FFXIV : Chat input modes

Today I’m going to talk about in-game chat system.

First of all, there are many “channels” of chat.

 

♥ Types of chat ♥

Tell : Private message, you talk to other person one-on-one. Default color is pink.

Say : Public message, only people near you will see it. Default color is white.

Party : Party chat, only party members will see it. Default color is cyan blue.

Alliance : Alliance chat, to communicate with members of the 3 parties that were formed into an alliance. Default color is deep orange.

Yell : Public message, will be seen by people in slightly larger area than “say.” Default color is yellow.

Shout : Public message, everyone currently in the same area map as you will see it. Default color is pale orange.

Free Company : FC chat, only members of the same Free Company will see it. Default color is pale blue.

Linkshell : LS chat, only people in the same linkshell will see. One person can be in 8 linkshells at the same time. Each linkshell will have its own separated chat and you have to send message separately if you’re talking in 2 or more LS at the same time. Default color is bright green.

Novice Network : Special chat for Novices (newbies/beginners). Sometimes you might get invited into the Novice Network. In that chat, people can ask questions and the Mentors (more experienced players) can answer or explain things. Default color is pale green.

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♥ Changing chat input mode ♥

When you log in, the chat mode will always set default input on SAY. If you want to change the default input, there are 2 ways to do it.

 

• Click on the bubble button on the left of your chat input box, and then select the mode you want.
• Type the chat mode command, and then hit enter. This will save your selected input mode.
  • Tell : /t Name Surname – For /tell mode, you need to specify recipient name.
  • Say : /s
  • Party : /p
  • Alliance : /a
  • Yell : /y
  • Shout : Shout cannot be set as default mode, you have to manually change it to shout every time you want to shout.
  • Free Company : /fc
  • Linkshell : /l
  • Linkshells : /l1 (for LS #1) /l2  (for LS #2)  /l3 (for LS #3, and so on)
  • Novice Network : /n

 

If you only want to temporarily change the chat input mode for just 1 message, you can easily do it any time before sending the message: before typing, in the middle of typing, after finishing typing the sentence. Just use ALT (Alternate) and a shortcut key that you set for each channel (mode). If you didn’t set it, the default key will be:

• Tell : ALT + T
• Say : ALT + S
• Party : ALT + P
• Alliance : ALT + A
• Yell : ALT + Y
• Shout : ALT + H
• Free Company : ALT + F
• Linkshell : ALT + L
• Linkshells : Hitting ALT + L again and again will cycle through all of your LS.
• Novice Network : ALT + N
• *Special* ALT + R : Reply to the most recent person who sent you a /tell. If you hit the buttons ALT + R again and again, it will rotate between more persons who had sent you a /tell previously.

 

To type in the chat input box, you can either use your mouse to click inside the box, or hit Enter key once to make your input cursor appear in the chat input box. When you use the ALT shortcut key from the list above, it will also automatically target and activate the chat input box, so you can start typing your message without having to manually click on the box.