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Welcome back marine biology superfans! After a short break it's time to get back in the two week swing, it's Sunken Scoop time! Time to build up an even bigger ongoing streak of fortnightly releases. 18 weeks straight was a massive undertaking, and after posting one while I was still on holidays I think I deserved a breather :p. My ramblings out of the way though, what's coming in this edition? 3 weeks ago we revealed the Wyrms in all their draconic glory, and in that time Kami has been hard at work giving them their animations! In addition, we've finally got custom made art for all of the creatures on our roster! The arctic giant Tylosaurus gets a fresh coat of paint, Drepanaspis gets its portrait done and the Sea Urchin stood still long enough for us to get its picture taken! If this is your first time diving into the deep end, we are a dedicated team of individuals who are looking to spruce up the ocean biome in the same way that Scorched Earth offered a unique, biome specific challenge to survival. New creatures, resources, structures, items and more, all set on a huge custom map, we're looking to give ARK's oceans the TLC they deserve! The main goal is to bridge that huge gap between early and late game ocean exploration, and make it much more viable and more fun to live a life beneath the waves! This is unofficial content and is only related to our mod. It is in no way related with the official game and its content releases. Let's dive into the scoop! DOING THE WYRM We make no promises on them doing the actual dance, but our sea serpents certainly have some moves! Scorching Kami has been up to her usual animating wizardry and now we can proudly present how these giants will be moving about in game thanks to all her hard work! Here's a selection of animations to give you a taste of what seeing these monstrosities in action will be like! Idle These draconic creatures will be a trophy that you can't help but show off! Even when resting their serpentine forms are a thing to behold! Just make sure to give these fellows enough space in your undersea cities! Movement A sprinting wyrm is just as beautiful as it is terrifying! This sight might be the last thing a survivor exploring the waves will see, especially if you've just stolen one of their eggs! And if you're riding one, I hope you don't get too seasick! Did we mention these guys can go on land? No? Well, these serpents can certainly slither across the sands! Something we really should've mentioned last scoop is that our draconic mascots are very much semi-aquatic! However, much like how a Wyvern is much more suited to the air, the Wyrms are much more comfortable feeling the waves between their fins... but they'll still be a deadly adversary to face on the shores of the Sunken World! Super Attack! When we said super finishing moves, we meant it! With the grace of a ribbon dancer and the power of a dragon, a Wyrm's full on assault is surely a spectacle to behold! For as long as you command, your serpentine steed will unleash fury on your enemies! However, such raw power come with a cost. The sheer force behind the Wyrm's attacks will harm allies just as much as enemies, and your giant pet noodle will start to tire very quickly while it's giving its all in combat! Use this power wisely, and make sure your friends are well out of the way! Wyrms sure do get frustrated when they can't demonstrate the full might of their fury! While devastating in the water, on land these giant sea serpents just can't seem to get their spin going! While we're mostly Sunken at heart, we still want people to be able to use these creatures outside of the water, but have to make sure we're not making a super-tame with very few counters (looking at you Shadowmane). To keep the Wyrms balanced, you aren't able to use your beast's super attack when on land, but once you bring them back into their element they'll be ready to show off what they can really do! Cuddle After a long day of showing the ocean who's boss, even a giant serpent needs some pampering! Pictured above is your loveable long-boy's cuddle/level up animation! Whether you've just gone out on a successful hunt or are raising the next generation of sea dragons, you can't deny that they look like some happy little spaghetti noodles! TYLOSAURUS ART REWORK It's been over 3 years since I last drew Tylosaurus, and it's about time our Arctic mosasaur gets a fresh coat of paint! Proudly presenting the new and improved blubbery boy, courtesy of ZCI! This enormous reptile may just look like a fatter Mosasaurus, but don't be fooled! A life in the frigid ocean has given it a unique ability... it can freeze the surrounding seawater into a protective coat of icy armour! In the wild, you'll commonly see these giants smashing through ice floes to quickly armour up, but when tamed a conventional saddle can interrupt the formation of their sub-zero protection. Luckily, for a bit of a heavier resource cost, you can equip your Tylosaurus with a mean suit of plate mail that allows the ice to give your companion some major bonuses to its defences! Just remember to bring some ice chunks with you if you take them to hotter climates, it's hard to make ice when the water is hot! NEW CONCEPT ART Drepanaspis Now that's one spicy pancake! Drepanaspis has gotten a long overdue splash of colour, courtesy of RexMyPet. These flat-faced fish inhabit the hottest climates deep below the waves, and more than just their personality is fiery! A tamed Drepanaspis functions like a minature geothermal generator, charging any batteries placed into its inventory! In addition, if you want to make an unconventional army, these fish run so hot that they deal some burning-hot recoil damage to most attackers! Sea Urchin We won't be mad if this is the only creature on The Sunken World that you didn't want to pet! The humble Sea Urchin also got its portrait done over the past few weeks! As we've mentioned before, these bottom dwellers are much more sought out than one would imagine. Their spines offer a very unappetising defence, but are also highly valuable to humans as a source of organic Spear Bolts! Load up your harpoons with the much more readily available spines of a Sea Urchin, and ditch that weirdly complicated and annoying crafting recipe! Thanks go to RexMyPet for this art piece! COMMUNITY CORNER We haven't received any submissions for the community corner this week, but we're certainly keeping an eye out for anything you want to send us! In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to us yourself! Send us anything from screenshots, artwork, videos and the so on, and we can feature your work in the next scoop! The submissions channel in our discord is always open, or you can tag us @ARKSunken with #sunkenscoop on Twitter! That's all for this issue of the Sunken Scoop, thanks for tuning in! We hope you loved seeing the Wyrms in action, alongside the project finally having that fully custom art roster (just don't mention the sunken variant channel)! Come to our discord to share in the excitement for the upcoming draconic beasts, or just to hang out! Have a wonderful timezone! If this is your first time seeing TSW, check out the links below to find out more! Please note that if you want to play our mod, you need both the map and creature mod active. Discord: https://discord.gg/BAkvgc7 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArkSunken Map Mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2182740759 Creature Mod:https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2182770728

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

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

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