Wisecracker

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

Overview

Wisecracker is a component responsible for triggering context-aware dialogue (voice lines or text announcements) for an entity in response to specific gameplay events, state changes, or interactions. It operates by listening to a wide range of events—such as eating, entering darkness, gaining food buffs, or encountering world hazards—and calling inst.components.talker:Say() with the appropriate localization key. This component is commonly added to player characters (e.g., Wortox) and some special NPCs to enrich the game’s narrative feedback.

It integrates with several core systems: talker for speech output, edible and perishable for food-related commentary, eater for stomach immunity checks, foodaffinity and foodmemory for food preferences and repetition tracking, sittable, burnable, inventory, and others. It is not a gameplay-affecting component, but a purely decorative/feedback layer.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddTag("player")
inst:AddComponent("wisecracker")
-- Default behavior activates upon events like eating, entering darkness, etc.
-- Custom event handling can be extended by adding more listeners as needed.

Dependencies & tags

Components used: talker, edible, perishable, eater, foodaffinity, foodmemory, inventory, burnable, sittable, copier (indirectly via Quagmire integration), health, revivablecorpse, sleeper, LightWatcher, inventory.

Tags checked: player, playerghost, masterchef, soulstealer, dogrider, monstermeat, fresh, stale, spoiled, preparedfood, masterfood, degraded_with_spoilage.

Tags added: None identified.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	entity reference	nil	Reference to the entity instance that owns this component.
time_in_lightstate	number	0	Tracks cumulative time spent in light (unused in current code).
inlight	boolean	true	Tracks whether the entity is currently in light (updated in OnUpdate).
foodbuffname	string or nil	nil	Name of the currently active food buff to announce (set via foodbuffattached event).
foodbuffpriority	number or nil	nil	Priority level of the active food buff (higher values override lower ones).
_repeltime	number or nil	nil	Internal timer to debounce repeller announcements.

Note: The following are used internally but not as instance properties:

• fishbuffname / fishbuffpriority
• last_*_time / *_task variables are captured via closure in event listeners.

Main functions

OnUpdate(dt)

• Description: Per-frame update function that checks for transitions into or out of light/darkness and announces them. Also announces active food/fish buffs if they exist and the talker is idle.
• Parameters: dt (number) — delta time in seconds.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: No effect if inst.components.talker is missing or inst:HasTag("playerghost") is true (blocks dark/light entry announcements). Skips announcements if is_talker_busy (i.e., a previous announcement just occurred in this frame).

Events & listeners

• Listens to:

  • oneat — announces when food is eaten (same old, raw, cooked, spoiled, stale, etc.), with specialization for masterchefs.
  • itemranout, accomplishment, accomplishment_done — announces item exhaustion or task milestones.
  • attacked — announces boomerang hits.
  • snared, repelled, insufficientfertilizer, heargrue, attackedbygrue, resistedgrue — announces environmental/hazard interactions.
  • thorns, burnt — announces self-harm or environmental damage.
  • hungerdelta, ghostdelta — announces when hunger/sanity drops below thresholds.
  • startfreezing, startoverheating — announces extreme temperature exposure.
  • inventoryfull — announces full inventory (only if inventory:IsFull()).
  • coveredinbees, wormholespit, townportalteleport, huntlosttrail, huntbeastnearby, huntstartfork, huntsuccessfulfork, huntwrongfork, huntavoidfork, lightningdamageavoided, mountwounded, pickdiseasing, onpresink, onprefallinvoid, on_standing_on_new_leak, digdiseasing, encumberedwalking, hungrybuild, tooltooweak, weapontooweak — miscellaneous environmental/situation alerts.
  • soulempty, soultoofew, soultoomany, souloverloadwarning, souloverloadavoided, wortox_panflute_playing_active, wortox_panflute_playing_used, wortox_reviver_failteleport, on_halloweenmoonpotion_failed — Wortox-specific soul mechanics.
  • foodbuffattached, foodbuffdetached — stores/updates food buff announcement.
  • sittableonfire — announces if sitting on a burning chair (with delay).
  • otterboaterosion_begin — announces boat erosion cause (shallow/deep water or den broken).
  • fishbuffattached, fishbuffdetached — stores/updates fish buff announcement.
  • exit_gelblob — announces after delay exiting a gel blob.
  • bit_by_shadowthrall_stealth, yoth_oncooldown, yoth_oncooldown_cancel — monster-specific alerts with cooldowns.
  • treatwoby, praisewoby, tellwobysit, etc. — Woby (dog rider) command prompts.
  • vault_teleporter_does_nothing, see_lightsout_shadowhand — adventure/mystery alerts.
  • Quagmire-specific events (added via AddQuagmireEventListeners).

• Pushes: None identified. The component only triggers talker events; it does not fire custom events.

Note: All announcements use GetString(inst, "KEY"), where KEY is a localization string key defined in language files. Delayed announcements (e.g., gel blob, shadowthrall stealth) are implemented using inst:DoTaskInTime(). Debouncing and coalescing (e.g., for yoth_oncooldown and repelled) uses time-based globals in closures.