Hands-On Usage
This trigger is commonly used in nuclear weapons or special project-related mods to check whether a nation has the foundational scientist expertise to undertake specific research, thereby unlocking corresponding decisions or focuses. For example, in a custom nuclear proliferation system, you might allow players to trigger an accelerated nuclear research decision only when their nation possesses a scientist with nuclear specialization:
available = {
has_scientist_specialization = specialization_nuclear
}
Synergy
[any_scientist](/wiki/trigger/any_scientist) — When more complex scientist filtering is needed (such as simultaneously checking skill levels and other attributes), this trigger can serve as a supplementary or alternative approach.
[generate_scientist_character](/wiki/effect/generate_scientist_character) — If you detect that a nation lacks a scientist with a specific specialization, use this effect to generate a scientist with the corresponding expertise as a fallback mechanism.
[add_scientist_role](/wiki/effect/add_scientist_role) — Once you've confirmed that a scientist exists, use this effect to add new roles or specializations to them, enabling scientist capability expansion.
[any_active_scientist](/wiki/trigger/any_active_scientist) — Use this to further filter scientists in "active/activated" status. Combined with this trigger, you can distinguish between scenarios of "owning" versus "actively using" scientists.
Common Pitfalls
- Misuse outside COUNTRY scope — This trigger only works within country scope. If placed in condition blocks under STATE or CHARACTER scopes, it will silently fail or cause errors. Always verify that the outer scope is a country.
- Assuming it checks specific skill level values — This trigger only determines "whether at least level 1 of this specialization exists," not a customizable numeric threshold comparator. To differentiate between high and low skill levels, use
any_scientist combined with internal conditions instead.