Mermkingmanager

Overview

This component orchestrates the Merm King mechanic in DST by managing throne entities, candidate selection and validation, king transformation, and event-driven state changes. It operates on the world instance (TheWorld) and coordinates interactions between merm candidates, thrones, and the resulting Merm King entity—including handling death, removal, persistence, and shard-aware state queries.

Dependencies & Tags

• Component events listened to: oncandidatekingarrived, onthronebuilt, onthronedestroyed
• Entity tags added/removed:
  • Adds "mermprince" tag to valid Merm candidates
  • Removes "mermprince" tag when candidate is cleared (e.g., throne destroyed or king crowned)
• World-level events pushed:
  • onmermkingcreated, onmermkingdestroyed
• Entity callbacks:
  • Registers death and onremove callbacks for king and candidates

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	—	The owner entity (always TheWorld)
main_throne	Entity or nil	nil	The throne currently occupied by the active Merm King or being prepared for king transformation
thrones	table<Entity>	{}	List of all valid, non-destroyed throne entities known to this manager
king	Entity or nil	nil	The current Merm King entity (if one exists and is alive)
king_dying	boolean	false	Flag indicating the king is currently in the process of dying (used to avoid duplicate state resets)
candidates	table<Entity → Entity>	{}	Mapping of throne → candidate entity for thrones with an eligible Merm candidate present
candidate_transforming	Entity or nil	nil	Candidate currently in the process of transforming into a Merm King

Main Functions

CreateMermKing(candidate, throne)

• Description: Converts a Merm candidate into a Merm King at the specified throne, replacing its prefab, clearing inventory, cleaning up listeners, marking the throne as main, and broadcasting onmermkingcreated.
• Parameters:
  • candidate (Entity): The Merm candidate entity to transform.
  • throne (Entity): The throne entity where the transformation occurs.

FindMermCandidate(throne)

• Description: Searches for a valid Merm candidate near the given throne (within 50 units), provided no king currently exists. If found, attempts to register them as a candidate via ShouldGoToThrone.
• Parameters:
  • throne (Entity): The throne to scan for candidates.

ShouldGoToThrone(merm, throne)

• Description: Registers a Merm as a candidate at a throne if conditions are met (no existing king, throne is valid, Merm isn’t already a candidate/king/shadow minion). Updates name override and tags accordingly.
• Parameters:
  • merm (Entity): The candidate Merm entity.
  • throne (Entity): The throne to assign the candidate to.
• Returns: boolean — true if registration succeeded; otherwise false.

OnThroneDestroyed(throne)

• Description: Handles destruction of a throne: removes it from tracking, deregisters any candidate at that throne, attempts to unseat a candidate still at the throne, and if it was the main throne, kills the king (if alive) and resets king state.
• Parameters:
  • throne (Entity): The destroyed throne.

IsThroneValid(throne)

• Description: Checks if a throne is still valid for king transformation: must exist, not be burning/burnt, and not have a king corpse on it.
• Parameters:
  • throne (Entity): The throne to validate.
• Returns: boolean — true if throne is valid; otherwise false.

ShouldTransform(merm)

• Description: Determines whether a given Merm candidate is ready to transform into the Merm King based on location, state, and cooldowns.
• Parameters:
  • merm (Entity): The candidate Merm entity.
• Returns: boolean — true if transformation should proceed.

HasKingLocal()

• Description: Returns true if a king exists and is alive on the local world shard.
• Returns: boolean

HasKingAnywhere()

• Description: Returns true if a king exists anywhere across shards (checks local first, then delegates to shard_mermkingwatcher).
• Returns: boolean

HasTridentLocal(), HasTridentAnywhere(), HasCrownLocal(), HasCrownAnywhere(), HasPauldronLocal(), HasPauldronAnywhere()

• Description: Each checks for the corresponding item (trident, crown, pauldron) on the king locally, or across shards via shard_mermkingwatcher.
• Parameters: None
• Returns: boolean

OnSave()

• Description: Serializes component state for saving, returning data table and list of entity GUIDs needed for persistence.
• Returns: data (table), ents (table<string>) — where ents contains GUIDs forking-related entities.

LoadPostPass(newents, savedata)

• Description: Restores component state after loading, linking saved GUIDs to their real entities and re-registering event callbacks.
• Parameters:
  • newents (table<GUID, {entity=Entity}>): Map of GUIDs to entity objects.
  • savedata (table): Saved state loaded from disk.

Events & Listeners

• Listens for:
  • "oncandidatekingarrived" — triggers king creation if candidate and throne are valid.
  • "onthronebuilt" — adds new throne to thrones, initiates candidate search.
  • "onthronedestroyed" — handles throne removal and cleanup.
  • "onremove" and "death" — for king and candidates (via OnKingRemoval, OnKingDeath, OnCandidateRemoved).
• Emits:
  • "onmermkingcreated" — after successful king creation.
  • "onmermkingdestroyed" — after king removal.