chat_modes_2025/README.md

Minetest : Chat Modes (chat_modes)

NOT yet COMPLETED

A Minetest mod to enable multiple chat modes.

Players hoping to use the chat_modes commands need to have both the shout and cmodeswitch privileges.

Players without shout will not be able to send messages at all.

Players with shout, but without cmodeswitch, will only be able to use the default mode, as configured in minetest.conf

Default Modules

A few modules are provided by default:

• shout -- this is the default module, which allows the player to broadacast a message to all connected players.
• proximity -- this module sends a message to players within the proximity of the sending player
• channel -- this module sends messages only to players who are in the shout channel. A player can only be in one channel at a time.

It is possible to disable these modules by specifying a comma-separated list to chat_modes.available.

By default, this is set to

chat_modes.available = shout,proximity,channel

Usage

Any player who has both the shout and cmodeswitch privileges has access to the following commands:

• /chatmode MODE [ARGUMENTS ...]
  • this sets a new chat mode. Some chat modes can take extra arguments, others not.
• /chatmodes
  • this lists the chat modes available, with a description

Players with chatadmin privilege have an additional command:

• /assignchatmode PLAYERNAME MODE [ARGUMENTS]
  • Assigns a chat mode to a given player

API

Other mods can implement additional chat modes.

You can implement a new chat mode by calling

chat_modes.register(modename, modedef)

• modename - the name of the mode, as will be supplied to the /chatmode as first argument
• modedef - a table containing the mode definition

modedef definition

The mode definition must include the following table fields:

• help -- brief summary of the options
• register(playername, params) -- a handler function that is called any time a user switches chat modes. It is expected that the handler will register the player as having activated the mode, according to its parameters.
• deregister(playername, params) -- a handler function that is called any time a user switches chat modes. It is expected that the handler will remove the player from the list of players registered against this mode, according to its parameters.
• getPlayers(playername, message) -- a handler function that returns a list of players. This function is responsible for determining which players should receive the message.

Example of modedef

The following (fairly pointless) module will send a mesasge to some players, depending on an inverse probability. It does not check for the validity of the parameter passed during registration.

local probplayers = {}

chat_modes.register("maybesay", {
	help = "<prob> -- send a message to all, with a probability <prob> of sending the message at all.",

	register = function(playername, params)
		probplayers[playername] = int(params)
	end,

	deregister = function(playername, params)
		probplayers[playername] = nil
	end,

	getPlayers = function(playername, message)
		local targetplayers = {}

		for _,player in pairs(minetest.get_connected_players() ) do
			if player:get_player_name() == playername then
				continue
			end

			if math.random(1, probplayers[playername] ) == 1 then
				targetplayers[#targetplayers] = player
			end
		end

		return targetplayers
	end,
})