Communication

The communication window.

The communication window, also commonly called the comm or chat, is an important part of Hazeron and is accessed by pressing F3 at any time while playing. The comm window is split up into several tabs that represent different chat channels within the game. As well as having the necessary buttons to facilitate a wide range of actions from buying items to ordering fleet movements.

Standard Channels

There are a number of standard channels that each have a special purpose. If they aren't already open they can be opened using the Open Standard Channel button.

Trade

The Trade channel is used to communicate with cities and buildings.

It is limited at solar system range.

Hail

The Hail channel is the main means of chatting between players and spacecraft in the same solar system. Pirates will also make their demands on this channel.

It is limited at solar system range.

Friend

The Friend channel is used to communicate with allies.

Only empires that have been set to friend political stance or above, will be able to receive messages sent on this channel. This means that communicating on this channel can cause confusion if your friends aren't friends with each other, as they can't see the other's messages.

This channel also displays alerts about attacks on your empire and its allies/friends, or requests for help from marooned spacecraft.

Empire

The Empire channel is a private channel for everyone in the empire.

Some empire government changes will also be announced on this channel.

Not useful in singleplayer.

Government

The Government channel is similar to the Empire channel, but is only accessible to members of the empire with a chain-of-command or jurisdiction.

Not useful in singleplayer.

Fleet

The Fleet channel is used to issue orders to all ships under your control.

Crew

The Crew channel is a private communication channel with the crew of the spacecraft you hold a berth on. Used to easily send commands to the spacecraft's crew, and for the crew to keep you posted on what is happening.

Intercom

The Intercom channel is available when on a spacecraft. Everyone on the spacecraft can receive and send on this channel to communicate with everyone on the spacecraft. But is not secure like the Crew channel.

Thoughts

The Thoughts channel displays information relating to player.

Galactic

The Galactic channel is the main communication channel between players. There is no range limit, allowing you to communicate with all other players in the universe.

Not useful in singleplayer.

Voice

The Voice channel displays chat from players nearby using the voice channel, as well as the tutorial NPC, Targoss.

It is limited to close range.

Diplomacy

The Diplomacy channel appears to act similarly to galactic chat, but specifically intended for diplomacy-related communications.

Not useful in singleplayer.

Comm buttons

General

Range

This is a set of 5 options used to determine how far you want to broadcast any message you send out. It can be set to close (voice) range, planetary range, solar system range, sector range, galaxy range, or universe range. The majority of actions will only require you to be in the system / sector range. Historically, talking to other players was usually done galaxy wide, unless it was intended to only talk to players in a local area.

• Close
• Planetary
• System
• Sector
• Galaxy
• Universe

Note: Some channels have a forced range, and these buttons to change the range are not available. For example, the Voice is always in close range, and Intercom is always ship-wide.

Hail

Causes all cities / spacecraft within the area of effect to open up a new tab in your comm window.

Spacecraft Mission Order

Allows you to give commands to ships that access your current channel. This should mainly be used on the fleet / intercom channel and for the channels of individual ships unless you want all the ships in the area to do the same thing. You are only able to add multiple orders if there is an officer on board. If not then commands should be issued as a new order to ensure that they are done.

Request Transporter Beam

Requests a transport beam from players/ships in the current channel. Mainly used on the crew, trade, and hail channels to request a teleport from an NPC. If standing within the transporter room of a spacecraft, more options will be provided to allow specifying a beam-down to specific buildings, landmarks, or co-ordinates. See here for details.

Close Non-Standard Channels

This button simply closes all private channels. Includes private channels to spacecraft, cities, and other avatars.

Trade Channel

The following commands are only usable in the trade channel. Although you will broadcast the commands on other channels if you're not careful, they will not have any effect.

Ask For Items

The Ask For Items button is how you buy commodities. It will broadcast the buy offer and any city in range will respond. Mainly used on the trade channel but can be used elsewhere if needed.

Accept Offer

The Accept Offer button is used to accept any trade offer. This can be used on both buy and sell offers, along with other requested services such as spacecraft repairs.

If accepting an offer where a city sells to you, a UI will open where you specify the amount to buy and price.

Revoke Offer

The Revoke Offer/Message button is simply used to reject any offer. Usually used to cancel bad purchase offers.

Inventory of City

Causes all cities in range to open a new tab displaying their inventory. Unless they already have a tab open in which case it will be displayed there.

Request Service

Contains a few useful ship services such as requesting refuelling, rat extermination, house-keeping, refitting, and module upgrading. These services are free for fleet ships.

Load Crew, Passengers or Troops

The Load Crew, Passengers or Troops button allows you to fill up empty berths on your ship from the planet you are landed on. Requires an airport, space station, or transporters.

Unload Crew, passengers or Troops

The Unload Crew, Passengers or Troops button allows you to disembark passengers.

Screen Messages

The further away a sender is, the intensity of the messages they send gets dimmer.

Using the / key when the cursor is controlling the view of the character results in the brightness of the text at the top left of the screen being changed. This cycles between 4 modes;

• Invisible
• Dim
• Low brightness
• Bright

Forming a Fleet within a Fleet

Once you've acquired sufficient officers, you may wish to start communicating with specific groups of ships. Allowing them to act with more group cohesion while avoiding messing up your trade ships orders. This involves forcing ships to share channels so that orders broadcasted will be accepted by all the ships listening.

The simplest way to go about this is to simply right click on any message received from a ship then open a new channel (named whatever you like) The ship will now be listening to that channel. You can repeat this process to add as many ships as you have command over. Making sure to specify the same channel name for each ship that you add. The downside of this method is that the ships will eventually stop listening to the custom channel. Requiring you to go through this setup every time you log on or whenever the custom channel is silent for extended periods.

A more long term method is to give ships the same name. Ships with the same name will respond in and listen to the same channel that's opened from a fleet hail. This can lead to some confusion when your trying to communicate with individual ships within a channel. However, you can again right click any individual reply to open a direct line of communication to the entities of your choosing.