Chat

In Mush, communication via the Chat is the key to everything. It doesn't cost anything to do so. To accomplish this, you need to have your Walkie Talkie or iTrakie (gained via Gold Mode). If you dropped it, you are unable to receive or send messages until you pick it up again. Only exception to this is a Rebel Base reward, Brainsync.

You can format your messages when writing them (as seen below), but once sent, you will not be able to edit or delete them. Use caution and double check when writing sensitive material!

On each tab there is a number showing how many unread messages there are. There are golden borders and a star next to them. You may have read them before, but the game only registers this if your mouse went over it. The other method is to click the button below, making all of them read inside that tab. Once you have sent a message, it will show up a 1 on the tab. Your own message get's a number and starts as unread too.

Types of Tabs

There are different tabs for different uses. Moving from the left, these are:

• Tips . By default, this channel contains automated tips supplied by the game, intended for new players. The Communications Officer can write here by creating a General Announcement. Only one announcement is shown at a time, and older announcements will be deleted permanently from the channel. It is generally used for important goals, such as the repelling of a wave of Hunters or the summoning of crew members for an Expedition.

• Room Events . (Technically, not a chat, as it is not used for communication, however it is a tab in the chat area) This second tab shows what events have occurred in the last 8 cycles in the room. People with the Tracker skill have access to full movement logs, allowing them to see from which room(s) people entered or left, as well as being able to see movement of the last 16 cycles. Actions of different Privacy Levels may or not be displayed.

• Discussion . The third tab is the main chat panel, where most of the conversation with the crew will happen. Anyone in possession of an iTrakie, or a Walkie Talkie, can access this channel, as well as anyone who is on the Bridge, or has the title of Communications Officer. Every time you don't reply, but write something new it will create a Thread. These can be Favourited. Each time something new is written or replied, it will show up on the top of the page, with older threads descending down. Again, if something is written here, it can't be edited later on.

• Favourites . Once you have favourited a thread, this tab will show up. Here you can see any thread you favourited. Since usually these are in fewer numbers, important threads can be easily accessed here. This channel is merely for ease of navigation and is purely optional to use; replying to a thread which only you have favourited will put the post in the Discussion tab for others. Other people can't see what threads so you have here, nor can be forced to favourite threads. Favourited threads stay with the Character, and not the player, if Transfer is used; if you transfer into someone who has only favourited one thread, for example, there will only be that one thread in the Favourites tab after the transfer.

• Private Messages A player can have up to 3 private channels open at once. You open these with the Plus icon, then invite any number of people to it. The invitation can't be refused, but you can exit a channel at will. You cannot kick people from private channels. If you already have 3 tabs open, new people won't be able to invite you. Uninvited people can't see what you are writing here, although if you invite anyone, they WILL be able to see all previous messages. Invited people can be seen on the top of the tab, and on mouseover the last time of connection can also be seen, if vaguely. Some people use this to see if people are active, but refusing to communicate. If people die or drop their radio, they will automatically be removed from the channel.

• Mush channel This in only available and seen by the Mush, and is automatically created. Details of people being infected or converted by Mush are automatically posted here. Doesn't count against the 3 private tabs. It can be used to see your partners and to plan things in discretion, however chat logs will only last 8 cycles before being deleted. If a new player gets turned to mush, they will automatically enter the channel. If the Pheromodem is researched, then all members of the crew will be able to see the channel, however names will be obscured; messages will be posted by "Mush", and infection logs will have any names replaced by random letters.

Text Formatting

Text formatting is done by encapsulating the text with specific special character sequences or corresponding BBCode (BBCode that is not listed does not work).

Such are:

• Bold: ** or * or [b][/b]
• Italic and red: // or [i][/i]
• Strikethrough: --
• CTRL + Enter to return to a new line
• Styles CAN be combined, but they should be nested properly (style1,style2,style3,text,/style3,/style2,/style1 - see example below)
• Generally uses the Twinoid V2 Square Smilies Warning: Not all the commands for them are the same as the Twinoid Forums. We need to check against that list.
• You can do a kind of quote with '' (two single quotes/apostrophes in a row) and it will put a dotted line beneath the text, indent it, and italicize it in a private chat.

Example typed command:

*Hello World*
[b]Hello World[/b]
//Hello World//
--Hello World--
--*//Hellow World//*--

Outputs:

Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World

Quote Example:

Smilies and Icons

Main article: Smilies and Icons.

Standard Threads

Main article: Standard Threads.

Most games have a number of standard threads used to coordinate various jobs. An example is Research Thread used to report on research progress and help with relaying.

Summary and Tips

As you can see, there are different methods to achive your goal. Want to get attention to something? Use the main chat. Want to make a thread where different researches or planets are discussed? Make a thread, ask people to favourite it. Thinking that Chao is suspicious? Private message people you think you can trust and ask around. Maybe do the opposite as a Mush and spread suspicion about Jin Su, what you planned before on the Mush channel.

Since it is free, you should always talk and plan with others to be more effective. There might be a broken fuel tank in a room next to you, but a technician with free Repair Points could do it as well. Since each character has a (more or less) defined role to play, communicating is needed to know and fulfill these. An Ian may be just 1AP short of treating a plant at cycle 8, but if he doesn't share this problem, then no one will know about it. Likewise, if you are done with your job for the moment, asking around to help may earn you praises of your teammates...or lessen any suspicions they had of you.

Text formatting should not be forgotten, the simplest one can be effective. "I just saw a fire in the Rear Corridor, please help with it." will be not as effective as "I just saw a fire in the Rear Corridor, please help with it." Same could be used to order people around if needed.

As of right now the Strikethrough-Command does not work inside the Discussion Tab (seen 26.02.2015)