**>> SPYNET BULLETIN 
 **>> EARTHDATE 93.12.19 
 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE 
 
 **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids 
 **>> <SEND HAZED> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! 
 
 
 **>> THE RETURN OF... 
 
Hazed is back in the hotseat, firmly controlling the newsdroids this week.
Many thanks to Gemini who edited the news for the last two weeks, ably
assisted by Tellurian who acted as copy-boy. 
 
Since next week is Christmas, and Hazed will be away from home (but still
online), next week's news will be a mini-news to cover urgent matters and
remind you about the festivities in Fed. 
 
We have recruited a Guest NewsDroid to help us out in January, and we now
want volunteers to compile the news one week in February, and once a month
thereafter. If any of you feel the urge to have a go at editing this august
journal, please contact Hazed. 
 
 
 **>> MEMORY PROBLEM 
 
The game is very tight for memory at the moment, which reduces the maximum
number of players the game can hold at once. Over the free weekend, Bella
tried to keep all the player planets in but this meant that new players
weren't able to get into the game. In order to allow the maximum number of
new players, she had to take out the players planets for the rest of the
weekend. 
 
Even during normal play, the game sometimes gets full during busy times.
The memory problem really is getting serious. In fact, Bella is so worried
about it that she has dragged herself from her sickbed today (she's been
stricken with the dreaded Rigellian Flu) to do something about it. 
 
She's going to make a change to the way game handles its indexes. One of
the things this change will do is alter the way the game deal with
sendmail. As a consequence, Bella will probably have to wipe the current
sendmail file tomorrow. 
 
It is worth pointing out that as a general rule, you should not regard
sendmail as a secure system. For technical reasons, we do not guarantee
that messages will be delivered. If you have important information to send
to another player, you should use GEmail. 
 
The new sendmail system will probably not be able to check that you have
typed in a correct player name, so you'll need to be careful with your
spelling. However, you will be able to send mail to the owner of a planet
by using the planet or system name. 
 
 
 **>> WHAT DO YOU THINK? 
 
As a way of allocating the game resources more fairly, Bella is considering
changing the way the game calculates which planet to load. Currently, if a
player doesn't log onto the game for ten days, their planet doesn't get
loaded when the game fires up. But Bella thinks it would be much fairer if
the decision was made based on the amount of time the player spends on the
game, rather than the days they do or don't appear. 
 
For example, if you do not play for at least an hour on one day, your
planet will not be loaded the next day. To get your planet back, you'd need
to be on for at least an hour. 
 
At the moment, this is only a suggestion. Bella would like to hear your
views on this idea - and she wants to hear from both planet-owners and non-
planet owners. 
 
Hazed has posted this suggestion in the Suggestion Box topic of the MPGames
BBS - that's Cat 13, Top 18, Msg 204. Please tell us what you think. 
 
 
 **>> WELCOME, NEWBODS! 
 
Last week's free weekend was a great success, with over 200 new personas
added to the file. It is clear from the week's play that many of these are
continuing to play. So, let us take this opportunity to welcome you to Fed,
and to tell you a bit about the "mood" or "style" of the game. 
 
Federation is billed as an adult game. We assume that you will act in an
adult and mature manner, and as such we don't have teams of games masters
watching you all the time to make sure you behave. There are very few rules
in Fed - in general, if we don't want you to do something, then the game
itself won't let you do it. 
 
Having said that, you are still bound by GEnie's policies and you should be
aware of them. You can read them by typing POLICY from any main menu
prompt. In particular, remember that swearing is not looked upon favorably,
nor is harassing other players. 
 
There are a number of different groupings, or factions, in the game who
seem to have different ideas and playing philosophies. No doubt you'll find
out about them, and decide who you feel more comfortable associating with,
as you progress in the game. The various groups sometimes get into fights
(more often of words than deeds) about how the game should be played, but
generally things blow over quite fast. 
 
Although people seem to be rivals in the game, often they are not out of
the game. You need to remember that Fed is a role-playing game, and how
someone behaves In Character (IC) can be very different from how they
really are Out Of Character (OOC). If someone shoots at you, or grabs an
object before you do, it is their -*character*- that is doing it, and you
should remember this when you respond. 
 
Fed is a game of alliances and coalitions. People will generally help
others out, not just through the goodness of their hearts (or equivalents)
but also because they'll want something from you later - help with a task
they have to complete, or support in their political struggles. 
 
If you need help with something, don't be afraid to ask for it, but try not
be become a pest by expecting too much. People don't like whingers! 
 
Remember, above all, that Fed is a game, and you are playing it because it
is fun. 
 
[Note: the Galactic Administration has ways of dealing with people who do
not have fun...] 
 
 
 **>> SOMETHING IN THE AIR? 
 
There has been an extraordinary number of high level players going dead-
dead over the last few months. Freya got into a spat with Tellurian and
forgot to reinsure in between deaths. Menace also forgot to reinsure when
frantically trading (although rumour has it that another person was using
his account at the time). Gemini snuffed it on her own planet, which
doesn't even have any death locations (apparently she got lost in her own
maze and suicided out. That's stupid enough, but then she got hit with some
line noise that killed her again! A very impressive feat, we are sure you
will agree). Now Hypatia has been and gone and done it too. 
 
It is common when anyone dies dead-dead to blame the death on a system bug.
Or a burst of line noise. Or a fault in a macro. Or an error on someone's
planet. After all, no-one wants to admit they might have done something
stupid. 
 
Fed has been running on various systems throughout the world for over five
years. In all that time, there has never been a proven system bug that
caused people to die, dead-dead or otherwise, with the exception of the
"disappearing insurance" problem at Halloween. 
 
In Hypatia's case, some people have been claiming that she died because the
owner of the planet she was on (Emmi) deliberately set a trap designed to
kill people dead-dead. Frankly, this is the silliest excuse we've heard for
a long time. Why can't people just admit that they made a mistake? 
 
[Thirty-seven pages of this tirade have been deleted for the sake of
brevity.] 
 
 
 **>> IF THINE EYE OFFENDS THEE... 
 
As we said a few stories above, we assume that you are all going to act
like adults when you play Fed. Bella is getting rather sick of people
whingeing to her because "so-and-so is shooting at new players". If you
really are worried that someone is making the spaceways dangerous, do
something about it! All ships are capable of having twin lasers installed,
so why not patrol the skies and protect the vulnerable if you think there's
a problem. 
 
On a related note, if someone violates GEnie policy by swearing at you or
harrassing you, we do want to know about that - but we won't even consider
a complaint unless you can provide a full, unedited capture showing not
only the "offence" but also the events leading up to it. A moan that "so-
and-so was rude to me" without a capture to back it up isn't something we
can deal with. 
 
And now on to more jolly subjects... 
 
 
 **>> CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE, BY GOLLY 
 
We've got lots of exciting things for you this Christmas in Fed! 
 
As in previous years, we've commissioned a special Christmas planet which
will be linked into the game for you to explore. It has been written by two
players, one with a lot of experience at writing excellent planets; the
other a newer player who hasn't designed a planet before, but has been
involved in writing role-playing games. The joint builders are Tellurian
and Blackadder. 
 
The planet is called Humbug, in the system Cratchet. It features a Fed
Christmas pageant, Santa's workshop, and holiday icons for children of all
ages. 
 
Humbug will be in the game from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day. 
 
Over the holiday period, Santa Claus will be visiting Fed from time to time
with a huge sack of presents to give away. He's got some free Fed time,
some free copies of the new edition of the Idiot's Guide (which is
currently at the printer), and lots of groats. He'll be popping in at least
once a day to play hide-n-seek, run treasure hunts, and other exciting
games. 
 
There are sure to be many impromptu parties over the holiday period - in
Fed hardly a day goes by without someone, somewhere, declaring that it's
Party Time! But on New Year's Day Santa will be hosting a farewell party as
he goes off-duty and relaxes. No doubt he'll be misbehaving himself to make
up for the times when he has to set a good example! The party is fancy
dress - come dressed in something suitably christmassy, and there'll be a
prize for the best costume. There will also be an elf roast, and so the
vegetarians don't feel left out, we will barbecue a dryad. 
 
GEnie holiday rates apply over the festive period, so you'll be able to
play Fed all day without having to worry about extra charges. 
 
 
 **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES 
 
Fletcher's new planet Pagrah, in the system Sularin, was linked into the
game during the week. Pagrah is a desert world, inhabited by nomadic tribes
who live in tents among the dunes. There seems to be some tension between
the two main tribes... 
 
Visiting one of the tribal dwellings allows you to steal a horse and go for
a swift ride across the desert; the other offers the chance to play a
rather messy game involving a dead sheep. Occy would probably love this! 
 
Pagrah is a nice planet, very atmospheric. Fletcher has gone to a lot of
trouble to ensure that all the locations conform to the style of the world.
There are a number of typos in the descriptions that need to be tidied up,
but other than that it's good. Worth exploring! 
 
On a tangent... may we remind you that you -*MUST*- run your planet files
through the checker before you ask Bella to link them into the game. This
applies even if you've just made one teeny tiny change to a description.
Bella runs the checker before she does anything with files, and if an error
shows up it will delay the files being linked while she mails you to fix
them, then you fix them, then you mail her to link them again... 
 
The duchies have changed a great deal over the last month or so. Jim's
duchy of Crime is back in the game - it was removed when he announced he
would be taking a break for a few months; he came back sooner than
expected, so Bella put the duchy back in. 
 
Tellurian was promoted to Duke on Saturday, which pushed Krell to Senator.
Finally! Krell had expected to be the second Senator (after Oddball) but
every time someone has managed to top her bid; she was beginning to resign
herself to being a Duke forever. This time, her bid was enough to top
everyone else's, and she got promoted. 
 
Tellurian will be bumped up to Senator himself on Monday. He got a few
extra days as a Duke because Bella didn't want to tamper with the game over
the weekend. That will leave an empty duchy slot - so the next new Duke
won't create a new Senator. 
 
Despite Tellurian's imminent upward mobility, several planets have chosen
to join his duchy for the few days it will be available. So the duchies
currently look like this: 
 
There are four Independent systems: Arena, Oasis, Jinx and Sularin. 
 
Niun's Ocean is much reduced from its former glory, having only Dahih, Dawn
and Ambetung. 
 
Jim's Crime has no planets at all. 
 
Zippo's Oppiz has a massive 8 worlds: Starship, Valaria, Roissy, Mirai,
Rtyui, Nautilus, Warp and Aiel. 
 
Looney's Insanity has 3: Source, Links and Aytes. 
 
Tellurian's Nemesis has Fremd, Paradigm, Mycenae and Addis. 
 
Of course, this will all have changed drastically by next week, no doubt! 
 
 
 **>> GOSSIP AND SCANDAL 
 
We are very sorry to report that we don't have any gossip or scandal for
you this week. We can only conclude that everyone has been behaving
impeccably in the hope that Santa will overlook their past behaviour when
he visits! 
 
 
 **>> SPYNET REVIEW 
 
Many apologies to those who were promoted during the two weeks Hazed was
off-duty. She managed to lose the SpyNet Review data she had been
diligently saving up! All we have to offer is last week's promotions,
including the tail end of the free weekend - hence all the new Captains:
Evren, Ed, Tyrnna, Atari, Hapgringe, Soulcrusher, Starsurfer, Dracon,
Bandicoot, Mute, Mara, Sthil, Hypatia (back from the dead), Louisarmand,
Blotto, Lonehawk, Raven, Cybercoil, Clown, Andros and Renard. 
 
Adventurers and Adventureuses were Starsurfer, Regis, Kaighishi, Darren,
Celtus, Apollo, Sthil, Renard, Talisan, Siobhan, Tyranna, Suzi, Hypatia and
Mara. 
 
The Traders Guild has the following new members: Sevrina, Hazard, Drspock,
Roach, Byterunner, Hypatia, Regis, Siobhan, Sthil and Mara. 
 
Hypatia and Clairebourne made it to Merchant. 
 
The awesome JP puzzle proved no match for Hypatia, Mosquito and Darkness.
Hypatia quickly tackled the GM puzzle again, too. 
 
Dirge and Hypatia made it to Explorer. 
 
Hypatia then made it back to Squire again, after a swift rise through the
ranks. Fletcher also became a Squire as his new planet was linked. 
 
Tellurian became a Duke, and Krell a Senator (at long last). 
 
 
 **>> 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 
 
 * <SEND> a message to Hazed or Bella 
 
 * send GEnie mail with the Mail about Federation option from the main menu
 
A front-end terminal program is available for Federation, for the PC. You
can download a copy of FedTerm from the Federation libraries (option 3 on
the main  Fed page). The Amiga version is in beta-test.  
 
A new version of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation is
being printed at the moment, and will go on sale in the next few weeks. 
 
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 Oxcart (Mail
ID: J.LONG29). There are also private categories for Explorers and the
Sentate, run by Krell (Mail ID: K.HILLYER). 
 
The MPGames RT also has a Federation library in the files area, Library 5.
Library 18 holds the Federation News Archives.  
 
 **>> BULLETIN ENDS