Circlingbuzzard

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

Overview

circlingbuzzard is a client-side FX prefab responsible for rendering a visual shadow representation of a buzzard that circles above the player or world. It supports two variants: a standard version (circlingbuzzard) and a lunar-mutated variant (circlingbuzzard_lunar). The entity handles dynamic fading based on time of day (isnight) and season (iswinter) via world state listeners, and manages its own animation and lifecycle—including gradual fade-out upon being "killed".

This prefab uses the standard commonfn factory to set up the core ECS entity (Transform, AnimState, Network), and delegates variant-specific behavior to dedicated init functions. It does not implement logic beyond FX rendering; movement and positioning are handled by external components like circler and mutatedbuzzardcircler.

Usage example

-- Add the standard circling buzzard FX to an entity (e.g., a player)
local inst = SpawnPrefab("circlingbuzzard")
inst.Transform:SetPosition(x, y, z)

-- The FX is automatically managed:
-- - it fades in at night and out during day
-- - it fades in during winter regardless of time
-- - calling KillShadow() triggers a fade-out and removes it

Dependencies & tags

Components used: None identified
Tags: Adds FX (always); adds lunar_aligned for the lunar variant.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
_fadeframe	net_byte	0	Networked frame counter (0 to MAX_FADE_FRAME) controlling fade opacity.
_isfadein	net_bool	false	Networked flag indicating whether the shadow is currently fading in (true) or out (false).
_fadetask	task or nil	nil	Reference to the periodic task driving fade updates; nil when inactive.
_killed	boolean	false	Internal flag set when KillShadow() is invoked; triggers entity removal after fade completes.

Main functions

KillShadow()

• Description: Initiates a fade-out sequence for the shadow. Stops world state listeners and schedules removal after fade completes. Safe to call from both server and client; removal only occurs on master simulation.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: If the shadow is already fully faded out (_fadeframe == 0) or sleeping, it is removed immediately without fading.

Events & listeners

• Listens to: fadedirty (client-only) — triggers OnFadeDirty() to begin or resume fade updates.
• Pushes: shadowkilled — fired once when KillShadow() begins the fade-out sequence.