**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 94.01.16 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> THE OFFICIAL STUFF Bella has turned the switch that governs naval base degradation back on. They will now start decaying at the usual rate, as will all their facilities. The various bits all decay at different rates. Detectors lose 5% each day, so if you have built up a vast number during the period when they didn't decay, you will see a large drop each day until they get back down to reasonable levels. **>> IMPERIAL EDICT The game is still suffering from occasional mysterious crashes - there was one a few nights ago - and at last Bella might have found the cause. She has known for some time that the crashes happen when a player's factory and company records get corrupted; but what she didn't know was -*how*- they became corrupted! Now, she thinks she has found out. A bit of detective work shows that the corruption happens when someone with a company switches to a new GEnie account and asks Bella to move their persona over. Because of this, Bella has decided that from now on she will not move personas from one account to another because of the risks of damaging vital game files. **>> DISCUSSIONS IN MPGAMES BBS There are two debates going on in the MPGames bulletin board on page 1045 about changes that might be made the the game. The first debate is in the Explorer's Cat (43) and concerns new events planet builders would like Bella to put in, so they can write more complex puzzles on their planets. Explorers should go and read the suggestions that have been made so far, and add their own thoughts. The other is open to all, in Cat 13, Top 5). The debate is about whether Commanders and Captains should be able to use the Interstellar Link once they have played 50 games. When the Link was first linked to the Solar System, only Adventurers and over could use it. This meant that brand new players couldn't stumble onto a dangerous world without first becoming familiar with the way the game worked - and the extra stats awarded on promotion to Adventurer made things slightly safer for them. It wasn't long before players who had died dead-dead and then returned wanted to use the Link before they became Adventurers, so by request Bella determined that they could do so if they had played 50 games. Now, it seems every new Commander wants to be able to get to the player- planets instantly, and many don't realise the annoyance that continuous logins and logouts cause to the other players. (And worse, when the annoyance was pointed out, some carried on anyway!) The almost overwhelming conclusion from reading the messages is that everyone wants this feature to be removed so that once again, you have to get promoted to Adventurer to leave the Solar System and head for the stars. So that's what Bella has done! From today, the 50-game feature no longer works. The only way to use the Link is to get promoted to Adventurer. **>> WHO'S WHO? Also in the MPGames BBS: Tantras has uploaded some information about his character into the Biographies topic (Cat 14, Top 12) which tells us where he came from, and gives a hint about the planet he will build when he gets to Explorer. Very interesting reading... Let's here from some more of the recent new players. We want to know all about you! **>> FEDTERM NEWS The Amiga version of FedTerm has been in beta-test for what feels like centuries! Hazed spoke to the developer, Sevrina, today to find out what is happening. A new version has just been uploaded into the beta-test library and the beta-testers have been asked to have a go with it and send their comments. So far, it seems the program works fine on most Amigas with the possible exception of the 3000, which still has some compatability problems. Provided nothing horrendous comes back from the beta-testers when they try the new version, we should be able to release it to the general public very soon. If you are one of the beta-test group, please give the program a try and lets us know how you get on with it. If anyone else would like to be given access to the beta-test library and try the program, just mail us (using the Mail About Federation option) and we'll set you up. **>> AN HONEST DAY'S WORK? There has been a lot of talk in the Bulletin Board about, shall we say, RAPID advancement. Some players are zooming up in rank faster than it seems they'd be able to manage on their own. And despite a lot of people making JP, the Ruins sure haven't blown up in a long time. Recently, however, our NewsDroids noticed a rather distressing sight. A Merchant (who we shall call Merchant Milk to protect his or her identity (why is beyond US, but...)) was trying to run the JP Puzzle, and had already positioned his two helpers in the various places of the Martian Ruins. Then, Milk discovered that one of his stats wasn't high enough. Not only was it not high enough, but he couldn't even start to raise IT until he increased a SECOND stat! So, completing the JP Puzzle was going to be impossible, and raising the stat would take an absolute minimum of 75 minutes - and that's if the items needed regenerated at warp speed and no one else found them first. What did Milk do? Call off the puzzle? Tell his helpers what the situation was? No. Instead, Milk told his two helpers to just stand there, in their respective parts of the Ruins, and to wait. Fortunately, another player was kind enough to go and rescue the two helpers - neither of whom knew how to get OUT of their current locations. This helpful player was even kind enough to make sure that the objects the two Assistants were holding were put in a safe place. More than Merchant Milk deserved, that's for sure. Maybe it's time for everyone to stop and think about this rapidfire advancement for a minute? The game was structured the way it was for a reason. Each step of the game is a learning process; by the time you reach JP, you should not only know a lot about the mechanics of the game, but also what common Fed Etiquette is. Etiquette includes things like respect for other players - if not for everyone, at LEAST for the ones who are being kind enough to help you. And while many players flaunt that there are no official rules, most players do observe an unwritten set of rules; a set which includes helping people with puzzles, not herding them through them and flat out telling them things that they really need to figure out on their own. If nothing else, the next time you have other players who are helping you with something, at the very least ask yourself what YOU would expect if you were in their position. And then, treat them even BETTER than that. Who knows - it might be the start of a new trend. **>> GLURG LIVES? Could it be? Have the deities of Fed Data Space done the impossible? Some are starting to think so - for according to several players, Glurg is still alive! The first report rattled in soon after Glurg's freak transporter accident. The player had been in orbit around Jupiter, remembering the good old times... and then, they were attacked by a mysterious ship that looked suspiciously like the Nastydugreen. Most players dismissed it as an attack of P Squared: paranoia and the Pegasus. Next, several other users put in sightings of the Nastydugreen! This was revealed to be nothing more than Tellurian flying around the since-abandoned ship. That is... until the time that Tellurian wasn't online and people saw the ship! Then, one indigant Captain complained that a shadowy figure known only as "G" lured him to a deadly location within the Martian Ruins. Our top psychics (or is that psychos?) have been working hard on this story, and have discovered the shocking truth! Glurg's ghost is alive and well, living inside the Nastydugreen! Not content to terrify Fed Data Space while alive, Glurg is now a literal Ghost In The Machine, piloting the Nastydugreen around the Solar System when Tellurian's back is turned. While there has been talk of an exorcism, most are afraid that if it didn't work, Glurg just might target THEM... On a related note, we still haven't persuaded our newsdroid to provide us with an obituary for Glurg. It just sits in the corner blubbing, saying 'How can I possibly do justice to it? I am not worthy!' We'll keep trying... **>> JILTED! Last week, we took great pleasure in announcing the impending marriage of the widows Ni and Zodiac to Altasren, after long and arduous trials with the marriage broker Hazed. Imagine our surprise when Hazed burst into the H-by-A office in a highly agitated state, waving a piece of paper around. When we calmed her down enough to read the paper, we decided we had to print it: To Senator Hazed, greetings - While I am honored by your approval of my application, matters have gone otherwise in the several months since I made it. Lacking any feedback whatsoever for many weeks, and lacking any response to a direct proposal made to the ladies in question, I have since become engaged to the lady Azure, and have made plans to wed her within the month. I remain very fond of Zodiac and Ni, but one must follow the dictates of one's heart. Had the application process been concluded in remotely a timely fashion, matters might have gone otherwise, but that is the way of the world. My regards to you and yours, Altasren Eltinwe We could see why Hazed was so disturbed! After all her hard work, the behing-the-scenes manipulating she had to do to rush through the red-tape, the bureaucracies she outwitted, she was understandably agitated. She tells us that she had not received any formal notification that Altasren withdrawn his application; he had never even mentioned the matter to her, or to his possible brides-to-be, nor had they any inkling that he planned to marry another. Zodiac is spitting with anger over being jilted. And Ni... well, sadly, Ni cannot tell us how she feels about being let down so badly, because Ni is dead. It appears that she died -*before*- she heard about Altasren's abandonment, from pure carelessness! But we have to wonder... did she suspect that all would not go well with her marriage plans? Did some part of her subconscience nudge her to be careless? We shall never know. Meanwhile, Hazed is left with no prospect of any fee for all her hard work. It is unlikely that Zodiac will want her to continue with the search for a husband. Zodiac really hasn't had much luck with her spouses. They all seem to die in one fashion or another. Perhaps we could start using her as a secret weapon - if you have an enemy, get Zo to marry them! They'll not last long. **>> THE OFFICIAL OBITUARY Our ObituaryDroid may have been unable to complete Glurg's obituary, but it has had no problem with Ni's. Here is what it has to say: Tuesday morning Ni entered Fed, happily planning her wedding and eager to spend a few minutes catching up on her favorite hobby - dying on every planet in Fed. Fifteen minutes later she was dead-dead - seemingly the victim of a tragic accident. Our trusty newsdroids didn't believe it for a minute! Ni's widow Zodiac claimed that Ni did not yet realize that they had already been dumped for another by their new fiancee, but the coincidence was simply too - well - coincidental. Besides the fact that a good scandal makes much better news! So, willing to endure long minutes of discomfort for a good story, our newdroids managed at great personal risk to filch... erm... locate the black box which recorded the last moments of Ni's life. Combing through the playback, they were appalled to discover that the cause was actually... well, mere stupidity. As a result of her bloody hobby, Ni had the dubious distinction of having the highest insurance premium in Fed space - over 3 Meg per death. The number of new planets introduced in the last few months had already put a severe strain on her once mediocre fortune. As she attempted to add the latest 3 planets to her list, the money simply ran out. After her death on OAC, as she attempted to reinsure, the playback clearly shows the message "Insurance would cost you 3120000, and you don't have the cash!" Apparently the message went completely unnoticed by Ni, who proceeded blithely on to Pagrah and her final death. Tragically, Ni died with her task left unfinished - she never made it to Fortymile. Rumours have surfaced that Ni's ghost later returned to complete the task, but we here remind you that the existance of ghosts has never been scientifically proven and we don't believe a word of it. Besides her lovely and charming (and in need of much comforting) widow Zodiac, Ni is also survived by her late husband Tellurian. **>> THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK... Seems last night at Sam's, Rezrov in his hunt for "girl scouts" got a bit more than he bargained for. Upon his hearing of Azure's upcoming marriage to Altasren, he began counseling with her to be sure that she knew what she was doing. He had been flirting with her and the other two women there. Seems after an overly forward proposal to take her into the back room and be sure she was ready for marriage, the three women got together and decided to call his bluff. It was only moments until the three had him locked in, cornered, tied down in a very compromising position, and proceeded to tickle, tease and tantalize him incessantly until he promised to be a good boy. During this, another charming lady dropped by and joined in the fun. Some snide remarks from another male that had been quietly watching all this from a back table got him pulled into the tormenting as well. I don't think Paladin will find himself "board" around such beauty again. **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES There's very little to report this week. There's been little or no movement between duchies, and only one planet promotion - Neuromancer's planet Paradigm advanced to economic level and will be going mini shortly. Amigan's Athens also went mini, and he took the opportunity to play a dastardly trick on some of the other players by assassinating innocent passers-by. But this time, the victims were not helpless newbods - they were those of the highest rank! And the method of assassination used was a simple bar-board post. Amigan very helpfully advertised the teleport locations for his planet, and included details of "Tellurian's Secret Room" as location 2. Several high- ranking players couldn't resist, and ported in to see what the "secret" location contained. They saw. They died! Of course, anyone who read last week's news would know that from now on location 2 had to be the planetary orbit, which means that either the victims didn't read the news - an unthinkable thought! - or they have very short memories. We know for certain that two Senators and a Duke were caught by this trap; if there were more than this, they ain't saying! Of course, the foolish dead weren't taking this lying down, and they quickly arranged a trial in the Courtroom on Earth. Tellurian was the prosecutor, Occy was the judge, Paladin played the part of defense attorney, Rezrov cloned himself into twelve good men and true to become the jury, Fletcher was the bailiff and Mara took notes as the court reporter. It was a bitterly fought trial with much evidence entered and destroyed (the prosecutor had a bad habit of eating any evidence that went against his side). In the end, guilty verdicts were entered against all of the participants for various crimes. Amigan was found Not Guilty of making a death location (it was, after all, only his space location) but he was found guilty of being smarter than Tellurian, and rewarded handsomely. **>> SPYNET REVIEW It's been quite a slow week for promotions, with most of the advancements being in the lower ranks. The new Captains were Francessa, Harlock, Heimdall, Rift, Hades, Ella and Dirtbiker. Ugg and Spring became Adventurer and Adventureuse respectively. Wayne and Tantras made it to Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle was solved by Scarecrow and Crashcorr. Neuromancer became a Thane as her planet advanced to mining. Sadly, Trader Maha died dead-dead for reasons unknown. We also lost Journeywoman Ni in a tragic accident (see the story above). **>> 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 * 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 at the printers and will be available very 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 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