Hands-On Usage
is_one_state_island is commonly used to determine whether a state is an isolated island, enabling mod creators to design exclusive decisions, special construction restrictions, or unique occupation rules for island regions. For example, you can restrict certain large industrial buildings to non-isolated island states only, or provide additional defensive bonuses through decisions for isolated islands.
# Available condition in a decision: "Island Fortification" decision opens only for isolated island states
available = {
is_one_state_island = yes
is_controlled_by = ROOT
}
Synergy
[is_coastal](/wiki/trigger/is_coastal): Isolated island states are inherently coastal states. Using both together allows precise filtering of "islands completely surrounded by sea," excluding edge cases where only certain provinces lack land adjacency.
[is_island_state](/wiki/trigger/is_island_state): is_island_state checks whether an entire state is an island state (based on continental connectivity), complementing is_one_state_island's focus on province-level adjacency relationships. Double filtering covers various edge cases on the map.
[any_neighbor_state](/wiki/trigger/any_neighbor_state): After confirming an isolated island, use any_neighbor_state to examine adjacent states across straits, further determining whether the island holds strategic value.
[add_state_modifier](/wiki/effect/add_state_modifier): After confirming isolated island conditions, apply exclusive modifiers to that state through effects (such as supply penalties or defensive bonuses), a common pairing in island-specialized mods.
Common Pitfalls
- Using it in the wrong scope: This trigger only works in STATE scope. If placed directly in country scope (such as
division_trigger or a top-level focus available block without first switching to STATE scope), it will silently fail or error. Beginners often forget to enter state scope first using constructs like 145 = { ... } or any_state/every_state.
- Mistaking strait-connected provinces as causing false results: The official definition explicitly states that provinces connected via straits will not cause this trigger to return false. When using it to judge "completely isolated, unreachable by land," note that strait routes still count as a form of connection in-game. If your logic requires excluding straits, you must handle this separately with additional conditions.