Making Better Use of Your Chatbox
Not only is the Chatbox the source of all emotes and the message board for developers and supergroups; it is also a powerful way to communicate across zones, servers, and even to City of Villains!
How is all this possible, you might ask? Just by learning and understanding how to use all the different channels available to you on your Chatbox. Below is a table listing each basic Chat channel, its text color, and its uses within the game.
| Channel Name | Text Color | Use It When... |
|---|---|---|
| Local (L) | White | You want to talk to only people near your character |
| Broadcast (B) | Gray | You need to get a message to absolutely everyone within your current zone (Atlas Park, Steel Canyon, etc.) |
| Team (T) | Green | You have a message just for your team |
| Super Group (S) | Bright Blue | You have a message for all the people in your supergroup |
| Leveling Pact (P) | Pink | You want to talk just to your level-pact partner (this channel is not listed if you are past level 5 and do not have a level-pact) |
| Request/Auction (R) | Purple | You want to buy or sell an item, and need to ask everyone in the zone |
| Friends (F) | Orange | You want to talk to all the people on your friends list at once |
| Coalition (C) | Light Yellow | You want to talk to the people in your supergroup coalition list (the supergroups you've agreed to share entrances to your base with, etc.) |
| Active Chat (A) | Light Blue/White | You have your Chatbox separated into different tabs with a different channel set as the default for each, but don't want to have to keep switching between channels every time you switch to a different tab. Typing in the Active Chat channel automatically lets you type in the default channel for each tab, saving you precious seconds both in battle and outside it. (Many, many thanks to Ecliptix from the CoH forums for this explanation! See full explanation here) |
| Arena | Light pink/Magenta | You want to talk to people who are looking for an Arena battle, or people who are in an Arena battle |
| Help | White-Cyan/Blue | You need help with something and want to ask other online players about it in-game. |
| League | Light Cyan | You want to talk to everyone in your league (a team of teams) at once. |
| Looking for Group | Cyan/Dark Cyan | You're looking to join a team, or looking for members to build a team. This goes server-wide, so if you need a message to get to all players on your server, this chat channel can help, too. |
| Architect Chat | Light Cyan | You want to talk about Mission Architect stuff with other arc builders and players. |
| Pets | White-Blue/Blue | Not a usable channel--shows up only when pets are saying text. |
| Emotes | White | Not really an official channel, per se, but allows your character to do non-combat actions, like use a laptop, dance etc., through slash commands. You can also type in text for your character to "say" in an emote. |
Switching Between Channels
If you want to switch between channels, one of the easier ways to do it is to use the series of small letters that are just above the input line on the Chatbox.
L B T P* S R F C A (Remember, P doesn't show up if you aren't in a Level Pact)
Click the letter that corresponds to the type of chat you want to use, and start typing! You can check to make sure you're typing in the right chat by checking to the left side of your text--if you're typing in Team Chat, for instance, it will read "Team: YOUR MESSAGE." However, if you're typing in Local Chat, it will read "Local: YOUR MESSAGE."
However, if you're like me and play CoH on a laptop, though, you might have some difficulty using the mouse in the middle of a pwning session to click the teeny-weeny letters. In this case, all you need do is type a slash command for the channel you want to post in, and then type your message. Say, if you want to send a message to your team, just type the following:
/team YOUR MESSAGE
Local: /l
Broadcast: /b
Team: /g
Supergroup: /sg
Coalition: /c
Friends: /f
Bring up your Friends list: /fl
Find out more cool slash commands to use in your Chatbox in my Slash Commands article. Slash commands can make your Chatbox into a command prompt for doing in-game tasks, as well as a communication device!
More about Communication Channels @ ParagonWiki.comPersonal Communications
The Chatbox is also your way to communicate one-on-one with another player, through the use of in-game emails and Tells. Learn how to use in-game emails and Tells here. This page also explains how to communicate across servers and how to talk to CoV players as well.