**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 93.03.28 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> DUKES EXTEND THEIR DEFENSIVE CAPABILITIES Last week, Dukes were able to start building a naval base, either based on a planet or as an orbital deathstar. This week, you can start building up the equipment that makes the base run. The first item you can add to your capabilities are detectors. These are a vital part of the defences of a duchy; they will spot smugglers trying to break through the border, and other unfriendly infiltration. For the detectors to be effective, Dukes will need at least ten for each planet in the duchy. will tell you what inputs and labour are needed to build one, and how long they take to complete. starts the project. If the base is orbital, you need to specify the planet to draw inputs from. shows you your progress, with the remaining time (in hours) and reminds you where the materials are coming from. Don't forget that these projects are cancelled if they are not complete before the game is reset. During the week, you will be able to start building some of the other items for your base; and even if your base is on a planet, you will be able to draw inputs from wherever you wish. Even if Dukes are convinced they will become Senators soon, it is still worth building up your naval base and its capabilities. On promotion, you will lose your duchy, but you'll take your base with you, and you'll be able to use it to undermine planets that might vote against you, or help defend planets that support you. Speaking of which... we should remind Dukes that the bids they put in to buy their way to Senatorhood are expressed in MEGAGROATS, so don't put too many zeroes on the end! **>> SPRING FLING! We'll be celebrating April Fool's Day in traditional style, with the addition of a bizarre planet written by the game's biggest fool, Oxcart. The hyperspace link to the planet will be put in place on Thursday April 1 1993, and remain until Monday April 5th at 8.00am, so you'll have four days in which to explore the planet and try to solve its mysteries. Arcadia was colonised by a group of carnival workers who had become dissatisfied with their particular lot in life. Roving round the universe displaying ones anatomical peculiarities to the gawking public tends to wear on ones nerves after awhile. One night they decided that they'd had just about enough and banded together and brained the carnival owner with the fat lady's shoe. After stealing a ship and provisions they set out to seek their fame and fortune (or at least a quiet little place where the cops wouldn't find them). In the desolate backwaters of an insignificant little galaxy they founded Arcadia. Life was fine. Everything was swell. Such was their vanity and laziness that they ordered custom built droids in their own likeness to do all the dirty house-cleaning chores. Little did they know that the company that manufactured the droids was owned by the evil brother of the carnival owner. Early one morning after a particularly rowdy party the droids struck. The details are too grisly to go into here. Bottom line: No one knows how it all ended. After the dust had settled there was only one fat lady, one tall man, one dog boy, one bearded lady, etc. What happened? Did the droids kill everyone and take over their sad excuses for lives? Did the people win and decide to do their own dishes? We leave that for you to discover for yourself. **>> EASTER FUN AND MAYHEM What are you doing this Easter? Want to meet the Easter Bunny, play some games with him, and maybe win a prize? Harvey will be visiting Federation, the adult space fantasy game, and he's got free Federation play to give away. He'll be running treasure hunts and games of hide and seek, and just generally having fun. The main prize is a free weekend's play in Fed, and a prize of a day's play in the game will be awarded in a special treasure hunt for new players. If the Easter Bunny is too sugary and cutesy for you, maybe you'd rather join in with the other special Easter event we have planned in Fed. Once Harvey has given away his goodies, you'll have a chance to KILL THE WABBIT! Watch him run, rabbit, run, as you try to blow him up with a missile, or singe his fur with your twin lasers - make his batteries run down! In case your ship accidentally shoots at the wrong target, don't worry - death won't be fatal for the two hours of mayhem. Full details of the Easter fun will be in next week's news. **>> FEDTERM NEWS Bella is working on a new version of FedTerm, the multimedia terminal program. The new version will support PCX pictures directly - no more mucking about with converters! It will also let you download files from the library. It will be a while yet before it will be ready, but we thought you'd like to have something to look forward to. A.ELLIOTT1, whoever he or she is, has uploaded a very impressive 256 colour SVGA GIF picture of a starship docking at what could very well be an orbital naval base! It is file number 63 in the FedTerm library. **>> THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO PLANETARY CONSTRUCTION Hazed has overhauled the instructions telling you how to design and build a planet. She's taken note of all the Frequently Asked Questions, and clarified the things that people found most confusing. The new instructions are in Cat 13, Top 10 in the MPGames BBS, and have also been uploaded to the library as file 2692. The instructions are in the general, open Fed category and library so that lower players can read them before they actually make it to Explorer - as a taste of things to come, and to help if they want to start work on their planets before being promoted. However, comments about the instructions, and questions about the designing and building process should be posted in the Explorer's category, cat 43. Hazed has also been overhauling the Duke's instructions, but she won't be uploading these because every week Bella puts in a new feature that makes the instructions out of date! New Dukes will just have to ask her for the latest version. Next, Hazed will tackle the Planetary Management documentation, so if you have any comments or queries about the existing version, now is the time to speak! **>> DISAPPEARING PLANETS Bella has asked us to clarify the policy regarding absent or dead planet owners. We were going to refuse, but she threatened to scramble our circuits by pouring green chilli vodka into our memory slots! Once a day, when the game does its house-keeping, it runs through the list of planets and decides which ones to put into the game. If a planet owner has asked for the planet to be taken offline, or if the they have been absent for a week or more, the planet won't be loaded in. If a planet-owner is absent for three months, their planet will be removed completely. Similarly, if a planet-owner dies, and does not return immediately, their planets will be removed. This doesn't mean the planets are nuked, it just means the game won't spend time wondering whether it has to do anything with them whenever it does the house-keeping. If you return after a long absence, or return after being dead, you can ask for the planet to be put back in. Please provide your log-on ID when doing so. **>> GOSSIP AND STUFF Can it be true that Oxcart and Zoe are having a mad passionate affair? Who is this Zoe person, and why doesn't she get help? Diesel is considering banning animals from the bar, unless they are destined for one of her pizzas. She is very concerned at the numbers of marsrats, snakes, cows, eagles, rubber chickens and so on that her clientele bring into the bar, and would like to remind all players that the Galactic Administration's Food and Hygiene Regulations 20876/69a/f19 state clearly that animals should not be allowed to roam around freely where food is being prepared. Jade and Destiny have both returned from the dead, and their on-again, off-again relationship continues to be off-again, or maybe on-again, depending which way you look at it. Jade is still spurning Destiny, and making plans to hitch herself to other players. First she decided to marry Glurg, but when Destiny threatened to kill himself, or Glurg, or both, she called that one off; now she has been throwing herself at Occy. The Duke, worried that she is only after his money, has refused to have anything to do with her, but she swears his money doesn't interest her: it is, in fact, his duchy she wants! **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES It's all quiet on the planet front this week, and the only change to Duchies is caused by players disappearing or reappearing - in some cases from the dead. Freya has built herself a time-machine, and last night she had her first go at the devilish Duke puzzle. It wasn't a great success. One of her helpers dropped the carrier at a critical moment and lost the objects she was carrying! Freya will be trying again tomorrow (Monday). **>> SPYNET REVIEW What a lot of low-level promotions! Welcome, all you newbods, and congratulations to everyone who advanced. The week's Captains were Jade (back from the dead), Destiny (ditto), Riccardo (and again), Tellurian, Victor, Dracma, Optarnus, Sylvian, Halthron, Ironhawk, Mirth (another restoree), Venom, Wolfman (back from being very recently dead), Wanderer, Hans and Joet. The promotions to Adventurer were Morgan, Destiny, Tellurian, Riccardo, Ruanna, Jade, Victor and Ariadne. The Trader's Guild has admitted the following as new members: Jade, Zargleswart, Victor, Destiny and Tellurian. Mongo, Jade, Sheba and Destiny are now Merchants. The awesome JP puzzle proved to be child's play to Glurg, Hikaru and Jade. Seramarias has reached Explorer, and will no doubt be struggling to understand the Explorer's Workbench. Just as well Hazed has updated the instructions! There seemed to be an awful lot of death over the last week. Morgan, Ruanna, Odan, Dracma, Pete and Sylvian all snuffed it for reasons unknown. Wolfman also died dead-dead: he died while working on the GM puzzle, then got caught by Pegasus on the way to the Insurance Office on Venus. He's returned, and it shouldn't take him long to work his way back up to where he was before. **>> 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 FedTerm, the multimedia front-end program for the game, can be downloaded from the Federation library (option 6 on 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