The chat window is located at the bottom left side of your screen.

Chat
The chat window is located at the bottom left side of your screen. There you can see what other players are saying and also talk to other players.

During the game, you may notice that lot of people talk with abbreviations (e.g. WTB, AFK, NP, IDK etc). If you find it hard to understand any of them, you can check the abbreviations topic.

Message types

As you can see, messages in the chat window do not all have the same color. Each color represent a different type of message:
Public message

Private message

Party message

Guild message

Union message

Global message

Welcome notice

GM's notice

Monster talking

Chat window tabs

The chat window have 4 tabs. By default the tab "All" is the active one, but you can switch between them, just by clicking on another tab.

If this tab is the active one, all the messages are displayed.

If this tab is the active one, only the party and the private messages are displayed.

If this tab is the active one, only the guild and the private messages are displayed.

If this tab is the active one, only the union and the private messages are displayed.

Chat window buttons

Displays a list of players with which you had a private talking.
Hides/Shows the tabs.
Extends the chat window. The same button is used also to contract the chat window (you have to press it a lot of times though).

Public messages



These messages appear to the players that are close to the player who talked. If you want to write such a message, you just have to type what you want and then press enter.

Private messages (Whisper)



You can directly talk to a person (no matter if he is close to you or not) with a message that will be visible only by the two of you. To do so, you have to write the $ character followed by the player's nickname and the message.

When you send a private message, you must have no space between the $ and the nickname, otherwise it will be regognized as a public message. Also, the nickname is case sensitive, which means that you have to spell the nickname exactly as it is, because upper letters are recognized as different than the lower ones.

So if you want to send the message Hi! to a player named SilkRoad:
The syntax $ SilkRoad Hi! is WRONG
The syntax $silkroad Hi! is WRONG
The syntax $SilkRoad Hi! is CORRECT

The private messages you sent to a player, are displayed after the player's name which is followed by the word (TO). The private messages you received, are displayed after the player's name which is followed by the word (FROM).

There are some ways, in which you can talk to a person, without typing his nickname by hand:
If this player is close to you, hold the Shift key and click on him.
If this player has said anything in the chat (private, global, public etc), just click on the line that contains his nickname.
If this player is the last person that send you a private message, just press the R key.
If this player is in your friend list, open the list, click on his nickname once and then press the Whisper button.
Each of these actions, will display the player's nickname in the chat window, ready for whispering.

Party messages



Once you are in a party, you can write messages that will be visible to all the party members.

All the party messages have the word (Party) after the nickname of the player that send the message. To write a party message you have to put a # character in front of your message (no space between the # character and your message is needed).

Guild messages



If you belong to a guild, you can write messages that will be visible to all the guild members.

All the guild messages have the word (Guild) after the nickname of the player that send the message. To write a guild message you have to put a @ character in front of your message (no space between the @ character and your message is needed).

Union messages



If your guild belongs to a union, you are able to watch the union messages. All the union messages have the word (Union) after the nickname of the player that send the message, no matter to which guild the player belongs to.

But, unfortunately, although all the guild members are able to watch the union chat, only few of them are allowed to participate by talking. Each guild master have to choose between the guild members, only 7 to give them permission. So, if you want to participate in union chat, but you are not currently authorized, just discuss it with your guild master.

To write a union message (in case you have the permission to do so), you have to put a % character in front of your message (no space between the % character and your message is needed).

Global messages



These yellow chat messages (globals) are visible to all the players of the server.

Globals are not typed in the chat window as the other messages, but you need a Global Chatting that can be bought through Item Mall (Expendables -> Community) and -more rarely- you may gain some as an event gift when events happen.

To send a global, just right click on a Global Chatting and a window will appear in which you write your message.

If you desperately want to say something with a global, but you have no silks left in your account, you may be able to find a player that has Global Chatting and pay him gold to send a message for you.

Notices

When you start the game, a welcome notice is displayed in your chat window.



But the most important notices are these that are send by the GMs. When a GM sends a notice, this notice also appears on the top of your screen. These notices may contain inportant information about your protection or inform about a server inspection that will follow.

It's strongly recommended to follow all these instructions, even these that say that you have to log off before the server shuts down.



Monster talking



These messages are automaticaly appear during the defeat type quests when you meet the monsters. If your quest asks you to say something to a monster, you will see your character talking in the chat window automaticaly, so you don't have to worry about it.
http://www.silkroad-online.gr/index.php?display=chat&lang=en