Chat recorder

The chat recorder acts as a proxy between you and your server's chat, listening in to what people say and sending messages on your behalf.

Module: plethora:chat (view methods)
Usable in:
  • Manipulator
  • Minecart computer
  • Neural interface
  • Pocket computer
  • Turtle

Basic usage

Once you have equipped a chat recorder, you should notice chat_message events beginning to appear. These will include the player name, their message and the entity UUID:

while true do
	local _, player, message, uuid = os.pullEvent("chat_message")
	if message:find("[Hh]ello") then
		print(player .. "said hello!")
	end
end

Of course, it’s no good printing to the screen. Let’s say hello back to them! For this, we’ll use the .say(message:string) method:

local chat = peripheral.wrap(--[[ whatever ]])

while true do
	local _, player, message, uuid = os.pullEvent("chat_message")

	-- We exclude messages starting with "Hello to you too" so we don't
	-- reply to ourselves
	if message:find("[Hh]ello") and not message:find("^Hello to you too") then
		chat.say("Hello to you too " .. player)
	end
end

One thing to note here is that the chat recorder speaks as the player rather than a separate object. Whilst this does introduce some restrictions, it does grant some interesting abilities.

One of these comes in the form of “captures”. We can specify a Lua pattern which will filter chat. If a message matches the provided pattern, it will not be displayed to other players, instead queuing an event on a computer.

local chat = peripheral.wrap(-- [[whatever ]])
chat.capture("^!") -- Capture any messages starting with "!"

while true do
	local _, message, pattern, player, uuid = os.pullEvent("chat_capture")
	if pattern == "^!" then
		-- Run the provided command in the shell. So "!ls" will execute "ls".
		shell.run(message:sub(2))
	end
end

In order to use player-specific features inside a manipulator, you will need to bind the chat recorder to yourself. This is done by shift + right-clicking it.

Creative chat recorder

The creative chat recorder functions almost identically to a conventional chat recorder. However it is not tied to any players, operating on the entire server. Consequently:

  • .say will not be bound to any player, printing a raw string instead.
  • .capture will capture the messages of all players.

The creative chat module

It is recommended that you blacklist the plethora:chat_creative module if you operate a creative server.

Configuring

The chat recorder can be configured using the chat category of the plethora.cfg file:

  • maxLength=100: The maximum length a chat message can be. Set to 0 to allow any length.

  • allowFormatting=false: Whether Minecraft formatting codes and other special characters can be used.

  • allowMobs=true: Whether non-player entities can post chat messages.