Ghostbabysitter

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-03

Overview

Ghostbabysitter tracks which ghosts an entity is currently "babysitting"—i.e., monitoring or managing. It maintains a simple dictionary of ghost references, adds/removes the inactive and activatable_forceright tags on the owner entity based on babysitting state, and ensures proper persistence across saves/loads. The component also supports optional per-frame updates via an optional updatefn callback, which is invoked during OnUpdate while babysitting at least one ghost.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddComponent("ghostbabysitter")

local ghost = GetSomeGhostInstance()
inst.components.ghostbabysitter:AddGhost(ghost)

-- Optional: set a custom update function
inst.components.ghostbabysitter.updatefn = function(owner, babysitter, dt)
    -- custom logic here
end

-- Later, stop babysitting
inst.components.ghostbabysitter:RemoveGhost(ghost)

Dependencies & tags

Components used: None identified
Tags: Adds/removes inactive and activatable_forceright on the owning entity.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	assigned in constructor	Reference to the entity that owns this component.
inactive	boolean	true	Indicates whether the component is currently inactive (i.e., not babysitting any ghosts).
forcerightclickaction	boolean	false	Controls whether activatable_forceright tag is applied.
babysitting	table	{}	Dictionary mapping ghost entity references to true.
updatefn	function	nil	Optional callback (owner, self, dt) => void, invoked each frame while babysitting is non-empty.

Main functions

AddGhost(ghost)

• Description: Begins babysitting the specified ghost, adding it to the internal tracking table and starting the component's update loop on the entity.
• Parameters: ghost (Entity) — the ghost entity to track.
• Returns: Nothing.

RemoveGhost(ghost)

• Description: Stops babysitting the ghost and removes it from tracking. If no ghosts remain, stops the update loop.
• Parameters: ghost (Entity) — the ghost entity to stop tracking.
• Returns: Nothing.

IsBabysittingGhost(ghost)

• Description: Checks whether the given ghost is currently being babysat.
• Parameters: ghost (Entity) — the ghost to check.
• Returns: true if ghost is in babysitting; otherwise nil.
• Error states: Returns nil if the ghost is not being babysat.

OnUpdate(dt)

• Description: Called each frame while the component is active (i.e., while babysitting is non-empty). Invokes updatefn if set.
• Parameters: dt (number) — delta time in seconds.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: No effect if updatefn is nil.

OnSave()

• Description: Serializes the component's state for saving.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: data (table), ents (table of GUIDs) — data.babysitting contains a list of GUIDs of babysat ghosts; ents contains the same list for dependency resolution.

LoadPostPass(newents, savedata)

• Description: Restores ghost references after loading is complete. Notifies each ghost that it is being babysat.
• Parameters:
  newents (table) — map of GUID → entity for all loaded entities;
  savedata (table) — data from OnSave, including babysitting list of GUIDs.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnRemoveFromEntity()

• Description: Cleanup handler called when component is removed from its entity. Ensures all tracking tags are removed.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.

GetDebugString()

• Description: Returns a simple debug representation of the component’s inactive state.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: string — "true" or "false".

Events & listeners

• Listens to: None
• Pushes: set_babysitter — fired on each ghost entity when it is assigned a babysitter during LoadPostPass.