Help System

NAME
chat - information on how to use the Materia Magica Chat Rooms
relay - information on the relay command, which allows a player to
         send messages to relayed chat rooms from anywhere in the game

SYNOPSIS
chat enter
chat exit
chat list [<chat room name or wildcard match>]
chat create <chat room name>
chat info
chat join <name of chat room> [<password>]
chat invite <name>
chat kick <name>
chat ban <name>
chat set
chat set flag <flag name>
chat set operator <name>
chat set topic <name>
chat set limit <new limit>
chat set level <minimum level> <maximum level>
chat set password <password>
chat relay <chat room name> [<password>]
chat relay default <chat room name or 'none'>
chat relay cancel [<chat room name> or 'all'>]
chat relay list

relay list
relay <chat room name or # from chat relay list> <message>

DESCRIPTION
Materia Magica has a special chat room feature. These special rooms
allow people who want a break from playing the game, or who just want
to chat in a fantasy role-playing setting, a place to do so without
fear of evil sorcerers and the like.

The chat rooms reside on a magical floating island known as the Ivory
Isle. A large tower in the center, the Ivory Tower (named so after the
fabled tower of the Druids) contains a multitude of rooms that can be used
as a 'chat' room.

A CHAT ROOM in Materia Magica is a special kind of room that usually only has
one exit. When you enter one of these special rooms on the Ivory Isle, you
may use the 'CHAT' command to set it up as a chat room.

An OPERATOR is a person who moderates the chat room. This person has the
ability to kick people out of the room who are disrupting the normal flow
of conversation. In extreme cases, the operator can even ban that person
from the chat room entirely.

Chat rooms are a fun way to meet exciting people and talk about whatever
your heart desires. There are a few general chat rooms run by the system
which you may join. These may be moderated by Immortals and computer-
controlled 'bots', or unmoderated, depending on the chat room.

The chat rooms are also the only place in Materia Magica where you are
allowed to idle up to 90 minutes without fear of the server disconnecting
you. Should you get disconnected, or should you leave one of your chat rooms
without operators, the server will randomly select someone to become an
operator if there are people remaining in the room. If not, it will clear
the room and it will no longer be 'your' chat room, leaving the room open
to whomever wishes to utilize it.

If you have supporters and would like to make your chat room permanent,
you may email admin@materiamagica.com with your request. Requests are
handled on a first-come, first-served basis. You must have the support
of enough people who want to use your chat room in order to make it
permanent (system-controlled).

CHAT is the command that you will use to set options in the rooms, join
specific rooms, or whatever. You may also abbreviate this command to '/',
where the space is optional (i.e., /set flag moderated would be a typical
command). This command, along with 'ENTER' or 'EXIT', will let you join
the chat rooms from almost anywhere within the world of Alyria, and return
you to the appropriate location when done. All of your items will go into
limbo, and will be returned to you as soon as you leave the chat rooms.
Anything you pick up or get in the chat rooms will be magically stripped
from your body upon departure back to the game world.

The general CHAT commands are as follows:

     CHAT ENTER
         This command lets you enter the chat rooms. It may be utilized
         from almost any SAFE location within the game, with the exception
         SAFE rooms in NPK and CPK areas, the Proving Grounds, the Tower of
         Riga, and the Isle of Irda. It cannot be used while you are in
         formation or in combat. Any items on your person will go into limbo
         and will be returned to you upon your exit.

     CHAT EXIT
         This command returns you from the chat rooms to wherever you were
         prior to typing the 'CHAT ENTER' command. Any items you have that
         you have acquired in the chat rooms, except for gold pieces, will be
         stripped from your person and returned to the Ivory Tower. Your
         previous equipment will magically reappear.

     CHAT LIST
         CHAT LIST without arguments gives you a list of the current
         visible chat rooms and the approximate number of people in each, as
         well as some other information, such as the flags and the limit
         in that room. Flags are listed below and the first letter of each
         will either be capitalized or lowercased, indicating if the flag is
         set or not. If a chat room is hidden, the only way to join it is
         by knowing its location in the area, or by knowing the name of the
         room.

     CHAT LIST <name>
         List with a chat room name gives you a listing of the
         occupants of that chat room and their titles.

         Search names can include the following wildcards:
         * Matches everything (e.g., *fred*, or fred* or *fred)
         ? Matches a single character (e.g., fr?d)

         Flags that have been set on chat rooms will show up in this list
         in an abbreviated format, such as: smIhgEP. Each letter stands for
         a flag that is either set (upper case) or unset (lower case). The
         flags are as follows:

         S or s - system-controlled
         R or r - no-relay
         M or m - moderated
         H or h - hidden
         I or i - invite-only
         G or g - global-restrict
         T or t - topic-restrict
         E or e - emote-restrict

         See CHAT SET below for a description of each flag.

     CHAT CREATE <name of chat room>
         Create allows you to create a new chat room by the name of 'name'.
         Using a pound sign (#) is not necessary; these are added to make
         them more familiar to IRC users. Once created, you will
         automatically become an operator of that chat room. As an operator,
         you have full access to the operator commands listed below.

     CHAT INFO
         Information lets you see a list of who's in your current chat room,
         who is currently relaying from your chat room, who is an operator
         and who isn't, the flags that are currently set on the room, and
         the topic.

     CHAT JOIN <name> [<password>]
         The join command lets you join a chat room. You must know the name
         of the chat room you wish to join. Putting a pound sign (#) is
         not necessary. If the room is password protected, you will be
         required to type it after the room name; otherwise you will not be
         allowed to enter that room. Please note that 'hidden' chat rooms
         will not show up on a LIST and you must know the name of them if
         you wish to join one.

     CHAT RELAY / RELAY
         This command allows you to join chat rooms from outside the
         chat area and hear conversations going on in them from players in
         the actual chat room, or who are relaying as well. If you are in a
         chat room when CHAT RELAY is used, it will cause you to exit the
         chat rooms completely, and adds the channel to your list of relayed
         chat rooms.

         CHAT RELAY from within a chat room causes you to exit the chat rooms
         and begin relaying from that chat room, simultaneously.

         CHAT RELAY <chat room name> [<password>] allows you to relay from
         a specific chat room if you are not in it, or outside the chat rooms.
         If the chat room has a password set, it must be specified.

         CHAT RELAY LIST will list all the chat rooms you are currently
         relaying.

         CHAT RELAY CANCEL <chat room name> or <'all'> will stop relaying
         from a specific chat room, or all of them at once.

         CHAT RELAY DEFAULT <chat room name> or <'none'> will let you
         set a specific chat room relay as your default, or clear the
         existing chat room relay default. If you have a default chat
         room relay defined, you can use the RELAY command without
         specifying a chat room, and the message will be sent to your
         default chat room relay.

         You may relay up to 10 chat rooms at a time.

         Chat rooms may have up to 100 members relaying from the room at
         any given time.

         The RELAY command is used to relay messages to and from specific
         chat rooms, or display a list of relayed rooms, like CHAT RELAY
         LIST above.

         RELAY LIST displays a list of currently relayed rooms.

         RELAY <#chat room name or # from chat relay list> <message> will
         relay a message to the specified chat room.

         Relayed chat data is stored in your character's history buffer.
         See HELP HISTORY for additional information.

         Relayed chat rooms are saved for you when you log out. You
         will autojoin them upon your next login, provided the password
         for each chat room has not changed since you started relaying,
         and you are not currently banned from each chat room. If
         you do not wish to rejoin the chat rooms upon login, you must
         RELAY CANCEL ALL before logging out.

         Relayed chat status will be displayed to you every hour,
         indicating which channels you are currently relaying from,
         and the number of fellow occupants or relayers.

The following are CHAT commands that are restricted to operators only:

     CHAT INVITE <name>
         Invite works if your chat room is 'invite-only', an option
         for operators described below. This command will let you invite
         someone to join the chat room, if they are within the chat area.
         Invitations do not save during reboots of the game server, and they
         last only until the person who has been invited joins the chat room.
         Once the person joins the chat room, they are removed from the
         invite list. Inviting someone to a chat room also allows them to
         relay from it instead of joining.

     CHAT KICK <name>
         Kick will boot someone out of the chat room you are in.
         If you do not wish them to rejoin the room, ban them first
         (see following command) and then kick them out of the room.
         This command will also boot relaying chat room members. There
         must be an open exit in the chat room in order to kick a
         person out of it (e.g., if there is a door on the only exit, it
         must be open).

     CHAT BAN <name>
         Ban will allow you to ban someone from your chat room. They will
         not be able to enter the room again if they are banned.
         If they are currently in the room, it is usually wise to ban first
         and kick second so they cannot rejoin. Ban will not automatically
         kick someone from the room.

     CHAT SET <option> [<arguments>]
         The set command allows you to do many things, described as follows:

         CHAT SET FLAG <flag name>
             This will toggle one of the following flags on or off:
                    moderated - Only operators can speak in the room.
                    global-restrict - You won't see conversation from
                                     'shout'.
                    hidden - The room will not show up in lists.
                    emote-restrict - People cannot do emotes in
                                     the room.
                    invite-only - People who have not been invited
                                  cannot join or enter.
                    no-relay - People cannot relay from this chat room.
                               If there are people relaying at the time
                               this flag is set, it will cancel their
                               relays.

         Flags that may be set, but players cannot set themselves:
                    system-controlled - Whether or not the chat room
                                        is considered 'permanent' or
                                        temporary. System controlled chat
                                        rooms will exist even if they are
                                        empty for long periods of time.
                    topic-restrict - The topic of the chat room cannot be
                                     changed.

         CHAT SET TOPIC <new topic or 'none'>
             The topic command allows you to set a topic for the
             converation in the room. This is shown when someone
             'LOOKS' in the room or enters it. If the topic-restrict flag
             is set on the chat room, this command will not work.

         CHAT SET OPERATOR <name>
             Operator allows you to add or remove an operator
             from the chat room. If they are already an operator, it will
             remove them, and if they are not, it will make them one. You
             can also un-op yourself if the situation calls for it.

         CHAT SET LIMIT <new limit>
             Allows you to limit the number of people allowed in the
             chat room. If the limit is reached, no one will be able to
             join until people leave. By default this is 15.

         CHAT SET LEVEL <minimum level> <maximum level>
             Allows you to limit the levels of the people allowed to
             enter or relay from the chat room. The levels must be
             from 0 to 250, and the minimum level must be less than
             or equal to the maximum level.

         CHAT SET PASSWORD <new password or 'none'>
             Allows you to set a password for the chat room. People
             must join the room using the 'CHAT JOIN' command, and
             they must have the password to be able to enter.

SEE ALSO
Safe, History, Channels