Eater

Overview

The Eater component is a fundamental part of Don't Starve Together's entity component system, granting an entity the capability to consume food items. It defines what an entity can eat (its diet), what foods it prefers, how various food types affect its health, hunger, and sanity, and manages attributes like the time since it last ate. This component also handles the application of specific tags to the entity, reflecting its dietary traits (e.g., strongstomach, _eater tags for specific food groups).

Dependencies & Tags

This component itself doesn't explicitly add other components to the inst, but it heavily interacts with other components that are expected to be present on the inst entity or on the food entity being consumed:

• On inst (the eating entity):
  • health: To apply health benefits/penalties from food.
  • hunger: To apply hunger benefits/penalties from food.
  • sanity: To apply sanity benefits/penalties from food.
  • foodmemory: To apply food multipliers based on remembered foods.
  • inventoryitem: To check ownership when feeding entities in containers.
  • rideable: To check if the feeder is the rider when feeding mounts.
• On food (the consumed item):
  • edible: Essential for determining food values and handling consumption.
  • perishable: To check for spoilage.

Tags added to inst by this component:

• [FOODGROUP/FOODTYPE]_eater: Added dynamically based on self.caneat and specific SetCanEat... functions (e.g., omni_eater, horrible_eater, gears_eater, nitre_eater, raw_eater).
• strongstomach: Added by SetStrongStomach(true).
• eatsrawmeat: Added by SetCanEatRawMeat(true).
• ignoresspoilage: Added by SetIgnoresSpoilage(true).
• nospoiledfood: Added by SetRefusesSpoiledFood(true).

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	nil	A reference to the entity this component is attached to.
strongstomach	boolean	false	If true, the entity gains the "strongstomach" tag, indicating it may ignore negative effects of certain foods (e.g., monster meat).
preferseating	table	{ FOODGROUP.OMNI }	A list of food groups or types the entity prefers to eat. Used to determine if an entity "prefers" a food.
caneat	table	{ FOODGROUP.OMNI }	A list of food groups or types the entity is capable of eating. This property is dynamically linked to entity tags via a metamethod.
oneatfn	function	nil	An optional callback function to be executed when the entity successfully eats food. Signature: (inst, food, feeder).
lasteattime	number	nil	The game time (from GetTime()) when the entity last consumed food.
ignoresspoilage	boolean	false	If true, the entity gains the "ignoresspoilage" tag and is not affected by food spoilage.
eatwholestack	boolean	false	If true, when the entity eats an item from a stack, the entire stack is consumed.
healthabsorption	number	1	A multiplier applied to the health gained from food.
hungerabsorption	number	1	A multiplier applied to the hunger gained from food.
sanityabsorption	number	1	A multiplier applied to the sanity gained from food.
preferseatingtags	table	nil	An optional table of additional tags that the entity specifically prefers in food. If set, foods must have one of these tags to be preferred.
cacheedibletags	table or boolean	nil	Caches the processed edible tags derived from self.caneat. Can be set to false to disable caching.
eatsrawmeat	boolean	false (implicit)	If true, the entity gains the "eatsrawmeat" tag, allowing it to eat raw meat without penalties.
nospoiledfood	boolean	false (implicit)	If true, the entity gains the "nospoiledfood" tag and will refuse to eat spoiled food.
custom_stats_mod_fn	function	nil	An optional function that can be used to modify the final health, hunger, and sanity delta values after absorption, before they are applied. Signature: (inst, health_delta, hunger_delta, sanity_delta, food, feeder).

Main Functions

OnRemoveFromEntity()

• Description: Clears all dietary tags from the entity when the component is removed.
• Parameters: None.

SetDiet(caneat, preferseating)

• Description: Sets the entity's dietary rules, specifying what it can eat and what it prefers. This will update the associated tags on the entity.
• Parameters:
  • caneat: (table) A list of FOODGROUP or FOODTYPE values the entity is physically capable of eating.
  • preferseating: (table, optional) A list of FOODGROUP or FOODTYPE values the entity prefers. If not provided, it defaults to caneat.

SetAbsorptionModifiers(health, hunger, sanity)

• Description: Sets multipliers for the health, hunger, and sanity values gained from consumed food.
• Parameters:
  • health: (number) Multiplier for health gain.
  • hunger: (number) Multiplier for hunger gain.
  • sanity: (number) Multiplier for sanity gain.

TimeSinceLastEating()

• Description: Returns the amount of game time that has passed since the entity last ate.
• Parameters: None.

HasBeen(time)

• Description: Checks if the entity has not eaten within a specified amount of game time, or if it has never eaten.
• Parameters:
  • time: (number) The duration (in seconds) to check against.

OnSave()

• Description: Prepares component data for saving the game. It saves the time_since_eat if the entity has ever eaten.
• Parameters: None.

OnLoad(data)

• Description: Loads component data from a saved game. It restores lasteattime based on the saved time_since_eat.
• Parameters:
  • data: (table) The table containing saved component data.

SetCanEatHorrible()

• Description: Adds FOODTYPE.HORRIBLE to both the preferseating and caneat lists, and adds the horrible_eater tag to the entity.
• Parameters: None.

SetCanEatGears()

• Description: Adds FOODTYPE.GEARS to both the preferseating and caneat lists, and adds the gears_eater tag to the entity.
• Parameters: None.

SetCanEatNitre(can_eat)

• Description: Toggles the entity's ability and preference for eating FOODTYPE.NITRE. Adds or removes the nitre_eater tag accordingly.
• Parameters:
  • can_eat: (boolean) If true, the entity can eat Nitre; if false, it cannot.

SetCanEatRaw()

• Description: Adds FOODTYPE.RAW to both the preferseating and caneat lists, and adds the raw_eater tag to the entity.
• Parameters: None.

SetPrefersEatingTag(tag)

• Description: Adds a specific tag to the list of preferseatingtags, indicating additional food tags the entity prefers.
• Parameters:
  • tag: (string) The tag to add to the preferred eating tags.

SetStrongStomach(is_strong)

• Description: Toggles the entity's "strong stomach" trait. If true, adds the strongstomach tag; otherwise, removes it.
• Parameters:
  • is_strong: (boolean) If true, the entity has a strong stomach; if false, it does not.

SetCanEatRawMeat(can_eat)

• Description: Toggles the entity's ability to eat raw meat without penalties. If true, adds the eatsrawmeat tag; otherwise, removes it.
• Parameters:
  • can_eat: (boolean) If true, the entity can eat raw meat; if false, it cannot.

SetIgnoresSpoilage(ignores)

• Description: Toggles whether the entity ignores food spoilage effects. If true, adds the ignoresspoilage tag; otherwise, removes it.
• Parameters:
  • ignores: (boolean) If true, the entity ignores spoilage; if false, it does not.

SetRefusesSpoiledFood(refuses)

• Description: Toggles whether the entity refuses to eat spoiled food. If true, adds the nospoiledfood tag; otherwise, removes it.
• Parameters:
  • refuses: (boolean) If true, the entity refuses spoiled food; if false, it does not.

SetOnEatFn(fn)

• Description: Sets a custom function to be called immediately after the entity successfully eats food.
• Parameters:
  • fn: (function) The function to call. It receives (inst, food, feeder) as arguments.

DoFoodEffects(food)

• Description: Determines if an entity should receive the standard positive or negative effects from a given food, considering specific traits like strongstomach or eatsrawmeat.
• Parameters:
  • food: (Entity) The food item being considered.

GetEdibleTags()

• Description: Generates and returns a list of "edible_" tags based on the caneat property. This list can be cached.
• Parameters: None.

Eat(food, feeder)

• Description: Handles the process of an entity consuming a food item. It checks if the entity prefers the food, calculates stat changes (health, hunger, sanity) with absorption and multipliers, applies them, triggers oneat events, and updates the lasteattime.
• Parameters:
  • food: (Entity) The food item to be eaten.
  • feeder: (Entity, optional) The entity that is feeding self.inst. Defaults to self.inst if not provided.

TestFood(food, testvalues)

• Description: A helper function that checks if a food item has any of the tags or food types specified in testvalues.
• Parameters:
  • food: (Entity) The food item to test.
  • testvalues: (table) A list of FOODGROUP or FOODTYPE values to check against.

PrefersToEat(food)

• Description: Determines if the entity "prefers" to eat a given food item, taking into account preferseating, preferseatingtags, and nospoiledfood rules. This is a stricter check than CanEat.
• Parameters:
  • food: (Entity) The food item to check.

CanEat(food)

• Description: Determines if the entity is physically capable of eating a given food item based on its caneat list.
• Parameters:
  • food: (Entity) The food item to check.

Events & Listeners

This component pushes the following events:

• inst:PushEvent("oneat", { food = food, feeder = feeder }): Triggered on the inst entity when it successfully eats food.
• feeder:PushEvent("feedincontainer"): Triggered on the feeder if the inst is an inventoryitem being fed while inside a container opened by the feeder.
• feeder:PushEvent("feedmount", { food = food, eater = self.inst }): Triggered on the feeder if the inst is a rideable mount and the feeder is its rider.