Chattynode

Overview

ChattyNode is a subclass of BehaviourNode used in behavior trees to orchestrate timed, conditional speech from an entity. It evaluates its single child node and, while the child is in RUNNING status, triggers spoken dialogue or chatter at randomly spaced intervals. It supports three modes of message delivery:

• A table of strings (legacy, host-only),
• A function returning a string (or nil),
• A string key referencing localized strings in STRINGS.

It prioritizes npc_talker:Chatter (which supports advanced chatter parameters and networked display) over talker:Say, depending on component availability.

Dependencies & Tags

• Components used:
  • inst.components.talker (for fallback Say calls)
  • inst.components.npc_talker (for advanced Chatter calls with chatterparams support)
• Tags: None identified.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	—	The entity instance this behavior node controls.
chatlines	`string	table	function`
chatter_time	number?	nil	Chatter duration (used only with npc_talker:Chatter).
chatter_forcetext	string?	nil	Optional forced text override for chatter.
chatter_echotochatpriority	`0	1	number?`
nextchattime	number?	0	World time when the next chatter is allowed. Initialized to 0.
delay	number?	nil	Base delay (in seconds) between successive chatters when child is RUNNING.
rand_delay	number?	nil	Random variance added to delay (scaled by math.random()).
enter_delay	number?	nil	Optional initial delay when the node first enters RUNNING state.
enter_delay_rand	number?	nil	Random variance added to the initial delay.

Main Functions

ChattyNode:Visit()

• Description: Main behavior node entry point. Executes the child node, updates status, and conditionally triggers speech based on timing and child state. Called each tick while the behavior tree is active.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: nil (side-effect only: updates self.status, schedules future chatter, and may call Say/Chatter).

Events & Listeners

None identified.