Messages

VGA Planets comes with it's internal message system. This can be used to communicate with other players, and is also used by the game itself.

Communication with other players
A large part of the fun in VGA Planets is knowing you're playing against human opponents. Although within an alliance you'll want to switch to e-mail because it works much faster, ingame message are great for propaganda purposes and just plain fun. There's something to be said for sending out a battle-report as a general message to really rub in your victory.

Anonymous messages
Normally, each message you send out is nicely labelled as coming from you. But you can also send out anonymous messages, to confuse less experienced players (just write them some nonsense message about aliens invading, solar flares or something of the sorts) or really torment your competitors. You can even use this tool for serious misinformation, by sending anonymous messages declaring war upon yourself or claiming victories against players who are nowhere near you. The possibilities are endless. To make a message anonymous, put a "*w*" (without the quotes, but including the *'s) somewhere in the message.

Messages used by VGA Planets
For the majority of actions in the game, a message is sent with a report of that action. Minesweeping, battle reports, planetary surveys and Ion storm forecasts are just some of the messages you can receive each turn.

Configuration messages
By setting a friendly code of "con" on one or more of your planets, you will receive the host configuration settings in the form of messages. People using the Winplan interface automatically receive configuration messages, which can be disabled by having a friendly code of "noc" on one or more planets.

Tim Continuum message
Another important message is the Tim Continuum message. It will list all the races included in the game and their number of priority build points. Additionally, it will show you your alliance status with various races.

Minesweeping messages
By having one or more ships set to a mission of 'mine sweep', you will receive messages of those ships about the minefields and webmines they scanned and, if any, how many mines they have swept away. These message are especially important for people using VPA, and for people using the Echoview utility. These programs scan the messages to plot minefields on the starchart, whereas Winplan automatically plots the correct minefields.

Addon messages
There is a wide range of addons available for VGA Planets, most of which also use messages.

Configuration
Most addons will send you their configuration settings if you have one or more planets set to "con", but some addons require different codes. See the addon's documentation (if you don't have it, your host should be able to tell you where to get it or provide you with it) for the specifics of the addons you use.

UFO objects
Several addons bring new objects to the VGA Planets universe, such as wormholes and asteroids. These objects are represented on the starchart as UFO objects. However, this only works with the Winplan client. There are programs (UFO4DOS and UFO4VPA) that generate messages concerning the positions, headings and status of these objects for DOS Planets and VPA. By filtering these messages, these clients can also display UFO objects on their starcharts.