Timers and waiting

Scripts must never block. There is no sleep. A handler that loops for a second freezes the whole server, or the player's game, for that second. Use timers instead.

One-shot and repeating timers

modkit.setTimeout(5000, function()
  print("five seconds later")
end)

local id = modkit.setInterval(60000, function()
  modkit.world.announce("Remember to read the rules.", "Server")
end)

modkit.clearTimer(id)

Both functions return a timer id. modkit.clearTimer(id) stops either kind.

Resolution

The server checks its timers about every 25 ms. The client checks about every 200 ms. A timer never fires early, but it can fire that much late. modkit.setInterval(0, fn) runs on every check, which is the closest thing to a tick event.

Server scripts only get to run when the game calls into one of the hooked objects.

A wait function with coroutines

If you prefer code that reads from top to bottom, wrap setTimeout in a coroutine. This is plain Lua, the host needs nothing special.

local function wait(ms)
  local co = coroutine.running()
  modkit.setTimeout(ms, function() coroutine.resume(co) end)
  coroutine.yield()
end

local function thread(fn) coroutine.wrap(fn)() end

modkit.events.add("playerSpawned", function(player)
  thread(function()
    wait(1500)
    local fresh = modkit.players.get(player.steamId)
    if fresh and fresh.hasDino then fresh:message("You have been alive for 1.5 seconds.") end
  end)
end)

Two things to remember.

• wait only works inside thread(...). Calling it from a plain handler raises an error.
• A player table is a snapshot. After a wait, fetch a fresh one with modkit.players.get(steamId). The player may have left or respawned in the meantime.

Splitting long work

Work on a few items per timer run instead of all at once.

local queue = modkit.players.list()
local id
id = modkit.setInterval(50, function()
  local player = table.remove(queue)
  if not player then modkit.clearTimer(id) return end
  player:notify("Server restart in five minutes.")
end)

Reference: timers natives.