Players communicate with the command processor via command messages. These are simply messages composed within the client program's messaging facility that are sent back to the player. For example, for player 3 to send a command message, he/she would compose a message to player 3. The command processor realizes that the sender and receiver of the message are the same player and interprets this message as a command message. This mechanism works even if the AllowPlayerMessages option is turned off.
As a special case, if the first non-blank character of a command message is a left angle-bracket '<', then the message is not treated as a command message but is processed as an ordinary message. This feature exists for two reasons:
- When a player sends a universal message, then the player himself becomes a recipient of the message. But this means that the sender and the receiver of the message are the same player and PHost would interpret the message as a command message for the sending player. Since the first line of a universal message is always
<<< Universal Message >>>
then the leading '<' causes PHost to treat a universal message as a normal message. The same goes for VPA's team messages. - Players that use the message facility to send reminders to themselves can do so without triggering the command processor simply by beginning their message with a '<' character.
A player may send any number of command messages in a single turn. Each command message may consist of more than one actual command. Each single command occupies a single line of the message. Multiple commands may be placed on multiple lines. Blank lines are ignored.
► Note: Note that , and recent versions of can automatically generate command messages in response to menu-driven functions from its graphical interface. Using these features is preferable to sending command messages directly as it is simpler and there is less chance of error.
