Nav context

A Nav context is a runtime-spawned interior — a group of rooms attached to a Station or Ship, typically created by a mission cue to host story-specific NPCs (the Manager’s Office, a kidnapper’s hideout, a mad scientist’s lab). Unlike normal station rooms (defined in macros and present from game start), nav contexts come and go with mission cues.

The vanilla “dynamic interior” UI / gmc_dynamic.xml framework is the canonical user of this datatype.

Inheritance: component → destructible → navcontext. Extends destructible directly, not object.

Properties

Navcontext-specific

Property	Type	Description
`.ispersistent`	bool	Persistent — interior exists even in low attentions (player far away)
`.isprivate`	bool	Private — NPC slots only findable by directly querying contained rooms
`.rooms`	list	All Rooms inside this nav context

Inherited

Property	Source	Description
`.hull` / `.hullpercentage`	destructible	Damage state — usually invincible in vanilla
`.parent`	component	Containing station / ship

Where nav contexts come from

Nav contexts are spawned via dedicated engine actions (not standard <create_object>). The vanilla gmc_dynamic.xml framework picks a station with .canhavedynamicinterior=true, then attaches an interior:

<find_station
    name="$SelectedStation"
    space="$StationSpace"
    owner="$StationOwner"
    canhavedynamicinterior="true"
    tradestation="true"/>

Pattern from gmc_madscientist.xml:278-287. The canhavedynamicinterior= filter on find_station is a dedicated attribute — use it to find suitable hosts before spawning your interior.

Container relationship

The canhavedynamicinterior accessor lives on the Controllable (and inherited by station, ship). It tells you which objects can host a dynamic interior — typically those with a window connection (even for interiors without windows):

<do_if value="$InteriorObject.canhavedynamicinterior">
    <!-- can attach a nav context here -->
</do_if>

Pattern from gmc_dynamic.xml:1387, 1465.

Cleanup events

When a mission ends, vanilla destroys the dynamic interior via event_object_destroyed with method="killmethod.removed":

<event_object_destroyed
    object="$managersoffice.dynamicinterior"
    method="killmethod.removed"/>

Pattern from diplomacy.xml:1450. The killmethod.removed distinguishes “interior was cleanly cleaned up” from “interior was destroyed in combat” (combat destruction rare).

Accessing the nav context

From a contained room

$Room.dynamicinterior

Returns the nav context the room is part of (null if normal room).

From an entity

<do_if value="$Intro_Agent.hascontext.{$managersoffice.dynamicinterior}">
    <!-- agent is inside this dynamic interior -->
</do_if>

Pattern from diplomacy.xml:1454.

From cinematic camera matching

<match_parent class="class.navcontext"/>

Pattern from cinematiccamera.xml:1207. Used by cinematic-camera cues to detect when the framed subject is inside any nav context.

Common patterns

”Find rooms suitable for crate placement, dynamic-interior-aware”

Vanilla gm_bringitems.xml:220 comment documents the type of objects accepted:

room / walkablemodule / defensible / dynamicinterior component in which to find a crate slot

Nav contexts are treated as containers for crate slots / NPC slots / mission-actor placement.

”Spawn a manager’s office on a trade station”

<find_station
    name="$Host"
    space="$Sector"
    owner="faction.argon"
    tradestation="true"
    canhavedynamicinterior="true"/>

<do_if value="@$Host">
    <!-- ... mission-specific create_dynamic_interior call ... -->
</do_if>

The actual create-interior action is engine-side (<create_dynamic_interior>-style); modders typically piggyback on gmc_dynamic.xml rather than rolling their own.

Events

Event	When	Notes
`event_object_destroyed`	Nav context destroyed	Use `method="killmethod.removed"` for clean-up; standard destruction is rare

There is no event_navcontext_X family. Standard destructible events apply.

Common gotchas

⚠ Nav context extends destructible, NOT object. No .sector directly — read .parent.sector.
⚠ canhavedynamicinterior is on the HOST controllable, not on the nav context. Filter find_station with the attribute; the nav context itself doesn’t expose it.
⚠ Private nav contexts hide their NPC slots from find_npc_slots queries. isprivate=true makes contained slots invisible to global finds. You must directly query the contained rooms.
⚠ Persistence affects attention. A non-persistent interior may vanish when the player is far away (engine offload). For story-critical hosts, set .ispersistent=true at create time.
⚠ Vanilla gmc_dynamic.xml is the canonical user. If your mod adds dynamic interior content, study gmc_dynamic, gmc_madscientist, diplomacy.xml (Manager’s Office) for patterns. Don’t roll your own framework — too many engine integration points.
⚠ Crate slots in nav contexts work the same as in normal rooms. find_crate_slot accepts nav contexts as the object parameter. See Crate.
⚠ killmethod.removed is the cleanup convention. When destroying a nav context to end a mission, use this killmethod — vanilla event handlers distinguish it from combat-destroy.

Examples

Example 1: Detect when an NPC is inside a specific dynamic interior

<do_if value="@$MissionActor
    and $MissionActor.hascontext.{$MyDynamicInterior}">
    <write_to_logbook
        text="'Mission actor inside dynamic interior'"/>
</do_if>