**************************************** * * * FEDERATION DATA SPACE NEWS SERVICE * * * * from * * H-by-A * * * * November 4 1990 * * * **************************************** SAVE AND PROSPER ---------------- GEnie seems to have been a tad fragile over the past week, which has resulted in Fed being reset without any warning. Many apologies to those of you who have suffered this inconvenience. The repair droids at GEnie are frantically trying to sellotape the system back together again and have hopefully fixed the problem. However, we strongly recommend that you use the command frequently while in Fed Data Space. Normally your persona will be safely stored away every time you log off the game. But should anything untoward happen, and the game shut down unexpectedly, next time you log on you will find yourself in the position you last saved from. This could mean you lose any groats you made in the meantime, or jobs you completed, or stats purchased etc. While it is easy for us to refund groats, there is no easy way to compensate for lost stat points or trader ratings. So it really is in your best interests to remember the command. Use it every 15 minutes or so, or as often as seems appropriate to what you are doing, and you won't suffer and losses should the game have a hiccup. That was a Public Service Announcement. WHERE'S THAT VOUCHER? --------------------- People wishing to avail themselves of Diesel's Executive Services have been suffering somewhat recently. The rush of new traders has meant she is rushed off her feet (or off her back) catering to their demands. Players have become very frustrated, searching for the object Diesel requires before she will give them relief. Some desparate people have taken to grabbing it whenever they can, and hanging on to it until they have saved up enough money to use it. From tomorrow, Diesel has decided to accept another object as an alternative. But since she is concerned about attracting "the right kind of clientele" (her words, not ours!) she would not tell our reporter what object it was. A little deduction narrows the possibilities down. Those who have become friendly with the proprieteuse have been known to comment on her love of ostentious, flashy jewellery. And since she is an extremely avaricious lady, you can bet she will only accept the most expensive! Perhaps these clues are enough to enable us to work out which object she will respond to? HARD WORKERS! ------------- It never ceases to amaze us at the number of people who play Fed for hours, non-stop. Indeed, there are a couple of players who never seem to be absent from Fed Data Space! It's no wonder that they seem to be shooting up the ranks at a phenomenal rate - they are playing the same number of hours in a week that many others play in a month, by logging on during prime time when they can get all the SlyNet jobs to themselves! When do they sleep? Maybe they are availing themselves of the timewarp in Diesel's basement. Certainly the new job system has helped a little. It means that players can work up a steady rhythm on milk-run jobs, increasing their trader ratings as fast as they can type. But they still need to put in a lot of hours to increase their networth to 1 meg, and with the competition for SlyNet jobs this can take some doing. In terms of man-, woman- or thing-hours it seems to take the same amount of time to advance as it did with the old job system. HOW TO USE YOUR COMPUTER ------------------------ It became clear at the recent Fighting School that some of you are not clear about the difference between having your computer on and , and which you should be using. If your computer is on , then any time someone shoots at you your ship will automatically move one location nearer to a planet - just as if you had manually typed . There are only a few locatons in space where this won't take you directly to a planet; in all cases, it will result in getting you out of immediate trouble. If your computer is on and someone shoots at you, your shields will be switched on (if they aren't already on) and all other players will see a MAYDAY message telling them you are under attack, and giving the sector number. For normal operations, if you keep your computer on it should prevent you taking too much damage when you blunder into an enemy. But if you are deliberately setting out to fight, leave your computer on or you will be removed from the vicinity of the rumpus. Mention of sector numbers reminds us that many of you don't know how these work. No doubt you have all got a map of the Solar System handy. If you haven't, there's one in the Fed BBS - topic 7 message 1. Now, at the top left hand corner of the map is the Interstellar Link. The numbering starts here, and moves sequentially along the top of the map until the right hand corner. It then continues with the location south of the Link, runs along the map from left to right... and so on; each time the right hand edge is reached it moves back to the left, one row down. Of course, nothing is ever that simple - the numbering doesn't start at one! But once you've located one sector number, by watching MAYDAYs generated, you can work out all the rest. Incidentally, the space mobiles follow the sector numbers when moving through the Interplanetary Wastes. When they reach the bottom right of the map, they start again at the top left. Except for Pegasus, of course, whose steady progress will be interrupted if any MAYDAYs are generated. He will instantly rush to the scene of the fight and join in, twin lasers blazing! HOW MUCH DOES A 78 TON SHIP HOLD? --------------------------------- More explanations, this time about how much you can fit into your ship. (Thanks to Tzadik for asking us this question, thus giving us the opportunity to clarify what is obviously a source of confusion.) When you start trading on the exchanges, you will discover that your ship has 15 cargo bays. Each of these bays can be filled with one 'lump' of goods bought directly from the exchange, or transferred from your warehouse. If you only have a 78 ton hold, you will never be able to carry more than 78 tons. But the size of the individual lumps will vary. Traders are limited to buying goods from the exchanges in 10 ton lumps. JPs and over can buy 20 ton lumps. And just to confuse things even more, Merchants and over can combine the contents of warehouse bays, making lumps of up to 75 tons, and factories produce goods in 25 ton lumps! So with a 78 ton hold, you could have one bay containing 75 tons and one bay containing 3 tons - and the ship will be full! Just remember that it is the size of the hold that determines how much weight you can carry; the size of the individual lumps is limited by what you can buy from the exchange. THE GOSSIP SECTION ------------------ At last! The return of the scurrilous gossip section! An eye-witness was amazed to see the Head of the Conclave, Piemur engaged in a display of intimacy with a certain red-headed Highland lass. In public! Our informant described their behaviour as "wanton lust". Is this any way for such an influential player to behave? THE BORING STUFF AT THE END --------------------------- The following information will appear at the end of every News Bulletin, so you don't have to read it if you already know it. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed, Cryptosporidium, Bella or Clem in the game * leave a message in the game log * send mail with the Federation Feedback option from the main menu Federation II has a category in Scorpia's Games RT. To get there, type M805,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 29. The Scorpia RT also has a Federation II library in the files area, Library 22.