Chat Overview Basic Interface You can open and close the Chat Window by pressing the ‘F12’ key. The Chat Window is located in the lower right corner of the screen. There are a few notable elements present on the Chat Window:
- Chat channel name: at the top left of the window the name of the chat channel you are currently in is displayed (i.e. “MAIN”).
- Text entry field: at the bottom left of the window is the text entry field where you can enter messages or emotes. To the left of the field is the name of the chat channel you are messaging to (“[LOCAL]”) and an arrow pointing to where the text field is located.
- Help button: located at the bottom right of the Chat Window, the Help button is recognized as a “?”. Pressing the Help button displays additional information about the chat feature and emotes.
- The Pending Invites Window: labeled with a “!”, the Pending Invites window will display any invites you have received to join private conversations from other players.
- Expansion Tabs: located on the left and top borders of the Main Chat window are two arrow tabs that, when clicked, expand or collapse the Contacts and Chat Channels windows, respectively.
Once the Chat Window is open you can send messages to local channels or other players by pressing ‘ENTER’ to access the text entry field, then ‘ENTER’ again to send the message.
UI Cursor The UI Cursor is used to select buttons in the Chat Window, expand tabs, send invitations to contacts, etc. In order to bring up the UI Cursor press LEFT ALT + SPACEBAR. You can also make the UI Cursor go away by pressing LEFT ALT + SPACEBAR again.
Chat Colors When messages are displayed in the Chat Window they are displayed in different colors based on the message type, so you can easily distinguish amongst the different types of messages being received:
White: Player messages Orange: System messages (such as /help) and emotes Cyan: Player’s name Red: Error messages
Managing Public and Private Chat When entering an instanced zone such as ArcCorp, by default you are placed in a public chat channel with every other player in that instance. Any messages sent to this channel are seen by everyone else in the instance. However, for those who prefer to converse with Contacts and not in a public forum you can create your own Private Chat Channel.
To create a Private Channel you must first expand the Channels window by clicking on the arrow tab at the top of the Main Chat Window. In the Channel window click the small Speech Bubble icon on the top right of the window to create a new Private Channel. A new tab for this private channel will be listed in your Channels window now.
Context Menu Many elements in the Chat UI have a context menu available when you Right Click with the mouse. Conversation Tabs and Contacts are two such elements; by Right Clicking on the Conversation Tab or Contact tab, a menu of options is displayed for additional actions you can perform.
By default your newly created Private Channel is called “Private Channel”. In order to change this, Right Click on the tab in the Channels window and select “Rename”. This will enable you to name the channel whatever you choose.
Conversely, if you created a new channel in error or decided you no longer need it, you can leave the Private Channel by Right Clicking on it and selecting “Leave Channel”. If you leave a channel created by another player, you will no longer see the tab for that channel listed, and will no longer receive messages from that channel. If you leave a channel you created, the channel will cease to exist.
Sending Invites Once you have created a Private Channel you can invite your contacts to that channel. Once you have the Private Channel selected as your current channel, expand the Contacts Window by Left Clicking on the arrow tab located on the left side of the Main Chat Window. The Contacts window displays a list of the same contacts as your Main Contacts list (F11). In order to send an invite, Right Click on the tab for the contact you wish to invite and select “Invite to Channel” from the context menu. The contact will now receive an invitation to join your Private Channel.
Receiving Invites When you are not the creator of the chat channel you will need an invite in order to participate in the chat. When chat invitations are sent they appear in two ways:
Chat Window: a system message will appear in the main Chat Window with the options to accept or decline the invite.
Pending Invitations: an invitation is sent to the Pending Invitations window located at the bottom right of the Main Chat Window. The “!” icon will flash when you have a message; Left Clicking on the icon will open the window.
Search Members Once accepted, you will have full access to the private chat. Private Channel members who accept the invitation will be displayed in the Private Chat Members Window, with the channel owner/creator labeled with a star. If you have a Private Channel with many other players, it may become difficult to find them on the list. In this instance you can use the Search Channel Members field to enter the player’s name. The search will filter through and find matching members based of the text entered.
Removing Members Should Chat Members become unruly the Channel creator can remove them from the chat channel. In the Channel Members window, Right Click on the name of the member to bring up the context menu. You have 2 options:
Remove Contact: removes this contact from your Contact List! The player will no longer appear in your Contact List (F11) unless added back manually. The player is also not removed from the channel.
Kick: removes the player from the current Private Channel. The player will no longer receive any message from this channel.