Slurtlesnailbrain

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-02-27

Overview

This component defines the behavior tree for the Slurtle Snail entity (snurtle_snail). It manages autonomous decision-making including threat response (panic, running away, using shield), foraging (eating dropped food or stealing from inventories), and homing (returning to its home location when sufficiently hungry). It extends Brain and constructs a prioritized behavior tree on startup via OnStart, combining custom actions with reusable behaviors such as RunAway, Wander, and DoAction. It depends on several components (homeseeker, eater, inventory, burnable, knownlocations) to evaluate conditions and perform actions.

Usage example

This brain is intended to be attached to the snurtle_snail prefab definition. Typical usage involves assigning it during prefab setup as follows:

inst:AddComponent("brain")
inst.components.brain:SetBrain("slurtlesnailbrain")

No additional setup is required in external code; the brain initializes and runs autonomously once assigned.

Dependencies & tags

Components used:

• homeseeker (reads home, checks validity and burning status)
• burnable (checks IsBurning state of home)
• eater (validates food via CanEat)
• inventory (finds and retrieves held/dropped food items)
• container (reads slots and numslots for stolen food containers)
• edible (validates edibility of items)
• knownlocations (retrieves home location)

Tags: No tags are added or removed by this component.

Properties

The component inherits from Brain and does not define additional public properties in the constructor. Internal constants are declared at module scope but are not instance properties:

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
(none)	-	-	No instance-level public properties are defined in the constructor.

Main functions

SlurtleSnailBrain:OnStart()

• Description: Initializes the behavior tree for the snurtle_snail. Constructs a prioritized root node sequence that evaluates high-priority threats first (shield usage, panic triggers, running away), then feeding and stealing actions, followed by homing logic, and finally general wandering. The behavior tree is stored in self.bt.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: None.
• Error states: If homeseeker.home is invalid or burning, the GoHomeAction returns nil, causing the "ShouldGoHome" priority branch to be skipped.

GoHomeAction(inst)

• Description: Helper action generator that returns a BufferedAction to move to the snurtle's home if the home is valid and not burning; otherwise returns nil.
• Parameters:
  • inst: The entity instance (must have components.homeseeker).
• Returns: BufferedAction or nil.
• Error states: Returns nil if homeseeker or home is missing, home is invalid, or home is burning.

EatFoodAction(inst)

• Description: Generates an eating action. First checks inventory for edible food; if not found, attempts to pick up food from the world. Returns nil if no edible food is found or if the state graph has a "busy" tag.
• Parameters:
  • inst: The entity instance (requires components.inventory and components.eater).
• Returns: BufferedAction (for EAT or PICKUP) or nil.
• Error states: Returns nil if no suitable food is found in inventory or world (within 30 units), or if the entity is currently in a "busy" state.

StealFoodAction(inst)

• Description: Scans entities within SEE_FOOD_DIST (13 units) for inventories (player or container). Finds edible items in those inventories and attempts to steal one. Returns a BufferedAction(STEAL) with validfn and attack = true, or nil.
• Parameters:
  • inst: The entity instance (requires components.eater and components.inventory).
• Returns: BufferedAction (for STEAL) or nil.
• Error states: Returns nil if no valid food is found in nearby inventories, or if the entity is in a "busy" state.

Events & listeners

This component does not register any event listeners or push events directly. Behavior and state transitions are driven entirely by the behavior tree evaluation loop (via BT).