Communication Techniques and Tips
This guide is primarily for players who are either fairly new to D2/LoD or who are new to the Amazon Basin, though all but the most seasoned players will find a few features and tips they were unaware of.
In addition to the basics of how to communicate in games and in channel, this guide covers the communication commands and functions accessible in D2, with shortcuts whenever available.
Contents
To talk in channel, just type in the chat box on the lower left of the screen, and hit <Enter>.
Talking in a game works the same way, but you start by hitting <Enter> in order to bring the dialogue box up onto the screen.
A "whisper" and a "message" are the same thing. They are a statement sent by you to a specific person. The recipient must be logged onto Battlenet for the message to work.
Unlike the white text when you talk in a channel or game, the text of a message is bright green.
The message command is /whisper
Any of these alias commands work the same way:
/msg
/w
/m
Most people use either /w or /m, since each of them saves typing. Be aware that the command /message will not work.
You can address a message either to an account name or to a character name. The syntax is slightly different, depending on which you choose:
/w *accountname <Message text>
or
/w charactername <Message text>
The difference is the asterisk: You must use it for account names, but not for character names.
The Amazon Basin channel
The Amazon Basin channel exists on three realms: US East, US West, and Europe. It is op theamazon-basin all three places. To get there, click the "Channel" button in the lower right portion of the channel screen, then enter the following in the "Channel Name" box:
op theamazon-basin
(That is, type in both words, with a space between "op" and "theamazonbasin".) Although it is not possible to establish a preferred channel as your default, many Basin players routinely go to op theamazon-basin whenever they log on, and make it their base of operations.
Create a channel
To start your own channel, just click the Channel button in the lower right of the channel screen, then enter the name you want for your channel. For scheduled games, players frequently agree to meet in a channel with a predetermined name. Players for the monthly Basin rage runs on the US West realm, for example, join up in channel Chaotic. Channel names are not case sensitive. But however the first person types in a new channel name will govern the upper/lower case lettering displayed for everyone who then joins it.
Shortcut for entering a channel
Instead of clicking the "Channel" button to enter an existing channel or create a new one, you can do the same thing with the /join command or its alias, /channel. Type either:
/join <channel name>
or
/channel <channel name>
and hit <Enter>.
Turning D2 music on/off
The command to toggle on/off the game's music is ctrl-m.
/reply (alias /r)
If you receive a message while you're in a channel, you can reply by simply typing:
/r <text of message>
This saves typing the sender's account name or character name, which makes the /r command a terrific feature. For reasons known only to the software writers, the /r command doesn't work in games. Always remember that your reply goes to the account from which the most recent message was sent. So if while you are typing a reply to one person someone else on your friend's list enters Battlenet (which automatically sends you a notification message from that account), the /r command will direct your message to the second person. So use caution when sending a sensitive message with the /r command that it doesn't end up going to the wrong person.
Whispering
If you are in a channel and want to whisper someone else in the same channel, you can use the normal whisper commands (/w /m /msg, etc.), or you can use a shortcut: The "Whisper" button near the bottom-left corner of the screen. Just select the character you want to whisper by left-clicking that character's image at the bottom of the channel screen (the image then becomes highlighted with a glowing aura), type in your message, then click the "whisper" button to send the message. Clicking on the recipient's image saves you typing the character name or account name, and clicking the "whisper" button saves typing the message command and hitting Enter. If instead of clicking the "Whisper" button you click the "Send" button, your message is published to the entire channel even if you have a character image selected.
Emoting
The emoting command works only in channel. It is activated either by the /me command, or by clicking the "Emote" button beneath the dialogue box. The text of an emote message appears in gray, preceded by your character name, with an asterisk before and after. So if your character name is BigDude, and you want the message
*BigDude chuckles at puns*
to appear, then either type
/me chuckles at puns <Enter>
or else type
chuckles at puns <click Emote button>
Profile
Each player account comes with a Player Profile. You can view the Profile of any player in the same channel as you by right-clicking on their character image. Profiles can be funny, profound, or otherwise reflect whatever you want to convey.
You can edit your own Profile by right-clicking your character's image. A profile can only be edited in-channel, and the profile applies to all characters in that account.
Many Amazon Basin members identify their AB Forum name in their Profile, so that people in the Basin channel can quickly recognize who they are. If you are new to op theamazon-basin and are having a hard time recognizing anyone, start clicking character profiles. Within just a few visits you'll begin recognizing players by their Forum names, and then will start associating them with characters they play frequently.
Coloring the text in your profile
Everything you type into your profile is in white font. But you can make your text appear in different colors if you're willing to spend a few minutes applying the technique described here.
Open your Windows Notepad program (versions vary, you can probably find it by clicking 'Start' in the lower left of the Windows screen, then clicking 'Programs,' 'Accessories,' and then 'Notepad'). Once the bare Notepad screen is up, hold down the Alt key while you type 0255 on the numeric keypad on the right of your keyboard. Release the Alt key, and a character that looks like this will appear: ÿ. (On a Mac, type option-u and then y to create the y character with an umlaut.) If what you see looks different than that, go to the next step anyway because the difference is probably in your windows settings. Next, type 'C' and then the number for the color you desire. These colors have the following numbers:
- 0 - white
- 1 - red
- 2 - green
- 3 - blue
- 4 - gold
- 5 - gray
- 6 - black
- 7 - yellow gold
- 8 - orange
- 9 - yellow
You now have three characters displayed in your Notepad screen. Highlight (Ctrl-A) and copy (Ctrl-C) them. Switch to D2, and click on the line in your profile that you want the color to apply to. Paste (Ctrl-V) the 3-character code in, and that color is applied from the point of your cursor to the end of the line. Do the same to any other lines you want to color the same way. To apply different colors to different lines, Switch (Alt-Tab) back to Notepad, backspace over the color number, and type in the number for the new color you want to use. Copy that 3-character sequence, and repeat the process of applying color to parts of your profile.
Notification
When players enter or leave a game, you automatically get a notification of the event. To get notification of players entering or leaving a channel, use the notification command. Type:
/d2notify
As players join and depart from the channel you'll then get a notice of who they are, although the notification only gives each character name, not the player's account name.
The Void
Channel The Void is always open, and is always devoid of character images. Not even your own character is displayed. Because no one else ever appears there the dialogue function doesn't work, but all other commands (messaging, etc.) do work, just as in any other channel.
Especially if you use a modem The Void is a useful channel to enter games from when you are doing short magic find runs or otherwise jumping in and out of games, because your computer doesn't lug through the process of loading character images in the bottom section of the channel screen.
Copy/Paste
You can copy (Ctrl-C) and paste (Ctrl-V) text in the channel dialogue box, using shift/arrows or the mouse cursor to highlight the text you want. Although this feature is seen most frequently in the trading channels for spamming messages, it can actually be useful for a few tasks, like sending the same message to different people.
Tab through recent commands and whispers
Battlenet temporarily stores whispers and every other command you execute in a single channel session. (A command is any action whose syntax begins with "/", like /msg and /r. A full list of commands is given in the "Commands for both channels and games" section below.) You can toggle through your recent commands and re-use them (with or without your own edits) simply by hitting the Tab key until you find the one you want.
Identifying other players in a game
Particularly when you join a Basin game, it's nice to know who else is playing. By pulling up the Party Screen (the default hot-key is 'P'), you can instantly see each of the other characters in the game. But the party screen shows only character names, not account names. Since most players are much easier to identify by their account names, that's what you want to find out.
Aside from actually asking everyone to identify themselves, there are three ways to get each player's account name. They are:
- The Message Screen (see the "Message Screen" section for how this works).
- The /whois command (see the "Commands for both channels and games" section).
- The Squelch button (described in the "Squelch" section below).
The quickest and coolest technique is the Squelch button. If you want a shortcut for recording everyone's names all at once so you can study them later, then use the Squelch button technique on everyone in the game, and then use the "Print Screen" technique described in the next section on cool uses for the Message Screen.
The Message screen
The hotkey 'M' is preset to bring up the message log in any game, so you can see the history of dialogue and messages that has taken place.
One way to identify players who join (or leave) a Basin game you are playing in is to pull up the message screen and check their account name, which is always listed together with the character name whenever a player enters or departs. If you want to remember a name and don't have time to jot it down, display it in the Message screen and then hit the "Print Screen" key. (On a mac, hit Shift-Apple-3.) That creates an image file of the screen, which is saved in the DiabloII directory (typically c:/program files/diablo II). The screenshots are named screenshotX.jpg , where X is a number starting from 1. You can open and view them in your regular browser at your convenience.
Squelch
If you want to keep in-game comments of another player from displaying on your screen, use the squelch function. It blocks all dialogue (the white text messages) from whoever you choose to squelch. You can invoke the squelch function in either of two ways.
The first way is with the squelch command. Bring up the dialogue box (hit <Enter>), and type either:
/squelch <character name>
or
/squelch *<account name>
You will get a blue BattleNet message confirming the squelch. To undo it, use the /unsquelch command. (/Ignore and /unignore are aliases for /squelch and /unsquelch.)
The second method is generally quicker and easier. Bring up the Party Screen (the one that shows all characters in the game). The default hot-key for the Party Screen is 'P'. To the right of each character's name is a set of gray buttons. The far right button bears the image of an ear, and by hovering your cursor over it you can see it is the squelch button. Left-click on it, and that player is squelched. You'll get a blue confirming message, just as if you used the /squelch command. An "X" will also appear in the box, confirming the squelch. To undo the squelch, click the button again or use the /unsquelch command.
Regardless of the method you choose, the player who is squelched gets no message indicating you have exercised the command.
The squelch command only blocks in-game dialogue. It will not block an incoming whisper/message, even from a player you have squelched.
This command is primarily intended to silence (at least as far as your screen is concerned) a player who is spamming messages that distract from the game. But in the Basin community it has a much more useful function: Identifying other players already in a game that you join.
When you enter a game, everyone already there can see who you are since they get a message announcing your arrival with both your character name and account name. You don't have that information for the players already there. But you can get it with only a few mouse clicks. Just pull up the Party Screen (hot-key 'P'), and click the Squelch button opposite each of the other characters. For each click you get a confirming message that conveniently identifies both the character name and the account name of the person you squelched. If you want to look at that information for more than the few seconds that the messages stay on the screen, then pull up the Message Screen (hot-key 'M'), and you can check them out for as long as you like.
Just remember to click each squelch button twice, otherwise you'll squelch whatever those players might be saying to you, like: "Hi there, newcomer, I've got a Windforce for you right here in Tristram!" Some players have found that rapid and repeated clicking of the squelch button (as when quickly identifying everyone in a full game) drops them from BattleNet, or interferes with BattleNet chat functions. So use this technique judiciously while you get a feel for it.
Clearing messages from the screen
If you want instantly to clear all messages displayed on your screen, hit 'N'. (N is the hotkey for the screen clearing function. You can change it through the Esc/Options/Configure Controls menu. It's the very last hotkey function in that menu.) If you want to view recent messages after clearing them from the screen, bring up the message window by hitting 'M'.
Mute
To hold a conversation in a game where your dialogue is kept private from one or more players present, you mute them. Bring up the Party Screen. The second button from the right opposite each player's name has the image of a mouth on it. That's the mute button. If you hover your mouse over it a message displays:
Click to Stop This Player from Hearing You.
Left-click the button for any player that you do not want to be able to see dialogue from you.
The mute button is useful to hold private conversations (assuming whoever you are conversing with likewise mutes the other players), and to give warnings about a suspicious or notorious player without alerting that individual. Unfortunately, the mute function is also used by PK teams to coordinate their PK traps without alerting you.
Dialogue balloons
By beginning an in-game message with an exclamation mark ("!"), your message will appear in a little text balloon above your character's head. It's a fun way to communicate. If you're in a small group with other gamers playing somewhere else, it's also a private way to communicate only with those around you.
Voice messages
The number keypad on the right of the keyboard triggers voice messages while you are in a game. They are:
- 0 - help
- 1 - come on
- 2 - this is yours
- 3 - thanks
- 4 - forgive me
- 5 - bye
- 6 - time to die
- 7 - run
Always remember that other players may have their sound turned off, or may have ambient noise that makes voice messages hard to hear. If you want others to be ready to respond to your voice messages, it's wise to discuss it in advance.
Repeating your message
You can re-use dialogue and messages you create in a game, with or without first editing them, by calling up the dialogue box (by hitting Enter), and then using the up-arrow and down-arrow. This is particularly useful if you are exchanging messages, and don't want to keep re-entering the accountname of whoever you are talking with. So if you already typed
/w *myreallylongfriendname Hey, what's up?
you can simply hit Enter and the up-arrow to bring up that message, backspace over the message text, and type in the text of your next message. Up to 8 previous messages can be accessed by scrolling through them with the up and down arrows.
/fps
The /fps command gives you readings on your Battle.net connection while in a game. It is an excellent way to gauge lag spikes. Open the dialogue box (by hitting <Enter>) then type /fps to open an on-screen display of your frames per second and ping rates. Entering /fps in the dialogue box again at any time will turn off the display.
The babble feature
For a one-time experience, type soundchaosdebug while in a game. Type it again to toggle the effect off, or just exit.
/time
Displays Battlenet time and local time. You won't ever need a watch, nor will you have to toggle to the desktop clock display if you remember this command.
/users
Displays the number of users logged onto Battlenet.
/who
This command displays all users in a channel you designate. The syntax is:
/who <channel name>
Each character in the designated channel is identified by <charactername> (*<accountname>). The /who command is a great way to see who is in op theamazon-basin. Even when you're in the Basin channel yourself, you can use the command to display the character names and account names of everyone else.
/whois (alias /whereis and /where)
The syntax for this command is
/whois *<accountname>
or
/whois <charactername>
When this command is used for a player account or character who is logged onto Battlenet at the time, it displays both the account name and character name, and a brief report of the character's status (such as "in a private game"). If you're in a game with characters you don't recognize, you can see their account names with /whois or its alias commands.
/Away
When you activate the /away function, messages will reach you but the sender will receive a return message saying:
<charactername> (*<accountname>) is away
Activate the command by typing /away. You can append text to the "away" message by typing it after the command. So if you type
/away eating dinner.
anyone sending you a message will get the return:
<charactername> (*<accountname>) is away eating dinner.
The /away command toggles the away function on and off. So when you want to terminate it, just enter /away a second time.
/Do not disturb (alias /dnd)
The /dnd command works identically to the /away command, except with /dnd the message does not reach the recipient. This command is for those occasions when you want to squelch all messages, such as when you are about to tackle the Ancients in hardcore hell.
/Ignore
This command squelches messages from whatever character or account name you designate. As with messages, the syntax is slightly different depending on whether you designate a character name or account name. Use either:
/ignore *<account name>
or
/ignore <character name>
To turn the feature off, use the /unignore command.
/whoami
This command displays your own character name and account name. If you play many different characters and accounts, you'll periodically find it useful. It's a quick way to check the name of your active character and account, and it also tells you whether you've activated the /away feature for yourself.
/nopickup
This command works only in a game, and toggles on/off the ability to highlight items on the ground by hovering the cursor and pick them up just by left-clicking them. With nopickup enabled, you must intentionally select items to pick up (typically by holding down the alt key and left-clicking the item).
- afaic: As far as I'm concerned.
- afaics: As far as I can see.
- afaik: As far as I know.
- afk: Away from keyboard.
- brb: Be right back.
- brt: Be right there.
- btc: Back to channel.
- btw: By the way.
- Chan?: Go to channel.
- cg (grats): Congratulations.
- cya: See you.
- ding: Player announcing they've just leveled.
- gfi: Go for it.
- gg: Good game.
- gj: Good job.
- gtg: Good to go (or Got to go).
- j/k: Just kidding.
- IIRC: If I recall correctly.
- IMHO: In my humble opinion.
- IMO: In my opinion.
- k: Okay.
- LOL: Laughs out loud.
- nbd: No big deal.
- ng: New game.
- nm (nvm): Never mind.
- np: No problem.
- OMG: Oh my god.
- OTOH: On the other hand.
- r: Ready. This is the standard signal among players in a group before triggering a monster urn/shrine or entering a particularly treacherous area.
- rl: Real life.
- ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing.
- Sec: Hang on a second.
- thx: Thanks.
- ttyl: Talk to you later.
- ty: Thank you.
- tyt: Take your time.
- tyvm: Thank you very much.
- w8: Wait.
- wb: Welcome back.
- YMMV: Your mileage may vary.
- y: Yes.
- yw: You're welcome.
- Ancients (AW): The Ancients' Way in Act 5.
- BA: Blessed Aim.
- BO: Battle Orders. Barbarian warcry to increase life and mana.
- Cat 2: Catacombs Level 2 in Act 1.
- CE: Cold Enchanted.
- CI: Cold Immune.
- Conv: Conviction.
- CP: Crystalline Passage in Act 5.
- CS: Chaos Sanctuary in Act 4.
- CU: Cursed.
- Dur 2: Durance of Hate Level 2 in Act 3.
- EF: Extra Fast.
- ES: Extra Strong.
- Fana: Fanaticism.
- FE: Fire Enchanted.
- FI: Fire Immune.
- HS: Holy Shock.
- LE: Lightning Enchanted.
- LEB: Lightning Enchanted Boss.
- LI: Lightning Immune.
- MB: Mana Burn.
- MI: Magic Immune.
- MR: Magic Resistant.
- MS: Multi-Shot. A mod available to boss monsters.
- MSLE (MSLEB): Multi-Shot Lightning Enchanted.
- PI: Physical Immune. A monster immune to physical damage attack.
- r: Ready. This is the standard signal among players in a group before triggering a monster urn/shrine or entering a particularly treacherous area.
- RoF: River of Flame in Act 4.
- SH (Spec): Spectral Hit.
- TE (Tele): Teleport.
- TP: Town Portal.
- Trav: Travincal in Act 3.
- WP: Waypoint.
- WSK (WK2): Worldstone Keep Level 2 in Act 5.
For a complete list of D2 abbreviations, go to D2 Abbreviations and Acronyms.
Each player account comes with a friends list, with a maximum of 25 slots. Any edits you make to your friends list while playing one character apply whenever playing any other character in the same account.
The friends base command is:
/friends
The specific commands that work with the /friends base command are: list, add, remove, msg, promote, and demote.
The friends list works with account names, not character names. Commands with the /friends base command therefore get addressed to your friends' account names, without the asterisk (*) key. So if you want to add to your list someone whose account is named Testguy, you would type:
/friends add testguy
Both the /friends base command and each of the commands that work with it have a single-letter alias. This saves typing, and makes frequent use of the friends functions easy.
The alias for /friends is /f. The commands that work with it (together with their shorthand alias and a description of their functions) are as follows.
List (alias l)
Syntax: /f l
Displays a listing of all accounts currently in your friends list, with a status of what each account is doing (in a game, off-line, etc.).
Add (alias a)
Syntax: /f a <account name>
Adds a new account to your friends list.
Remove (alias r)
Syntax: /f r <account name>
Removes an account from your friends list.
Msg (alias m)
Syntax: /f m <text>
Simultaneously sends a message to everyone on your friends list. This can be useful to gather friends to a game or ask for help. But normally when you want to message a friend, you won't use the /f base command, but instead will send a message directly with the /m <character name> command or the /m *<account name> command.
Promote (alias p)
Syntax: /f p <account name>
This moves a friend already on your list up by one position. You can move a friend to a specific position on your list by adding the position you want after the account name. So, to move a friend with the account name DruidBob from wherever it may be on your list to the third slot from the top, type:
/f p druidbob 3
Demote (alias d)
Syntax: /f d <account name>
The demote command is essentially identical to the promote command, except that whenever no position is specified, the name moves down one slot on your list.
Friend identity alias
One more alias is helpful: Instead of typing an account name that is on your friends list, you can always use a shorthand substitute: %f<number>, where the number is the position on your list of that friend. So to message someone who is fourth on your friends list, just type:
/m %f4 <text>
To remove that friend from your list, type:
/f r %f4
Grimborn v. 1.2, 12/21/02
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