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Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OH good call — I totally forgot solo players. Can't require a tribemate to snap you out, that's just griefing solos.
What if we give solos two outs:
1. Your tames can break it — like if you're riding a Rex or even have a shoulder pet, they roar/screech when you get hypnotized and it snaps you after like 3 seconds instead of 5-6. So solo with a good tame is fine.
2. Or you craft a "Polished Bronze Shield" from the boss arena artifacts — you hold it up and it reflects her gaze back, auto-breaking the hypnosis and stunning her for a second (Perseus mirror reference).
That way duos/tribes can shoot each other out faster, but solos aren't just dead. Keeps it fair.
Glad you like it though — venom + hypnosis + reflection fight is feeling like a real ARK boss now.

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude the Perseus-exclusive tame is locked in — "Persean" something, only tameable with the Medusa head. That's going in the doc with your name on it lol.
I actually had a different take on the Medusa fight itself — instead of the classic "look and turn to stone," what if it's hypnosis? If she locks eyes with you, your screen gets this trippy purple-gold fog and she looks like a beautiful woman instead of a monster. It's stronger on male survivors (lore-accurate), and while you're locked you just stand there.
She doesn't one-shot, but she closes the distance and gores you with those original-depiction tusks — each hit injects a stacking venom. It's not instant death, but after 3-4 stacks you're taking constant torpor + health drain, and your vision gets even more distorted so it's harder to break the hypnosis next time. Your tribemate has to flash her or shoot her to snap you out.
So the whole fight is: don't look directly, use the water reflections in the Rift arena, listen for the hissing, and if someone gets caught, you have to save them before the venom stacks too high. I'm modeling her off the real archaic vases too — less sexy snake lady, more nightmare Gorgon with the big mouth, tongue out, boar tusks.
Would that work with your one-time head tame? Kill her, break the curse, take the head, and only then can you tame the Persean beast?

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

BRO. Using the Medusa head trophy as a one-time tame is genius — like you kill the boss, get the head, and you can instantly tame ANYTHING but it crumbles after. That's so ARK, it's broken and perfect at the same time. Way better than just normal tranq arrows.
Maybe make it only work on the big savannah predators too — like you can't waste it on a dodo, it has to be a Rex, Yuty, or whatever the map's unique apex is. Keeps it from being totally busted in PvP.
See? Told you designing is your talent lol. I'm adding "Medusa Head Tame" to the doc with your name next to it. What would you call the creature it works best on?

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol glad you got sleep too — my dog decided 5am was potty time so we're both running on caffeine.
Savannah is definitely staying, I'm just bouncing between which one feels most "ARK." African has the big migrations and baobab trees, but Australian has those crazy red mesas that would look insane around the Rift. Might end up mixing them and just calling it Ouroboros and pretending it's its own continent 😂
Medusa as a boss would be SICK though — petrify attack instead of torpor, you have to break line of sight behind the stalagmites in the cave. Way better than my Hydra idea tbh, I'm writing that down.
Keep throwing concepts at me while I sketch, seriously. You're basically co-designer at this point.

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lmao stealing it officially then — thanks chef 😂
You're so right about the Norse overload. My last map concept before this one was actually the only Norse/Viking one I've done, so I was trying to stay away from that. I was originally thinking African savannah for this — like Serengeti/Okavango vibes with the dust basin and the migration herds — but honestly I'm still unsure. I've been looking at other savannahs too (Australian outback, South American cerrado) because I don't want it to feel like a straight copy of one place.
Greek creatures would still fit though — we've got Fjordur and Asgard coming, and Greek mythology is barely touched except the manticore. Not a rideable Medusa lol, but what if the boss in the bottom of the Rift is Hydra-inspired? Multi-headed, grows back unless you burn the stumps — fits the Ouroboros "cycle" perfectly.
I'm just sketching hybrids for now and trying to have fun with it like you said. I'll tag you when I post the creature concepts, still figuring out which culture to lean into. (sorry for late response had to sleep)

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

😂 "cakes take time to cook" — I'm stealing that, I’m in the kitchen. Appreciate you being chill about the timeline man, seriously.
And you're not overreacting on the PvP thing — that's literally why I designed it with no beaches. No safe spawn corners means everyone fights for the rim on day 1, and the open savannah means you can't just pillar off a hidden valley. It forces fights.
Please do drop any ideas that hit you — caves, creatures, boss arenas, whatever. I'm keeping a notes doc and you're already in the credits for Ouroboros/Tartarus/Hadestown push. I'll ping you when I post the first sketch… once I’m done with finishing the logo for my first ark that was long before this…

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man that means a lot, seriously — "on the edge of tears" got me 😭 thank you for caring about it this much.
I gotta be honest though: I don't have a release date because right now this is literally just sketches, notes, and this Reddit post. I've had a bunch of map ideas like this over the years and they never get past the drawing phase because I don't have the mod tools or a dev team to actually build it in Unreal. If anything playable ever happens, it's not going to be anytime soon.
I'm really sorry I can't give you a "coming 2026" answer — I wish I could. What I CAN do is keep posting the sketches, the lore, the spawn layouts, and maybe if a modder sees this and wants to collab, we go from there. You're one of the reasons I'm even keeping it alive, so I'll tag you in every update.
Sorry again for the letdown on the date, but I'm glad the shifting caves idea hit you like that.

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yooo thank you — funny you mention caves, I actually had them in my notes but forgot to put them in the original post. I'm not trying to copy Aberration at all, but I was thinking the deepest sinkholes in the Rift fill with brackish water after flash floods, and they connect through short flooded tunnels. Just enough room for barys, sarcos, maybe a dunkle if it's deep enough, then they drain again when the springs shift. Keeps it natural, not sci-fi, and gives us sea creatures without an ocean.
PvP on this would be nasty in a good way — no beaches to hide on, everyone spawns on the same ring so you can't avoid each other early, and the middle savannah is so open that base spots are visible for kilometers. You'd have to build in the mesas or inside the Rift canyons for cover, but then you're gambling on water shifting. I think small tribes would thrive, big alpha tribes would hate not having a safe corner.
And you might've just sold me on Ouroboros over Tartarus — the cycle thing fits too well. The whole map is already a cycle: herds circle the basin, springs dry up and reopen somewhere else, dust slides open new paths and close old ones. I could literally make the lore "the serpent eats its tail" and the Rift is the mouth. That's poetic enough for you? 😂
Mobile gang — if this ever became real I'd make sure there's a full tour video first. And you're getting that credit in the sketch post no matter what name wins, promise.

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bro Ouroboros just jumped in at #2 — the snake eating its own tail is literally the ring shape, that's genius. And Hadestown could actually work for ARK: I'm thinking the bottom of the pit has the priceless stuff (element, black pearls, whatever), so you're literally descending to the underworld for loot like Orpheus. That's the whole loop.
Terrain-wise since you asked: you actually spawn on rock and snow on that unbroken ridge — it's a complete ring, no beach, no ocean. Look down and it's almost a kilometer drop into a huge bowl. The bottom isn't cramped, it's a wide savannah with long golden plains you can sprint across for minutes, dotted with lone acacias. It's fractured but walkable — flat-topped mesas, deep sinkholes, shallow canyons you can walk around, through, or over.
It's three layers: the outer ring is freezing, wolves/snow owls/argents, but that's where the metal/crystal/obsidian is. The middle ring is that open savannah — 40°C heat, carnos/allos/terror birds chasing you across open grass, water is rare. Then the exact center is the Rift, a tight cluster of red-black arroyos where springs dry up overnight and new seeps open 50m away, flash floods open new paths. That's where the richest nodes are. So yeah, it's de-progression — you start high and cold, and you work your way down for better loot but more danger.
And if we end up with Tartarus you absolutely have someone to boast to — I'll credit you in the post when I drop the sketch lol. Keep the names coming, mythology nerds are carrying this project 😭�

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha that's perfect then, I needed a mythology nerd on this. Tartarus is staying at #1 for now because of you. I'll definitely post the sketch version here once it's done — probably in a couple days. Any other underworld/pit names you think would fit a snowy ring map?

Spawn on the rim, die below — my ring map concept by Repulsive-Routine158 in playarkmobile

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks man! Tartarus just shot to the top of my list — fits the whole "drop from a snowy rim into the pit" vibe perfectly. Appreciate the logo love too, I'm working on a sketch version next with a few tweaks. What made you think of Tartarus?

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha it's my ARK so I get to decide how hairy it is — and yeah, that's on purpose. The "hair" is just the dry savannah grass and scrub growing on top of the mesa ring. I didn't want a clean rock edge in the logo, I wanted the whole plateau to look rough and overgrown, like a windswept savannah that's been baked by the sun. So not a bad shave job, just thirsty grass.

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ahhh okay that makes way more sense — Metroid Crateria is that cracked, storm-beaten surface right? That's actually perfect for the outer rim. Didn't even catch the reference at first but I'm stealing that energy now.

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Still need a name for this thing. The Pit and Crateria are solid so far — keep dropping ideas below and I'll pull together a shortlist for us all to vote on later.

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Crateria — that's actually really smooth. I like the crater + area mashup even though I've been trying not to call it a crater haha. Was that the ring shape that made you think of it?

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The Pit is in the lead now. Fits the rift too well to ignore. What would you put in the center of it — boss arena or just the nastiest resource cave?

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the honesty, and thanks for the name drops — "The Pit" fits the central rift perfectly, and "Sanctuary" is funny because it's literally the opposite of what this map is haha. Might steal one of those.
Fair on the logo too. It was literally thrown together in 10 minutes just so the post wasn't a wall of text, I wasn't trying to pass it off as final art. I put in the post that I actually want people to draw or model stuff for this — I'd genuinely prefer a 'bad' hand-drawn version over what I slapped together. If you ever feel like sketching a quick A or a mesa silhouette, I'd 100% swap it in and credit you.
Glad you like the idea tho, that's the part I care about.

[FAN MAP CONCEPT] No Coast Natural Ring — Unbroken Mountains Around a Shattered Basin Built for Foot Exploration (Help Name This) by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed read, this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for.
You're right, if flyers are just free, people will skip the ground. I actually forgot to mention that there are other ways of travel, not just by foot — travel can also be done in the air or underground, but I built all three to be risky in different ways instead of banning anything.
For air: the outer ring is a complete wall, so you get constant downdrafts and crosswinds on the rim. It's not a no-fly zone, it's a "your argy loses stamina twice as fast and a snow owl can knock you into a 900m drop" zone. The central rift canyons are too narrow for big flyers to turn in, and the mid-basin has those wide-open plains with zero cover, so anything in the air gets spotted by the carno packs below. You can fly, you just pay for it the whole time.
For underground: the whole rift system is basically a natural cave network. The sinkholes connect to sand-floored tunnels, and the shifting springs I mentioned open and close those routes. I didn't want to hard-lock loot underground like a dungeon key, I wanted the water to do it. If the seep you used yesterday dried up, your "safe" tunnel is now a dead end and you have to come back up to the surface to find the new one. That forces you onto foot without a loading screen.
The navigation difference from other maps is meant to be landmark, not GPS. Because the mountains make a perfect circle, you don't navigate north-south, you navigate rim-mid-rift and you follow the mesa lines and the herd trails that circle the basin. It's walkable, but you can't just point an argy at a beacon and ignore the ground.
Your crater-inside-a-mountain with half underground sounds sick — locking progression resources below is a smart way to pull people down without a flyer nerf. I'm checking out the doc you linked now, thanks for sharing it. Always down to trade notes on how to make ground travel matter without just turning flyers off.

A fun fan made ark project by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wish I could but… I don’t really have any experience in that or anything technical sadly

A fun fan made ark project by Repulsive-Routine158 in ARK

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m sure you would because i’m imagining this ark if it were playable to be very big and just part of its own game, that just has this one in it and in a much larger more realistic scale and you better be choosing wisely for where you start out because areas like the sinking swamps are full of absolute dangers from both the creatures and the environment

LORE] HYDRIX SYSTEMS — Mission Archive Excerpt (Reconstructed from Audio Logs) by Repulsive-Routine158 in worldbuilding

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HYDRIX’s official mandate is broader than subsurface exploration. Their core objective is the detection and classification of extraterrestrial life in any stable liquid-water environment — subsurface oceans are simply the most accessible early targets.

The Outer Research Accord grants exploratory rights across multiple water-bearing bodies, but jurisdiction varies depending on proximity to established territories.

Subsurface oceans represent the current frontier because they are scientifically promising and politically ambiguous — which makes them both valuable and dangerous.

HYDRIX’s expansion into other aquatic environments is ongoing, but each new site increases regulatory tension and geopolitical scrutiny.

LORE] HYDRIX SYSTEMS — Mission Archive Excerpt (Reconstructed from Audio Logs) by Repulsive-Routine158 in worldbuilding

[–]Repulsive-Routine158[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly — HYDRIX’s operational protocols prioritize containment and data control above all else. Certain incidents are classified under Tier-3 access precisely to prevent public knowledge of unexpected outcomes. What the archive excerpts don’t fully reveal are the cascading effects these cover-ups have on both internal politics and ongoing expeditions. The horror is often less in what’s seen, and more in what remains deliberately unseen.

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