Entry 123

"The party's chat lines: ccAI::ChatMessage* and ChatMessageSender"

2026-09-25battle ui world test

This entry answers the question left open by "The chat balloons: ccChatMsg, Mac Anu's players and Kite's calls".

120 drew the balloons, but the party still said nothing. The decisions called Call::Chat, the runtime answered 0, and ChatMessageSender only ran the arrival count down. These are ccAI::ChatMessage* (personal.cpp, gcmn 0x00586130-0x00592a98): 57 functions over 77 tables of lines in GCMN.PRG.

How a line is said

Picked, not shown. A function picks its line and writes it into the AI (+0x24, 80 bytes) through ChatMessageModify, then sets chatRequest. The member's next ChatMessageSender (the end of Brains) opens it with ccChatMsg::OpenChat and clears the request.
The template. Most functions check partyFlag 1 (no draw otherwise) and read the row MessageIndex() (the character id; 18 for id 1 while saveData +0x220d is set, id 1's lines garbled). The tables hold one line per character, or three, chosen by (rand() >> 3) % 100 (below 60, 90) or % 3. Nothing is said under manual control, but the draws are made first.
ChatMessageModify. #0 is the leader's name, #1 a1 or the leader's, #a and #b a2 and a3 or " ". It stops at 79 bytes. Any other # code never advances, so the loop spins forever. Two lines have one: Orca's third fatalDamagedMessages ("Oh #@&%!") and Rachel's charmConfusionMessages ("Oh %&*#,"). The port stops the copy there.
The specific ones. AttackTarget returns the kind it said (element 4, crowd 5, condition skills 6, level 1-3). Attack and Damage keep their every-third counters, and AttributeGuard sets -3. Damage, Neutral and ThanksHeal file or withdraw the "heal me" request (0x10016, in 11 ((rand() >> 3) & 3) frames). ConditionModify sends 0x10012 again in 150. Rachel (id 12) compares weapon prices in Neutral, and Natsume (id 11) notes a member two levels up. Some lines turn the member (atan2f(d.x, -d.y) when CheckAction(1) passes). Greeting only points the AI.
ChatMessageSender. Nothing once the party is wiped out. When arrivalChatCnt reaches 0 out of a fight, the arrival's line is said: EnteredTown (the server's arrive*Messages), or EnteredField from a town, or in a type-4 dungeon.

In the port

piney_battle::party_chat. It holds ChatTexts (the tables and getAttributeStr's), modify, Ctx::chat_line for every function, Ctx::chat_sender and Ctx::greeting.
The stage's runtime. It answers Call::Chat and Call::ChatMessageSender with them. The text goes out as Show::Chat(body, text). The area opens it over the member (handle 1 << 24 | id), and the town does too (take_party_chats, handle(Kind::Spc, id)).
Lines the rules raise. These are ChatAttack, ChatAttributeCritical, ChatDamage, ChatResurrectPlz, AffectMessages and Greeting, and they were events nobody read. combat::chat now runs them on the member's AI after the task that raised them: a member's frame, Kite's, the entry control's pass, the skills' pass, a trap, the boss. Those from menus and events run at the next frame's start. ChatDamage and AffectMessages now carry the HP before the hit, which is what ccFellow::Influence holds when it calls them.
ChangeEquipReport. In a field or dungeon the equipment order says EquipOK or EquipNOT (FieldWorld::equip_report). The town's is not wired.
levelOld. The AI constructor never sets it, and _ccMalloc does not clear. The port had it at 0, so Piros said "Level... UP!" 30 frames into Mac Anu. It now starts at the character's level.

Checked

tools/test_battle_chat_rs.py (new). It runs the 45 entry points in eemu against battle_probe chat, 120 random worlds each (500 each with bulk 500). The worlds vary names, enemy skill lists, +0x220d, areaPrev, the server, the kept text and manual control. The kept text, every AI's fields, the bus, the bodies' flags and headings, the balloon opened and the rand() count all match. Cases that pick a stray-# line hang the game's ChatMessageModify and are drawn again. One case caught a name taken from no character (GratsLevelUp(NULL)). The game reads it through address 0, which is zero in eemu, so #1 gives the leader's name. The port now passes no name there.
party_chat::tests::modify_fills_the_codes. The codes, the 79-byte stop, and the stop at a stray code.
session::tests::chat::a_member_speaks_in_a_fight. In event 3's east portal fight, Orca says two of his fight lines over his head while inBattle is on. member_chat_shot (ignored) shows his balloon.
session::event22::piros_says_his_arrival_line_in_mac_anu. Back in Mac Anu, Piros says his arrival line 151 frames in.
The workspace's tests, clippy and fmt pass. So do the party AI, fellow, Kite, navi, battle, enemy motion, party and event-character suites.

A Grunty's line (ccPGuso::main) is not this machinery. It calls OpenChat itself with its own texts, so it is left.

Still unknown

levelOld in the game. What the heap holds there when a member is built in a town. The game may announce a level change on arrival. - The stray # lines. Whether they freeze a real console as they freeze eemu's run. - The order of raised lines. The game says them inside the hit, and the port says them after the task. Their rand() draws fall later in the frame than the game's. - saveData +0x220d. What sets it (id 1's garbled lines).