The forest was silent except for the crunch of my boots, but I knew I wasn’t alone. My scanner flickered, picking up a faint energy signature, and then I saw it: a hulking machine camouflaged against the trees. What if the next ARC I encountered wasn’t in the game… but born from the imagination of another player?
When the Community Creates: Custom ARC Concepts
Every game has its lurking horrors. In ARC Raiders, those horrors come in the form of various robots that consider themselves the supreme rulers of our world. Variance is welcome, and one player is delivering.
Reddit user EthanDavidUnderhill has taken on the task of creating concepts for new ARCs, and some are ingenious. So far, EthanDavidUnderhill has devised six proposed ARCs, all of which I hope Embark Studios considers integrating into the game. They range from standard variants to horrors that would haunt your dreams.
Two of the latter type are the Basilisk, a snake-like machine that prowls forests and waters, and the Widow, modeled after a spider, patrolling the wastes with a deadly saw on its head.
EthanDavidUnderhill seems to have a knack for inconspicuous ARCs. Their latest proposal, the Parrot, is a literal Dark Souls mimic, pretending to be a breachable container that turns into a nasty surprise for any careless raider.
What kind of enemies are in ARC Raiders?
The enemy concepts range from fighter jets to Snitches on steroids. The suggestions are so well-developed that it would be a shame not to see them added into the game, and I hope that Embark is paying attention to this creator. The ARC Raiders community can be a goldmine of creativity.
I remember playing an early demo of a survival game where a player-suggested creature made it into the final build, becoming one of the game’s most iconic monsters; the player felt like they’d become a part of the game’s history. That sense of ownership is what makes gaming communities so rich.
Will there be new ARCs in the future?
So far, Embark hasn’t been so quick to add new ARCs. Some, like the theorized Emperor that can be seen far off in the distance on The Blue Gate, linger merely as ideas and theories among the player base. Adding new elements can be like threading a needle.
Think of it like adding spices to a dish: too much, and you ruin the flavor; too little, and it’s bland. Getting the balance right is key to a great gaming experience.
What’s next for ARC Raiders content?
It’s almost guaranteed that we’ll see more content come out, as focus shifts from gameplay considerations to expanding the experience, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for something interesting (like the suggestions above). The game’s potential is a field of wheat, ready for harvest.
The challenge for game developers is knowing when to trust the community and when to stick to their own vision. But when it works, it can be pure magic. What kind of player-generated content would YOU like to see integrated into your favorite games?