ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

My apologies if I missed this in an update but I began playing again after a few months and the in game chat is missing. The only option visible is for the combat log. I really enjoyed seeing all the banter while playing so is there an option that I'm missing to enable chat?

To my knowledge, the chat is still there...

Are you sure you're logged in while playing? You may be jumping in before it can verify that you are.
Otherwise... You may have tampered with the settings and removed it? Doubtful, though.

Perhaps some more details about the problem, then?

Check under Game Options while on a character. (won't show from the main menu)
There should be a tab titled Online or such.

It might just me, but I find that a random chat channel is disabled for no reason time and time again.

Thanks. I didn't realize some menu options were hidden from the main menu. Solution was to log in as a character, activate the chat, then restart the program.