acdream/docs/research/2026-08-09-chat-retail-color-table.md

Retail chat color table — the exact type→color lookup

Date: 2026-08-09 Status: RESEARCH ONLY — no production code changed. Primary source: docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt (Binary Ninja pseudo-C of the Sept 2013 EoR acclient.exe, PDB-named) + direct byte-read of the PDB-paired binary C:\Users\erikn\Downloads\acclient.exe (v11.4186, CodeView GUID 9e847e2f-777c-4bd9-886c-22256bb87f32). Ghidra MCP: not reachable this session (ports 8080 and 8081 both refused); everything below comes from the committed static decomp plus the binary itself.

---

0. TL;DR

• The lookup table has exactly 34 entries, indices 0x00–0x21.
• The index is the LogTextType value — the same integer that arrives on the wire as ACE's ChatMessageType. There is no remapping anywhere: the wire byte is passed hand-to-hand from the message handler down to the font-color setter and used as a raw array index.
• The table's default fill is colorGreen (0.5, 1, 0.498). Seven indices are never overwritten and therefore stay green.
• The colors are hard-coded C++ constants. There is no chat-color option, no registry key, no DAT override. What retail did let the player configure is which text types go to which chat window (a 64-bit bitfield), not what color they are.
• All 13 cdb-dumped RGBA values are confirmed byte-for-byte against the binary, and the one address the 2026-06-16 cdb session missed (0x81c4d8) is resolved here.

---

1. The builder — ChatInterface::BuildChatColorLookupTable @ 0x004F31C0

Called unconditionally from ChatInterface::PostInit @ 0x004F3DD0 (call site 0x004F3F13), once per chat-window construction.

1.1 What it actually does

if (m_chatLog == null) return;

var list  = new BaseProperty(name = 0x1B);   // the font-color LIST property
var color = new BaseProperty(name = 0x19);   // one RGBAColor-valued element

color.SetColor(&colorGreen);                 // 0x81C578
for (i = 0x22; i != 1; i--)                  // 34 iterations
    list.Append(color);                      // → indices 0..0x21 all green

color.SetColor(&colorWhite);      list.SetValue(0x02, color);
color.SetColor(&colorGrey);       list.SetValue(0x0C, color);
color.SetColor(&yellow);          list.SetValue(0x03, 0x1F, 0x0A, 0x13);
color.SetColor(&darkYellow);      list.SetValue(0x04, 0x0B);
color.SetColor(&colorPink);       list.SetValue(0x08, 0x09);
color.SetColor(&orange);          list.SetValue(0x12, 0x21);
color.SetColor(&colorBlueGrey);   list.SetValue(0x1B, 0x1C, 0x1D, 0x1E, 0x20, 0x0E);
color.SetColor(&colorDarkRed);    list.SetValue(0x0F, 0x06, 0x15);
color.SetColor(&colorLightRed);   list.SetValue(0x16);
color.SetColor(&colorLightBlue);  list.SetValue(0x07, 0x11);
color.SetColor(&colorCyan);       list.SetValue(0x0D);
color.SetColor(&colorBrightPurple); list.SetValue(0x05);
color.SetColor(&colorBrightRed);  list.SetValue(0x1A);

m_chatLog->SetProperty(list);                // 0x004F3799

Decoding notes for anyone re-reading the raw pseudo-C:

• var_18 is the list property (SetPropertyName(&var_18, 0x1b)), var_10 is the single color property (SetPropertyName(&var_10, 0x19)).
• vtable slot +0x9C on the color property = "set value to this RGBAColor*"; the argument is a raw .data address.
• vtable slot +0xFC on the list = Append (one arg); slot +0xF8 = SetValue(index, value) (two args). This is how you tell the default-fill loop from the per-index overrides.
• Loop trip count: i_1 = 0x22; do { append; i = i_1; i_1--; } while (i != 1); runs 34 times → indices 0x00–0x21. The highest index the function ever writes is 0x21. Independent confirmation of the 34-value space is the squelch enumerator at 0x00589DEB: for (uint i = 0; i < 0x22; i++).
• 27 indices are written explicitly; 7 (0x00, 0x01, 0x10, 0x14, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19) keep the green default.
• The function builds property 0x1B only — the main font-color list. It does not build property 0x1D, the tag font-color list that UIElement_Text::SetFontColorHelper also consults; that one comes from the LayoutDesc.

1.2 The color constants (verified against the binary)

Read from .data (image base 0x400000, .data VA 0x80A000 → raw 0x40A000). Each is a 16-byte RGBAColor = four little-endian floats R, G, B, A. Every alpha is 1.0.

Address	Symbol	R	G	B	A	≈8-bit
0x0081C4A8	colorBrightRed	1.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	#FF0000
0x0081C4B8	colorWhite	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	#FFFFFF
0x0081C4C8	(unnamed) yellow	1.0	1.0	0.247	1.0	#FFFF3F
0x0081C4D8	(unnamed) dark yellow	0.824	0.824	0.392	1.0	#D2D264
0x0081C4E8	colorBrightPurple	1.0	0.498	1.0	1.0	#FF7FFF
0x0081C4F8	colorDarkRed	1.0	0.247	0.247	1.0	#FF3F3F
0x0081C508	colorLightRed	0.96	0.459	0.447	1.0	#F57572
0x0081C518	colorLightBlue	0.247	0.749	1.0	1.0	#3FBFFF
0x0081C528	colorPink	1.0	0.588	0.588	1.0	#FF9696
0x0081C538	colorCyan	0.247	0.863	0.863	1.0	#3FDCDC
0x0081C548	colorBlueGrey	0.706	0.863	0.941	1.0	#B4DCF0
0x0081C558	colorGrey	0.824	0.824	0.784	1.0	#D2D2C8
0x0081C568	(unnamed) orange	0.933	0.573	0.118	1.0	#EE921E
0x0081C578	colorGreen	0.5	1.0	0.498	1.0	#80FF7F

0x0081C4D8 is new — the 2026-06-16 cdb session skipped it, and it is used by two table slots (0x04 Speech_Direct_Send and 0x0B Social_Send). Its exact bytes are aa f1 52 3f aa f1 52 3f 39 b4 c8 3e 00 00 80 3f; 0.8235294 and 0.39215687 are exactly 210/255 and 100/255, so retail authored it as RGB(210, 210, 100). Adjacent entries not used by the chat table: 0x0081C588 = white again, 0x0081C598 = black.

Ship the float values, not the 8-bit approximations — several (colorLightRed, orange) are not integral /255 and were authored as decimal floats.

Provenance rule: these 14 addresses appear in the whole 66 MB pseudo-C dump exactly 14 times, and every one of those occurrences is inside BuildChatColorLookupTable. Nothing else in the client reads or writes them.

---

2. The index enum — LogTextType

docs/research/named-retail/acclient.h has an enum eChatTypes (line 4935) that stops at eTextTypeTotalNumChannels = 0x19. That header enum is stale — it predates the 2013 build and does not cover the table. The authoritative 2013 names come from LogTextTypeEnumMapper::LogTextTypeToString @ 0x006AFF90, which is a literal switch over 0x00–0x1F emitting the canonical strings; anything > 0x1F (and 0x1A–0x1E, which fall through) returns "Unknown".

The field name ChatDisplayInfo::m_ltt (acclient.h line 40739, written at 0x005CD89A) is what pins the enum's name: LogTextType.

2.1 The complete table

Idx	LogTextType name	Color symbol	RGBA (float)	Hex	Source
0x00	Default	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x01	All	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x02	Speech	colorWhite	1, 1, 1, 1	#FFFFFF	explicit
0x03	Tell	yellow 0x81C4C8	1, 1, 0.247, 1	#FFFF3F	explicit
0x04	Speech_Direct_Send	dark yellow 0x81C4D8	0.824, 0.824, 0.392, 1	#D2D264	explicit
0x05	System	colorBrightPurple	1, 0.498, 1, 1	#FF7FFF	explicit
0x06	Combat	colorDarkRed	1, 0.247, 0.247, 1	#FF3F3F	explicit
0x07	Magic	colorLightBlue	0.247, 0.749, 1, 1	#3FBFFF	explicit
0x08	Channel	colorPink	1, 0.588, 0.588, 1	#FF9696	explicit
0x09	Channel_Send	colorPink	1, 0.588, 0.588, 1	#FF9696	explicit
0x0A	Social	yellow 0x81C4C8	1, 1, 0.247, 1	#FFFF3F	explicit
0x0B	Social_Send	dark yellow 0x81C4D8	0.824, 0.824, 0.392, 1	#D2D264	explicit
0x0C	Emote	colorGrey	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1	#D2D2C8	explicit
0x0D	Advancement	colorCyan	0.247, 0.863, 0.863, 1	#3FDCDC	explicit
0x0E	Abuse	colorBlueGrey	0.706, 0.863, 0.941, 1	#B4DCF0	explicit
0x0F	Help	colorDarkRed	1, 0.247, 0.247, 1	#FF3F3F	explicit
0x10	Appraisal	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x11	Spellcasting	colorLightBlue	0.247, 0.749, 1, 1	#3FBFFF	explicit
0x12	Allegiance	orange 0x81C568	0.933, 0.573, 0.118, 1	#EE921E	explicit
0x13	Fellowship	yellow 0x81C4C8	1, 1, 0.247, 1	#FFFF3F	explicit
0x14	World_Broadcast	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x15	Combat_Enemy	colorDarkRed	1, 0.247, 0.247, 1	#FF3F3F	explicit
0x16	Combat_Self	colorLightRed	0.96, 0.459, 0.447, 1	#F57572	explicit
0x17	Recall	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x18	Craft	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x19	Salvaging	colorGreen	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1	#80FF7F	default fill
0x1A	(no string; "Unknown") — client-local text	colorBrightRed	1, 0, 0, 1	#FF0000	explicit
0x1B	(no string) — Turbine General	colorBlueGrey	0.706, 0.863, 0.941, 1	#B4DCF0	explicit
0x1C	(no string) — Turbine Trade	colorBlueGrey	0.706, 0.863, 0.941, 1	#B4DCF0	explicit
0x1D	(no string) — Turbine LFG	colorBlueGrey	0.706, 0.863, 0.941, 1	#B4DCF0	explicit
0x1E	(no string) — Turbine Roleplay	colorBlueGrey	0.706, 0.863, 0.941, 1	#B4DCF0	explicit
0x1F	Admin_Tell	yellow 0x81C4C8	1, 1, 0.247, 1	#FFFF3F	explicit
0x20	(no string) — Turbine Society (all 4 rooms)	colorBlueGrey	0.706, 0.863, 0.941, 1	#B4DCF0	explicit
0x21	(no string; no producer found)	orange 0x81C568	0.933, 0.573, 0.118, 1	#EE921E	explicit

2.2 Notes on the unnamed slots

• 0x1A is not dead. LogTextTypeToString has no name for it, but it is the single most-used literal in the client: client-local text that never reaches the wire — "You need an open vendor.", the three cant_jump_* strings, most command-parser errors. It also has a special path in AddTextToScroll (§3.2): type 0x1A skips the timestamp prefix and skips the chat log file. Color: bright red.

• 0x1B–0x1E, 0x20 are the Turbine (global community) chat rooms. Their identity is not guesswork — ChatRoomTracker::GetChatFormat @ 0x005CD7C0 writes ChatDisplayInfo::m_ltt directly:

  room field	m_ltt
  m_allegianceRoomID	0x12 (Allegiance)
  mGeneralChatRoomID	0x1B
  mTradeChatRoomID	0x1C
  mLFGChatRoomID	0x1D
  mRoleplayChatRoomID	0x1E
  mOlthoiChatRoomID	0x12 (reuses Allegiance)
  mSocietyChatRoomID, mSocietyCelHanChatRoomID, mSocietyEldWebChatRoomID, mSocietyRadBloChatRoomID	0x20

  This is why ACE's ChatMessageType.cs labels 0x1B/0x1E "light cyan, unknown purpose" — they are the Turbine rooms, and colorBlueGrey is exactly that sky-blue.

• 0x21 has a color slot and a filter bit but no producer anywhere in the 2013 client: LogTextTypeToString returns "Unknown", IsLegalChannel returns 0, no AddTextToScroll / m_ltt site emits it. Treat it as reserved. Its orange matches 0x12 Allegiance, which hints at an allegiance-adjacent type that was never shipped (or was server-only).

---

3. Consumption trace — wire byte → pixel color

3.1 The chain

<inbound game message>
   └─ ClientCommunicationSystem::Handle_Communication__*   (type comes off the wire)
        └─ ClientSystem::AddTextToScroll(text, type, fireToPlugin, windowId)   @0x00563C50
             └─ ECM_UI::SendNotice_DisplayFinalStringInfo(type, body, prefix, windowId) @0x00692550
                  └─ ChatInterface::RecvNotice_DisplayFinalStringInfo(type, body, prefix, windowId) @0x004F4640
                       ├─ AppendStringInfoWithFont(m_chatLog, prefix, font=0, colorIdx=0x0C)   ← timestamp, ALWAYS grey
                       └─ AppendStringInfoWithFont(m_chatLog, body,   font=0, colorIdx=type)
                            └─ UIElement_Text::SetFontColorHelper(this, prop 0x1B, &m_curFontColor, type) @0x00466AC0
                                 └─ list.GetValue(type) → m_curFontColor

type is never transformed. It is the wire value, used as the array index.

3.2 Two details worth porting

Timestamp prefix is hard-coded to index 0x0C. In RecvNotice_DisplayFinalStringInfo @0x004F46E9 the second StringInfo (the "%#H:%M:%S " prefix built in AddTextToScroll when PlayerModule::DisplayTimeStamps() is on) is appended with color index 0x0C — i.e. colorGrey, regardless of the message's own type. Retail's timestamps are always grey.

Out-of-range index leaves the color alone. SetFontColorHelper reads the list's element count into arg2, then if (arg4 < arg2) { GetValue(arg4) ... }. If the index is >= 34, it falls through without touching m_curFontColor, so the run inherits the previous line's color. It does not fall back to a default. (The green default only applies to the seven in-range slots the builder never overwrites.)

Type 0x1A bypasses the timestamp and the log file. AddTextToScroll branches on arg3 == 0x1a at 0x00563DE6; the non-0x1A path is the one that formats the timestamp and fprintfs to ClientSystem::s_pLogFile.

3.3 Wire → type for the message kinds you asked about

Anchors are the ClientCommunicationSystem::Handle_Communication__* handlers.

Inbound kind	Opcode (ACE)	Handler	Type passed
Local speech	0x02BB	Handle_Communication__HearSpeech @0x005712A0	arg5 verbatim from the wire (AddTextToScroll(..., arg5, ...) at 0x0057154D for "X says", 0x00571325 for the "You say" self-echo)
Ranged speech	0x02BC	Handle_Communication__HearRangedSpeech @0x0056E550 → gmCCommunicationSystem::HandleRangedTalkEvent @0x00589F60	wire type (arg6)
Tell	0x02BD	Handle_Communication__HearDirectSpeech @0x005715A0	arg6 verbatim (AddTextToScroll(..., arg6, ...) at 0x005718D8 / 0x00571834 / 0x0057160C)
Emote / soul emote	0x01E0 / 0x01E2	Handle_Communication__HearEmote @0x0057CBE0 (soul emote tail-calls it)	hard-coded 0x0C at 0x0057CF94
Legacy channel speech	0x0147 ChannelBroadcast	Handle_Communication__ChannelBroadcast @0x00570B90	derived from the channel bit — see below
Turbine room speech	0xF7DE	ChatRoomTracker::GetChatFormat @0x005CD7C0 → m_ltt	0x12 / 0x1B–0x1E / 0x20 — table in §2.2
Server message / system	0xF7E0	dispatched through RecvNotice_DisplayStringInfo @0x0056E890	wire type verbatim
Client-local errors, command output	(none)	many sites	0x1A (or 0x00 for informational command output)
Combat / magic / advancement / recall / craft / salvage / appraisal	0xF7E0 and friends	server-chosen	wire type verbatim — 0x06/0x15/0x16, 0x07/0x11, 0x0D, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0x10
Death messages	0x019E etc.	server-chosen	wire type verbatim (retail carries no special client-side death color)

Handle_Communication__ChannelBroadcast channel-bit → type (the m_buffer_5 variable feeding AddTextToScroll at 0x00571169):

Channel bit	Prefix retail prints	Type
0x0800 Fellowship	[Fellowship]	0x13
0x1000 Patron / 0x2000 Vassal	Your patron … / Your vassal …	0x0A
0x4000 Follower/Monarch	Your follower …	0x0A (hear) / 0x0B (own send)
0x1000000 Co-Vassals	[Co-Vassals]	0x0A
0x2000000 Allegiance Broadcast	[Allegiance Broadcast]	0x0A
0x4000000	—	0x13
admin/audit/sentinel channels	[<name>]	0x0E / 0x0F

Note the split that surprises people: legacy allegiance-family chat arrives as Social (0x0A, yellow) / Social_Send (0x0B, dark yellow), while Allegiance (0x12, orange) is reserved for the Turbine allegiance room.

3.4 The plugin hook sees the same integer

AddTextToScroll calls IACPlugin::OnChatWindowText(bstr, type, &suppress) at 0x00563CA4 before any formatting, and a plugin returning suppress != 0 drops the line entirely. Relevant if acdream's plugin chat API wants retail parity: the plugin contract is (text, LogTextType, out bool eaten).

---

4. Configurability — colors are NOT user-settable; filters are

Colors: hard-coded, no override path.

1. The 14 RGBAColor addresses are referenced from exactly one function in the entire binary (§1.2).
2. BuildChatColorLookupTable runs unconditionally at PostInit and ends with m_chatLog->SetProperty(list), which replaces property 0x1B wholesale — so even a LayoutDesc that authored a color list would be overwritten.
3. ChatInterface::RecvNotice_GameplayOptionChanged @0x004F30E0 and ChatInterface::OnSetAttribute @0x004F3F60 handle only the window's text-type filter and the two opacity values. Neither touches color.

Conclusion: the table above is the shipped behavior, not a default. There is nothing for acdream to make configurable for retail parity.

Filters: genuinely user-settable, per window.

ChatInterface::UpdateFromPlayerModule @0x004F3920 reads PlayerModule::InqChatWindowOption(windowId, 0x1000007F, …) into a 64-bit m_llTextTypeFilter, and RecvNotice_GameplayOptionChanged live-updates it when the option changes. ChatInterface::TypeIsActive @0x004F2F10 tests (1ULL << type) & m_llTextTypeFilter. Two consequences:

• UpdateFromPlayerModule early-returns when m_eWindowID == 0, so the main window has no user filter — it keeps the PostInit default.
• RecvNotice_DisplayFinalStringInfo displays when windowId == m_eWindowID (explicitly addressed — e.g. command output uses m_idCurrentCommandSource) or windowId == 0 && TypeIsActive(type) (broadcast).

PostInit default filters (0x004F3DF9 switch on m_oldState; Binary Ninja mis-attributes the low dword to m_chatNewNonVisibleTextIndicator — it is the low half of the 64-bit filter, and the following m_llTextTypeFilter = 0 is the high half):

m_oldState	Low dword	Types
1, 8	0xFBFFFFFF	everything 0x00–0x1F except 0x1A
2	0x0000101C	0x02 Speech, 0x03 Tell, 0x04 Speech_Direct_Send, 0x0C Emote
3	0x00040C00	0x0A Social, 0x0B Social_Send, 0x12 Allegiance
4	0x00080000	0x13 Fellowship
5	0x78000000	0x1B General, 0x1C Trade, 0x1D LFG, 0x1E Roleplay

Every default sets the high dword to 0, so 0x20 (Society) and 0x21 are in no window's default filter — Society chat only appears once the player enables it, which matches retail's opt-in Society channel.

Squelching is a separate axis: LogTextTypeEnumMapper::IsLegalChannel @ 0x006AFF40 whitelists exactly 0x02, 0x03, 0x06, 0x07, 0x0C, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19 as squelchable.

---

5. acdream correction list

Current code: src/AcDream.App/UI/Layout/ChatWindowController.cs:542 (RetailChatColor(ChatKind)), driven from line 462. The ChatKind enum is src/AcDream.Core/Chat/ChatLog.cs:337. (ChatChannelKind in src/AcDream.UI.Abstractions/ChatChannelKind.cs is the outbound channel selector and never reaches the color path — it needs no color change.)

5.1 Per-arm verdict

ChatKind	acdream RGBA now	Retail type it represents	Retail RGBA	Verdict
LocalSpeech	1, 1, 1, 1 colorWhite	0x02 Speech	1, 1, 1, 1	✅ CONFIRMED
RangedSpeech	1, 1, 1, 1 colorWhite	wire type on 0x02BC; ACE's own header documents 0x0C for this opcode	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1 colorGrey	❌ CHANGE — must follow the wire type, not a constant
Channel	0.247, 0.749, 1, 1 colorLightBlue	Turbine rooms 0x1B–0x1E/0x20; legacy 0x0A/0x0B/0x13; Turbine allegiance 0x12	Turbine rooms 0.706, 0.863, 0.941 colorBlueGrey; Social 1, 1, 0.247; Social_Send 0.824, 0.824, 0.392; Fellowship 1, 1, 0.247; Allegiance 0.933, 0.573, 0.118	❌ CHANGE — colorLightBlue is 0x07 Magic / 0x11 Spellcasting, never a channel
Tell	1, 0.498, 1, 1 colorBrightPurple	0x03 Tell (incoming), 0x04 Speech_Direct_Send (own "You tell …")	incoming 1, 1, 0.247 yellow; own send 0.824, 0.824, 0.392 dark yellow	❌ CHANGE — colorBrightPurple is 0x05 System
System	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1 colorGreen	wire type; ACE 0xF7E0 uses 0x00, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x0D, 0x10, 0x11, 0x17, 0x18	0x00 → 0.5, 1, 0.498 (green, matches today); 0x05 → 1, 0.498, 1 (purple)	❌ CHANGE — green is right only for wire type 0x00; the collapse to one color is the bug
Popup	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1 colorGreen	0x0004 PopUpString → Handle_Communication__PopUpString @0x0057FE80 — a modal dialog, not a chat-log line in retail	n/a	⚪ OUT OF SCOPE — no retail color; acdream's choice to render it in chat is an acdream divergence
Emote	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1 colorGrey	0x0C Emote (hard-coded by HearEmote)	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1	✅ CONFIRMED
SoulEmote	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1 colorGrey	0x0C — HearSoulEmote tail-calls HearEmote at 0x0057D096	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1	✅ CONFIRMED
Combat	0.96, 0.459, 0.447, 1 colorLightRed	0x06 Combat, 0x15 Combat_Enemy, 0x16 Combat_Self	0x06/0x15 → 1, 0.247, 0.247 colorDarkRed; 0x16 → 0.96, 0.459, 0.447 colorLightRed	❌ CHANGE — today's value is correct only for Combat_Self
_ fallback	0.824, 0.824, 0.784, 1 colorGrey	unassigned in-range slots	0.5, 1, 0.498, 1 colorGreen	❌ CHANGE — retail's unset default is green; out-of-range indices keep the previous line's color

Score: 3 confirmed, 6 changed, 1 out of scope.

5.2 The structural correction

Every "CHANGE" above has the same root cause: acdream colors by a synthetic 9-value ChatKind, while retail colors by the 34-value wire LogTextType. Keeping ChatKind for routing/formatting is fine, but the color must key off the wire integer.

The wire value is already parsed and already in hand — no new parsing needed:

• HearSpeech.Parsed.ChatType (src/AcDream.Core.Net/Messages/HearSpeech.cs:64) — parsed today and discarded at the OnLocalSpeech call site (src/AcDream.Runtime/Session/LiveSessionEventRouter.cs:260).
• ServerMessage.Parsed.ChatType (src/AcDream.Core.Net/Messages/ServerMessage.cs:33) — already threaded through as social.Chat.OnSystemMessage(message.Message, message.ChatType) (LiveSessionEventRouter.cs:268), where ChatLog.OnSystemMessage parks it in ChatEntry.ChannelId. It is available; it just is not used for color.
• TurbineChat.ChatType — available at LiveSessionEventRouter.RouteTurbineChat (line 484), already used for the display name via TurbineChatDisplayNames.Resolve.
• GameEvents tell/emote payloads (src/AcDream.Core.Net/Messages/GameEvents.cs:53) carry ChatType too.

The retail-faithful shape is a 34-entry Vector4[] built once (exactly as BuildChatColorLookupTable does), indexed by the wire type, with "index ≥ 34 → keep the previous run's color". Several call sites that currently pass a made-up type would need the real one: ChatLog.OnSystemMessage(text, 0x1Au) appears at five App composition sites and chatType: 0u at three GameEventWiring sites — those are placeholders, and 0x1A happens to be the correct retail type for client-local text (bright red), so those five are already right by accident.

5.3 Coverage gap

acdream has no representation at all for 22 of the 34 retail types: All(0x01), Speech_Direct_Send(0x04), Channel(0x08), Channel_Send(0x09), Social(0x0A), Social_Send(0x0B), Advancement(0x0D), Abuse(0x0E), Help(0x0F), Appraisal(0x10), Spellcasting(0x11), Allegiance(0x12), Fellowship(0x13), World_Broadcast(0x14), Combat_Enemy(0x15), Combat_Self(0x16), Recall(0x17), Craft(0x18), Salvaging(0x19), Admin_Tell(0x1F), Turbine 0x1B–0x1E/0x20, and reserved 0x21. A table keyed by the wire integer closes all of them at once.

5.4 Two documentation defects found in passing

1. src/AcDream.Core.Net/Messages/HearSpeech.cs:39-48 — the ChatType legend in the XML doc comment is wrong on 4 of 6 entries. It claims 0x02 = Combat, 0x0B = Speech, 0x0F = Emote, 0x10 = Tell. Retail: 0x02 = Speech, 0x0B = Social_Send, 0x0F = Help, 0x10 = Appraisal, 0x03 = Tell, 0x0C = Emote. Only 0x01 (Broadcast/AllChannels — retail calls it All) and 0x11 (Spellcasting, the comment's "Syllables") are close.
2. ChatWindowController.cs:536-541 — the doc comment asserts "the four common kinds (speech/tell/channel/system) are confirmed by the named symbols". Speech is confirmed; tell, channel and system are all wrong. That sentence should be deleted along with the fix.

---

6. Cross-check against ACE

references/ACE/Source/ACE.Entity/Enum/ChatMessageType.cs is the same index space (its LogTextTypeEnumMapper: doc lines are literally the strings from LogTextTypeToString), and its informal color notes independently corroborate the decompiled table on every entry it comments:

ACE note	Retail table	Agrees?
0x08 Channel "Light Pink Text"	colorPink	✅
0x0A Social "Bright Yellow Text"	yellow #FFFF3F	✅
0x0B Social_Send "Light Yellow Text"	dark yellow #D2D264	✅
0x0E Abuse "Light Cyan (skyblue?)"	colorBlueGrey	✅
0x0F Help "Red Text"	colorDarkRed	✅
0x13 Fellowship "Bright Yellow Text"	yellow	✅
0x14 WorldBroadcast "Green Text"	colorGreen (default fill)	✅
0x15 CombatEnemy "Red Text"	colorDarkRed	✅
0x16 CombatSelf "Pink Text"	colorLightRed (salmon)	✅
0x19 Salvaging "Green Text"	colorGreen (default fill)	✅
0x1B, 0x1E "Light cyan (sky blue)"	colorBlueGrey	✅
0x1F AdminTell "Bright Yellow Text"	yellow	✅

ACE stops at 0x1F and comments 0x1A out as "client doesn't display it" — both are ACE gaps, not retail behavior: retail has 34 slots and 0x1A is its busiest client-local type.

---

7. Reproduction commands

# The builder
grep -n "BuildChatColorLookupTable" docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt
sed -n '246117,246440p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt

# The 2013 type names
sed -n '695462,695790p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt   # LogTextTypeToString
sed -n '695397,695425p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt   # IsLegalChannel

# Turbine room -> m_ltt
sed -n '479725,479870p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt

# Consumption
sed -n '247282,247330p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt   # RecvNotice_DisplayFinalStringInfo
sed -n '113699,113760p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt   # SetFontColorHelper
sed -n '368347,368520p'  docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt   # AddTextToScroll

The RGBA quads were read straight out of the PDB-paired binary by walking the PE section table (.data VA 0x80A000 → raw 0x40A000) and unpacking <4f at each 16-byte stride from 0x0081C4A8. Re-run py tools/pdb-extract/check_exe_pdb.py "C:/Users/erikn/Downloads/acclient.exe" first — it must report MATCH before any address in this document is valid.