The Comm (F3) window is used to communicate with cities, other players in the game, and game-controlled characters. Refer to the Keyboard and Mouse Controls page for details.

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Communication occurs in the form of messages. A message may contain text entered by the sender or a message may be a standard message.

Standard messages are game-defined messages that conduct transactions with cities, players, and game-controlled characters. The transaction semantics are the same regardless of whether you are communicating with cities or players. Trading your ship's cargo and passengers with a city is the same as trading with another spacecraft; the same secure semantics are used to trade personal items between players.

	Standard Message	Description
	Accept	Accepts bids and other kinds of offers. Accepts bids to complete a sale; you must be the seller. Only the last bid from each buyer can be accepted. Each bid can be accepted only once. The transaction will be completed if possible. i.e. Buyer has the money; seller has the merchandise; buyer's ship has room for the merchandise; bid hasn't been revoked; etc. Accepts berth requests. You must be an officer of the ship. Accepts offers to repair your spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Accepts buddy requests. Accepts requests to join your empire. You must be the emperor or vice-emperor. Accepts invitations to join a different empire. Accepts government office assignments. Accepts 'Load Passengers' requests to transfer passengers from your ship to another ship. You must be an officer of the ship. Accepts 'Load Troops' requests to transfer troops from your ship to another ship. You must be an officer of the ship. Accepts 'Unload Passengers' requests to transfer passengers to your ship from another ship. You must be an officer of the ship.
	Auction	Offers items for sale without setting a price, to solicit bids. Sells Cargo while aboard a spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Sells Person Items while standing in a retail store, grocery or cantina. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	Bid	Offers to buy items that are for sale. Select a For Sale item to make a counter offer. Select an Auction item to enter a bid. Only your last offer on this channel can be accepted; it can be accepted only once. Bids automatically expire after five minutes.
	Debark Passengers	Offers to unload passengers from your ship or vehicle. Unloads Passengers from a spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Unloads Passengers from a vehicle to the city you are in. This message creates an offer that must be accepted by a city or an officer of another spacecraft. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	For Sale	Offers items for sale at a stated price. Sells Cargo while aboard a spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Sells Personal Items while standing in a retail store, grocery or cantina. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	Inventory of City	Request a complete list of all the commodities in a city's inventory. A city will only respond to people in its chain of command. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	Load Passengers	Offers empty stateroom berths or vehicle seats to passengers looking for transport. Loads Passengers while aboard a spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Loads Passengers into a vehicle that has empty seats. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	Load Troops	Offers empty troop berths to troops waiting for deployment. Loads Troops while aboard a spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Troops must be at bases, not yet assigned to a spacecraft, and members of your empire. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	Request Berth	Requests an available berth on a spacecraft. An officer aboard a spacecraft may accept the request. A ship may accept requests from friendly or neutral players. Transmit on the Intercom channel to contact the ship you are aboard. A Captain's berth request is always accepted by the ship when the berth is unoccupied. Berth acceptance policies determine if requests for other kinds of berths will be accepted by the ship.
	Request Repair	Requests repairs from a city with an airport repair shop. You must be an officer of the ship. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city. Cities within range will reply with a repair offer. You must accept a repair offer to purchase the repairs.
	Request Transporter Beam	Requests beam over via matter transporter. A ship may accept requests from players. The destination vessel must have a transporter room. Transmit on the Crew channel to contact your ship, even if nobody is aboard. You must be listed on the ship's roster in any berth except Passenger. Transmit on the Hail channel to contact a friendly or neutral station in orbit, even if nobody is aboard.
	Revoke	Revokes your last 'Bid' or other kind of offer placed on this channel. The offer is deactivated; it can no longer be accepted by anyone. You will have no active bids or other offers on this channel.
	Solicit Sales	Requests auctions or sale offers for a specific item or category of items. Buys Cargo while aboard a spacecraft. You must be an officer of the ship. Buys Person Items while standing in a retail store, grocery or cantina. Buys Fuel for a vehicle while parked on a road slab. Transmit on the Trade channel to initiate contact with a city.
	Spot Target or Terrain	Sent on the current channel when the Spot Target command is initiated, typically by pressing tilde, the ~ key. The spot message reports the location and description of the target or terrain at the center of the targetting cross-hair.
	Troop Order	Sent to one or more selected units to issue an order.
	Troop Posture	Sent to one or more selected units to change their offensive/defensive posture.

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Like the channels on radio or TV, communication channels enable multiple simultaneous conversations to occur without confusing everyone. When a message is sent, it is broadcast on a certain channel. All units in range who are listening on that channel will receive the message. Each channel that is open appears as a separate tab on the Comm window.

Cities always monitor the Trade channel. When communicating with cities, you must initiate communication with them on the Trade channel. Many of the standard messages sent on the Trade channel will cause a city to reply on a private channel back to you. From then on, the private channel can be used for all of your conversations with that city and its buildings. This reduces the message traffic on the public Trade channel; it also helps to separate the flood of response messages when multiple cities reply to a standard message.

A city stops monitoring its private channels after a period of inactivity. A wake-up call on the Trade channel is required to reopen the connection after it has gone stale.

	Open Channel to Sender	Opens a channel to the sender of the selected message. To use this command, you must first select a message in the comm channel. This is how the city replies to many of the standard messages it receives on the Trade channel.
	Open Standard Channel	Opens a standard channel from the catalog of standard channels. Buddy Channel to people in your buddy list. Crew Channel to your crew mates and to your ship. You must be a ship crew member to broadcast on this channel. Use the Crew channel to request a transporter to your ship, even if nobody is aboard. Your ship will inform you on the crew channel when it is being attacked. The Orders (Shift+F3) window communicates with your units on the Crew channel. Diplomacy Channel to members of all governments. Only government officials may broadcast on this channel. Empire Channel to members of your empire. Friend Channel to members of your empire and friendly empires. Government Channel to members of your empire's government. Only government officials may broadcast on this channel. Hail Channel that monitors multiple communication channels at once. Stations in orbit monitor the Hail channel for transporter beam requests. Use the Hail channel to request a transporter beam to a station that is in orbit. The Hail channel tab enables multiple channels to be opened on a single channel tab. All messages from the monitored channels are interleaved in the channel output pane as they arrive. Their channel of origin is indicated on the message. Help Channel to service staff for help playing the game. Intercom Channel to everyone aboard the ship or vehicle you occupy and to the ship itself. Use the Intercom channel to request a berth on the ship you are aboard. Range does not apply. Log Channel for messages sent to inform you of events. Game events such as results of your activities, combat results, and other useful information are sent to you on the Log channel. This channel only receives messages. You may not broadcast on the Log channel. Military Channel to members of your empire and friendly empires for military purposes. Private Channel for private messages sent to you. Recruit Channel to everyone for recruiting purposes. Trade Channel to everyone for trading purposes. Cities monitor this channel but they usually reply on a private channel. Voice Channel to everyone nearby. This is akin to speaking aloud. Range is fixed at 'Close' range.
	Open Named Channel	Opens a channel with a specified name. All players with the same channel open will receive messages that are broadcast within range. Several players could mutually agree to monitor the 'xyzzy' channel so they can communicate with each other when they are on line.
	Close Channel	Closes the current channel. The currently selected communication channel tab is closed.

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Broadcast range determines how far a message will travel when it is transmitted. Recipients who are beyond the broadcast range of a message will not receive it, even if they are monitoring the channel on which it was sent.

Most channels feature an adjustable broadcast range, controlled by a slider at the bottom right corner of the channel tab. A few channels have a built-in range that cannot be changed, such as the Intercom and Voice channels.

	Close	Close range reaches about three hundred meters.
	Hail	Hail range reaches an entire planet and its moons. May reach neighboring planets when orbital positions are favorable.
	Solar System	Solar system range reaches the entire solar system.
	Sector	Sector range reaches the entire sector.
	Galaxy	Galaxy range reaches the entire galaxy.

A city will not respond to messages that originate outside its solar system.