Oceanfish Shoalspawner

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-06

Overview

The oceanfish_shoalspawner prefab functions as a static spawner entity placed in ocean biomes to dynamically generate a shoal of oceanfish_medium_2 entities. It leverages the childspawner component to manage periodic spawning and regrowth of fish, ensuring the shoal persists and responds to world events such as entity sleep/wake cycles. This prefab is used exclusively on the master simulation and has no client-side logic. It registers itself with the world via a custom event ms_registerfishshoal.

Usage example

-- This is a built-in prefab, typically instantiated via world generation or prefabs:
local spawner = Prefab("oceanfish_shoalspawner", fn, assets, prefabs)

In most cases, modders will not instantiate this directly. To customize its behavior, override its tuning values in TUNING.OCEANFISH_SHOAL.* or extend its prefab definition.

Dependencies & tags

Components used: childspawner
Tags added: NOBLOCK, ignorewalkableplatforms, oceanshoalspawner
Tags checked: None identified
Listeners: ms_registerfishshoal event is pushed during initialization

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
releasefishtask	number	nil	Task handle for delayed fish release on waking; cleared on sleeping
components.childspawner	ChildSpawner	nil (added at runtime on master sim)	Component responsible for spawning and managing fish children

Main functions

OnInit(inst)

• Description: Initializes the spawner by registering it with the world via the ms_registerfishshoal event.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnSpawnFish(inst, child)

• Description: Callback invoked by childspawner when a fish is spawned. Moves the spawned fish into the "arrive" state via its stategraph.
• Parameters:
  inst (Entity) — the spawner instance;
  child (Entity) — the newly spawned fish entity.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Does nothing if child is nil or lacks a stategraph.

ReleaseAllFish(inst)

• Description: Immediately releases all currently "held" fish from the spawner's internal child count using childspawner:ReleaseAllChildren().
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnEntitySleep(inst)

• Description: Cancels any pending fish-release task when the spawner goes to sleep (e.g., when the player leaves the area).
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnEntityWake(inst)

• Description: Schedules immediate fish release when the spawner wakes (e.g., when the player returns). Uses a delayed task to avoid potential synchronization issues.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the spawner instance.
• Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners

• Listens to: None identified
• Pushes: ms_registerfishshoal — fired during OnInit() to notify the world of a new shoal spawner registration.