So I've been thinking recently about co-op games with this mod, one player being a Human and another (perhaps multiple) being a dino. And it got me thinking - if one were to play a game like that, what would be the best creatures for the dino players to use? Putting aside the possibillity of boss creatures for now (since they would effectivley break any sense of progression), which of all Ark's dinos would be most useful to have as allies?

First up, an obvious factor to consider would be moving around the map. Eventually I believe it's planned to allow other players to sit on a player-dino's saddle, but for now that isn't a possibillity, so if a dino were to be used as transport it would have to either have a passenger seat, or be able to pick up and carry the Human player.

~ Procoptodon would be a good choice for this, as it has excellent movement speed and manuverabillity, and can carry a player even without a saddle.

~ Argent would be another posibillity - not nearly as fast as the procop, but able to fly over dangers, and the resource weight reduction in inventory plus the smithy saddle would be bonuses.

~ Griffin - much the same benefits as the argie, but with better speed and manuverabillity. Would lose the weight buffs and saddle crafting though.

~ Karkinos - this would actually have a lot of potential as it's a good fighter and tank as well, not to mention having amazing carry weight. A bit slow moving though.

~ There are of course passenger dinos like the diplo, tapejara, gallimimus, rock drake etc. However those wouldn't really be that useful until their saddles were unlocked, before that they could only really act as defenders/fighters.

~ Some other dinos can carry players, like the kapro or megalosaurus. But I'm not really inclined to add them to this list because while carrying the player, they would be completely unable to fight off attackers. This is also true of the argie, but at least that can fly over dangers, whereas these dinos would have to drop the player, fight off attacks, then pick them up again. It'd be doable, but not very easy or versitile.

But of course, movement isn't the only factor to consider. Another one might be resource gathering, especially in the earlygame where tools are weak and resources are needed more frequently.

~ First up, there's the obvious choices of the usual gathering dinos, such as doeds, mammoths, etc. All of these would be possible, but they are perhaps a little too focussed to be useful outside of that one field where they excel.

~ Ankylo - I think this is worthy of it's own entry, even though it is a gathering dino as mentioned above. The difference is that this can harvest a number of different materials, not just metal, so it would make it more versitile as a creature to assist the player. However it could be argued that even this doesn't quite have the same harvest scope as, say...

~ A Mantis. This might well be the most versitile of all the gathering dinos for it's range of resources it can pick up, not to mention it can fight to defend the player pretty well too. And the player could make tools/weapons for the mantis to use, and even find higher quality ones in drops.

~ Therizino, another very versitile gatherer. And also another good fighter to defend the player. This would be worth considering too imo.

Then there's perhaps another factor to consider - dinos which would do something special for the player, other than transport/resource gathering/defense, which would aid their survivabillity.

~ Diplocaulus. It would be rather useless on land, but having one in the water near a player would be very handy to allow them to stay submerged longer, and collect more underwater resources themselves.

~ Dimetrodon - admittedly this would only come in handy in very specific circumstances. But having the insulation buff from a dimey could help a player to survive in a harsh climate.

~ Gigantopithicus. thanks to this mod they too can use tools like the mantis, and while they wouldn't be as good at actually gathering the materials, they could still aid in that regard. (Side note: Since they can also craft some basic tools themselves, having a giganto/mantis game without the Human player might be a fun little experiment as well!)

~ Morellatops - could be handy if the group wants to live in a water-scarce environment.

~ Any Lightpet, for anywhere that needs charge (although have fun keeping it alive through a reaper's tailwhip if it's not on the player's shoulder).

Obviously the party who were playing this way would be able to tame dinos in addition to the ones controlled by players, so any deficit in certain areas could be made up for with that. But it is interesting to try and consider which dinos would be the most useful in the widest variety of situations, especially to play from the start where both they and the player will be weak.

I think on balance, if I were to play a game such as this, I would probably choose the mantis as the primary player-dino to support the Human player. It seems to have the most going for it in terms of gathering, fighting, and manuverabillity. Although the procoptodon is a real contender too - while it can't gather nearly as much, it can fight pretty well thanks to it's TLC kick, and it's speed and manuverabillity are outstanding.

If there were more than one dino character in the mix, I'd probably choose the argent or the karkinos as the second dino-player. Their carrying capabillity would be very handy, and they can defend the player pretty well too.

But those are just my thoughts. Anyone else have any input? Have I forgotten something important, or would you do things differently? Discuss.