**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 91.04.05 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> AN ALMIGHTY CRASH! In case you are wondering why this week's News is appearing on Friday instead of Sunday, it's because we have something important to report that we felt wouldn't wait. Yes, we know that every single item we report is always important, but this is even more vital than our usual scintillating News Bulletins! Federation II suffered a crash on Wednesday night which means that many people have lost some groats. The crash was an unfortunate - and unusual - coincidence. Both Fed and GEnie suffered minor problems, which normally they would have been able to cope with, but the crash recovery procedures of Fed and GEnie came into conflict. The result brought Fed crashing down, and anyone who was on the game at the time may have suffered groat-loss. In addition, we believe that some of the files associated with Fed got mixed up, and an earlier version of the persona file was put in when the game was restarted. This means that some people who WEREN'T in Fed Data Space at the time may ALSO have lost some groats. We will be reinstating any lost groats caused by the crash. The Conclave will be vetting claims on our behalf, so if you wish to claim for lost groats, please mail the details of your claim to Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC). When claiming, please include the name of your Fed persona and the amount of groats you lost. In addition, if any of your warehouses seem to have been lost, include this information. We will not be reimbursing you for lost stats, ships or other equipment, since you should find the groats you paid for them back in your bank account. WARNING: do not be tempted to inflate your claims. The Conclave, who will be vetting all the claims, have a pretty good idea of how much money each player has, and false claims will not only be disallowed, they may result in penalties! Please mail your claims, using GEmail, to OCPAC no later than 8.00am EDT next Tuesday morning, April 9. **>> SLOW DOWN As well as the problems caused by the crash, Federation II has been suffering periods of v-e-r-y s-l-o-w r-u-n-n-i-n-g recently. There really is nothing we can do about this problem; it's due to GEnie switching things from one processor to the other; but we hope it doesn't affect gameplay too much. Obviously it can be very frustrating when it takes a minute to fly from Venus to Mars, but in general slow downs won't have any adverse affect other than boredom. There are, however, two exceptions to this. The first is fighting with mobiles - if the game is running slowly, DON'T DO IT! The mobiles take their timing from the internal game clock which is not affected by a slowdown, so they will be firing just as fast as normal. It is the input and output that gets slowed - ie what you type and what you receive - so your shots will be crawling along. The only other thing that is time-sensitive is part of one of the promotion puzzles. If you're attempting them, you'll know what we mean! So don't try it if the game isn't running at top speed. **>> EASTER COMPETITION WINNERS Moving on to happier news: our Easter contest was a great success, with many players scheming to get themselves on the LEVELS list so they stood a chance at winning the fabulous prize. As you probably recall, the names of those who made it to the top of their rank were going to be put into a draw, with the winner receiving a framed print, signed by the author, of a Federation II Spaceship. However, by popular request, we have decided to award all of the people who appeared on the LEVELS list a copy of the print, leaving them unframed. The people at the top of their levels at 8.00am EDT were: * Commander Pugachev * Captain Masher * Adventurer Logan * Trader Oxcart * Merchant Queue * Journeywoman Lady * Guild Master Otoole * Explorer Piemur Congratulations to all of you. Please let us have your addresses and we will send you your prize. We'll be holding another competition in the same vein later in the year, with an even more stupendous prize! **>> RULES AND REGULATIONS The last bit of "official" news for this week... Up till now, Federation II has had no written rules and regulations. We've run a very relaxed game, letting the players behave as they wish, and only intervening under extreme circumstances. But as the game grows, and more people enter Fed Data Space, so things have to be formalised. To this end, we've put in writing all the things that we, and most of the players, have taken for granted, and produced a Policy Document. There are no surprises in it, and still very few actual rules, but we do advise you all to read it so you know what to expect. The Policy Document can be found in Category 14, Topic 1, of the MPGames Bulletin Board on page 1045. Please read it. **>> GOING OUT IN STYLE For reasons unknown, Queue is retiring from the hurly-burly of Galactic Economics and Trade, and has decided to go out with a bang. A very big one! We received the following press release from his agent, Mouse: The festivities will begin this Saturday afternoon, when Queue will be continuing the treasure hunt that came off fairly well on Wednesday. The way it works is that he gives a clue to his location, then other players must find him and guess what object he's looking for from his description. When they find the object and give it to him, he'll pay them a modest reward (around 100K groats!). Other players who find Queue but don't get the object in time are eligible to guess the object and recieve a smaller reward. Finally, Saturday Evening, registration for the Shoot Holes In The Quasar contest starts. Bella's told me Queue will get a 1M price on his head; in addition, players who wish to participate in the killfest must place an additional 2000 groat bounty on Queue's head. Once everyone is registered, the fun begins! The Quasar is not going to be sitting out in space like a scow waiting to be shot up, either. Queue's planning on fighting back! There you have it! Queue goes out with a bang... And Mouse should be a JP by this evening, taking up the torch for ol' Queue. We're really looking forward to this - Explorer Hazed is hoping that the usual prohibition against her shooting up mere mortals will be lifted for this one occasion. **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS Congratulations to Perchik, Leatherby and Olorin, who were all promoted to the rank of Trader during the past week. Oddball and Otoole both joined the growing band of Explorers and have been let loose on the Planetary Construction tools. Otoole is planning a world consisting of nothing but bars. Sounds fun! Don't forget to mail us with the details of your promotions, and your name will be in lights! **>> EXPLORER'S NEWS We're pleased to report that good old Occy, the Federation II Leader in the MPGames area, has organised a private category for Explorers. This will provide a place where they can discuss the intricacies of building planets, including how to implement obscure puzzles using events, without giving away inside information to lower players. Current Explorers should already be able to access the private category. New Explorers should mail Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC) and ask for access. Newly promoted Explorers will also need to ask for access to the Explorer's Workbench. Mail Bella (Mail ID: FEDERATIONII) when you get promoted and tell her your logon ID - NOT your password! Normally, for security reasons, you should not disclose your ID to anyone except a member of the GEnie staff, but since your Fed persona is linked to this ID we need to know it to let you at the planetary construction tools. Bella held another Explorer's Masterclass last weekend, and the transcript has been uploaded in the Fed Library. Some Explorers have been discovering that you can do some very impressive things if you link several events together. The drawback, of course, is that you soon run out of events if you go for very spectacular Special Effects! After severe lobbying by Explorer Hazed, Bella has agreed that Explorers can have extra events at the knock-down bargain price of 10 meg each, up to a total of ten events. Due to severe memory restraints, however, you won't be able to purchase extra locations or objects. **>> MISSING PERSONS Where's Logan? He seems to have vanished without trace. Does anyone own up to killing him, cutting his body into little pieces, and stuffing them into their cargo hold? Please give us the full story - we promise you shall remain anonymous! There's been another unfortunate death - Ghost has died dead-dead. As usual, he claims it wasn't his fault and is trying to get himself reinstated, and Our Illustrious Leader is investigating the circumstances of his demise - although it doesn't look like the decision will go in his favour. **>> THAT ELUSIVE SPACESHIP BUG! Remember the mystifying problem with tardis ships? Samantha, and then Occy, both reported that their cargo holds seemed to be bigger on the inside than on the outside - the current cargo was larger than the maximum! Our Illustrious Leader tore out what remaining hair she had trying to find the bug that caused this, but to no avail. Nothing she could do seemed to duplicate the problem! Finally, Occy figured it out - it was caused by people selling their ships with cargo still in them! Well, no wonder it didn't turn up very often; not many people are daft enough to give away their cargo with their ships. Having found the cause of the problem, it was the work of but a moment to fix it, so the mysterious problem has now disappeared for good. **>> NAME THAT BAND! We've been running an unofficial, laid-back contest to find a name for Otoole and his friends, who started a band. We've not seen any evidence that the band is still going - no posters advertising gigs, no record releases, no hype - but we have decided to polish off the contest anyway. The response was not brilliant. A grand total of seven entries produced a mixed variety of suggestions. Perhaps the most boring was "Otoole's Band" - we won't name the person who entered that one, we wouldn't want to embarrass them. Longest entry came from Leatherby, with "Wannabee Emperor and the Diesel Fuel Band". Nice, but not nice enough. Samantha suggested "The Otootlers", which almost won, but was in the end to be judged too clever by half. In the end, the panel of judges, after hours of deliberation and bribe- counting, decided that George should win with his suggestion of "The Fab Fed Four". Well done George - next time you see Hazed, rush up to her and scream "Hazed, Hazed, gimme my prize!" and you'll receive a small amount of groats. **>>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 the new MPGames RT. To get there, type M1045,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 14. The Federation II Leader in the bulletin board is Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC). The MPGames RT also has a Federation II library in the files area, Library 5. **>> BULLETIN ENDS