**>> SPYNET BULLETIN 
 **>> EARTHDATE 94.09.12 
 **>> 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! 
 
 
 **>> A DAY LATE AND A GROAT SHORT 
 
This week the news is being brought to you on Monday instead of Sunday, so
we can give a full round-up of everything that happened during the free
weekend. Of course, a great deal of what happened cannot be printed, but it
certainly seemed like everyone had a great time! 
 
 
 **>> FREENESS IN FED 
 
Yes, in case you didn't noticed (how could you miss it?) Fed was FREE this
weekend. Our free weekends have two purposes. They are a special treat for
our regular players, but more importantly, they give people who haven't
played Fed before a chance to have a look at the game and see if they like
it. 
 
So, welcome to all the new players who started this weekend. 
 
You should make sure you read the QuickStart Guide, which gives you the
very basic information you need to get started in the game, and takes less
than 10 seconds to display. Once you are in the game, you can ask for help
from the other players. Once you have learnt the basics, you can download
the manual, The Idiot's Guide to Federation, to learn everything you need
to know about the game. 
 
Thanks to our regular players who have helped the NewBods get started. 
 
 
 **>> ALL ABOUT US! 
 
What you are reading is the weekly Federation news bulletin, which we write
and upload every Sunday (except when we do it on a Monday, like this week).
It tells you about new features and commands in the game, explains if
anything has changed, and talks about things coming up in the future. 
 
The news also tells you what the players have been doing - and to whom! In
other words, scandal and gossip. So if you have any information about other
players, please send it to us! We pay groats for anything we print, and we
do protect our sources - you can remain anonymous if you prefer. Yes, it
pays to grass up your friends to a passing newsdroid. 
 
The Federation team is made up of the following: 
 
Alan Lenton is the creator, designer and programmer of Fed. In the game, he
plays Bella, a Rigellian woman with green hair and a rather large bottom. 
 
Clem Chambers runs the business and marketing side of things. In the game,
he prefers to be anonymous, skulking under a number of pseudonyms. 
 
Fi Craig is responsible for the documentation, the weekly news, and general
customer satisfaction. In the game, she is the delectable demi-goddess
Hazed. If you have any problems, it's Hazed that you should contact. 
 
We have four Party Hosts whose role in Fed is to help new players and throw
impromptu parties, generally making sure you have a good time. They are
Mira, Emmi, Tellurian and Tellurain. 
 
 
 **>> PLAYING ON A BUDGET 
 
In an ideal universe, Fed would be free all the time so you could play as
long as you wanted without having to worry about your real-life bank
balance. Since the universe in which we live is far from ideal, we know
that many of you have to ration your time in Fed to keep the irate bank
manager off your back (or equivalent). Here's a few hints and tips to help
you keep track of your playing time and prevent your credit card from
melting. 
 
First, you need to set yourself a few rules to ensure you don't overspend.
Work out in advance how much time you can afford to spend in Fed DataSpace
each week, then decide how you want to use that time. For example, if you
can afford ten hours each week, you could decide to spend one hour each
night in the game, and the extra at weekends. Or you might prefer to keep
out of the game during the week and blow all your time on mega-sessions at
the weekend. However you choose, try to stick to your plan. 
 
Decide what you want to achieve in each session. Are you going to spend
your hour chatting with your friends, or hauling cargo to get that next
promotion, or chasing stat items? Read the game documents thoroughly so you
are familiar with the commands. If your time in Fed DataSpace is limited,
make the most of it and don't dither around wondering what to do next. 
 
In the game, there are a number of commands to help you keep track of your
play. <TIME> tells you the date and time (in eastern) and tells you how
long you've been in the game this session. You can set your personal alarm
to go off after a specified number of minutes to remind you when your time
is up - the command is <ALARM minutes>. 
 
 
 **>> GAME MANAGEMENT 
 
Federation is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a...
well, you get the idea. But for technical reasons, the game is taken down
from time to time. This is called a reset. 
 
Once a day, the game is reset in order to peform daily house-keeping tasks,
such as deleting dead or out-of-date personas, and backing up the files. A
reset generally takes about 20-30 minutes. Before a reset, Bella or Hazed
will usually pop into the game and warn you it's about to happen, asking
you to log off. If you don't log off, you will get a message saying
"Federation Shutdown". 
 
During the week, the house-keeping reset is done in the afternoon,
generally about 5.00pm (eastern). At weekends, it is done in the morning
around 8.00am. 
 
There may be other times that Federation is shut down. Occasionally GEnie's
operators may need to shut the game down for technical reasons. 
 
In all these cases, the game being down should have no effect on your
persona. You won't lose any groats or stats because before the game shuts
down it saves everything safely. 
 
Very occasionally, the game crashes - it goes down unexpectedly, without
saving the files properly. If this does happen, we always reimburse players
with lost groats. 
 
 
 **>> DO THE LIMBO! 
 
Could it be? Was FedSpace finally saved? On Saturday morning, Tellurani was
ready to do the horizontal hula with one of Diesel's studs. Alas, she had
forgotten to eat breakfast! Her endurance at an all-time low, she turned
blue and died halfway through the act! 
 
Sick of walking through the hospital, she sold her spaceship and said she
was going to use the travel command. The next thing anyone knew, the Spynet
Report mentioned that Trader Tellurani had gone d-d on Tisnar... 
 
While Rani won't talk about how it happened (we think she tripped and
landed on her scout knife), she said that while she was d-d, St. Pegasus
appeared to her and said that she must go back and... write a planet for
him! 
 
Knowing better than to argue with the big stallion of space, Tellurani
agreed. Now she's already managed to move up to Merchant (higher than she
was before!) and says that her goal is to reach Explorer as fast as
possible so she can begin construction of Limbo, planet of chaos and yucky
stuff. 
 
Already the newsdroids are having a contest... and the loser has to go
explore Limbo once it comes in! Yikes! 
 
 
 **>> THE UNENDING ECOLOGICAL DISASTER 
 
Anyone who has been using the spy-proof room on the planet Surfside in the
last 2 months has seen the great ecological disaster of fouled air and
water of this once beautiful paradise. Now that Sam's is unsuitable for
hiding from spybeams (courtesy of the Galactic Administration's fascist
bully-boy death squad), any man, woman, or thing who wants privacy has to
endure the stench of Surfside's severe smog. 
 
For the benefit of newbods (and those old-timers who always run around in a
zombie-like state), last July a huge tanker spaceship filled with crude oil
and other chemicals went out of control upon trying to land on Surfside and
slammed into the sea just offshore the famous beach near the LP. The
thunderous boom of the crash destroyed the amusement park and the beach bar
as it violently shook the beach town. A great brown cloud of toxic gasses
arose from the crash site as an eerie rain of oil fell all around the
place. Within days the entire atmosphere turned brown as all the oceans
below blackened as the enormous oil slick spread completely around the
sickened paradise planet. 
 
Now, 2 months later, the air and water pollution of Surfside is as bad as
ever. The tanker crash site still releases brown gas into the air, as oil
and sludge still ooze onto the ocean surface. Obviously the tanker itself
couldn't have possibly caused all this continuing pollution by itself - it
must have crashed into a secret chemical plant of great size underwater.
Though parts of the tanker have been recovered from the crash site no droid
has been able to survive long enough in the blackened water to find any
conclusive evidence of such a plant. 
 
Why would there be such a gigantic secret plant requiring so much oil? As
many drugs are made from crude oil and other hydrocarbons, I suspect this
hidden factory was meant for the production of illegal drugs. This could
only have been an expansion of the Godfather's infamous drug empire; he is
the only criminal known to have the financial resources for such a huge
project. 
 
     Explorer Perseus 
 
 
 **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES 
 
During the free weekend, all the planets were split into three and each
third was put in for one day. This left plenty of space for new players,
but made sure every planet got equal shares of the time. 
 
Zagmar took advantage of the free weekend to tackle the devilish Duke
puzzle, and after a few tries he succeeded in defeating the Martians,
putting an end to their hammering and hooting. His accession pushed
Riccardo up to Senator. All Riccardo's serfs were thrust out into the
chilly coldness of Independence. Since most of their planets were not
available because of the free weekend split, their owners were unable to
join another duchy. We'll bring you a full roundup of who's in what next
week. 
 
Romana's planet, Brittany, was linked to the game - see our report below. 
 
Dierdre's Cove promoted to mining, and is now a mini-planet. Mosquito's
Kama advanced to become an Industrial world, then rapidly moved on to
become a Technical world. 
 
Looney's duchy has been very puny the last few months. Once it was mighty,
claiming most of the planets in the Galaxy, but the Duke was unable to hold
onto his power and his holding dwindled to only having a few planets in its
sway. Now, Looney is set to reverse this trend. He is actively recruiting
planets - perhaps he'll go after Riccardo's ex-worlds! 
 
 
 **>> NOT A CHIPMUNK IN SIGHT! 
 
Romana's new planet, Brittany, is a mysterious place with a puzzle for you
to solve. 
 
You land on a space station, where all the usual services are close at hand
(or equivalent). The Crystal Cafe offers a friendly place to relax over a
drink before venturing down to the planet inself by shuttle tube. 
 
At the head of the shuttle tube you find the medical facilities and
insurance droids. Let's hope they don't come in useful! 
 
Stepping out of the shuttle on the surface of Brittany, one is told what
the puzzle on the planet involved. At least, a cryptic riddle gives you
somewhere to start. From here, you can't see much of the planet because
it's covered with mist. There seems to be an island northwest, but when we
tried to go there we just got lost in the mists and went round in circles
endlessly. 
 
Northwest lead to a Monastery, but we couldn't move further than the ante-
chamber. Part of a puzzle? Stupidity on the part of our explorer-droid?
Movement table error? Whatever, we just couldn't seem to get very far on
this planet. 
 
And that's a shame, because what we did see was very impressive. Romana has
an excellent command of language, and the descriptions give a sense of
being somewhere mysterious and different. Take a look. 
 
 
 **>> HOW THE MIGHTY ARE FALLEN 
 
Briefcase's one-man single-handed campaign for decency and purity in Fed
DataSpace shuddered to a halt last week, when he posted the following
message on the bar board: 
 
     After 5 pitchers and 5 hours of sleep I don't give a rat's round 
     one whether you live Pure or not. 
 
This announcement was greeted by a certain amount of relief amongst those
who had been cojoled into taking the Pledge of Purity. Seeing their leader
lapse in such a public fashion, they could happily tear up their copies of
his pamphlet "Twelve Steps to Pure Living" and start having fun again! 
 
 
 **>> THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY 
 
The date: Tuesday September 13. 
 
The time: 10.00pm eastern time. 
 
The place: Shelter. 
 
The event: Tellurian v. Maha 3 - The Pie Strikes Back! 
 
Be there, or miss out on the chance to get a face full of custard. 
 
 
 **>> LOVE AND MARRIAGE 
 
The free weekend saw break-ups, make-ups, marriages and one-night stands.
The Galaxy was heaving with passion and anguish, it was just like a bad
soap-opera. 
 
Deirdre and Budwarp got married on Epini, the ceremony was taken by
Tellurian. Cheri was maid of honour, and Paladin gave the bride away. 
 
Kathy and Shadow got married in a simple but touching ceremony. Mira broke
a life-long tradition of never attending weddings to actually preside over
their union! 
 
Pink and Chance recently formed a bond, and Pink was determined to keep her
man on a short rein - it seems she's the possessive type. You can imagine
her outrage when she caught Chance necking with Lynx! She started hurling
dishes at him, and when he ran to escape the barrage of crockery she
followed his all over Fed DataSpace, moving onto the glassware, the
cutlery, even the kitchen implements! The Galaxy suffered a veritable
shower of household goods. Luckily for Chance, and those standing near him,
Pink was unable to lift the fridge or the oven... finally, when there was
nothing left to toss at her errant lover, Pink started to clear up the mess
- using Chance's best leather jacket as a mop! 
 
Seri broke up with Scrooge and has hooked up with Rg. Quite what the status
of their relationship is, we don't know, but Rg has been seen wandering
around with a pair of Seri's panties on his head. Setting a fashion trend,
perhaps? 
 
Paladin and Galena were extremely disgruntled to find that Surf (and its
spyproof room) was unavailable during much of the free weekend, so they
persuaded someone to give them a lift back to Horsell where they could romp
through the green and pleasant land in complete privacy (except for
Zagmar's Duke attempts). They spent the whole night there, having fun
riding ponies (it says here), then had to suicide to get back to the
present. 
 
Devon and Cinderella got married, after Galena (Devon's sister) and Mira
checked out the bride on his behalf. Cincy turned out to be a shy virginal
type, with an unfortunate habit of fainting all the time. Very inconvenient
when it came time to consummate the wedding! 
 
Meanwhile, Devon was also seen naked in bed with Tabby. He claimed they
were just doing cross-word puzzles. A likely story! 
 
Aja and Windman almost came to blows - not that they are a couple or
anything, it's just that they were both trying to do the GM puzzle at the
same time, and were fighting over the necessary objects. 
 
 
 **>> STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! 
 
News is just coming in of a Kamikaze Commander who has crashed his
spaceship into Emperor Ming's Palace, in an assassination attempt. The
Emperor was not in residence at the moment. The pilot died. The Galactic
Administration's Imperial Security Force has yet to explain why the ship
wasn't shot down before it could get near the Imperial Throne! 
 
 
 **>> SPYNET REVIEW 
 
You can always tell a free weekend SpyNet Review: it's full of low-level
promotions! Congratulations to everyone who got promoted during the week. 
 
The new Captains were Paulus, Saiyajin, Marvin, Hoish, Duco, Rez, Meez,
Xxx, Carol, Barney, Commander, Tellurani (back from the dead), Daria,
Tasslehoff (also back from the dead), Alana, Arthurdent, Page, Adonis,
Iroc, Two, Lotus, Alex, Wahb, Bold, Solitare, Spuderoni, Lunatike, Kronos,
Tasar, Gesta, Tutankhamen, Scooch and Vladia. 
 
Edm, Wolfgang, Chip, Brigand, Elvis, Michael, Rez, Hoish, Tasslehoff, Wahb,
Arthurdent, Lunatike, Heloise, Psychochicken, Aja, Tellurani, Page and 
Tasar all made it to Adventurer or Adventureuse. 
 
The Traders Guild admitted Lynx, Edm, Heloise, Chip, Brigand, Aja,
Cinderella, Geo, Tellurani, Rez and Hoish to its ranks. 
 
Heloise, Aja, Toril, Chip, Tellurani and Rez were promoted to Merchant. 
 
The awesome JP puzzle was cracked by Heloise and Aja. 
 
Cheri and Aja solved the fiendish GM puzzle. 
 
Romana became a Squire as her new planet, Brittany, was linked to the game.

 
Dierdre made it to Thane as her planet advanced. 
 
Mosquito reached Industrialist then moved on to Technocrat. 
 
Zagmar saved the Galaxy from a Fate Worse Than Death, solved the devilish
Duke puzzle, and got a duchy of his own to play with. 
 
Riccardo ascended to the august ranks of the Senate. 
 
Free weekends always see a lot of deaths, and this one was no exception. We
lost Adventurer Elvis (he left the building), Trader Tasslehoff (who
returned after a silly accident), Trader Tellurani (who has also returned),
Merchant Marley, and GM Formic. RIP! 
 
 
 **>> 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, Bella, Emmi, Mira, Tellurian or Tellurain in the game 
 
 * <SEND> a message to Hazed 
 
 * 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 and
Amiga. You can download a copy of FedTerm from the Federation official
libraries (option 3 on the main Fed page). 
 
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