Basic commands

These commands can be used by anyone in any channel.

/away <reason> Examples: /away chatting at ICQ. Typing this and specifying a reason that you are away will tell anyone who does a /whois on you that you are away and the reason you specified. To turn it off simply type /away with no <reason>

/channel <channel name> Example: /channel bar. Joins a different channel without having to use the channel join screen. Aliases for this command: /join

/dnd <reason> Example:/dnd I am currently in a game playing. This command prevents all whispers from being displayed on your screen. This is excellent if you are in a game and do not want to be disturbed. To turn it off simply type /dnd with no <reason>

/me Example: /me feels tired. Displays emotion text, as in "PatN feels tired"

/squelch <username> Examples: /squelch AlenL or /squelch #683989. Ignores any future messages from that user, effectively muting that user to you. You can not squelch yourself. Aliases for this command: /ignore

/stats <username> Example /stats ScottM. Shows the stats of a Star Craft player. It will however always show 0-0-0 for Diablo players or if you are using Diablo yourself. This command works even if the user is not currently on Battle.net. It is thus a good way to see if a certain account name is in use or not.

/time Example: /time. Give you Battle.net's time as well as your own local time. It does not however, show the correct local time.

/unsquelch <username> Examples: /unsquelch AlenL or /unsquelch #683989. Allows a previously squelched user to talk to you normally. Aliases for this command: /unignore

/users Example: /users. Displays statistics about the number of users currently connected to Battle.net.

/whisper <username> <message> Example: /whisper PatN Hi Pat! Sends a private message to a user on-line regardless of which channel that user is in. This is an excellent way to let your friends know you are on-line. Aliases for this command: /w, /msg, /m

/who <channel name> Examples: /who bar. Displays a list of all the users in the channel. If no channel name is specified it lists the users in the current channel

/whoami Example: /whoami. Tells your account number and in what channel you are. Basically this is the same as doing a /whois <your name>.

/whois <username> Example: /whois TwainM or /whois #683989. Looks up some basic information on a user, including the user's current location and account number. This is a great way to find your friends on-line. Aliases for this command: /whereis, /where

Operator commands only apply to private channels. The first person to create a private channel becomes the operator of that channel. You can tell who is the operator of a channel by looking for the user with the gavel. When the channel operator leaves, he can pass on the gavel to a heir that he designates. If he does not designate a heir, the person below him on the list will be the new operator.

/ban <username> <message> Examples: /ban AdamM because I don't like him or /ban #578369. Kicks a user out of the channel, while showing the message, and prevents them him returning until the current operator steps down or leaves the channel. This is the most powerful command at an operator's disposal, so use it wisely.

/kick <username> <message> Examples: /kick AdamM because he does not belong in this channel or /kick #578369. Kicks a user out of the channel, while showing the message. This is best used as a warning since a kicked user can return at his leisure.

/designate <username> Examples: /designate ScottM or /designate #673989. Selects a person to become the channel operator when you step down, either by resigning or by leaving the channel. If no one is designated, the gavel will be passed on to the person below the operator.

/resign Example: /resign. Step down as channel operator and become a normal user again. Aliases for this command: /rejoin

/unban <username> Examples: /unban AdamM or /unban #578369. Allows a banned user to return to the channel.

There are a few other important keys that are worth knowing about while on Battle.net.

F1 Gives you basic help and information about Battle.net. If you press F1 while in a game you will instead be given important information about playing the game. Note that in 1.05 the information seems to be for Star Craft. Disregard anything about choosing maps and about the ladder.

ALT-N Copies the name highlighted down to where you write.

ALT-V Toggles, on/off, information about players entering and leaving a channel. If you connect to Battle.net via a gateway, see chapter 8.3.

Print Screen Saves a PCX format file of the current screen. You will be prompted for the filename if you press it in a channel. If you press it in a game it will have the default name of screen##.pcx where ## is a number starting at 0 and then increases for each picture (max 99). All pictures are saved in your Diablo/Hellfire folder.

Double click on name Gives you the profile of the player. To enter an URL in the profile, simply type it in. You will not see the link underscored and in blue on your own profile. Other persons will however.

The 1.05 patch introduced the possibility of issuing some commands from within a game to other persons not in the game. It is also possible to use those commands on a user in a game. The commands work the same way as in a chat channel and are typed where you type messages for persons in the game. All aliases works as well. All commands available in chat with the exception of /me and the operator commands are available.

When on Battle.net you will notice many different looks of the icon beside a players name. Here is a short explanation of what all the different icons mean.

If you don't see an icon with a character on it but instead some text, the meaning is as follow:

Blizzard The person is a representative of Blizzard. The name is in light blue and everything that person writes is also in light blue. Note that anyone not having the Blizzard logo and not posting in blue or red (see chapter 8.6) text does not represent Blizzard.

Chat The person is logged on to Battle.net via a gateway (basically allows a text interface to Battle.net) and can only chat.

Diablo The person is logged on to Battle.net using Diablo and you are using either a gateway or Star Craft. You will also get this icon whenever you connect to Battle.net and gets the plug (see chapter 8.5).

DiabloSW The person is logged on to Battle.net with the shareware or spawned version of the game. The SW is actually located below Diablo on the icon.

Gavel The person is the operator of the channel and can use the operator commands, see chapter 8.1.

PGL player The person is logged on to Battle.net using Star Craft and is participating in the PGL tournament.

SC The person is logged on to Battle.net using Star Craft.

StarX The person is logged on to Battle.net using Star Craft Broad Wars.

Sware The person is logged on to Battle.net using a shareware version of Star Craft.

X The BRX (Big Red X) is shown on any person that you have issued a /squelch command on.

No icon at all Most likely someone that has hacked his character to have a level outside the 1-99 range. Of course, unless you cheat, your level can never be higher than 50. In the shareware version the theoretical maximum level, based on what monsters can be found on the two first levels of the church, is 16.

The character icon tells you what character class that player is using. It also has the level of the player and if you have killed Diablo it will have red dots representing what difficulty level the character has killed him on:

1 dot Diablo has been killed on normal difficulty.

2 dots Diablo has been killed on nightmare difficulty.

3 dots Diablo has been killed on hell difficulty.

You don't really have to participate in the killing of Diablo to get the dot(s). It is enough that you are on level 16 when he dies. The color of the icon, or rather the frame unless gold or gray, has the following meaning:

Yellow Warrior.

White Rogue.

Red Sorcerer.

Gold Any character class with a character that has three dots.

To the right of the name you will see the lag indicator of a person. Starting with the 1.05 patch the way the game measures and represents lag has changed compared to 1.04 and earlier. It will now represent the lag between the players computer and the Battle.net server he or she is connected to. You "decode" them in the following way:

1 or 2 green bars The player very good lag and you should be able to play with him without much problem.

3 or 4 yellow bars The player have medium lag and you could experience some lag in a game with that person.

5 or 6 red bars The player have much lag and you could expect to experience lots of lag in a game with that person and a time-out for either player is not unlikely.

a plug The player can not play, only chat. The reason for this can be many, very bad connection, connection through a gateway, being behind a fire Wall or using a proxy server that is not set up correctly. If you ever get a plug suddenly although you have been able to play before, try rebooting your computer, that normally helps.

The text you see while in a chat channel can have several different colors. Note that the actual text and the name of the person in the text (indicating who wrote it) can be different. Note, this is not about the character name to the right in the character list of people in the channel but in the chat window. Below is an explanation what the color of each of them mean.

Yellow Standard color. This is the color other persons name will appear in unless they are operator or Blizzard representative. This is also the color your own name will have if you issue an emotion text with the /me command.

White Operator color. This is the color the operators name will have for everyone except the operator himself.

Light blue Your own and Blizzard's color. This is the color your own name will have whenever you say anything even if you are the operator. When you whisper to someone that person instead of your own name will appear in cyan. The only exception is when you use the /me command in which case your name will be yellow. This is also the color the name of any Blizzard representative will have both here and to the right.

Text

White Normal text. This is the color both your own and other persons text will have.

Yellow Emotional text. You use the /me command, see above, to display this. If you are the operator the text will be white though. All informational text that is displayed by Battle.net, except for error and special messages which are red and sent to everyone at once, are displayed in yellow as well.

Gray Whisper. When you whisper to anyone or someone whispers to you, the text will be displayed in this color. Note that on rare occasions when the different Battle.net servers have lost contact temporary with each other there may be problems when they get contact with each other again. This can, very rarely though, lead to that others can see you but you can't see him/her or vice versa. If you whisper a person that can't see you or someone that you can't see whispers you, it will appear as the whisper comes from oneself. There is nothing to worry about, apart from the fact that some people can't see each other. A reconnection by the person that can't see some people normally cures the problem.

Green Notification text. When you leave or enter a channel, or if you have activated enter/leave notification by pressing ALT-V, information will be displayed in green.

Light blue Blizzard representative text. Any person representing Blizzard and thus having a Blizzard icon, see chapter 8.4 for a bug in 1.05, will have all text that is not whispered displayed in cyan.

Red Any errors when issuing any command or special messages from Battle.net which are seen by everyone at once, like notification that Battle.net will go down for service, will be displayed in red.