FTW Community Mod
Survival games live and die by their resource management loops. In ARK: Survival Ascended, few tasks are more tedious than babysitting your industrial infrastructure, especially when it comes to oil and gas production. The FTW Community Mod aims to eliminate that drudgery by introducing structures that work for you, even when you are miles away exploring the island or taming a new creature. This is a work-in-progress add-on that is already generating significant buzz for its quality-of-life approach to passive resource generation.
What Does the FTW Community Mod Add?
Currently, the mod is in a WIP/Testing phase, but it already features two game-changing structures that are perfect for solo players and large tribes alike. The core philosophy here is simple: remove the constant need to manually empty containers from your production lines.
Self-Filling Oil Pump
As the name suggests, the self-filling Oil Pump is a donor structure that fills itself automatically once placed on an oil vein. The clever part of the FTW Community Mod for ARK: Survival Ascended is its stasis logic. The mod author has built in code that stops the internal ticks when the pump goes into stasis (when you are too far away for the game to simulate it). More importantly, it also resumes ticks correctly and retroactively adds the oil that would have been produced had the pump remained out of stasis. This means you do not lose production time when you log off or travel across the map.
Self-Filling Gas Collector
Similarly, the Gas Collector functions on the same principle. It fills itself with gas without requiring the usual external fuel source or constant monitoring. The stasis logic mirrors the Oil Pump, ensuring that your gas reserves accumulate steadily regardless of your location. This is a massive boon for maintaining a steady supply of propane for fabricators and cooking stations.
Both of these structures cannot be crafted in the standard engram tree. They are donor items intended to be spawned in via the admin console. To get them, you will need to use the following paths: /FTW/Donors/Structures/DonorOilPump/PrimalItem_DonorOilPump.PrimalItem_DonorOilPump and /FTW/Donors/Structures/DonorGasCollector/PrimalItem_DonorGasCollector.PrimalItem_DonorGasCollector.
Upcoming Features: Schoon-ish and Dino Consumables
The developer is not stopping at just structures. The mod roadmap includes a "Schoon-ish" feature, which hints at a new vessel or platform. More interestingly for breeders, there are two new dino consumables coming. One will add experience points (XP) to your tames, allowing for faster leveling, while the other will add imprinting percentage. This second item is particularly valuable for players who struggle to maintain 100% imprint quality due to missed care timers.
If you are looking to test these features early, you will want to know how to install the mod. The process is straightforward for anyone familiar with ARK modding. First, ensure you are running a compatible version of the game. The mod currently supports the latest client and server builds of ARK: Survival Ascended, though as it is in testing, you should always check the mod page for the most recent compatibility notes before updating your server.
Installation and Setup Guide
To get started, you need to download FTW Community Mod from the Steam Workshop or a trusted community repository. Once downloaded, the mod will appear in your mod list. For single-player, simply activate it before loading your world. For dedicated servers, add the mod ID to your GameUserSettings.ini file under the [ModInstaller] section. After a server restart, the mod will be active, and you can use the admin spawn commands listed above to place the structures.
One of the easiest ways to manage this add-on is through the foxygame.net launcher. This launcher provides a dedicated add-on catalog where you can browse and deploy the FTW Community Mod with a single click, eliminating the manual file editing process. It also handles auto-updates, ensuring that your server always runs the latest iteration of the mod without you having to track patch notes manually. This is especially useful for a WIP mod that receives frequent logic fixes.
Performance and Stability Considerations
Because this is a testing-phase mod, you may encounter occasional hiccups. The developer has specifically noted that the stasis logic "SHOULD" work correctly, which is a polite way of saying it is still under stress testing. If you run a high-population server, pay attention to how the self-filling structures behave when players enter and exit stasis zones. The mod is designed to be lightweight, but the retroactive production calculation can be resource-intensive if you place dozens of pumps in a single base.
Community Acknowledgements
The mod would not exist without the help of several community members. Special thanks go to Trixter, who allowed the developer to sit in Discord and ask questions while learning to build mods. Brandimade reviewed files to find errors, and JoeHelp assisted in ironing out the "spooghetti" code and getting the gating logic working for the upcoming dino consumables. This collaborative spirit is a hallmark of the ARK modding community.
Final Thoughts
The FTW Community Mod is a promising utility mod that solves a very specific, very annoying problem in ARK: Survival Ascended. While it is not yet feature-complete, the self-filling Oil Pump and Gas Collector are already functional and incredibly useful for reducing base maintenance time. The upcoming dino consumables will likely make this a must-have for breeding-focused players. If you are comfortable with admin spawn commands and want to streamline your resource production, this mod is worth adding to your load order today.