**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 93.07.04 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> WELCOME, NEWBODS! Fed Data Space is currently teeming with lower-ranking players - Commanders, Captains, Adventurers and Traders are outnumbering the old hands considerably. GEnie's price change has made the games far more affordable, which is excellent because any multi-player game needs new blood to prevent it from stagnating. Welcome to all new players! We know you're going to have fun playing Fed. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you're not sure what you should be doing - everyone is very friendly and will assist you in getting started and buying your first ship. Please, do take the time to read the instructions. We know most people don't read manuals, but you really will enjoy the game a lot more if you know what's going on! Besides, Fed's manual is not like usual game manuals - it's actually an entertaining read in its own right. Remember that Fed is not a fighting game, it's a game of cooperation. You'll get on far better if you make friends and build alliances with players at all ranks, than if you equip your ship with weapons and shoot at other ships. Fed doesn't have lots of game-masters or official assistants. There are just two people who you will see regularly. Bella is the designer, creator and programmer of Fed; Hazed is in charge of documentation, publicity and public relations. Hazed also compiles this weekly News Bulletin. It's written and uploaded every Sunday, and it tells you about changes to the game, new features, special promotions, and also keeps you informed of the scandalous things the players have been up to! You should read the news every week. Finally, if you have any questions or comments about the game, please contact us. It's important that we receive feedback from players so we can keep on making Fed better and better. The end of this news bulletin gives you the official information about how to get in touch with us. Have fun! **>> NEWS FROM THE SICKBED In last week's news we told you that Bella was going into hospital for a few days. She had her operation, and was sent home to recuperate yesterday. It would have been earlier, but she was kept in an extra night as a punishment for bleeding all over the floor! She's feeling very wobbly after the operation, and is hobbling around on crutches, so it's unlikely she's going to feel up to doing much work this week. If you see her in the game, please don't kick her crutches away! That wouldn't be nice. **>> INDEPENDENCE DAY HOLIDAY Monday July 5th is Independence Day, and it will also be a GEnie holiday. Prime-time surcharges will be waived during the day, and the standard hourly connect rate will be in effect right up to 8.00 am Tuesday July 6th! So you can play Fed all day while you celebrate the holiday. **>> NEWBOD'S GUIDE TO FEDERATION Last week we outlined our long-term plans to overhaul the documentation for the game. The first piece is in place: the updated Newbod's Guide, covering the ranks from GroundHog to Trader, is now available. You can download it by selecting option 6 from the main Fed page, then option 1 "download the manual". Next we will change the instruction page to give menu options for the Intermediate Guide and the Advanced Guide. The Intermediate Guide will cover the ranks Merchant to Explorer, and we'll have that ready in a few weeks. We advise every one to download the new Newbod's Guide, even high- ranking players, because quite a lot of things have changed since the last version. If you use ZMODEM at 2400 baud it should take less than 4 minutes to download. **>> GOSSIP AND SCANDAL Note to new players: we pay good groats for any information you give us that we use in the news. The more scurrilous, the better! Seramarias is walking on eggs at the moment, because Dyars has returned to Fed Data Space! The two were a hot item last time Dyars was around, but when he vanished under mysterious circumstances she took up with his brother Patch, and eventually married him in a ceremony marked by much pie-throwing! Patch also vanished before long - why does Sera have this effect on men? - and now Dyars has returned. How will he react to the news that his brother married his old flame? **>> AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE The Godfather, leader of Fed's organised crime based on the Moon, has been laundering his funds by getting his mistress, Freya, to bankroll newbods. Presumably at some point he is going to want to call in these favours... **>> MISS MANNERS TEACHES A LESSON Mattsky nearly came to a nasty end recently, when he offended someone not known for a cool temper! He decided to beg some groats off a higher-ranking player, and wandered into Sam's in search of someone who would bung him a meg or two. Sure enough, Sam's wasn't empty: Maxwell and Emmi were there, but as might be expected in such a private bar, they were engaged in... erm... well, we're sure you can imagine what they were engaged in! But Mattsky wouldn't take a hint, and when Emmi declined to give him the handout he wanted, he refused to leave them in peace. She got crosser and crosser, and eventually vowed to kill him at the earliest opportunity! Quaking at the knees, Mattsky realised how deep he'd got himself into trouble, and apologised for being such a nuisance. After Maxwell gave him a long talk about manners and etiquette, Emmi relented and agreed not to go gunning for him! Meanwhile, Emmi and Maxwell have engaged architects to help them design their new home, which they are building on Nemesis. Also meanwhile, Emmi has asked us to point out that the reason she is putting on weight is because she's been eating too much of that disgusting beet ice-cream she likes so much. It is not because she's pregnant. And we believe her, don't we boys and girls? **>> WHAT AM I BID? Tellurian seems to be inventing new roles for himself all the time. First, he was Glurg's sidekick in the Pegasus School of Assassination. Then he set up the crackpot religion that worships the homicidal horse. Now he's turned slave-master! He held an auction recently, to raise money for the church roof fund or something like that. What did he auction? A slave girl called Maia! Just where he got hold of her, we don't know - we thought the Galactic Administration had stamped out slavery long ago. Bidding was fierce, settling down into a contest between Marcia and Cyrfox. The poor thing was eventually sold to Cyrfox for 236 meg. However, he didn't so much buy her as rent her - he only got to keep her for a few days! We don't know if ownership reverted to the church, or if she was given her freedom. We've been trying to infiltrate newsdroids into the church to find out just what is going on, but so far we've had no luck. **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Tellurian's planet, Nemesis, has been made a much safer place than it was when he first threw it open for business. You should now be able to explore it safely, provided you pay attention to any warning signs. It's been a while since we did a round-up of which planet is in which duchy. There are currently eight Independent worlds: Arena, Starship, Brewski, Ibex, Oasis, Roissy, Harlequin and Dahih. Elex's Scadia has two planets: Xhit and Jinx. Piemur's Phoenix has five: Valaria, Hell, Oberon, Mirai and Insanity. Freya's Vitro has increased its domain to six worlds: Dunnottar, Oppiz, Sapien, Rhylannor, Xixax and Nemesis. Krell's Gotham is left with just one, Cabal, and Khan's Neutarus has no systems at all! Will we have a new Duke soon? Niun is ready to attempt the devilish Duke puzzle. He has built himself a time machine, and made his first trip back to Horsell. Unfortunately, he neglected to build up enough resources to power the time machine for his return trip - and faced the awful prospect of being trapped there! Luckily for him, Hazed took pity on him and rescued him. He's now getting ready for another trip, but this time he will have to provide his own return fare! **>> SPYNET REVIEW Yes, at last, now that sendmail is working properly we can once again bring you our weekly round-up of promotions and other notable deaths. The large number of low-ranking promotions shows how many new players there have been. There have been 17 new Captains in the last week: Pompeii, Maia, Slealta, Et, Telidon, Dyars, Mattsky, Cormac, Hosehead, Zone, Treato, Titania, Malice, Guru, Pompeii again (he died), Karrde and Whisper. Granddaddy, Marvin, Lepermessiah, Dyars, Treato, Mattsky and Monroe were all promoted to Adventurer. Stargazer, Dyars, Lurana and Aahz have been admitted to the Traders Guide. Aahz went on to make Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle was solved by Wolfman, Barberousse, Aahz and Galimos. Shock news: Gemini died dead-dead! Tellurian is devastated by the loss of his lover, particularly since she died on his planet. Our newsdroids are equally devasted, as this puts an end to their marathon sex-in- every-bar spree! Finishing on a happier note, Glurg has played 1000 games. **>> 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. If you have a question or a problem, here's how to contact us: * talk to Hazed or Bella in the game * use sendmail to a message to Hazed or Bella * send Mail to the Federation team using the "Mail About Fed" option from the main menu. FedTerm, the multimedia front-end program for the game, can be downloaded from the Federation library (option 3 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 MOVE 1045,1 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 Senate 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