**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 90.12.02 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> ALAS, POOR PIEMUR The inhabitants of Fed Data Space were in shock earlier this week following the tragic news that Piemur, Head of the Conclave and would-be GM, had died dead-dead. The sad story goes as follows. Following the misunderstanding over whether he could or couldn't purchase part of the solution to the puzzle from Hazed (see last week's News), Hazed relented and told him what he needed to know. Enthused with a new spirit of adventure, he rushed off to try out the new information. But disaster struck. He hit the wrong macro and found himself plunged into danger - and to his horror, he died dead-dead! Yes, he'd neglected his reinsurance. The full story of his death, in graphic, gory detail, is in the Fed BBS. However, all is not lost! Piemur has returned to us, and after just five days play has already got himself back up to JP. This is an all-time record! Needless to say, he doesn't even sneeze now without checking that he is insured! Also back from the grave, Florence has regained her lost JournPersonHood, and the is co-operating with Piemur on the fiendish GM puzzle. In case you are wondering just how the two of them managed to make so much money so quickly, they have been using the knowledge they acquired the first time round to play the markets to maximum effect - and have also been killing Monty to get the 1 meg bounty! Just goes to show how quickly you can advance if you know what you are doing. Piemur's death, following hot on the heels of Florence's, sparked off a heated debate about the matter of reinstating personas. We won't reiterate it here because the messages are in the Fed BBS, as is Bella's response. But we would like to say, very loudly, WELCOME BACK PIEMUR! **>> THE POOR PEOPLE ARE REVOLTING! A few members of the lower orders seem to have been getting too big for their boots recently! Naming no names... but we have had reports of one Commander holding the coin to ransom, and refusing to relinquish it for less than half a meg. The ressurected Piemur was not amused by this, but fortunately he didn't have to resort to violence - the hapless Poor Person blundered into something nasty and died, leaving the coin free to regenerate. Another nameless oik decided to harass a new player, and on this occasion Piemur used his weapons to good effect. The offending Captain was left with 2 hull strength (Piemur restrained himself from going in for the kill just in case the Poor Person wasn't insured). The rude player swore vengeance on Piemur... but when he saw how easily Piemur was polishing off Monty, he backed down in a fit of panic! **>> THE RISING COST OF ALCOHOL Way, way back in the mists of time - about two months ago - the Amiga Starship held a party in Fed Data Space, hosted by the beautiful Lady. For this occasion, Our Illustrious Leader provided free drinks in all the bars and cafes. This was greatly appreciated, and the ale flowed freely throughout the Solar System, adding greatly to the merriment of the evening. After the party was over, Bella forgot to put the prices back on the drinks - so for the last few months, anyone buying rounds has not been charged for it! But Diesel and the other proprietors have been losing money hand over fist, and threatened to stop serving drinks altogether unless they could charge for them - so OIL has finally got round to putting the charge back in. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted! **>> NEW! NEW! NEW! As usual, Our Illustrious Leader has been slaving over a hot keyboard to bring changes to Fed Data Space. A few are already implemented, and the rest will go in tomorrow (Monday). If you are sitting in your ship on the landing pad, you will now be able to see other ships which are parked next to you. At last, after months of requests from Traders, you will be able to sell and store goods by using the bay number instead of the commodity name - indeed, you will have to, because the commodity names won't work any more. The commands are and . This will not only save you all that effort of typing PHARMACEUTICALS three times before you get it right, it will also let you select between different lumps of the same commodity. To cope with the increase in the number of players, the regeneration of mobiles and objects will be speeded up. Currently, they take between 15 and 55 minutes to reappear; this will be shortened to between 10 and 40 minutes, and the more people on the game, the shorter the time will be. This will particularly please all those who have been fighting for important items like the coin and the LV! Just to prove that not everything works right first time: from tomorrow, JPs offering jobs to Poor People will be unable to offer tonnages larger than the available cargo space. Actually, OIL attempted to put this in a few days ago - but got it the wrong way round! At the moment, jobs can only be offered for MORE than the cargo space, which isn't a lot of help to anyone! **>> BY ANY OTHER NAME... As reported recently, Slipperyjim has changed his name to Jim so that more people will kiss and hug him. We don't think he has realised yet that it will also make it easier for people to shoot at him! His change will, however, cause some confusion, since there is a player called Jimhuge. (Slippery)Jim insists that he got there first, so he is the real Jim, so henceforth we decree that Jimhuge will be referred to simply as Huge. Speaking of which, don't confuse a new player called Ladyblue with the current Leader of the Conclave, Lady! At least we know that we're safe from confusing with names like Cryptosporidium! **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS As stated above, Piemur and Florence are co-operating on the GM puzzle. They are very close to the end... in fact, by the time you read this, one or both of them might just have made it! (We doubt it though...) Congratulations to Jim, who made JP a few days ago. We don't normally mention promotions less than Merchant, but there is one worth telling you about. Ginja has become an Adventureuse. She was the game's longest running Captain, having started playing right at the beginning. We wonder how long it will take her to make Trader! **>> SPECIAL EVENTS REPORT Last week's round table conference, hosted by Scorpia, was a success. Around 15 Fedders put questions to Alan (Bella), the writer of the game and Fi and Nick (Hazed) who wrote the best-selling Idiot's Guide to Federation II. Inevitably, the discussion was dominated by questions about reinstating personas who have died dead-dead! Thank you to Scorpia for holding the conference, and to all who attended. Today (Sunday) saw the second Fed Intro Session - and what a busy occasion it was! At one point there were twenty people on the game, a record for GEnie Fed so far. Thank you to those who helped out, and welcome to new players who joined us. The next Intro Session will be held on Saturday December 15 at the same time, 3.00 Eastern, so tell all your friends to come along and join the fun! Don't forget we've got some exciting things lined up for you over the festive season. More details soon! **>>CONTACTS 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 You can order a copy of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation II by typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95. 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. **>> BULLETIN ENDS