1 Logging in and out
Perhaps the most important button in multiplayer. At the bottom left of the status bar is a globe - this is the button you use to log in and out.
If desired, LOTUS can also log on to the server by itself each time it is started. To do this, the checkbox "Automatically log on to the server" must be activated in the "Multiplayer" tab of the options.
The Steam client is used for login, which is why it must be in online mode to log in to the LOTUS server.
2 Friends
With Ctrl+F5 or again with the help of a button in the status line you open the friends list.
If you have found a good player in a game that you would like to keep in touch with or play more often, you should add him or her to your friends list. To do this, use this button in the company, in the player search or in the group overview (more on this later):
You can also right-click to add a friend - and right-click to remove a friend from your friends list:
Or you can simply type his or her exact name into the search field below the friends list.
3 Ignoring
Similar to adding friends, it is also possible to ignore users. They cannot whisper to you, you cannot read their messages in the general chat, they cannot invite you to groups or companies, they cannot join your games, and so on.
To do this, simply type the name of the player in the search field below the ignore list, which you can open with Ctrl+F6.
4 Companies
Companies in LOTUS are your opportunity to connect with colleagues. Maybe you have founded and advertised a virtual company here in the forum or elsewhere. To organize and manage your employees, you can also invite them to your company in LOTUS. So you have everything at a glance.
In the future, it will also be possible to organize company appointments for joint trips or meetings in LOTUS - and invite all employees who have agreed to join a group for a private game with just one click. The calendar is already implemented, but not yet unlocked and also not quite finished.
There is also a portal for employee search in planning... But until this is implemented, employees have to be recruited via the forum or other sources.
To the functions that are already implemented but partly not yet activated:
4.1 Found a company
In order to found a company, of course you must not already be in a company. If this is not the case, you can open the company overview with Ctrl+F7 and under "Advanced" you will find the possibility to found a company. Think of a nice and unique name - this cannot be changed at the moment.
4.2 Ranks and rights
A newly founded company comes along with three ranks: CEO, Management and Insider. The ranks are used to assign rights to the members. Any number of ranks can be created, their rights edited and the ranks deleted. Ranks must be deleted from "below", i.e. always from the lowest rank.
4.3 Manage players
Click on a player in the company overview (Ctrl+F7) with the left mouse button to manage him:
In this overview, the rank of the player can be changed and publicly visible notes as well as notes on this player that are only visible to holders of a certain right can be saved. Public notes lend themselves to information such as nicknames or real names, or administrative information outside of LOTUS that is suitable for everyone's eyes. Hidden notes are usually for the boss floor and may contain information about the behaviour of a player 
4.4 Information and Message of the day
Also in the administration of the company are still two large text fields:
The message of the day is displayed to every member of the company immediately after login. It may change at any time and may, for example, draw attention to upcoming appointments or important information elsewhere.
Under "Info" you best present your company so that everyone knows what you value and what you stand for. Maybe there's also a link to your website - I hope I'll make it clickable sometime
5 Looking for players
With the input /who name part in the chat or via the field below the result list of the player search (Ctrl+F8), players and companies can be searched with their name. Note that only players who are online are included in the search. The player search can be used to write to someone, invite them to a group or company, or add them as a friend or to the ignore list.
6 Groups
With Ctrl+G or the button in the status bar below the group overview can be opened.
The group is the organization of all players who have joined or want to join a certain game. A group basically has exactly one leader (usually the one who opened the group).
It is possible to open a group manually, for example to organize players before creating a private game. If a game is created directly, a new group is created automatically, provided the game creator does not already belong to a group. If the game creator belongs to a group, he must be its leader and the group must not be in another game in order for him to create a new game.
So a group is the same as a group of players for a game. If you want to join a game, you should either not belong to a group (anymore) or be the leader of your existing group - then you can join the desired game with the whole group, provided that the game creator of the desired game agrees to it.
A party leader can promote members of their party to Assistant, and can revoke that promotion at any time. As an assistant, you can invite members into the group and remove them from the group, just as the leader can. A manual invitation of group members is useful, for example, if you have created a private game. You cannot join this game via the list of games, but only via the button "Join group game" in the group overview mentioned at the beginning. Since you have to be a member of the group, a leader - and his assistants - have to invite the desired players by hand.
To do this, players can be invited to the group by clicking on the "Invite to group" button or by right-clicking again.
It is possible to chat within your own group. With /p - if you are in a group - the corresponding channel is used, in which only the group members can send and read.
7 Games
As has already been indicated, games are closely interwoven with groups, because a game always has exactly one group using it.
Games are - currently - organized in so-called instances. An instance is a game on the LOTUS server that plays on a certain map at a certain time - with a certain group. Anyone can and may create (or join) game instances, as long as they do not belong to a group or are the leader of a group without a game of their own.
To join or create games, see "Multiplayer" in the main menu.
The list of games (instances) is automatically created and updated. It can be filtered if you are looking for games with certain criteria:
Clicking on a specific game reveals more about its settings:
The red, yellow and green hexagons indicate the compatibility of the game with your own installed content and addons.
Red means that content that the game master would like to use in his game is not available at all - or in the case of the map not in the correct version. Move the mouse over an entry in the content list on the left to get information about it.
Yellow means that the content is available in different versions. You can join such games at your own risk
Green means that the content the game master wants for his game is completely available at your site, including the identical version. Green games are the best!
If you want to create your own game, you have to assign a name, a (in future: several) map(s) and the content to be played:
For undecided people there is also a button for each input field with which this value is randomly assigned. Usually the title of the game will say what you have planned for today's game. Remember, when you create a game, you are now the game master for that game, and you should do this job with due care. 
8 Chat
The following channels are already working, although the chat is totally buggy:
/Talk
/LookingForGroup
/Recruitment
(these are the 3 general chat channels that everyone sees and everyone can use)
/p - with this you write in your own group.
/c - with this you write in your own company, if you have the rights
/m - with this you write in the management channel of the company, if you have the rights
You can send a message by pressing Enter and typing /Talk message in the chat for example - and then Enter again.
As I said, this is quite buggy. Have fun anyway
