AmbientLife

AmbientLife is a Techtonica mod that enhances the game's atmosphere by adding passive ambient wildlife and creatures. Watch butterflies flutter around plants, birds soar overhead, and fireflies illuminate the darkness with their soft glow. This mod brings life and immersion to your factory world without affecting gameplay mechanics.

Table of Contents

• Features
  • Creature Types
  • Behavior System
  • Visual Effects
  • Performance Optimization
• Installation
• Configuration
  • General Settings
  • Spawning Settings
  • Creature Toggles
• Requirements
• Compatibility
• Troubleshooting
• Changelog
• Credits
• License
• Links

Features

Creature Types

AmbientLife adds 7 unique creature types to the world, each with distinct visual appearances and behaviors:

Behavior System

Each creature features sophisticated AI-driven behavior:

• Wandering AI: Creatures autonomously select target positions and navigate toward them
• Dynamic Target Selection: Birds wander up to 20 meters, while smaller insects stay within 5 meters
• Smooth Movement: Lerped rotation and position updates for natural-looking motion
• Height Management: Each creature type maintains appropriate altitude ranges
• Wobble Effects: Insects feature subtle vertical oscillation during flight for realism
• Direction Facing: Creatures smoothly rotate to face their movement direction

Visual Effects

• Animated Wings: Butterflies and moths feature real-time wing flapping animation using sine-wave oscillation (30-degree flap range)
• Firefly Glow: Point lights with pulsing intensity (0.2 to 1.0 range) create atmospheric lighting
• Emission Materials: Fireflies use emissive materials for enhanced glow effects
• Randomized Colors: Butterflies spawn with unique, randomized color variations
• Procedural Geometry: All creatures are built from Unity primitives for lightweight performance

Performance Optimization

AmbientLife is designed with performance as a priority:

• Creature Limit: Configurable maximum creature count (default: 30, range: 5-100)
• Distance-Based Spawning: Creatures spawn within configurable radius around the player
• Automatic Despawning: Creatures beyond the despawn radius are automatically cleaned up
• Collider-Free: All creature visuals have colliders removed to prevent physics overhead
• Spawn Throttling: 2-second interval between spawn attempts prevents sudden performance spikes
• Efficient Updates: Single update loop manages all creature lifecycle

Installation

Manual Installation

1. Install BepInEx 5.4.2100 or later

   • Download BepInEx from the official releases
   • Extract the contents to your Techtonica game folder
   • Run the game once to generate BepInEx folders

2. Install AmbientLife

   • Download the latest AmbientLife.dll from the releases page
   • Place AmbientLife.dll in your BepInEx/plugins folder
   • The full path should be: [Techtonica Install]/BepInEx/plugins/AmbientLife.dll

3. Launch the Game

   • Start Techtonica normally
   • Ambient creatures will begin spawning automatically

Mod Manager Installation

If using a mod manager (r2modman, Thunderstore Mod Manager):

1. Search for "AmbientLife" in the mod browser
2. Click Install
3. Launch the game through the mod manager

Configuration

Configuration is handled through BepInEx's configuration system. After first run, a config file will be generated at:

BepInEx/config/com.certifired.AmbientLife.cfg

You can edit this file with any text editor, or use a BepInEx configuration manager mod for in-game editing.

General Settings

Spawning Settings

Creature Toggles

Example Configuration

[General]
# Enable ambient creature spawning
Enable Ambient Life = true

# Maximum ambient creatures at once
Max Creatures = 30

# Enable debug logging
Debug Mode = false

[Spawning]
# Distance from player to spawn creatures
Spawn Radius = 40

# Distance from player to despawn creatures
Despawn Radius = 60

[Creatures]
# Spawn butterflies
Enable Butterflies = true

# Spawn birds
Enable Birds = true

# Spawn fireflies (glow at night)
Enable Fireflies = true

# Spawn fish (requires water detection)
Enable Fish = false

Requirements

Required Dependencies

Optional Dependencies

Compatibility

• Techtonica Version: Compatible with current game version
• Multiplayer: Untested - creatures are client-side only
• Other Mods: Should be compatible with most mods as AmbientLife doesn't modify core game systems

Known Compatibility

• Works alongside other visual enhancement mods
• Does not conflict with gameplay-altering mods
• Safe to add or remove mid-save

Troubleshooting

Creatures Not Spawning

1. Check that Enable Ambient Life is set to true in config
2. Verify at least one creature type is enabled
3. Ensure you're in a loaded game (creatures require player position)
4. Check BepInEx console for errors

Performance Issues

1. Lower Max Creatures value (try 15-20)
2. Reduce Spawn Radius to limit creature spread
3. Disable creature types you don't want

Visual Glitches

1. Try restarting the game
2. Check for conflicting visual mods
3. Verify graphics drivers are up to date

Debug Mode

Enable Debug Mode = true in the config to see detailed spawn/despawn logging in the BepInEx console. This helps identify issues with creature management.

Changelog

v1.0.0 (Initial Release)

Features:

• Added 5 active ambient creature types (Butterflies, Birds, Fireflies, Moths, Dragonflies)
• Framework for 2 additional types (Beetles, Fish)
• Implemented wandering AI behavior system
• Created procedural creature visuals using Unity primitives
• Added wing flapping animation for butterflies and moths
• Implemented firefly glow effects with pulsing light
• Added comprehensive configuration options
• Performance-optimized spawning and despawning system
• Distance-based creature lifecycle management

Credits

Development

• Certifired - Lead Developer
• Claude Code (Anthropic) - AI-assisted development, code architecture, and documentation

Resources & Tools

• BepInEx Team - Modding framework
• Harmony - Runtime patching library
• Unity Technologies - Game engine

Special Thanks

• The Techtonica modding community for support and feedback
• Fire Hose Games for creating Techtonica

License

This mod is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0).

AmbientLife - Ambient Wildlife Mod for Techtonica
Copyright (C) 2024 Certifired

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

What This Means

• Free to Use: Use this mod for personal or commercial purposes
• Free to Modify: Create derivative works and modifications
• Free to Share: Distribute copies of the original or modified versions
• Copyleft: Derivative works must also be licensed under GPL-3.0
• Source Available: Source code must be made available when distributing

Links

Project Links

• Source Code: GitHub Repository
• Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
• Releases: GitHub Releases

Techtonica Modding

• Techtonica on Steam: Steam Store Page
• Fire Hose Games: Official Website
• Techtonica Wiki: Official Wiki

Modding Resources

• BepInEx: GitHub
• BepInEx Documentation: Docs
• Harmony: GitHub

Community

• Discord: Join the Techtonica modding Discord for support and discussion

Made with care for the Techtonica community

Changelog

All notable changes to AmbientLife will be documented in this file.

v2.0.3 - 2026-01-07

Fixed

• Rebuilt all creature AssetBundles with scripts stripped at build time
• Removed ithappy.Animals_FREE scripts (CreatureMover, MovePlayerInput) from prefabs before bundling
• Eliminates "missing script" warnings at runtime - no more log spam
• Bundles are now clean and load without any script reference errors

v2.0.2 - 2026-01-07

Fixed

• Fixed "Object reference not set" errors when spawning creatures with missing scripts
• Improved error handling for AssetBundle prefabs with missing script components
• Creatures now spawn reliably even if prefab has broken script references

v2.0.1 - 2026-01-07

Fixed

• Included creature AssetBundles in package (spiders, beetles, wolf, tortoise, animals, gamekit)
• Creatures now use real 3D models instead of fallback procedural geometry

v2.0.0 - 2026-01-07

Added

• Smart AI System - Complete rewrite with intelligent pathfinding
• 13 Creature Types across 4 categories
• Wall Crawling - Spiders climb walls and ceilings
• Terrain Following - Ground creatures follow slopes properly
• Obstacle Avoidance - 360-degree collision detection
• In-Game UI - Press F8 to configure (per-creature toggles, density sliders)
• AssetBundle Support - Real 3D models when available
• Dynamic Fleeing - Shy creatures flee from player

Creatures

• Flying: Butterflies, Fireflies, Flying Beetles, Nightmare Beetles
• Spiders: Brown, Green, Black (wall crawlers)
• Ground: Dogs, Cats, Chickens, Deer, Wolves, Penguins

v1.0.2 - 2025-01-05

• Added CHANGELOG.md
• Updated icon format

v1.0.1 - 2025-01-05

• Updated icon

v1.0.0 - 2025-01-04

• Initial release
• 5 ambient creature types (Butterflies, Birds, Fireflies, Moths, Dragonflies)
• Wandering AI behavior
• Wing animation simulation
• Firefly glow effects
• Distance-based spawn/despawn