Changes/Buffs for Species Uniqueness!

[[KR-X] Tarbtano]

This is just a series of ideas I had on how to make each of the tamable species unique in some way. Its not really me complaining about how things are now, just a thought at diversifying. As it stands right now, most end game players only use about a fourth of the total species avalible due to that 1/4th being straight upgrades compared to what the others are. Now I know there is such a thing as 'End-Game Species'. And yes, those species should be harder to get and having very special roles. This isn't an attempt to make ALL species end-game, just have practical uses in said end-game, as well as make the realm of ARK's greatest asset (its animals) all that more diverse and interesting.


Now I'm not saying ALL of these should be implemented, these are just seperate ideas I had.



Dilophosaurus
+Slight buff to run speed. Theropods are pretty nimble on their feed and I feel like even tamed, speed spec'd dilos are outrun too easily on foot

*Spit now blinds players riding on dinosaurs if ridden dinosaur is hit.
-This helps the dilo function better in its dossier role as a guard dog. A pack of dilos spitting blinding spit at a player riding a Rex into a base can open up a window of oppritunity for defenders

*Envenomate Bite
-The dilo's venom leaks in with every bite it takes, draining stamina and slowing speed, possibly even with a minor damage over time. Again, helps function as a guard and hunting dog and gives you a reason not to let them in close.

*Let Fido In
-Simple, Dilophosaurs can walk in and out of open doors. They are small enough to convincingly fit through them. This helps you set them up as guard dogs both in and outside your base and allow them to chase intruders through the rooms.

*Unique attack setting "Volley"
-Dilo stays at range and spits poison rather than closing in for melee, it'll only melee if melee'd. This helps them in the 1st category as well as acting as hunting dogs for faster moving prey. To keep it from turning into a machine gun, spit drains stamina so it has to rest beween shots. Only way you'll get your bio-chaingun is by dumping all points into stamina and feeding it stimulant constantly.

*Canine Unit Armor
-A flak jacket similar to armor given to hunting or police dogs to give Dilly some protection. Can be the human chest armor with a slightly different model and thus comes in varying strengths.


REALLY Off Idea?
*Alpha/Uber Dilo
-A bigger, stronger, faster version of the dilophosaurus (about the size of an IRL dilo so slightly smaller than the Utahraptor). Unlike other Dilos, it can't damage stone, but can be tamed and ridden. Primary fire is melee attack, right click is venom shot. Unlike other Dilos, its too big to fit inside though and the venom drains much more stamina. Its stats aren't enormous, just about on par with a strong raptor with the trade off of slower movespeed and lack of jump. They can however be used for ranged attack and be used as living mortars.
-Alternately, instead of Alpha Dilos being wild they could be a subject of captive breeding; akin to breeding special dog breeds. Could help carry along the breeding implement. Soon as you have a Dilo with X amount in its stats, it hatches as an Uber



Parasaur
+Slight buff to stamina or running speed to half cement its 'travel ATV' status
*Dossier Snorkel now in use
-The Parasaur and its rider can now stay just below the water's surface and be undetected. This can be done by increasing the 'breathing' box on the model. Alternatively, just give it a big boost to O2 and lowered stamina drain while swimming.

*Sings a romantic melody, play them off Berry White!
-Parasaurs likely used their crest to make mating call melodies. Having a unique emote or right click, a trumpeting Parasaur can increase the mating rate for dinosaur couples for a short time. Balance is cool down, both on Para and listeners, as well as limited range.

EDIT: *Sings a tune of inspiration!
-The Parasaur when set to 'Attack my Targets' instead sings an inspiration tune that buffs nearby allies with a slight stamina, damage, or armor increase for a brief period of time (20 seconds with a 2 minute cool down). Paras can be set to do this automatically before charging in with the same animation they have in-game now when being attacked.



Triceratops
+Boost the size. IRL Triceratops was about the same size and bulk of a large african elephant. So perhaps a swap around could be in order, switching the Triceratops' and Stegosaurus' size and saddle levels around.

*Facial Shield
-All damage directed at the triceratop's head, horns, and frill is reduced due to body armor. Nothing huge, but something on the level of -20% damage

*Spiked frill
-Melee damage directed at the trike's head reflects back to a degree. Gives good reason to aim for the back and flanks like the dossier says

*CHAAAARGE!/Horn Toss
-Similar to the Elk's and Pachey's upcoming ability, the Triceratops lowers its head and rushes in a straight line. Larger targets at gored and take bleeding damage as well as a bite of stamina, and smaller targets (we'll say sabretooth and smaller) are hurled up and back. However once charging you can't change direction, it costs a lot of stamina, and requires a wind up distance
-Alternatively, instead of charging the Trike rears up, lunges down to wind up and swings its head up, hurling an enemy into the air. How high scales with both species and weight. With high melee this could make fighting off smaller opponents easier by hurling them into hazards or potentially high enough to take fall damage.

*War Horse Armor
-The dossier compares the trike to a war horse, so let's do so and give it a suit of armor. In exchange for increased weight and gather ability, the Triceratops gets a new saddle with leather and plate armor that dramatically increases its durability.



Utahraptor
*Got claws, will climb
-Dromeosaurids' big toe claws were likely climbing instruments repurposed for combat. Its quite possible even the larger species could still scale trees (large bears do this all the time with less equipment). Thus, the Utahraptor has the ability to scale thatch, wooden, and stone walls, granted its not a gate and there isn't any overhang. Could add a new element to PVP where your roof and walls might not be as safe as you'd think if they aren't metal.

*Pounce Strike
-Simple. If you jump at something and land an attack at the right time, similarly sized or smaller prey are pinned down and mauled for a large chunk of damage. This can work by either halting the prey or just momentarily slowing them while the raptor gets'a' rippin. It's thought that Dromeosaurids in combat primarily used their big toe claws for pinning down and ripping prey open, much like birds of prey do.



Stegosaurus
+Slight buff to movespeed and turning radius, stegosaurus had a very flexible spine believe it or not
*Thermal plates
-The stegos plates radiate heat, meaning its rider is protected from some cold while riding it. Unlike the dimetrodon though, it ONLY affect a very small area around the stego, just enough for the rider. And unlike the dimetro, the stego is likely way to big to walk into a base.

*Thatch Gather buff
-What the mammoth is to wood, the stego can be to thatch, given its effectively got two rows of pickaxes on its tail

*Two Seater
-While not nearly as fast as the kangaroo, the stegosaurus can fit a second seat between the plates. Both to tie in with the previous idea of thermal protection as well as give you a sheltered gunner protected from return fire amoungst the plates.



Philomia
*Truffle Hog
-Using its long tusks to dig and powerful nose to sniff, the Philomia can dig for rare mushrooms and flowers amongst berry bushes with a much higher chance at finding them than larger herbivores. They can be set to do this automatically if set to wander

*Cattle
-Philomia got through a much more rapid pregnancy and maturation than other mammals, making the dossier statement about them being cattle for slaughter easier



Carnotaurus
*Horn slicer
-Slight modification to the alt fire attack it has. The carnotaurus gouges its prey with its horns, hamstringing them. It does less outright damage but drains stamina and slows movement for a duration. Balance is this can only be done ever so often, takes a good chunk of stamina, must hit a dinosaur on the leg, and has a cooldown.

*Speed Boost
-Carnotaurus was likely the speedster of the large carnivores IRL, so why not express that by giving it a bit of extra umph in movement? As it stands now a Tyrannosaur can actually outrun one. How about a good increase in speed, but like real life, it has trouble turning while sprinting. Additionally, it could have momentum sprinting; taking a moment to wind up (but when it does it can cover a LOT of ground)



Tyrannosaurus
/Slight health nerf so 50k HP Tyrannosaurs are a lot harder to make. Let's let the Tyrannosaurus function as a destroyer and let the tanks be tanks
*Lord's Roar
-It's got a roar, let's use it! A Tyrannosaurus roaring both makes the enemy tremble in fear and inspires allies to fight harder. Roaring gives a brief (20 sec with long cool down?) damage and armor buff to its allies (but maybe not self) within a range. The roar is also so loud it rattles both the user and enemy's screens momentarily, obscuring their vision. This gives a Tyranno a biger role in team seiging as it can also support its allies by taking a moment to stop attacking directly. Only dinosaurs not effected are other Tyrannosaurs, Spinosaurus, and Brontosaurus.
-Also the Rex can walk slowly while roaring. Not nearly fast enough to sprint, but enough to move around a bit.

*Bro do you even lift?
-Buff the corpse carry the Tyranno has so it can carry corpses at faster than a snail's pace.



Spinosaurus
/Again, slight health nerf but not nearly as much as the Tyranno.
*Paw swipe
-Right click attack. The Spinosaurus lashes out with its claws, dealing less damage but swinging in a wide area of effect and dealing large amounts of knockback to targets Trike-size or smaller. Smaller the target, further they go flying. Helps both deal with hordes as well as hit those pesky players circling you.



Sabretooth
/Remove pain noises, a cat does not squak like a bird!
/Speed reduction to a degree, either to speed directly or stamina. Large felines aren't long distance runners, they're sprinters; sabretooths especially.
*Can I haz jugular?
-Right clicking with does an alternate attack where the cat winds up and swings down with its sabre teeth. If it hits the animal in the throat, head, or close area and the sabre isn't interupted, it deals massive damage. This helps shift the sabretooth from a full on brawler to an assasin that sneaks up on foes to attack, just like IRL big cats

*Sneaky Time
-The sabretooth can now crouch, greatly reducing all noise it makes. This both makes it very hard to hear coming for players as well a reducing the aggro radius of wild animals, at the cost of speed. Helps set up above mentioned attack.



Brontosaurus
*I came in like a wrecking baaall!
-A craftable flail for the Bronto's already strong tail, coming in stone and metal varietys. Helps turn the walking battleship into a seige weapon as the flail can do decent damage to structures (obliterates thatch, high to wood, decent to stone, minor to metal and latter only if it has the metal flail), as well as increasing attack damage. Scales directly with attack damage and flails have a durability that is lost over its usage, as well as expensive to make. Perk is they can be repaired like armor for lower cost than making a new one.
^
*EDIT*: A balance idea could be that the flail comes with a new saddle, rather than being a seperate attachment, giving the Bronto 4 saddles with different uses.
-Stock saddle: Cheapest and for gathering
-Platform saddle: for building
-Stone flail saddle: Seiging and raw damage, trade off is loss resource collection and increased weight
-Metal flail saddle: ^ above mentioned



Ankylosaurus and Doedicurus
+Slight buff to Ankylosaurus health scaling and size to help it gain its role as a super-tank. In-game Ankylo is a good deal smaller than the IRL one in a game that loves exhaggerating sizes (dilo withstanding)
*Wrecking Crew
-Ankylo and Deod's melee can damage structures much more than it does now, chewing through wood and being the only animals other than the above mentioned bronto that can chip away at stone. Unlike the Bronto, they can do this without an attachment. However only a very high melee Ankylo can do any real damage to metal, and even then its just scratch damage. Still, does help for polishing off that last 100 HP leftover on that wall or door after C4.


Carbonemys
*A shell of a time!
-By right clicking, the turtle and its rider withdraw into its shell. The turtle can't move now, but takes drastically reduced melee damage while upping heal regen slightly. However it cannot take turret aggro in this form, so no chewing up bullets



Mammoth
*Trumpeting (Because why not?)
-Right click makes the mammoth loudly trumpet. While mostly cosmetic as the mammoth already has unique functions, it carries for a long distance and can be used to signal people.



Dodos
*Breed like rabbits!
-Exactly what it says in the dossier. Dodo's egg laying frequency, breeding speed, and maturing rate are all drastically increased. A decent sized dodo farm along with some philos can make a tribe nearly self sufficient so long as they have berries.


Pachycephalosaurus
*Raming speed!
-Just a buff to the Pachy's torpor, both induced by melee and raming to make it more practical.

EDIT:* Jousting! (thanks Aww Yiss Rayger)
-A metallic saddle for the pachy that comes with a medieval lance on the side. In addition to offering more armor (30-35?), it alters the charge attack. Instead of inducing torpor, it now deals heavy piecing damage that can punch through armor. As a trade off, travel speed is slower and it costs more stamina. Additionally, the lance weighs more and has a durability cost.


Sarcosuchus
+Alteration to swimming to allow for more vertical travel and a tighter turning radius
*Sacro Used Thrash!
-Alt fire causes the Sarco to thrash and swing its tail instead of biting. It does less damage than the bite, but hits in a wide arc; able to hit targets both to the side, above it, and behind it.

*Death Roll (partial credit to Irondune)
-The iconic attack of all crocodilians. A high stamia costing Alt fire/crouch charged attack that can work on similarly sized animals and smaller. The sarco chomps down on the target and rolls to shred its prey. This deal high damage and immobilizes prey momentarily.


Anglerfish
*Harmless harvest
-A tamed anglerfish passively accumulates angler gel when left on passive. This allows you to 'milk' it perodically for resources without hurting the fish. Obviously you'll get less than if you kill a wild one, but it would be a nice resource to have


Direwolf
*Strength in Numbers
-Give the dire the same ability as the compy, with a boost to damage scaling with nearby allied wolves.


Giganotosaurus
*Hulk SMASH
-Drastically increase the rage build up for a tame Giganotosaurus, because as it stands you'll never cause it to go berserk unless your fighting a boss or take a big fall. I've seen videos of 4 rexes and 2 spinos chewing on a riden Giga and it didn't flip out. Let's give this species' unique feature some actual appearance. And a savvy rider can even use this to their advantage, by sending their Giga in to attack when it's near its anger point, and sicking their rage boosted Godzilla on the enemy team while they are a safe distance away.

[Nestmind]

I was sceptic, but all of this are actually excellent idea
Devs, look this guy and listen to him

[slimey_frog]

+1

Utah raptor really got me exicted, would love to see my pack of ~22 raptors scale the enemies wall and watch em all ♥♥♥♥ themselves :P

[Zoraste]

Yeah this is great. Pretty much all of these will help give earlier dinos way more flavor and utility. +1

[ThreeLineRifle]

Love it but sabres dont sound like birds but worse

[Shion]

Whoa, all this would make the game far more interesting. Kudos for comming up with all this stuff, especially for the dilos. They're a joke once you're on a mount. This would help change that.

Edit: Make sure to post this in suggestions and ideas.

[Zoobo]

Pretty good, but I have a few thoughts on each:

Dilophosaurus:
I like this so far, could make them useful to keep up on watchtowers for spitting.

Parasaur:
The snorkel idea you had would be hard to get right with the depth, I would think that instead, its oxygen would be buffed along with (possibly) swim speed. The melody could simply be right click but it would likely need some sort of cooldown before it could affect a dinosaur again.

Triceratops:
The trike (last time I checked) already takes reduced damage in the head but I agree should be more prominent. I like the spike frill. The charge would be too similar to the Pachy though, perhaps it could have an alt attack that sends enemies up rather than away from them, perhaps to the point of fall damage.

Utahraptor:
Climbing sounds like a decent idea but that should be reserved for the spiders which I believe will be tame able in the future. The pounce, instead of pinning them down, instead does more damage since the dossier states that that is how they are supposed to attack

Stegosaurus:
The thermal regulation already belongs to the future Dimetrodon and the thatch is already part of the Therizinosaurus abilities so... But the two seat idea could be interesting...

Phiomia:
I like it would actually give a use to them other than literally poop factories.

Carnotaurus:
The horn attack could be rather OP considering it is already decently fast, prevents any form of escape and is an instant kill. However, the speed boost is justified.

Tyrannosaurus:
I agree with the health reduction but only by a little. Instead the Domi roar could work to slow the enemy if it is small enough as you had but be able to be held down to be continuous without any form of buff.

Spinosaurus:
Do not nerf the health as they are already squishy compared to the Domi. I could see that instead of the paw swipe, a roar where it rears on its hind legs to buff allies slightly but cannot be used in conjunction with the Domi roar.

Sabertooth:
I like it, it is fine.

Brontosaurus:
They devs are going to add actual siege weapons which you will likely be able to put on the platform saddle of the Bronto so...

Ankylo and Doedi:
This is fine.

Carbonemys:
This is a common suggestion that might be added. The health regen is an interesting idea but should only be applied to the rider who doesn't take damage...

Mammoth:
This would be cool!

Dodos:
They already lay eggs like crazy so why not have them mature and breed faster?

Pachycephalosaurus:
They have already buffed the torpor, it is just meant to be a low level mount that is useful for taming other low level mounts.

To reiterate, your ideas are amazing and would be awesome! These are just my thoughts and opinions on them.

[Flame1280]

+1 really great ideas in here, well done.

[Klingenmeister]

+1

[[KR-X] Tarbtano]

editted and added some new ones

[Hazmat]

I like your ideas dude but the snorkel ability should belong to the mammoth

[[KR-X] Tarbtano]

Originally posted by Hazmat:

I like your ideas dude but the snorkel ability should belong to the mammoth

Easily could too. I just gave it to the para first due to the dossier directly stating it as well as the mammoth already having some unique assets (reason I'm not suggesting anything for the pteranodon or argentavis here)

[Hazmat]

Originally posted by The Red Baron:

Originally posted by Hazmat:

I like your ideas dude but the snorkel ability should belong to the mammoth

Easily could too. I just gave it to the para first due to the dossier directly stating it as well as the mammoth already having some unique assets (reason I'm just suggesting anything for the pteranodon or argentavis here)

Furry muff... It would be great to see some use for some of the lower tier dinos, when I first started I got attacked by a carno and ended up skipping past most of the early dinos.... still havnt used them to this day

[h-Skittles]

i love the idea of armour attchments i love these ideas and thye inspire me to think of loads i love the cttle idea i think the phimoa migth even be able to give ,ilk to their smaller ones meainging less attention needed and thye form herds amd everything an dfro maxmum breeding the hole herd must be on wander th devs could really do something with this i also love your dilo idea i have loads of dilos 26 to be exact acid being my strongest and the rest are all in order of th fenetic alphabet

[[KR-X] Tarbtano]

Glad you guys like some of my ideas! Some of them I admit are VERY off the wall.

[Crab Spoup]

Dude, this is massively awesome!!! Though mostly geared towards pvp (i play singleplayer..) All of these ideas are really ingenious, and would definitely make more of the dinosaurs enjoyable and applicable to use! Heck i would surely use a dilo even if it just got the speed buff and could keep up with me, but I love the other ideas too~ especially the dilo armor.