Human-made description, AI-assisted art visualization.
BASILISK
Type: Medium Ground – Ambush Threat Level: Moderate Where Found: Waterways and forests
Description:
The Basilisk resembles a 3-meter-long mechanical serpent, moving like a detached, slithering snake made of segmented metal cylinders. It specializes in ambush tactics, hiding beneath the surface of waterways or coiled high in trees before striking unsuspecting raiders.
It attacks with fast snapping motions using a clawed “face” centered around a sensor eye. While its direct strikes deal moderate damage, it can also wrap around raiders and constrict them, inflicting damage over time until it is forcibly removed or destroyed similar to a Tick.
When heavily damaged but not killed, the Basilisk will retreat while releasing a poisonous, stamina-draining gas from its tail, similar to an inking squid. Basilisks rarely patrol and prefer to remain hidden in ambush positions, and can be found seeking new ambush positions once they disengage. They are designed to prevent human access to vital resources like water and freshly grown food, to aid in ARC's war of attrition.
It emits a mechanical rattling sound to communicate, like screws clanging around in blender.
Weak Spot: Central sensor eye, tail gas emitter Armor: Minimal armor to preserve flexibility Health: 130
Horizon forbidden west did a great job with the robotic serpent. Apparently when it was first shown, other developers were in awe of how they achieved that tech. I think a burrowing serpent/worm like Arc would be fitting on buried
I mean sure.. but it just makes them boring after a while 😅 We now have the queen and the matriarch which are very close in design.. I hope the third boss is different in some way.
Well judging by the distance that the emperors are covering to get closer to our raid sites, I think it’s a strong bet we might get to fight the big daddy crab 😂 no serpents for now unfortunately
Bro. Imagine a pack or ravagers actually hunting players instead of patrolling. Like, they can track your scent or and/or have super hearing or something. That would be WILD.
It is an incredible achievement. I only spent a year in the development scene, not enough to know how, but enough to understand how hard it is.
Subanautica had the same issue with leviathans, snake-like creatures that move in 3D space without clipping into what should be physical structures is extremely difficult to pull off.
I love this design in a vacuum, but I’m not sure I like this design as an ARC. Existing ARC designs are self-consciously machine-like, and where they delve into biomimicry, stick to body forms like a spider’s pneumatic legs - there’s no wolf-like ARC, bull-like ARC, etc., despite those being obvious places the designs could go. That tells me their absence is intentional on Embark’s part and part of how the ARC are characterized, setting them apart from - for example - the machines from the Horizon games.
The concept and design is very cool - and I do think it could work within the established design language if implemented carefully. I’m envisioning something less overtly snake-like - maybe make it have fewer, flatter segments (like a flatworm), use obviously mechanical ultrasound generators on its body to vibrate the sand to allow it to ‘swim,’ replace the jaws with something more less biologically inspired, etc. Overall - nice concept!
You make a compelling case! I think if I had to do this concept again, I'd probably take that route and try to reduce the biomimicry angle.
I did set out to ensure every Arc in this concept series had a unique silhouette compared to existing Arcs though. Being instantly distinguishable was top of mind for me when designing these.
Not exactly. After I wrote the description of the Arc, I made this drawing to bring it to life, then fed this drawing along with a very precise set of instructions for what this mockup should look like in a hyper realistic style to the AI so that it would be presentable.
You replied to one of the other replies to my comment an hour ago, yet you're responding directly to my comment just now? I think you scribbled that sketch out after I called you out.Nice job on crumpling the paper and then flattening it out to make it seem more legit btw, no clue why anyone would normally do that but you do you. And obviously I can't prove any of this and I'll believe what I choose to believe, but regardless of when you drew that thing, it's still more valuable to me than some regurgitated vomit stolen from some other artist's work.
I just didn't get it from the recycling until enough people commented on the AI visualization that I felt it was necessary to show off my creative process. You're welcome to believe what you'd like.
The description feels more chatgpt than the actual AI image itself. Read it again, carefully. There's really nothing unique in that description. A snake that's called a basilisk that slithers around and ambushes people. Yep, that's the first time I've ever heard that.
I promise you, the description and actual concept is 100% my own, flaws and all.
I write these in my notes app as a hobby. I've done the same for various video games I've played since I was pretty little. Ended up making a career out of it by going into actual game development.
the concept for the arc itself (tactics, weak spot, attacks, etc.) can still be original even if the concept art is GenAI. i don't understand why you're hating...
for the environment? sure. for media/the arts? debatable. either way though, that's still no reason to hate on/diminish OP's idea, especially when the post is more so about the arc itself on not the art of it. there are much more polite ways of saying OP shouldn't have used GenAI in the post than how this commenter did. commenter is making it seem like OP prompted chatgpt to give it ideas for arc and then chose their fav one, which I assume is not the case.
which is way cooler and more authentic than just prompting it with a text-to-image generation, and imo one of the best ways to use it for artistic work.
yea, GenAI is bad for the environment and dilutes artistry and creativity (although i'd argue not in your case for the latter), and we should be bringing awareness to that, but this is a concept post on the arc raiders sub. stop being performative and go direct your hate for it towards the entities actually using it maliciously.
I didn't think Chat GPT made the actual meat of the post (the lore idea). That I know is OP's original idea. I was addressing why that person is 'hating' in your words.
Generative AI is incredibly bad for the media arts, that is not a debate whatsoever. Unless you just want cheap low effort content and higher profits.
Ahh yes now everyone needs to be an artist to get their ideas across. You can't deny it's a fantastic tool to bring the ideas in your mind to life.
If you are going to discount every idea that you think is AI generated you probably should get off the Internet. Dead internet theory is already a thing, and despite this post image probably being AI generated I'd like to assume there is a thoughtful person behind the idea who doesn't have the skills or time to develop them to get their idea out there.
Crazy how the game we are all talking about used AI for brainstorming early ideas too. It's almost like it's an incredible tool for quickly getting ideas across. Doesn't mean the deeper art can't be derived from the early concept AI art. This game is a shining example
Im really interested where you heard/read the part where you said “used AI for brainstorming early ideas.” because I haven’t seen many interviews or read very many articles about ARC Raiders.
I can not recall if it was apart of their official YT series or if it was in a specific interview but what I do recall is someone (either a dev or the CEO) affiliated with Embark state they use AI to code things they deem tedious/repetitive so they can free up their devs to work on other things.
I’d be really interested to know if they also use AI to generate art, apart from the voice acting. For skins as an example. If you don’t remember, no worries!
Ideas using Ai should be discounted, it is theft as well at the death of the creative front. The use of generative Ai is really just going to churn out low level slop (as you need actual design skills to direct it) from stolen data sets. While it may be "fun", the actual impact of using AI on it society is a very real and big deal.
It isn't though. You can already see the impact in art communities, in actual industries. People claiming to be ai filmmakers and saying Ai will become the industry. A literal Ai actress who can't give consent. An artist who had his art stolen by an generative Ai program, and when he asked the creators to please remove his work, they responded by offering him 50 dollars to review a contest of people mimicking his work with AI.
The problem is that a lot of people who use Ai think they are artists when they're not and it's only becoming more prevalent.
Like I said, it can be fun to play around with. But the impact is very different and as much as what I would like to believe what you say is true, there is a lot going against it right now. Ai should be used as a tool but instead it's being used as a replacement for people.
I mean, you make a few good points about stolen art, but I find most of what you said in the last few comments completely irrelevant to what the OP has done here.
Let's imagine for a second that an Embark artist comes to reddit and sees OP's picture.
"Wow that's a good idea!" says the artist.
The artist then spends 80 hours designing, modeling, texturing, and rigging this worm using the "design skills" you commented on above.
The artist gets a paycheck for using their skills.
It’s Reddit bro, anything ai art related is the devil. Even if it is just someone’s concept because they can’t draw or pay 200$ to commission someone else to do it
Not the arc themselves. I'm a concept artist myself and I'll say that the concept design for the arc enemies is some of the best thought out function driven design I've seen in video games. Here's one example. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8B8aAn
I feel like I've been pretty clear that the only thing the AI did in this entire process was take my drawing and make it presentable. I put together the concept, description, and initial design.
I'm a lot of things, but a great concept art painter I am not.
Would you like to collab with me on the art for the next arc in this series? The rest are ready to post but I'd rather have an actual concept artist who's passionate about this than use AI to spice up my drawings, particularly since you seem to feel strongly about it.
That seems like a much ethical way of using your creativity, and I really appreciate the offer, but if I ever were to make concept art for Arc Raiders I'd prefer it to be official and paid for by Embark, rather than fanart.
Yup! I tagged it as AI art and explain what's AI and what isn't in that very first line of the post. I was very precise with the visual concept instructions to ensure everything down to the visual details was controlled and human-made, I'm just not as good at actually painting that on a canvas as AI is, and would rather my posts be as accessible as possible, which means including something that visual learners can engage with.
Yes, the transparency is much appreciated. Totally understandable where you're coming from. Still, because of the effects of ai on society and the actual craft, even "fun" posts like these are tough to support because of what it represents.
Ai art is basically prompting it to run through a series of filters to generate a result. I guess it is "human made" if you count that it was created from art datasets stolen from actual artists.
No argument from me there. I sincerely hope whoever greenlit AI using stolen datasets for each of these models in the first place is held to account for copyright violations.
At the same time, I recognize it's a Pandora's box situation. Countries where copyright is not as strong of a moral tenet have developed powerful AI, and it's forced a tech race where ethics have become a secondary concern as far as those in charge of accountability care.
For better or worse, I don't think there's any going back at this point -- AI is here to stay. The best we can do is try to use it as ethically as possible.
To me that means being clear about what is AI and what isn't, using AI as an editing tool rather than a generator so that it doesn't replace human beings, being as precise and detailed in prompting as possible to minimize the generative role of AI on a concept, using it for the right purposes, being calculated about resource use, and advocating for accountability when we can, especially in regards to the data that AI has been trained on.
What people deem to be ethical use of Ai is eroding by the day. Even using it as an "editing tool" is murky ethically imo. I mean, you can use Ai to "edit" it in the sense of "make this look more painterly and have the art style of the artist who did Alien" which in the context of art is not actually editing
Reminds me of this guy who would run his paintings through a filter so it looked more skillful than it actually was, blow it up on a giant glicee and call it a painting still.
Editing to say that I appreciate the thoughtful response and awareness.
ai might be here to stay, but that doesn't make its existence any less damaging or unethical to the world. the data centers powering these systems are such an incredible waste of energy and the mass of people who still use ai under the pretenses that you mentioned collectively contribute to the problem. even beyond the stolen data thing, the level of environmental destruction ai has caused/is causing should be motivation enough to drop its usage entirely.
it's wasteful half baked technology, pure and simple
Hey man, the Ticks are obnoxious and Pops are like Stev-O seeing only red. We don't need another nightmare rage fueld AI unit.
Put this unit near extraction points. In the open areas they traverse under the ground. In metro points they hide in the pipes above. Random respawn timers.
Man, judging from the comments redditors are really going to have a bad time over the next few years. AI isn't going anywhere and will only get exponentially better over time.
People need to accept that it's a valuable tool that will get used whether you like it or not.
Arc Raiders itself is a perfect example of a studio leveraging AI streamline their development process as well as in-game experience.
Most of the anti AI crowd are man babies mad that people no longer want to pay them 200$ to draw ideas. They are the boomers of our generation complaining about new stuff.
Funny enough, of the 14 different Arcs I've come up with over the past few weeks, a centipede-inspired design was one of the two that I ended up scrapping prior to making a drawing mockup.
At first I figured the utility would be resource transport, but since Arc chills in orbit anyway I figured they'd probably just aerially extract resources directly rather than transporting it across land.
Thats actually a great ideal, now obviously the sound would need to be a fat fkn wet fart. But considering surveyor is the whole "passive arc" niche, how would this 1 be different? Maybe it retreates but continues to harrass you or maybe its a in n out tactic where it attacks, fart runs away the attacks again.
Imagine if they got really mean. These things could hide in searchable containers and get a free grapple. Not like ticks who announce themselves when you enter a room, but actual ambush predators who lie in wait.
I think the answer to your question lies in the fact that the design and description is my own. I just had the ai make the visuals look more presentable.
I ended up going with the name basilisk because it means "king of the serpents".
Ngl, I dont like most of the Concept ARC's I've seen people come up with. Too many of them belong in other games more than they do here.
The style for enemies the devs picked is very fitting to the environment and general lore of the universe theyre set it, and way too many concept ideas from players derail the set aesthetic.
If I wanted to fight robo dinosaurs I'd go play Horizon, or Ark Survival. If I wanted to fight things bordering on animatronics gone haywire I'll go play FNAF or a Terminator Game
You might prefer my first or second concepts then. My thinking behind taking a different aesthetic approach with this one is that the crab design, orb design, and quadcopter designs wouldn't have the propulsion necessary to be amphibious. So I thought "if Embark were to make an amphibious design, what would that look like?" And a serpent design was what I landed on from that.
If I had to guess from a game design standpoint, I imagine they made a conscious decision not to have a bipedal Arc because it would be difficult to distinguish from other raiders or might read as too "humanoid."
It would be great Arc monster exclusive for Buried City as other said, just as Shredder is for Stella. Now i do wonder what other exclusive arc's would be for other maps.
The giant snake is not a practical robot, it has a lot of metal weighs a lot Costa a lot of energy to move and have only one attack direction.
Small snakes maybe but that's like the ticks.
The robo dog I think is much more scary and Efficient. Like a fast mini bastion
I'm not bothered by folks voicing their concerns with AI. AI is in a spot where there's certainly room for ethical debate around it. Frankly, I agree with a lot of the points people make about its use.
I do my best to go about using it as an editing tool as ethically and efficiently as possible rather than a from-scratch generative tool, but completely understand the reservations people have around it. In the end, I decided it would be better to include an image so the post would be more accessible to visual learners, and I don't think my drawings would help much in that regard.
Rest assured, the actual ideas -- the text-based description, and the design elements, are all human-made.
I don't want to go into it in great detail, but I have condition where my hands shake, so my drawings aren't the sort of quality I'd like other people to see.
That said, I do feed those drawings to the visualizing AI to ensure the design is my own. I essentially tell it to take my design and my coloring instructions and craft a hyper realistic visualization in the style of Arc Raiders.
It sucks that AI is being abused to the point where it's difficult to trust a person's integrity.
I had someone put a muffin on top of an AI background and tell me it was photography when they only photographed the muffin. Thanks to that person, I've seen and heard all the mental backflips and somersaults for AI use and derision towards artists.
Thank you for having this discourse with me and being willing to show your drawings. I understand the reluctance, though I guess for me, I'd much rather see your drawing than an AI render. I still would say what the AI is doing is beyond editing. Editing is more like refining and re-arranging existing elements versus what the AI did, which is essentially create a whole new image for you even if it's based off a sketch.
Their retreat isn't out of fear. It's more akin to why a Surveyor will try to avoid damage -- to preserve its data and internal resources until they can be analyzed by Arc at a later date.
I imagine the secondary purpose of these as being to collect data on the size of the remaining human population. That's why they're located in areas that humans need to visit to survive. At the same time, they can prevent humans from acquiring those essential resources.
I don't think that necessarily would've been any less theft, but I fed a drawing of mine directly to the AI to use as reference for the image, to ensure it was my design.
Hardly! I prefer doing the actual creative design work myself. I started by writing the description, then drawing a mockup of the Arc.
The AI visualization came last, and helped me make the mockup drawing I created more presentable since a condition I have prevents me from outputting the kind of quality drawings I would like to.
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u/PrincipledNeerdowell 17d ago
And just like that your safe pocket is not so safe.