Minperiod

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

Overview

Minperiod is a behaviour node decorator that wraps a single child behaviour to enforce a minimum time interval (cooldown) between successful executions. It extends BehaviourNode and is used in AI decision trees to prevent behaviours from firing too frequently — for example, to avoid repetitive movement or attacks. If the time elapsed since the last success is less than the configured minperiod, the node immediately fails without executing its child.

Usage example

-- Wrap an attack behaviour with a 2-second minimum period
local attack_node = AttackNode(inst)
local throttled_attack = MinPeriod(inst, 2.0, false, attack_node)

-- In the AI brain's decision tree:
self.brain:AddNode(throttled_attack)

Dependencies & tags

Components used: None identified
Tags: None identified

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	none	The entity that owns the behaviour tree context.
minperiod	number	none	Minimum required interval (in seconds) between successful child executions.
lastsuccesstime	number?	GetTime() (on init if not immediate)	Timestamp (from GetTime()) of the last successful child execution. Initialized lazily.

Main functions

Visit()

• Description: Evaluates the node. If the node is in READY status and insufficient time has passed since the last success, it sets status to FAILED and returns early. Otherwise, it visits the child node; if the child succeeds, it records the current time as the new lastsuccesstime.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing (modifies internal state via self.status).
• Error states: None. The node safely handles nil lastsuccesstime on first run.

DBString()

• Description: Returns a human-readable debug string describing the node's current state and remaining cooldown (if any). Used for behaviour tree visualization and debugging.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: string — e.g., "OK (min period is 2.00)" or "Waiting for 1.23 (min period is 2.00)".

Events & listeners

None identified