Cut Content

This page includes cut *or* replaced content from ALL AotU mods.

# Architects of the Unknown

## Mods

### Creatures Plus

Creatures plus was originally a mod that added many creatures, including the Gargantuan Leviathan and De-Extinction creatures, and some other currently unreleased or unfinished creature designs.

### The Void Overhaul Mod

The Void Overhaul Mod was the first ever build of Rota as a test to see if it was possible to add in game. It contained a bunch of assets including the first Gargantuan leviathan sculpt and void islands. This file has been lost to time and may never be seen again

# Return of the Ancients

## Old Gargantuan Leviathan

The Gargantuan Leviathan essentially went through an entire remaking during development of the mod.

### Original sculpt:

The old model of the Gargantuan Leviathan was made by jurandm and had a poly count of over a million. The body was added separately, which created a visible seam, and increased the poly count to 11,059,780. The model went through a lot of decimation and subdivisions and was not at all ready to be textured or implemented in game. The rig for the model worked, but was not perfect and had no naming convention, and even a few rather embarrassing bone names. Hipnox, now one of the main modelers on the team, decided to retopologize this sculpt. Later a transparent version was made, and bones and guts were added to make it look more realistic.

While many revisions of the original model have been lost, the last one before the remake was basically fully black and featured red bioluminescence which was only visible while hunting. While this iteration was still considered terrifying by most, and was even in one of the developers' sleep paralysis experiences one night, the obvious flaws in the model made a retopology the only choice to move forward.

The first game-ready version of the retopo was finished on February 22nd 2021.

Old garg model from IGP videoOld garg model from IGP videoOld garg model from IGP videoOld attack gargOld attack mode gargOld attack mode garg

### Old Garg Pda:

1. Size: a length of almost 2000 meters, the Adult Gargantuan Leviathan is the largest known living creature as well as the largest known specimen on Planet 4546B. This specimen appears to be the only one to be fully developed .
2. Modular body: Each body segment contains many bioluminescent orbs that are differently colored from the younger specimens, however apear to be used for the same reasons.
3. Tentacles: These massive tentacles have been observed to help the creature suffocate large prey, including the Reaper Leviathans, Ghost Leviathans, and even Sea Dragon Leviathans for easy consumption. These tentacles also appear to be the main source for its movement
4. Hunting: Being so large This creature remains in dark areas and stays non-bioluminescent to hide until it has found a target, and will go to any extent to incapacitate its prey. It wields very powerful jaws, capable of rendering many large creatures dead with a single bite. The wide throat is capable of swallowing many large creatures whole.
Assessment: Avoid at all costs.

### Old audio:

Made by Mango. The first few sounds in the uncropped clip are obviously roars, but nobody knows what the last one is. Breathing maybe?

These audio clips were eventually replaced on Feburary 27th 2021 with newer sounds created by Simon Chylinski, who is the sound designer for the original game. Hiring Simon was a controversial decision because he was fired from UWE. In fact, the decision was made before most developers had any input. One of the earlier team members quit after this decision was made, likely for fear of public relations issues. This was before Architects of the Unknown was established, though, and he is still involved in the modding community.

## Purple Hoopfish Shoal

This was a kind of shoal that spawned in the void, alongside standard hoopfish. To many it looked like nothing more than a texture error. It was added on May 20th 2021 when a developer was testing multi-colored shoals. It was known as at the time "purple void fish". For some reason it was not removed until July 15th 2021, when a developer questioned what they were. How they went unnoticed for so long, it is a mystery, but it is for the best they were removed.

A singular purple Hoopfish, up close.
## Gargantuan Leviathan

### Hunting bioluminescence

The Gargantuan's bioluminescence used to flicker on when its "aggressive" stat increased to a significant amount. This feature has been cut because it does not fit the new model as well.

### "Slurping" creatures

This was a placeholder for creature attack animations. In older versions, creatures would move towards the creature's mouth, and slowly shrink until they get deleted.

### Photosynthesis

The first "creature action" the garg had besides swimming was actually Photosynthesis. It would travel up to the surface and stay there during the daytime. However, it's a bit silly for this massive predator to gather energy akin to a plan, and it made bypassing the Garg in daylight extremely easy, and didn't even look that great in-game, so it was cut very early on. It was a good basis for future "creature actions" though.

### Roar water displacement

The roar attack used to generate an explosive current that pushed anything nearby away. While it was a cool effect, it made it very difficult for the creature to actually get food in its mouth.

### Tentacle attack

The Gargantuan Leviathan's tentacle attack was a long-range melee attack, where it would use one of its tentacles to slap nearby fish and would deal about 50 damage. Its trigger was a huge cylinder located several meters in front of the Garg's face. It would only activate on large creatures, and had a rather long cooldown. The placeholder sound effect for it was considered terrifying by some, and consisted of the Zira TTS voice emotionlessly saying "garg tentacle attack." It was later upgraded to have a sound effect that would fit the game.

The attack was removed from the creature because the tentacles on the new model were not shaped to bend forward.

### Old bioluminescence colors

The Gargantuan Leviathan first had blue bioluminescence, which eventually became red, before the new model was created.

### Staying in certain depth range

The old Garg would stay in a depth range of 90-275 meters, unless it was over 400 meters down.

### Eye tracking

The Gargantuan would stare at whatever it was hunting. The eyes had no constraints on movement, and could roll back into the head.

## Handheld Warping Device previous iterations

Several WIP designs for the Handheld Warping Device were created before a final design was decided on. It was originally inspired by one of Al-An's arms, and his ability to teleport, but went through many changes since.

### Developer names

* Warp Cannon
* Teleportation Tool
* Teleport Tool

Teleport tool previous design iterationsEven older designsDual battery design
## Architect's Library

Nothing here yet, it would spoil too much.