**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 92.07.26 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> COMPUTER GAMING WORLD LOVED US! For those of you who don't read the GEnie log-on banners, the August issue of Computer Gaming World carried a review of Fed. Some of the very nice things they said about the game were: "Federation II is a marvellous social environment that uses simple, text-based game mechanics as an excuse to have an on-line party. To the game's credit, there is an ever-increasing amount of variety as one advances within the game and this firmly holds one's interest." "What one really carries away from Federaion II, however, is a satisfied sense of having been "away", having visited a "real" imaginary place, somewhere. In fact, it's a cyburb where I wouldn't mind living." We like the word "cyburb" so much, we will probably steal it and add it to the H-by-A book of words! **>> DUKE PUZZLE PROGRESS REPORT As far as we know, Oddball is still the only Baron to have a working time machine - although it got quite damaged on his recent return from Horsell to the present, and he'll have to repair it before he can do the again. The expense involved has affected his standing as Leader of the Pack - once again, Piemur has taken over the reins of power. But since he's well on the way to completing his chronambulation device, he won't stay there long either! The command has an interesting side-effect: when someone uses their time machine to travel back to Horsell, they will take along anyone who is in the same location. Many bemused Poor People have been dragged back unwittingly to find themselves in a strange place and time. If a Baron uses the command to return from Horsell to Sol space, it will also return anyone who is currently in Horsell - not just in the same location - and dump them all on Earth. This side-effect has tremendous potential, both for cooperation and for mischief. Since using the time machine to is so resource-expensive, it would be sensible for several Barons to club together and take it in turns to transport a group through. On the other hand, if they don't feel like cooperating, a crafty Baron could ruin another's plans by timewarping back at the wrong moment, bringing his colleagues with him! It also provides a way for the very powerful players to punish offending lower orders - they can be taken to Horsell and left there in exile! Hazed will consider requests to bring back stranded Poor People. For a small consideration, of course. **>> SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The mechanics for most of the puzzle are now in place, so Bella has turned her mighty brain to thoughts of what will happen once someone actually becomes a Duke. We could hear vague mutterings from her secret laboratory today, but all we could make sense of was that planetary systems will be banding together into Duchies, and you will only be able to directly between planets in the same Duchy. To go to a different Duchy you will need to return to Sol. It will, of course, be possible for systems to change their allegiance at a whim! We'll continue to bug Bella's brainwaves, and if we get anything else that seems to make sense we will pass it on. **>> BELLA SAYS... If you need to leave her an urgent message, use the command rather than the command. She will receive sendmail as soon as she logs onto the game, but she only checks the typo file once or twice a week. Of course, if the information cannot be conveyed in less than a few lines, it is better to use GEnie Mail rather than sendmail. **>> THE WORKINGS OF BUREAUCRACY The Conclave held a meeting today to discuss how to speed up dealing with claims for compensation after major crashes, and to deal with "appeals" where a claim is felt to be erroneous. Claimants should find in the future that matters are dealt with much faster. Of course, Murphy's Law means that having held this meeting and come up with fool-proof plans, there will never be any more crashes, ever again. [Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt! Ed] **>> WHO'S WHO? Bella has uploaded a New "Who's Who" file into Library 5 of the MPGames libraries. File 1873 - WHOSWHO.REF - lists all the current personas in the game, with their rank, shipname, company and planet names where applicable. Sadly, it doesn't give their bank balances. **>> NAME THAT PLANET! Yes, we're still carrying on with this by now rather tedious competition, and we'll continue to do so as long as you send in suggestions. For new readers, what we are looking for is a name by which The Vile Cryptosporidium's non- existent planet can be known. This week Condor has suggested Limbo. We take it he isn't referring to dancers! Keep the suggestions rolling in, as soon as we have enough to fill a hat, or we get completely bored by all this, we'll choose the best one and award a groat or two as a prize. **>> HANDS OFF! Condor had a very interesting question, and if we had a Problem Page we would no doubt feature it as the star letter. Since we don't, we'll just bung it in the middle of this stream-of-conciousness that we call a News Bulletin. His question was: where does all the money go that people spend on SpyNet services? If it doesn't go anywhere in particular, could it sort of materialise into his account? Well Condor, sunshine, that's not a very sensible suggestion. You see, SpyNet is owned by Bella. Yes, she of the large green bottom and the persona editor. She takes a rather dim view of people attempting to cut into her income, and if there are any more suggestions like that then she might be tempted to remove large amounts from your account! Message received? **>> TRACTION AND RETRACTION In last week's news we reported the break-up of Kittycat and Dyars, one of the happy young couples that grace Fed Data Space. We are pleased to say that they did not, in fact, break up; they are, in fact, still very much together. The informant who fed us this misinformation has been hunted down and shot, and the newsdroid which failed to research the facts properly has been turned into an ashtray. **>> THE RETURN OF... Remember Florence? She played Fed a while back, goodness, it might even be a year or so ago (how quickly time doth fleet for those enraptured!) but was sent away on an extended business trip. She is now planning to return to GEnie, and to Fed, so look out for her soon. Meanwhile, she says "Hi" to anyone who remembers her. If anyone is planning to be away from the game for a while, remember that your persona will be safe for a certain length of time, depending on your rank. GroundHogs will be wiped out 30 days after their last log-on; Commanders 60 days; Captains 90; and so on, with another 30 days grace added for each rank. **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS Do you want this section of the news to be discontinued? We're considering dropping it altogether, because very few of you inform us of your promotions when they happen (obviously you are far too busy celebrating to issue a simply command), and we can't guarantee to pick up promotions from the SpyNet Review. So, unless we receive a great clamour to the contrary, this will be the last Promotions section of the news. This week, Paully made it to Adventurer. Well done, Paully, now you can visit those far-flung lands in other systems. Darhmabum was promoted to Trader. Congratulations. Well done Brawn, who became a Merchant, and is now ready to hunt that pirate at the start of his quest for Journeypersondom. After much hard work and many trials, Condor would like to announce that anyone wishing to call him Journeyman Condor may do so without being laughed out of the house. Kimos has clawed his way to Explorer, and will soon start work on his planet. The latest addition to the planet-owning classes is Squire Jim. Crime, in the system of Cabal, was added on Friday. We can report that it's a rather unsavoury little world, with a dangerous sewer and a lot of dubious characters. **>>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 or Bella in the game * leave a message in the game log * a message to Hazed or Bella * send GEnie mail with the Federation Feedback option from the main menu You can order a copy of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation by typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95. (New edition will be available shortly!) Federation has several categories in the new MPGames RT. To get there, type M1045,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 13 (for information, instructions, questions and answers) or 14 (for general chat and discussions). The Federation Leader in the bulletin board is Krell (Mail ID: K.HILLYER). There are also private categories for Explorers, run by Krell, and for the Conclave run by Oddball (Mail ID: D.STALZLE). The MPGames RT also has a Federation library in the files area, Library 5. Library 18 holds the Federation News Archives. **>> BULLETIN ENDS