Communication Channels

Overview

City of Heroes has a number of communication channels at its disposal, both for the use of players and the use of the game itself. This page has a complete list of them, as well as any associated shortcuts used to communicate on them.

Basic Channels

These channels are generally useful in your immediate vicinity.

• Emotes (Color: White)

Shortcuts: /emote, /em, /me, /e, ; (semi-colon)

Emotes are interesting in that they serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, certain combinations of the emote command with certain words produce character actions. (Example: "/e Dance" would make your character dance.) On the other hand, everything else will produce a thought bubble above your character's head (Example: "/me Hungry..." produces a thought bubble which says "Hungry..."). Only the latter will display to the Emotes channel and only to players within 50 yards of the emoting player. (25 yards in Pocket D.)

For a full list of action emotes, please visit the Emotes page.

• Local (Color: White)

Shortcuts: /local, /l

Sends a message to players of a radius of about 50 yards. (25 yards in Pocket D.)

• Pets (Color: White-blue to blue)

Shortcuts: /petsay, /petsay_all, /petsay_name, /petsay_pow

Player-generated chatter through pets. See the appropriate shortcut pages for more information.

• Private Messages (Color: Yellow)

Shortcuts: /tell, /t, /whisper, /w, /private, /p

Private messages are unique in that they can be from someone in your vicinity, zone, server, or even global! You also have to type the command, as well as a name ("/tell Player_Name") or global handle ("/p @Global_Handle"), to talk with someone.

Zone Channels

These channels are only useful for whatever zone you happen to be in at the time.

• Broadcast (Color: Light grey)

Shortcuts: /broadcast, /yell, /b, /y

A channel for those looking to communicate with the entire zone.

• Request/Auction (Color: Pink to lavender)

Shortcuts: /request, /req, /auction, /sell

A zone-wide channel that's specifically for requesting and/or selling things.

Server Channels

These channels only apply to your server, but can be heard throughout the entire server.

• Coalition (Color: Gold)

Shortcuts: /coalition, /c

When two or more Supergroups unite, this channel opens up. With it, you can talk to everyone in the Coalition.

• Arena (Color: Light pink to magenta)

Shortcuts: /arena, /ac

Officially, this channel is intended for Arena talk. In the past, it was used for for general chat instead.

• Friends (Color: Yellow to dark gold)

Shortcuts: /f

Talk to all your online friends at once with this channel. (Note: This only applies to friends on your server, not global friends.)

• Help (Color: White-cyan to blue)

Shortcuts: /hc

The one-and-only channel for any and all questions you may have about just about anything. This channel spans all factions, so heroes can talk to villains and villains to heroes. (But only if the player has enabled Show Opposite Faction Broadcast Chat.)

• League (Color: Light cyan)

Shortcuts: /league, /lc

A chat channel for non-Supergroup organizations of Teams. Limit 8 teams/48 characters per league.

• Leveling Pact (Color: Fleshtone to pink)

Shortcuts: /lp

The communication channel for you and your Leveling Pact mate.

• Looking For Group (Color: Cyan to dark cyan)

Shortcuts: /lfg

In the past, this has been both a chat channel and an error-and-notifications channel for the Team-Up Teleporter queue. As of Issue 23, it once again became a chat channel, but is not limited only to those in the Team-Up Teleporter queue.

• Super Group (Color: Sky blue)

Shortcuts: /supergroup, /sg

A channel to talk with all your Supergroup friends.

• Team (Color: Light green to forest green)

Shortcuts: /team, /group, /g

The channel for teams to communicate with each other. Limit 8 people per team.

Global Chat Channels

Main article: Global Chat Channel

These channels extend across all servers. If someone's in the channel, they will be able to hear you.
Important Notes: This list does not include custom or player-created global chat channels. Only the built-in channels. Also, if a player has not enabled Show Opposite Faction Broadcast Chat, they won't be able to see responses from opposite faction players.

• Architect Chat (Color: Light cyan)

Shortcuts: /mission architect, /ma

Officially, this channel has no intended purpose. However, most people use it to discuss all things Architect Entertainment-related, be it advertising mission arcs, asking questions about how the various tools work, or simply chatting about missions they've gone on.

Non-Communicative Channels

These channels are purely for seeing exactly who's doing or saying what to who, where, and when. They only appear for you and can't be used for communication.

• Architect Entertainment (Color: Light cyan to mint green)

Displays rewards and feedback gained on your Architect Entertainment Missions.

• Consignment House (Color: Sky blue to sea blue)

A useful channel that tells you if you've posted or stored something in the Consignment House. Also notifies you if recent sales upon login.

• Cutscene Captions (Color: Light blue to blue)

Dialogue spoken by NPCs during cutscenes will display in the chat window.

• Combat Warnings (Color: Off-orange)

Notifications of diminished buffs and such.

• Damage Inflicted (Color: Yellow to red)

How much damage you've inflicted upon a target.

• Hit Rolls (Color: Faded yellow)

A detailed analysis of why an attack hit or missed.

• General Combat (Color: Orange)

General combat messages, such as "You've defeated [target]."

• Damage Received (Color: Orange-red to red)

How much damage a specific unit has done to you.

• Error (Color: Yellow to near-white)

Displays error messages when using unknown commands and things like that.

• Event Messages (Color: Red)

A localized version of the Faction Zone Event alert channels. If there's an event happening in your zone, this channel tells you.

• Healing Received (Color: Green)

How much healing you've received from a specific source. (This does not apply to automatic regeneration buffs that increase regeneration.)

• Healing Delivered (Color: Mint green)

How much healing you've given a specific target.

• Hero Zone Event Messages (Color: Faded blue to dark purple)

Notifications regarding specific semi-rare events in hero zones. ("[FDPC] Fire Alarm sounded in Steel Canyon.")

• NPC dialog (Color: Light blue to blue)

Words spoken by NPCs.

• Pet Damage Inflicted (Color: Yellow to red)

How much damage your pet has inflicted upon a target.

• Pet Hit Rolls (Color: Faded yellow)

A detailed analysis of why your pet's attack hit or missed.

• Pet Combat (Color: Orange)

General combat messages, such as "[Pet] defeated [target]."

• Pet Damage Received (Color: Orange-red to red)

How much damage a specific unit has done to your pet.

• Pet Healing Received (Color: Green)

How much healing your pet received from a specific source. (This does not apply to automatic regeneration buffs that increase regeneration.)

• Pet Healing (Color: Mint green)

How much healing your pet has given a specific target.

• Praetorian Zone Event Messages (Color: Light grey to Dark grey)

Notifications regarding specific semi-rare events in Praetoria zones. (There don't seem to currently be any Praetoria-specific events, but this may change in the future.)

• Rewards (Color: Faded yellow)

Messages regarding rewards from beating mobs and looting objects. Displays Experience, Inf(luence/amy/ormation), Inspirations, Enhancements, Salvage, and Recipes gained.

• System (Color: Mint green to green)

Messages such as when settings are saved and lists of characters from the /whoall command are displayed to this channel.

• Villain Zone Event Messages (Color: Red to dark purple)

Notifications regarding specific semi-rare events in villain zones. ("Miner Strike in progress in Sharkhead Isle.")