**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 91.01.27 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> THIRD AND FINAL WARNING! Yes, we know we have given you this warning in the last two News Bulletins, but this time we really mean it! On Tuesday January 29, a new version of Fed will be put in. In this version, each company will only be able to own eight factories. You have two days - Sunday and Monday - to sell off any excess factories. If you have more than eight when the new version is fired up on Tuesday, they will be sucked into a black hole never to be seen again. There will be NO reimbursements! We repeat, you will NOT be reimbursed if you lose your excess factories. (Do you think we've said it loud enough?) (Probably not - better give it one last shout) (Ok!) THERE WILL BE NO COMPENSATIONS FOR FACTORIES LOST IN THIS WAY!!!!! You will also find it a little easier to keep an eye on your factories, since the numbering will change. Instead of one set of factory numbers throughout the game, you will have your own set of numbers, from 0 to 7. Much easier than remembering that your factory is number 428! **>> ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST We regret to announce that Fsv has died dead-dead. As always in these cases, he is protesting vigorously that he was not to blame, and demanding that his persona be reinstated. Our Illustrious Leader is still investigating the circumstances of his demise. Decisions are never made quickly in these matters, because it takes time to find out exactly what happened. If it does turn out to have been a game error, then of course Fsv will be restored; if not, then I am afraid he will have to start again. He is currently running around Fed Data Space as Muddog, so if you see him, be nice to him! **>> MACROS, AND HOW NOT TO USE THEM A lot of people seem to be exercising their programming skills in writing macros that will automate certain parts of the game for them. Macros can give you a definite advantage over other players if you use them correctly, but they do have their disadvantages. The simplest macro, that new players would find very useful and fairly foolproof, is one that automatically sends the commands . They can then fly to the destination planet, and use another macro to and buy an appropriate amount of fuel. This can be extended for SlyNet jobs, adding an in front of the first macro. It is when macros are used to actually move around that things can get a little dangerous. As an example, if you have macros to move you between planets you could hit the wrong one and end up on the sun. Or a burst of line noise could have the same effect. A popular form of macros for Traders is to automate the journey between the landing pad and the various Trading Exchanges. This can certainly have its pitfalls! Here's a little experiment to try: set up a macro for each planet, to move from the Exchange back to your ship. Stand in Titan Exchange. Hit the Castillo macro. You'll end up in Transuranics. Try it again with the Mercury macro. You'll end up in Transuranics. Now try the Mars macro. Guess where you end up? Using macros to buy and sell from the exchanges can make quick work of making a fortune. It can also be a good way to lose a fortune! If the exchange is not doing what you expect it to do, you can end up offloading a shipful of droids at 10 groats a ton. One final warning: the worse possible thing you can do is to fire up a macro, then walk away from your computer and let it do its own thing. You might think you have covered every eventuality, but a burst of line noise could still have serious effects. A macro that moves over the same ground, backwards and forwards, taking in a bar on the way to top up stamina, could have horrendous consequences if hit by a burst of line noise. The movement commands will get out of sync, you will get stuck and "miss" the bar. Every 100 commands you send, you will lose one stamina point. It could take only a couple of thousand commands for you to die of starvation! I'm sure we don't need to say this, but it is worth spelling out in very large letters: if you die while you are running attended macros, don't expect much sympathy from us. **>> TYPING ERRORS CAN DAMAGE YOUR WEALTH Poor Occy suffered through bad typing (or possibly through line noise) recently. She issued a command to sell something followed by a command to display her factory. Somehow, the commands got mangled and she ended up selling one of her factories! This isn't normally something we would reimburse, but Occy managed to persuade the necessary three members of the Conclave that she deserved to be compensated, so she will be given some of the money she lost. However, this won't happen again. In future, typing errors or line noise that cause strange things to happen will not be candidates for reimbursement or reinstatement, no matter how many Conclave members you have to plead for you! Actually, there have been some pretty funny effects from mistyping in the past. One poor player was standing in Mercury Trading Exchange and thought he had typed . Unfortunately, he mis-typed CHIPS as SHIP - the game thought he wanted to dispose of his spaceship, and dutifully sold it for him. This left him stranded on Mercury, with no way to get back to Earth to buy a new ship! That's why when you sell your ship from off Earth now, you get transported back there (for a price), and also why you now have to type ! Careful players will always mis-spell the word SUICIDE when they use it in speech. It has not been unknown for the quote at the beginning to get left off, resulting in an unexpected visit to the hospital! **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS Fed has two new JPs. Otoole finally managed to get the puzzle right, after having spent many a happy hour blowing up the Martian Ruins, along with himself and all his not so willing helpers. Gunter, on the other hand, had talked to all the right people and found out exactly what he needed to do, so he got promoted the first time he tried the puzzle. Occy is still working on the fiendish GM puzzle. Despite having been told part of the solution by a friend, she has managed to die several times in the last few days. Tangling with pirates can be dangerous! Having spent all his time whingeing about the number of jobs he had to do, Galaxy finally made Trader. He now spends all his time complaining about the number of stats he needs to make Merchant! Enhancer also made Trader in the last week. Piemur and Aeron are still busy working on their planets. Both of them have just about finished entering in the locations - although we guarantee they will want to go back and change them many times before the planets are actually put into the game! And finally, congratulations to Lady, who has notched up over 1000 visits to Fed Data Space. **>> WHO'S WHOM The biography topic in the Fed BBS is slowly growing. As well as the SpyNet Sport offerings about Bella and Pegasus, there are life histories of Taran, Peimur, Dreamer, Swage and Aeron. Swage has also contributed to the Jokes topic. His uploads are well worth a look - although I don't think Diesel is very pleased with them... **>> SPECIAL EVENTS IN FEBRUARY Thursday February 14 is Valentine's Day and we are planning a little get- together. No, not a massacre - a party, were you can all get soppy and romantic. It will start at 6.00 Eastern Time and go on until, well, until it sort of stops. On Saturday February 23, we are holding the first of a series of Masterclasses. (Maitreuseclasses?) From 3.00 Eastern Time, Explorer Hazed will be available to answer any questions you have about the finer points of Fed. Whatever your rank, new players and ancient, you will be able to find out Everything You Always Wanted To Know About (fill in the subject of your choice) But Were Afraid To Ask. **>> SCURRILOUS GOSSIP Yes, it's time for the scandal, the gossip, the total lies about what the inhabitants of Fed Data Space have been doing. Occy has acquired an admirer - Masher is positively panting after her! Maybe the two should get together at the Valentine's Day Party. Polar took a tremendous risk the other day. Several times he has killed Monty to gain the not inconsiderable reward, but he wasn't always successful and got himself killed quite often. On this occasion, he only just managed to kill the Pirate before his hull disintegrated entirely. He logged off, then logged back on a few minutes later - and was reminded that he wasn't insured! Just one more shot from Monty would have wiped him out completely! We believe he is still shaking. Adol took rather a fancy to Lady last night, and started kissing her repeatedly. Lady wasn't too happy at this and said so. Taking no notice, Adol continued and then increased his attentions by groping her. When he refused to leave her alone, an irate Lady put a rather large reward on his head. He obviously didn't know when enough was enough, because he then put Lady on the wanted list as well!! We understand he still lives... just... We don't know what it is about Blackmark that makes people want to shoot him. We've always thought he was a perfectly presentable person! But Piemur and some of his friends decided it was time to gang up on Blackmark and spent a jolly time chasing him around the Interplanetary Wastes with missiles going in all directions! A number of innocent by-flyers were sucked into the combat against their will. We are not entirely sure which of the people involved were the instigators of the mayhem, and which blundered into it by accident, but we know that Piemur, Aeron, Kevin and Swage were all in there somewhere, as were Monty, the Vega and the Xerxes! **>>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