trigger · is_major

Hands-On Usage

is_major is commonly used in the available / trigger blocks of decisions or national focuses to restrict certain powerful options to major powers only, or to branch different story paths for majors and minors in events. For example, when you want a military aid decision to be visible only to great powers:

decision_example = {
    available = {
        is_major = yes
        has_war = no
    }
    # ...
}

Synergy

• [exists](/wiki/trigger/exists): Often checked together with is_major to verify that the target country still exists, preventing errors when executing logic on defunct major powers.
• [alliance_strength_ratio](/wiki/trigger/alliance_strength_ratio): Major powers typically serve as alliance cores; combine this check with is_major to judge alliance strength ratios for AI decisions or diplomatic trigger conditions.
• [any_neighbor_country](/wiki/trigger/any_neighbor_country): Within loops, use is_major first to filter neighboring major powers, then apply further conditional checks; commonly seen in threat assessment scripts.
• [add_named_threat](/wiki/effect/add_named_threat): In event effect blocks, confirm the triggering country is a major before applying global tension, aligning with the design logic that major power actions have greater influence.

Common Pitfalls

1. Confusing scopes: is_major can only be used in COUNTRY scope. Beginners sometimes call it directly within state or unit_leader scopes, causing script errors or silent failures; you must first jump to the correct country scope using owner / ROOT or similar.
2. Equating "major" with "strong": In-game "major" status is determined by specific tags or scenario settings (e.g., GER, USA, etc.), not dynamically judged by military or economic values. Using it to filter "currently strongest countries" introduces logical inconsistencies; combine it with numerical triggers like [alliance_strength_ratio](/wiki/trigger/alliance_strength_ratio) for supplementary judgment.