder, which will light with a flash and a bang of smoke, giving its own unique effect upon use, and Angler Gel which will give an eerie lighting same as when used in Torch Structures and be able to burn for the longest. But perhaps the best way to round off this new burning structure would be to allow it to take advantage of other Fire station upgrades as well. Another thing we could do is finally give the Cooking Pot an upgrade between it and the Industrial version. Being a large Cauldron that can be used to cook larger batches of things, still slower and less efficient than the Indy Cooker but better than having to settle between exclusively primitive pot on a tiny campfire or giant metal boilers. This can be placed above the Firepit and used for all the things a Cooking Pot is, but takes more room and water to use effectively. - Overview - New Structure & Station - The Firepit Load with fuel to burn a large fire that gets bigger the more fuel and/or more effective fuel is used (This would be simplified to 3 or 4 stages of brightness if needed for the sake of not going overboard for a big campfire). Cooks meat and Charcoal faster than a Campfire but slower than an Industrial Grill/Forge. (6 Meat per tick) Gives off more light (based on fuel) and farther reaching light than normal Campfires or Torches, and can keep bugs and fire-wary creatures at bay (pests and most creatures smaller than a Raptor will avoid it, like Pegos, Icthyornis, Dilos and Troodons. But anything bigger will ignore the danger enough to get close to you even if you stand close enough to catch fire from it.) Can be set on fire by Torches/Flaming Arrows/Fire Dino Abilities etc. Or extinguished as well. Using excessive flames on the bonfire will burn up its resources faster, allowing for even faster active production of Charcoal in bulk using Flamethrowers, Fire Wyverns, Phoenixes etc. Other Uses - Symbiotically works with Magmasaurs to power up their fire abilities in absence of ambient lava. - Place Wooden cages above them to burn your enemies and sacrifices in a blaze of glory to gain favor from the Ark-N-G gods. (Entirely fantastical, not an actual mechanic and purely for role-play, meme and fun.) - Put on a show with Dyes and combustible resources like Gunpowder and Sparkpowder to make smoke displays and the fire react and to even communicate long distance with others. This can be done in the inventory with a special use button for these items or by throwing them out of your inventory onto the Bonfire physically. Amounts will count and scale for effects. - Decorate? There are lots of odd bits and bobs in Ark, while the building system has been improved by a mile I think the decorating and customization parts could be improved upon still. Why not be able to put collected bones near the pit, or on it? Suspend Trophies in the midst of the flames or on pikes like the skull of an Alpha Rex or arrange spits with cooking meat or pieces from kills like fish, small creatures or misc non-bone Trophies like the Blubber, Lungs, Heart, Tentacle, etc. These could each have their own slots for different areas in the Firepit's inventory. Separate from its normal slots, for each region and such, like Border, Centerpiece and Accents (Outer ring debris, singular showcase piece on a pike in the center, and spits in the side. Size - 1.5-2 x 2 Foundations in circumference, perhaps even larger. Cost - 50-100 Stone, 1 Flint, 50 Thatch, 100 Wood. Weight - 20.0 Units Structure Tier - Wood or Stone, is mainly made of Stone with its ring but could still be destroyed by most moderately strong Dinosaurs. Engram Level - Anywhere from 20 to 30. Prerequisites - Campfire, Stone Foundation. New Structure and Station - The Cauldron Place above a large source of heat with an abundance of water to cook things in minor bulk, less efficient predecessor of the Industrual Cooker but better than a Cooking Pot. Requires more water at a time to cook but can make more than 1 Stew or recipe at a time, can be used like the Cooking Pot to make recipes with Notes. Has a capacity of 800 Water. Other Uses - Can be placed above a flaming Magmasaur, pool of oil or environmental fire/Lava to work as well. Or heated by Fire Wyvern Breath. Does not work with Campfires unless you have 3 or more. - If a Survivor or dinosaur small enough to sits inside the Cauldron full of water they can wash Paint off their body. - Boil your friends, have a hot tub meeting. It's only as hot as the fire. Size - 1 whole foundation and wall unit in size. Model comes in 2 variants, one normal and one sat atop 2 medium sized stones for support and can be snapped to the Firepit. Cost - 200 Stone, 25 Cementing Paste, 20 Wood. Weight - 50.0 Units Structure Tier - Stone Engram Level - Same as Firepit. Prerequisites - Campfire, Cooking Pot, Stone Wall.

Regardless of this I have a feeling people will have no trouble adapting their creatures to real life references with the creature tailored to the theme they want anyway. I expect to see some Volcanic, Arctic and Space-Themed Ocean creatures out there in the Gen 1 vote among other things. There's not much stopping the from just making a space Lobster or Octopus of some kind. This map has a lot of primary themes as opposed to just 1 major one running through the map like most do or a uniform feel, this map is 5 entirely different and not just physically detached but thematically polarizing biomes. This one might end up being a bloodbath, but good news is almost anything can pass. I'd just suggest saving the ocean creatures for another map or going space whale on it. Make that thing glitter and wear an astronaut helmet if you have to.

I had the tradition of naming Gigas after villains and my first 3 were named Maleficent and Arthas, their son named Ragnaros. Yes I played WoW. Everytime I get my first low level Griffin I name it Hermes, then I use it to tame a better one and name that one Hercules. I still use the lower level one because most of its points go into weight and Stam. The first Parasaurs I tame usually end up being named Perri and/or Perry. My favorite Raptor ever was named Body Dragger. Every Tek Dino I name has to be named after a Transformer, the Raptors are usually Bumblebee, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Arcee, Hound, Mirage, etc. The Rexes are usually Megatron. It pains me deeply that we don't have a Tek Pteranodon we can name Starscream or his trine companions. Quetzals just do not have the same energy. Maybe Astrotrain. The Speed specc'd Argy I used to have before thr flier speed got nerfed out was Leeroy. Any name for a Pego because nobody tames pegos intentionally. Until you watch that video where the guy used a horde of penguins to kill things in the ocean. Then suddenly you have an army of the most unlikely ready to vaporize the local fauna.