effect · remove_mission

Hands-On Usage

remove_mission is commonly used in mods when you need to manually cancel a time-limited mission, such as when the mission branch switches after a player makes a choice, or when an event triggers and you need to clear an old mission without triggering its timeout penalty or completion reward. A typical scenario is when a player chooses path A in a mutually exclusive mission group and you need to silently remove the active mission corresponding to path B.

# Player selects diplomatic route in event option, cancels military mission without triggering its timeout effect
option = {
    name = my_event.1.a
    remove_mission = GER_military_intervention_mission
    activate_mission = GER_diplomatic_solution_mission
}

Synergy

• [has_active_mission](/wiki/trigger/has_active_mission): Use this trigger before calling remove_mission to check whether the target mission is in an active state, avoiding log errors from attempting to remove non-existent missions.
• [activate_mission](/wiki/effect/activate_mission): After removing an old mission, you typically activate a new one immediately afterward—this is the standard pairing for implementing mission branch switching.
• [add_days_mission_timeout](/wiki/effect/add_days_mission_timeout): If you only want to delay a mission rather than remove it entirely, use this command instead. Understanding the different purposes of both helps you make the right choice.
• [country_event](/wiki/effect/country_event): After remove_mission executes, it's common to trigger an event to explain to the player the narrative reason why the mission was cancelled, ensuring narrative continuity.

Common Pitfalls

1. Mistakenly thinking it will execute timeout or completion logic: Newcomers often confuse remove_mission with natural mission expiration, but this command actually skips all complete_effect and timeout_effect blocks. If you want to settle rewards, you should manually call the relevant effects before executing the removal.
2. Calling it directly when the mission is not active: Executing remove_mission on a mission that is currently inactive will have no practical effect, but may leave a warning in the game log. It's recommended to use [has_active_mission](/wiki/trigger/has_active_mission) as a protective check.