Buzzardspawner

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-04

Overview

buzzardspawner is a prefab that acts as an environmental spawner for buzzards, primarily used for procedural generation of predatory behavior in the game world. It manages a pool of buzzard entities via the childspawner component, dynamically adjusts spawning based on world state (night/winter/lunar hail), and maintains visual shadow proxies (circlingbuzzard) around itself when awake and conditions permit. It also handles special interactions with flares (miniflare/megaflare) and food hunting logic.

Usage example

local spawner = SpawnPrefab("buzzardspawner")
spawner.Transform:SetPosition(x, y, z)
spawner.components.childspawner:StartSpawning()
spawner.components.childspawner:StartRegen()

Dependencies & tags

Components used: childspawner, circler, homeseeker
Tags: Adds "buzzardspawner" and "CLASSIFIED" to the instance. No tags are dynamically added/removed on child entities.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
buzzardshadows	table of entities	{}	List of circlingbuzzard entities representing visual shadows.
foodtask	task reference	nil	Periodic task for looking for food; nil when inactive.
waketask	task reference	nil	Delayed task triggered after wake to update shadows.
forcefall	boolean	nil	Temporarily set before spawning to force buzzards into fall state.
_drop_buzzards_at_lunar_hail_level	number	nil	Threshold level at which lunar hail triggers corpse spawn.

Main functions

SpawnBuzzardShadow(inst)

• Description: Creates a circlingbuzzard entity, attaches it to the spawner as a shadow, and starts it circling the spawner using circler.
• Parameters: inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing (the shadow entity is stored in inst.buzzardshadows).
• Error states: Does not return nil; assumes circler is properly attached to circlingbuzzard.

UpdateShadows(inst)

• Description: Synchronizes the number of active shadows to match childreninside count from the child spawner.
• Parameters: inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: May remove or add shadow entities; assumes inst.buzzardshadows is a valid list.

OnSpawn(inst, child)

• Description: Called when a child buzzard is successfully spawned. Positions and animates the child using remaining shadow data, then removes the used shadow.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
  child (entity) — the newly spawned buzzard.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Returns early if no shadow remains (e.g., if childreninside was updated concurrently).

LookForFood(inst)

• Description: Searches for edible prey or meat items within range and spawns a buzzing buzzard to target it if conditions permit.
• Parameters: inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Returns early if spawner cannot spawn or with 25% random chance per call.

ReturnChildren(inst)

• Description: Instructs all active buzzard children to return home using homeseeker:GoHome(), sets shouldGoAway = true, and pushes "gohome" event.
• Parameters: inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.

SpawnerOnIsNight(inst, isnight)

• Description: Handles spawning/regen state transitions when entering or exiting night. Stops spawning at night, starts regen if not full.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
  isnight (boolean) — new night state.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Calls ReturnChildren() on night transition.

SpawnerOnIsLunarHailing(inst, islunarhailing)

• Description: Starts listening to lunarhaillevel when lunar hail begins, spawns buzzardcorpse when the hail level reaches the computed threshold, and stops spawning/regen during hail.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
  islunarhailing (boolean) — whether lunar hail is currently active.
• Returns: Nothing.

SpawnerOnIsWinter(inst, iswinter)

• Description: Disables spawning and returns all children during winter; re-enables when winter ends.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the spawner instance.
  iswinter (boolean) — whether winter is active.
• Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners

• Listens to:

  • "onpickup" on food entities — clears food hunting pair.
  • "onremove" on food and buzzard entities — clears food hunting pair.
  • "miniflare_detonated" (on TheWorld) — triggers spawns near flare.
  • "megaflare_detonated" (on TheWorld) — triggers up to 5 spawns near flare.
  • World state changes: "iswinter", "isnight", "islunarhailing", "lunarhaillevel" via WatchWorldState.

• Pushes:

  • "gohome" on child buzzards during ReturnChildren().
  • "buzzardspawner:spawned" (implicitly via childspawner callback chain, but not explicitly in this file).