Penguin Ice

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

Overview

The penguin_ice prefab defines the visual and physical properties of ice patches created by penguins in the game world. It dynamically fades in or out based on ambient snow levels and exposes itself as a slippery terrain patch via the slipperyfeettarget component. It is non-persistent and exists only to provide gameplay-critical environmental interactions (slippery movement) and visual fidelity.

Usage example

-- The component is instantiated automatically by the game when a penguin places ice
-- No direct usage is required by modders. However, to interact with its behavior:
local ice = TheSim:FindEntity(function(e) return e:HasTag("penguin_ice") end)
if ice and ice.QueueRemove then
    ice.QueueRemove()
end

Dependencies & tags

Components used: slipperyfeettarget, MiniMapEntity, Transform, AnimState Tags: Adds NOCLICK, FX, slipperyfeettarget

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
fadeval	net_byte	FADE_FRAMES (≈ math.floor(5 / FRAMES + 0.5))	Controls fade state progress (0 = fully visible, FADE_FRAMES = fully faded). Networked.
isfaded	net_bool	true	Boolean flag indicating whether the ice is currently faded (invisible). Networked.
fadetask	task or nil	nil	Periodic task reference used to animate fading; nil when inactive.
queueremove	boolean	false	Flag indicating whether removal is queued (used to avoid removal mid-fade).
_ice	entity or nil	Created via CreateIceFX()	The visual effect entity associated with the ice.

Main functions

UpdateFade(inst, dframes)

• Description: Animates the fade-in or fade-out of the ice effect by adjusting fadeval, and updates the erosion shader parameters on the _ice FX entity accordingly.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the instance owning this behavior.
  dframes (number, optional) — delta frames to add/remove from fadeval. Defaults to 0.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: No explicit errors; silently exits if fadetask is not running or inst._ice is invalid.

OnIsFadedDirty(inst)

• Description: Ensures the periodic fade update task (fadetask) is running and triggers an immediate fade update.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the instance owning this behavior.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnSnowLevel(inst, snowlevel)

• Description: Reacts to changes in world snow level. If snowlevel > SNOW_THRESH (0.10), ice fades out (isfaded = false); otherwise, it fades in (isfaded = true).
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the instance.
  snowlevel (number) — current global snow level.
• Returns: Nothing.

CreateIceFX()

• Description: Creates and configures the visual FX entity for the ice (bank, build, animation, layer, orientation).
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: inst (entity) — a non-networked, non-persistent entity with NOCLICK and FX tags.
• Error states: None.

QueueRemove(inst)

• Description: Removes the ice entity immediately if fully faded, otherwise sets a queueremove flag to allow safe removal at the next fade tick.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the instance.
• Returns: Nothing.

IsSlipperyAtPosition(inst, x, y, z)

• Description: Determines whether a given world position is within the elliptical area of the ice patch.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the ice instance.
  x, y, z (number) — world coordinates of the test point (y is unused; z = depth axis).
• Returns: true if inside the ellipse and not faded, false otherwise.
• Error states: Returns false if ice is faded or FX (_ice) is missing and fallback bounding box is used.

SlipperyRate(inst, target)

• Description: Returns the fixed slippery rate for the ice patch.
• Parameters:
  inst (entity) — the ice instance (unused).
  target (entity) — the target entity (unused).
• Returns: 2.75 (number) — the rate applied when moving across the ice.

Events & listeners

• Listens to:
  "fadevaldirty" — triggers UpdateFade when fadeval changes (client-side).
  "isfadeddirty" — triggers OnIsFadedDirty when isfaded changes (client-side).
• Pushes:
  None (all events are internal to net_* sync and lifecycle hooks).