Chat is the backbone on which team play as well as socializing is done in SMR. It is recommended that whenever you are going to play SMR you check in with your alliance chat room first. Here your fellow teammates can alert you to dangers, advise you of tasks that you might be able to help with, or simply ask that you stay out of the game as to not spook an enemy trader they are trying to hunt.
Autopilot is a bot that connects the SMR game server with Discord. When invited to a private Discord server for your alliance, Autopilot can be used to enhance your coordination and efficiency. To invite Autopilot to your server, simply type .invite in the public SMR discord channel, and then follow the instructions.
Once Autopilot has connected to your server, type .help for a list of available commands.
This describes how to set the Discord Channel ID alliance option.
Before you can use Autopilot's commands on your server, it must be linked to a specific channel. To do this, simply type .game in the channel you want to link, and Autopilot will provide the instructions. Alternatively (if you have Discord Developer Mode enabled), you can get the channel ID by right-clicking on the channel you want to link and select Copy ID.
This describes how to set the Discord Server ID alliance option.
The widget for your alliance Discord server can be added to your Alliance Message of the Day page. Having the widget accessible on a prominent game page makes it much easier for your teammates to join your server.
To set this up, you will need to do the following:
Server Settings and then on that screen select the Widget link.Enable Server Widget to the On position.Instant Invite Channel; otherwise, the widget will be for display only.Copy button to the right of the Server ID field.Alliance-> Options->Change Alliance Stats and then paste the ID you copied into the Discord Server ID input box.Change button for it to take effect, and then verify that it displays correctly on your Alliance Message of the Day page.Warning: If you set the Instant Invite Channel, then anyone who can see your widget will be able to join your server. If you are worried about security, but still want to use this feature, then you may want to make a separate channel with limited permissions for players to initially join.
If you use the in-game chat link, you can just click connect and it will attach an SMR- prefix to your current game name. This will take you to the game lobby #smr and an alliance chat room if you are currently in an alliance and the leader has set the room under alliance options.
There are also 3rd party applications to connect to IRC servers. mIRC, xchat, icechat, pidgin, and colloquy for apple users are the most widely used. If you are familiar with any of these than you can simply connect to irc.theairlock.net using them otherwise a good option is to come to chat using the in-game applet and ask someone for help in setting it up.
There are a few basic commands you should know if you have never used IRC before.
/join or /j is used to join a new room, room names are generally prefixed by a #. Example: /join #smr will take you to a friendly public room where several SMR players congregate./nick is used to change your nickname in chat. Example: /nick NewNick will change your name to NewNick.More advanced commands include registering your nickname and identifying yourself afterward:
/nickserv register password email (where password is the password you would like to use and email is your own valid email address, you will receive an email with instructions on validating it)/nickserv identify password (where password is the password you set when registered) is used thereafter when you connect or switch to your registered nickname.Be advised that we are part of a very large IRC network and your preferred name may be registered already.
Other commands are also available via nickserv and chanserv you can get an idea of these by typing /nickserv help and /chanserv help.
Caretaker is an IRC bot that connects the SMR game server. It is useful for alliances that want to continue using IRC instead of Discord. When invited to your alliance IRC channel, Caretaker can be used to enhance your coordination and efficiency.
To invite Caretaker to your server, join your alliance IRC channel as an op and type /autoconnect on followed by /invite Caretaker. Then go to the Alliance Stats page in-game and enter your channel name in the IRC Channel field.