**>> SPYNET BULLETIN 
 **>> EARTHDATE 94.03.13 
 **>> 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! 
 
 
 **>> FREE-NESS 
 
It cannot have escaped your notice that Fed is free this weekend, and will
continue to be so until 8.00am EDT Monday morning, March 14. We hope you
are all enjoying yourselves! 
 
Welcome to new players. Every Sunday we publish a weekly news bulletin -
and that's what you are reading now. It includes information about changes
to the game, and new features that are being implemented; it tells you what
the players are doing, who's been promoted, and so on; and it has gossip
and scandal about who has been dallying with whom. 
 
We recommend that you take the time to download and read the game manual,
the Idiot's Guide to Federation. It tells you everything you need to get
started in the game and advance through the ranks. 
 
You can buy a printed copy of the Idiot's Guide, which is much expanded and
has hints and tips, maps, pictures, cartoons and a different joke, by
typing ORDER from any GEnie main menu. It costs $15.95 for over 200 pages
of information and fun. 
 
The Federation team are Bella (the designer and programmer) and Hazed (in
charge of documentation, the weekly news, and special events). You can
contact us using the "Send Mail About Federation" option on the main Fed
menu. 
 
This weekend, you are seeing the game as it is normally played (apart from
it being free, of course) although we've had to restrict the number of
player-planets in at one time to make sure there's enough room for lots of
players. For Friday and Saturday, the higher-level mini-sized planets were
in the game; today, it's the turn of the agricultural planets, which are
full-sized worlds with plenty of places for you to explore. 
 
Have fun during the free weekend, and after it too, and if you've got any
questions about the game just ask! 
 
 
 **>> BEGINNER'S CONFERENCE 
 
Every fortnight, the MPGames RT hosts a conference about Fed. Next week,
March 20, the RTC is a special discussion for new players, where you'll be
able to ask questions of more experienced players. The RTC will be at
3.00pm, in the RTC on page 1045. 
 
 
 **>> DOCUMENTATION CHANGES 
 
Recently, we sent out a survey to some of the people who'd started playing
the game in the last few months, asking them questions about their first
impressions of the game. It became clear from the answers that we needed to
do more to help new players find out easily what the game is all about, and
how it all works. 
 
In preparation for the free weekend, Hazed has completely revamped the
"About Federation" file (option 1 on the main menu). It is now a long
document, covering everything you might need to know about the game before
you start. 
 
File #100 is new in the Federation official library on page 220. It's the
Fed Policy document, telling you what you can expect from the game
management, and what we expect from you. Please read this file; it is
important. 
 
There's also a new file of information which people get the first time they
visit the Fed page, telling them a little about the game. 
 
We welcome feedback on all aspects of the game, and if any of you have any
suggestions about how we can change the information we provide about Fed,
please contact us. 
 
 
 **>> HOW MANY DUKES? 
 
Not long after the first Dukes appeared in Fed DataSpace, Bella set the
number of Duke slots at five. This means that if a sixth person gets
promoted to Duke, one of the existing Dukes gets bumped up to Senator - the
one who's willing to pay out the most in election expenses (or "bribes" as
they are more commonly known). 
 
Five seemed a reasonable number at the time; it meant that given the number
of planets normally in the game, each duchy could have 4-6 planets, the
optimum number for an efficient, well-run duchy. 
 
Of course, the players had other ideas, and we saw the rise of super-
duchies, like Occy's old duchy of Zippy which had 11 or 12 planets in it;
and duchies like Jim's Crime, with no planets at all. 
 
Since no-one is following Bella's nice neat plan, she is now considering
raising the number of Duke slots. She'd like to hear from the players,
particularly from planet-owners and Dukes. Tell her whether you would like
there to be more Dukes, by posting messages in the Suggestions Box topic,
in Cat 13 of the MPGames BBS. 
 
 
 **>> NEW DUKES ON THE BLOCK 
 
It's all change yet again for the way the planets split themselves into
duchies. Early this week, Nightstalker cracked the devilish Duke puzzle,
saving the galaxy from a fate worse than death! His promotion pushed Zippo
up to Senator. 
 
A few days later, Plantking saved the galaxy from another fate worse than
death, and finally made it to Duke, thus laying to rest the persistent
rumours of his dimwittedness. His achievement meant someone else had to
become a Senator, and this time it was Topper. 
 
Because of the free weekend, we can't give you an accurate picture of the
way the planets have shifted their alliances to take account of losing two
duchies and gaining two new ones - we'll cover that in next week's news.
But it's very interesting to see how the upper-level promotions are being
maneouvred, with a view to being in the best position to push for Emperor
when the rest of the code goes in (real soon now!). 
 
On the one hand (or equivalent) we have Senator Occy, who has built up a
tremendous support among Dukes and planet-owners. There's a power-base
around Zippo, Topper and Nightstalker, although which of them is going to
actually wear the crown we don't know. Nightstalker may be the latest to
become a Duke, but he's got a lot of support. Perhaps Marcia won't be
content to be the power behind the throne; perhaps the first Emperor will
be an Empress? 
 
Then there are rumours of an underground organization, working in secret to
gain power from both sides for their candidate - whose identity is also a
secret! 
 
It certainly looks like the race for Emperor has started, and as soon as
the code goes in we can expect the campaigning to begin in earnest. 
 
 
 **>> TECHNO-FEAR 
 
Nightstalker has a love-hate relationship with his new teleporter. Although
he enjoys being able to pop around the galaxy without having to walk walk
or fly, he seems to be having a lot of teleporter accidents, many of which
are fatal! For example, he recently wanted to have a stroll around Titan,
but his teleporter dumped him in a room where he got a lethal dose of
radiation. 
 
It turns out his teleporter suffers from a flaw, in common with all but the
most sophisticated and user-friendly machinery. It does what he tells it to
do, instead of doing what he wants it to do! 
 
The sooner they invent telepathic interfaces or cranial jacks, the better! 
 
 
 **>> ANOTHER LITTLE ACCIDENT 
 
Someone else became the victim of mistyping this weekend. Gemini wanted to
put a job on the Transportation Central workboard, to cart some of her
produce off to another planet, but she accidentally set the price at 500K
groats. That's 500K per ton. For a 200 ton job. That's... well, she lost
about 1.2 gigagroats on the deal! 
 
Had she not been frozen in shock at her stupidity, she could of course have
got the money back again by swiftly <AC>ing the job from the workboard. But
she was too slow, and by the time she'd realised this, the job had gone. 
 
And who was the lucky Poor Person who grabbed the job and became an instant
Rich Person? Sadly, no-one - Transportation Central took care of the job
itself. 
 
 
 **>> PUBLIC ENEMY #1 
      A special report by an on-the-spot correspondent 
 
Well! Where to begin? 
 
It all started when an argument ensued over one of the usual trivialities
in Fed, what it was one can only guess! The end product of this argument
resulted in Gregan soundly slapping Emmi with a 'slap heard round the
universe'! Everyone in Sam's was so shocked they didn't know what to do,
and Gregan blatantly showed his disdain for the other Fedders by sneering
at everyone in the room. Emmi burst into tears and began sending messages
out for assistance and of course everyone in Fed who had 'their ears on'
rushed to her aid. 
 
Starseeker began verbally lashing Gregan for his 'male insensitivity' while
slapping him soundly herself. She was quickly joined by Talisan, and the
other females in the room. Whispers were hears about cutting particular
items of his anatomy off... Oh well, can't remember the details of the
whispering... too much noise. Nightstalker, Rai, and Sean were present and
quickly came to her aid as well. Sean was the most vocal, Rai staying quiet
(but firmly standing in defense of Emmi with his beloved katana) and
Nightstalker the most determined, physically accosting Gregan and beating
him down. 
 
After many attempts to strike Emmi again, Gregan began making the most
absurd claims! He claimed, ::choke:: excuse me, laughing fit coming on...
that Emmi was carrying HIS child! (You'll recall that the paternity matter
is the subject of a sweepstake.) Emmi stared at Gregan in disgust while the
rest of the people were rolling around on the floor in fits of laughter.
After realizing that this wasn't going to work, Gregan began cursing Emmi's
child to a most horrible fate, to be malformed, and other odious curses too
horrible to be printed even in the news! 
 
At this point all present became so enraged they began calling on Tellurian
over every communications device ppossible. No one could understand why it
took so long?! Had Tellurian forsaken being a 'guardian' of the fair Emmi?
Was he cavorting with another female behind Talisan's back? One can only
wonder, but Tellurian eventually did show up within a cloud of smoke and
flame which indicated his ire with the scalliwag! He grabbed Gregan by the
scruff of the neck and literally blasted Gregan with a fierce bellow! "Just
what do you think you are doing, you $#^*&^&^?" It literally shook the
walls with its force! 
 
After Gregan received 'instruction' on the behavior 'accepted' in the
Federation universe from everyone in the room, he was reduced to a
snivelling heap of fubar. He was beneath everyone's contempt at that point,
and was kicked to the side, much abused, slapped, generally half-dead, and
left to rot in his own personal little hell. He began imploring Emmi for
her forgiveness, which I assume she eventually gave. Gregan hopefully
learned his lesson, and many are expectantly waiting to see if his
'instruction' at the hands of the rest of the Fedders did any good!
Meanwhile, Emmi proclaimed that she would pay a 7 meg reward to the person
who killed Gregan the most times during the free weekend... 
 
 Rai (humble reporter) 
 
 
 **>> WEDDING BELLS 
 
Talisan felt it was time she hung up her dancing trousers and settled down
with the man of her dreams. Trouble was, her dreams wouldn't tell her with
which man to settle down! Every night she dreamed of someone new...
Captains, Senators, Poor People, Rich People - just who should she marry?
She was on the horns of a dilemma, and very hard prickly horns they were,
too. 
 
It was Sharp who hit on the perfect plan to pick a spouse for the dithering
damsel. He tore a sheet of paper into small pieces, and wrote the names of
all the men in Fed on the scraps, stuffing them into his hat (it was a very
big hat, which is just as well because there were an awful lot of names!). 
 
With a flourish and a fanfare, he pulled a piece of paper out of his hat
and prepared to read the name of the lucky groom who would be settling down
in wedded bliss with the nubile young maiden. But the paper was blank!
Shrugging, he guessed he'd made a mistake and, tossing the paper into the
corner for a cleandroid to tidy up, he pulled out a second piece of paper.
Horror of horrors, this too was blank. And so was the third. And the
fourth. And... well, you get the idea. Something had gone terribly wrong. 
 
He emptied the hat onto the bar and started sorting through the paper. All
the scraps were blank. Not one of them had a name on it! Baffled, he was
about to give up and tell Talisan she'd have to make up her own mind who to
marry, when someone noticed there was still one piece of paper in the hat. 

 
Slowly unfolding the last piece of paper, which had been trapped under the
label (stating that the hat was made by March & Co, Milliners to the
Gentry, Cargon City, Venus), he saw that this piece of paper was not blank.
It had a name on it. Breathing a sigh of relief, he started to read it out.
"The person who shall take Talisan to wife is G..." at that point, he
choked, went pale, and refused to read any further. 
 
Entreaties from the crowd of fascinated onlookers, and from Talisan
herself, went unheeded. He wouldn't say the name. But Emmi sneaked up
behind him and peered over his shoulder, determined that her friend Tal
should have her husband. "It's Gregan!" squealed Emmi. 
 
There were gasps as the assembled mass realised that Talisan would have to
marry Fed's Public Enemy #1. Talisan was horrified. She swooned into
Sharp's arms, and had to be revived by a firstaiddroid burning Oxcart's old
jockstrap under nose. 
 
As she recovered, she heroically decided that she had to go through with
the wedding, even though the man of her dreams turned out to be the man of
her nightmares. 
 
The wedding is set for 9.00 tonight (Sunday), and in a bid to enter the
record books, the wedding will be the first to be held in space! Bride,
groom and guests will assemble one space south of Earth for the ceremony. 
 
We are sure it will be a blast! 
 
 
 **>> PARTIES, ORGIES, AND SO ON 
 
A week in Fed wouldn't be complete without a generous helping of parties
for us to report on.  
 
Last night saw two major parties: the stag and hen parties of Gregan and
Talisan. Greg's bash involved a large cake out of which a naked girl
jumped, and the showing of nude muppet movies (the mind boggles!).
Talisan's was just as raucous, with male strippers parading up and down the
bar. Both affairs saw people drinking to excess and having a great deal of
fun! 
 
Earlier in the week, Tabby, Gypsyrose, Mosquito and Blackadder got together
for a private party on Blackadder's squeaky bed. You could hear those
springs going the other side of the galaxy! 
 
Meanwhile, Pete decided to find out how the other half lives - and why they
cross their legs like they do. He got himself a sex-change and became a
girl for a day. But he didn't enjoy the experience, and was very relieved
to change back to his more usual, butch self. 
 
 
 **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES 
 
We'll bring you more details of the duchy alignment next week. Meanwhile,
Emmi's Oac and Zan's Paradise have gone mini, and Chainsaw's Nautilus will
turn mini early in the week. 
 
Incidentally, Nightstalker has set the customs duty for his new duchy to
just 1% for the free weekend. Take advantage of cheap trading while you
can! 
 
If any of you want to see what some of the long-gone planets were like, you
should download Plantking's program in the Federation player library on
page 1045. File #3733 is CANNA108.ZIP, the latest version of his tour of
some of the planets, for PCs. It lets you explore the planets Canna,
Gotham, Roissy, Athens and Nemesis, and the latest version lets you choose
between two personas: Newbod, with minimum stats, so you can experience all
the puzzles on the planets; and Maxbod, with all the stats maxed out, so
you can access all the locations. 
 
 
 **>> SPYNET NOTICE 
 
The free weekend means there's an enormous number of new Captains to report
on: Makaldar, Patch, Kaikasai, Stratoviz, Scott, Oatmealavenger, Icepirate
(back from the dead), Cryptonson, Clandestorm, Phobos, Rakshasa, Marley,
Dranodrinker, Sounster, Briefcase, Orsini, Dancer, Winterslope, Jakek,
Scarecrow (also back from the dead), Trevor, Xavier and Alexander (back
from the dead yet again!). 
 
The new Adventurers and Adventureuses were Patch, Stratoviz, Icepirate,
Marley, Conner, Shadow, Cryptonson, Jorg, Alexander, Rakshasa and Fara. 
 
Patch, Rakshasa, Icepirate, Zaphod, Grump, Jaeger and Alexander made it to
Trader. 
 
Waite, Alexander, Starseeker, Patch, Destiny, Longshot, Rakshasa, Byteruner
and Alexander (again) reached Merchant. 
 
Alexander reached JP (for the second time) and then died. Sthil, Talisan
and Perseus also solved the awesome JP puzzle. 
 
Budwarp cracked the fiendish GM puzzle, the went on to become a Duke. 
 
Nightstalker and Plantking solved the devilish Duke puzzle, and their
promotions pushed Zippo and Topper up to Senator (see earlier story). 
 
Last week, we reported that JP Alexander went dead-dead. During the week,
he worked his way back up to JP, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Last
night, he went dead-dead again - the victim of an unattended macro! So now
he gets to do it all again... he's back to Merchant already. Let that be a
warning to macro-users! JPs Icepirate and Scarecrow have also gone dead-
dead but both have returned and started to climb back to their previous
positions. 
 
Obviously the mind-virus that affected planet-owners, Dukes and Senators a
few months back, making them careless and causing them to forget the vital
matter of re-insurance, is now afflicting JPs! 
 
 
 **>> 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 official libraries
(option 3 on the main Fed page). The Amiga version is in beta-test.  
 
The third edition of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation
is now available, price $15.95. Type ORDER from any GEnie main menu and buy
one. Or more! 
 
Federation has several categories in the 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 has a Federation player library in the files area, Lib 5. 
 
 
 **>> BULLETIN ENDS