Squidspawner

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

Overview

Squidspawner is a world-scoped component responsible for periodically spawning squid herds during nighttime and dusk. It evaluates player positions to determine spawn locations, adjusts spawn chance based on moon phase and number of nearby fishable entities, and accounts for ocean trawler modifications via the oceantrawler component. This component only runs on the master simulation (TheWorld.ismastersim) and is attached to the world entity.

Usage example

-- Automatically attached to TheWorld in the game's startup sequence.
-- Manual usage is not typical, but for testing or modding:
TheWorld.components.squidspawner:Debug_ForceTestForSquid()

Dependencies & tags

Components used: oceantrawler (via GetOceanTrawlerSpawnChanceModifier) Tags: References tags squid, oceanfish, oceanfishable, and oceantrawler internally during entity searches. Tags added/removed: None.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	entity	nil	The entity instance that owns this component (the world).

Main functions

Debug_ForceTestForSquid()

• Description: Forces an immediate squid spawn test regardless of time of day. Used for debugging and mod testing.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: None — safe to call at any time.

Events & listeners

• Listens to:
  • ms_playerjoined — adds new players to the active player list.
  • ms_playerleft — removes leaving players from the active player list.
  • "phase" world state change — triggers spawntask() to restart the spawn schedule.
• Pushes: None.

spawntask()

• Description: Internal scheduled task that runs testforsquid() during night/dusk, and schedules the next execution based on TUNING.SEG_TIME. If it's daytime, it cancels any pending task.
• Parameters: None (method on inst).
• Returns: Nothing.

testforsquid(forcesquid)

• Description: Core logic for evaluating spawn conditions across active players. Iterates over nearby players, computes spawn chance based on moon phase, fish count, ocean trawler modifiers, and time of day, and spawns squid herds when successful.
• Parameters:
  • forcesquid (boolean) — if true, skips time-of-day checks and forces spawn attempts.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states:
  • Skips all spawns if forcesquid is false and TheWorld.state.isday is true.
  • Herd spawn fails silently if FindSwimmableOffset() returns nil.

do_squid_spawn_for_herd(herd, spawnpoint)

• Description: Internal helper that spawns a single squid and adds it to a given squid herd. Sets position and fires the "spawn" event on the squid.
• Parameters:
  • herd (entity) — a squidherd instance.
  • spawnpoint (vector3) — position to place the squid.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: None — assumes herd.components.herd exists.

GetOceanTrawlerChanceModifier(spawnpoint)

• Description: Scans for nearby ocean trawlers and returns their spawn chance modifier at the spawn location, or 1 if none found.
• Parameters:
  • spawnpoint (vector3) — point to test for nearby trawlers.
• Returns: (number) spawn chance modifier (e.g., TUNING.OCEAN_TRAWLER_SPAWN_FISH_MODIFIER if trawler is lowered and full).