Minperiod

Overview

Minperiod is a behaviour tree node that enforces a minimum time interval between successful executions of its child node. It functions as a decorator—wrapping a single child node—and prevents the child from succeeding more often than every minperiod seconds. This is commonly used to avoid excessive or redundant actions (e.g., preventing rapid-fire attacks or resource checks). It extends BehaviourNode and integrates with DST’s behaviour tree system by overriding Visit() and DBString() methods.

Dependencies & Tags

• Components used: None identified.
• Tags: None identified.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
minperiod	number	(provided)	Minimum number of seconds required to elapse between successful executions of the child node.
lastsuccesstime	number or nil	GetTime() (if immediate is false)	Timestamp of the last successful completion of the child. Used to enforce the cooldown. Not set if immediate is true.
inst	Entity	(provided)	The entity instance that owns this behaviour node (inherited via BehaviourNode).

Main Functions

MinPeriod:Visit()

• Description: Executes the child node and enforces the minimum period constraint. If the node is in READY status and the time since the last success is less than minperiod, it immediately fails without invoking the child. Otherwise, it delegates to the child; if the child succeeds, it updates lastsuccesstime to the current time.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: nil (updates internal self.status and the child's status).

MinPeriod:DBString()

• Description: Returns a human-readable diagnostic string for debugging the current state of the node (e.g., in the Behaviour Tree Debugger). Indicates whether the node is ready to succeed or waiting for the cooldown to expire.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: string — e.g., "OK (min period is 2.00)" or "Waiting for 0.50 (min period is 2.00)".

Events & Listeners

None.