Mission objectives

A mission is more than a set of entities: it is a contract with the player. The game tells the player what to do, monitors their progress, reacts if they fail or abandon, and provides a satisfying reward upon completion.

Subtitles: cinematic narrative delivery

While ticker notifications (GTA.UI.Notification.PostTicker) are great for technical logs and subtle hints, GTA V missions deliver core dialogue and objectives using center-bottom Subtitles:

// Show a subtitle for 4000 milliseconds (4 seconds)
GTA.UI.Screen.ShowSubtitle("~y~Objective:~s~ Reach the drop-off point before rival crews spot you.", 4000);

You can use native color format codes:

• ~y~: Yellow (standard mission text)
• ~r~: Red (danger / enemies)
• ~g~: Green (allies / objectives)
• ~b~: Blue
• ~s~: Reset to default white

The three mission outcomes

Every mission structure must explicitly handle three distinct outcomes:

1. Success: Player arrives at the objective within the rules.
2. Failure: Player dies, an escort target is killed, or a required vehicle is destroyed.
3. Abandonment: Player gets bored, turns around, and drives two miles in the wrong direction.

private void EvaluateMissionStatus(Ped player)
{
    // Failure condition: player died
    if (player.IsDead)
    {
        OnMissionFailed("You died.");
        return;
    }

    // Abandon condition: walked too far away from the mission area
    if (player.Position.DistanceTo(_startPoint) > 500f)
    {
        OnMissionAbandoned();
        return;
    }

    // Success condition: reached the marked target
    if (player.Position.DistanceTo(_targetPoint) < 2.5f)
    {
        OnMissionSuccess();
    }
}

The one-time reward flag: memory only

In Project 07, completing the mission awards cash to the player. A common beginner bug is executing Game.Player.Money += 1000 inside OnTick when the distance check passes. Because OnTick runs 60 times a second, standing inside the marker for two seconds gives the player $120,000!

Guard the reward with a dedicated in-memory boolean flag:

private bool _rewardGiven;

private void OnMissionSuccess()
{
    if (_rewardGiven)
    {
        return;
    }

    _rewardGiven = true;
    Game.Player.Money += 500;
    GTA.UI.Notification.PostTicker("Mission Complete: +$500 received.", false);

    CleanUpMission();
}

Keep this simple: Project 07 uses an in-memory flag only. Persisting reputation and saves to disk across game restarts is covered in Project 08.

In Project 07, you build a complete timed mission from start to finish.