**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 92.09.20 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS We apologise for the fact that Fed was unavailable for about an hour early this morning. This was due to essential GEnie maintenance. The past week has seen a few "strangenesses" creeping into the game. Extra lines were being inserted into messages the game sent you, making the displays look very odd! The reason is that Bella's been trying to synchronise all the different versions of Fed that are running, to make it easier to keep them up to date. Since they run on different machines, with different operating systems, the occasional oddity results - like this one! Another symptom of this has been the confusion about who gets kissed. If you kiss someone, they get told you are kissing them... no problem there... but YOU get told you've given YOURSELF a kiss! Both these problems will be cleared up tomorrow. **>> YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT PROBLEMS... If you think you have it bad here, you should consider the poor French who tried to play Fed when it went live a few days ago. They answered all the correct questions about their sex and their stats, but could never go any further than that! It turned out that when they were asked if they were happy, they were typing for - and the game was still expecting for ! A new version of the game was despatched across the English channel post-haste... **>> MINOR CHANGES The version that goes in tomorrow, which should fix all the wierdnesses, will contain one change to the command. A new command, , will cancel the command, and on its own will remind you who you've got your guns aimed at. Sometime over the next week, the Galactic Administration will start forwarding the SpyNet Review direct to Hazed via sendmail, so she will be able to include details of promotions in the news again - and this time she won't miss anyone out! She'll also be able to see if anyone seems to be dying a lot, and will despatch a newsdroid to investigate if she deems it necessary. **>> THE DEVILISH DUKE PUZZLE Now that Oddball has become the first Duke, the race is one to see who will be the next to join him by becoming the second Duke - or Duchesse! Rezrov has completed building the necessary installations on his planet, and has a working time machine. He has made one trip back in time to Horsell, and is now thinking about what he found there before he attempts anything - very sensible, since every trip through time costs him an enormous amount of resources, and can damage his installations, which are very expensive to repair. Piemur has dropped out of the race for the time being. Hopefully he will be able to resume his activities soon. Occy has made a start on building installations, but is finding it very difficult to get the inputs needed. By contrast Krell has enlisted the help of just about every Trader in the known universe, so is making excellent progress. If she keeps going at the same rate, she'll be able to teleport around the Galaxy very shortly. We will keep you posted about the progress of these wannabe-Dukes. **>> A BRIEF REMINDER... New players may not know that if they type they are told what they need to do for their next promotion - or in the case of promotions that demand the solving of a puzzle, they will be told what their first step should be. **>> ALAS POOR DELTA We regret to report that tragically Delta has died, in rather mysterious circumstances. Full reports of the circumstances leading up to his death appear in numerous messages in the Fed BBS, so we won't repeat them here. He leaves behind him a grieving widow, Cosmos, and a distraught mistress, Marcia. (Perhaps he committed suicide to escape from the turmoil of this vicious love triangle?) **>> WEDDING BELLS? We've heard rumours that Silversteel and Morgana are going to get married, but neither of them were available for comment. Is Silversteel on the rebound from Krell's rejection, or is this genuine love? **>> MORE WEDDING BELLS Dyars has several times asked Seramarias to marry him, and she kept putting him off because she wasn't sure if she wanted to end her carefree days as a single woman. Things came to a head when Dyars caught her flirting with Cooter! He was furious and intended to dump Seramarias and go hunting Cooter - which seems a little unfair, since at that stage Seramarias had not promised to forsake all others for him. Serarmarias, however, felt very foolish over the whole thing, and decided that Dyars was not only a nice guy but also a very good prospect for a husband, so she apologised to him and told him she would marry him. Presumably this let Cooter off the hook! The happy couple haven't set a date yet, nor decided on the venue, but they rather fancy the idea of getting hitched in Dr. Fogg's Marital Arts Emporium on Venus. Perhaps they think the merchandise on display will give them ideas for the honeymoon. **>> STOP PRESS! It looks like the engagement is on rocky ground! We've just received the following report from one of our newdroids: Seramarias entered Fed Data Space with a verbal assault on Marcia for messing with her betrothed, and acrimonious comm messages raged across the galaxy. Marcia pleaded ignorance, saying that she didn't realise that Dyars was promised to another. The embittered Seramarias then turned on Dyars, accusing him of betraying her. He responded by breaking off the relationship and threatening to kill his ex- fiance! He stormed off to take his wrath out on Monty. Meanwhile, the two ladies in question continued hurling accusations back and forth, and finally came to blows. Wishing to encourage the brawl, Ohm offered half a meg to the winner of a mud-wrastling catfight, but this just invoked more wrath (as well as laughter at the pathetic size of his bank account!). Having blown away the pirate, Dyars calmed down a little, and in less than an hour he had managed to worm his way back into Sera's heart. Their love renewed, he put a token price on Ohm's head for butting in, insulted his intelligence and his masculinity, and invited him to a round of duelling lasers. Ohm used the excuse that he was a lover not a fighter, thus escaping with his life intact. And what of Marcia? Having caused strife in one marriage (and possibly causing Delta's death) she very nearly broke up another relationship. Is she an evil woman who cannot bear to see happiness between two people, and thus has to destroy it however she can? Or is she just an unwitting sexpot who doesn't know when to say no, the victim of male lust and infidelity? I think we should be told! **>> THE DARK SIDE OPPOSED? We've been hearing rumours of a new force springing up in Fed Data Space to oppose the Dark Side - although since they have never actually done anything except provide a few laughs, it's hard to see why they need any opposition. The Guardians of Light are pledged to protect the poor, defend the meek, and blow away bullies. They'll be targetting players who pick on innocent newbods or lower levels like Captains and Commanders, in fact anyone who is generally a nuisance to Fed society. We are told that there are currently five members of this group. We have been unable to find out who they are, or what rank they have achieved, so we've got no idea if they actually pose a threat to anyone or not. They would like to recruit more crusaders to their ranks, so if any of you fancy becoming Guardians of the Light, just mention the name of the organisation and eventually you will be contacted. **>>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