**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 94.11.13 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> NEW MENU SYSTEM On GEnie, we've revamped the menu system on our main page (220) to make it easier for you to get the information you need. The main change you will see is that you can download the three parts of the Idiot's Guide direct from the menu. The files are also in the Federation Official Library, so you can download them in the normal way if you wish. New libraries have been created to hold the Federation News Archive, and Hazed will be uploading past issues of the news, complete with indexes. **>> COPING WITH CORRUPTION The Explorers' Workbench now seems to be running smoothly, but a few people are finding problems because parts of their files are corrupted. A burst of line noise at the wrong moment can mess up a location description beyond repair, so Bella will be adding new facilities to the workbench to help you recover from these corruption problems. The first will help those of you who have corrupt location descriptions. A new option when you edit a location lets you Clear the description. This removes all the text from the description, and substitutes three Xs. You can then edit the description back to what it should be. The other problem that one person found was that the name of one of their objects became corrupted, and they couldn't change it because the game wouldn't accept the name when they tried to say which one they wanted to edit! If you cannot specify the object name, you will be able to type in the object's number. This refers to the order the objects appear when you list them. You can then edit the name of the object to something acceptable. These changes will go into the game tomorrow. **>> A CAUTIONARY TALE Blackadder decided to make some changes to his planet, Hyperion, as many old planet-owners are doing. He worked and he slaved, he slaved and he worked, rushing to get his amendments all finished in time for the reset so his shiny new Hyperion would appear in the heavens for all to explore. Beating the deadline, he heaved a sigh of relief, made himself a cup of tea, and sat back to wait for Our Illustrious Leader to reset the game. Imagine his surprise and horror when, after the reset, he found his planet had vanished! "Who has stolen my baby?" he cried, convinced that some evil Fedder had kidnapped his planet and was holding it for ransom. He appealled to Our Illustrious Leader for help, begging her to find out who had done this nefarious deed. But the Green Goddess was sceptical, and told him to go and run the planet through the checker to make sure everything was correct. And Blackadder did so, then returned with a sheepish look in his eye, because he had managed to introduce an error while making his changes and hadn't run the checker when he'd finished. The moral of the story is: always run the checker after you have finished making changes to your planet, even if the changes are so minor you cannot possibly have made a mistake! **>> ANOTHER CAUTIONARY TALE Ciaran decided to make some changes to his planet, Ulster, turning it into a spiffy new place with many wonders to behold. He diligently worked through the night, slaving away to transform his creation into something new and better. When he had finished he ran his planet through the checker and was pleased to see that it had no errors in it, so he logged into the game to boast about having finished his work. Imagine his horror when he saw his planet wasn't there! He had completely lost track of time and while he was still working, Bella had done the reset, at a time when his planet still had errors in it, so the game hadn't loaded Ulster. The moral of the story is: make sure that your planet passes the checker before the time comes for the daily reset! At the moment, the reset is done manually. At weekends it is done at 8.00am eastern; during the week it is sometimes done later in the day. **>> THE GREAT "GEM" HUNT PART ONE It seems that only a short while ago a mysterious phenoma occurred (yes, something mysterious even for Fed). What you might ask? Well only a short time ago a well known and well liked Fed persona disappeared. Who was it? It was the one the only... Gemini! Eyebrows have quivered as people wonder where she might have gone, and several eyes have missed watching the wiggle in her walk, so a quest is to be started to answer the questions surrounding her absence. Where has she gone? What prompted the disappearance? And, last but not least, how do we get her back? Simple! It would seem that scattered about the known and nefarious Fed universe are hints and clues as to the whereabouts of the missing Duchess. Anyone and everyone from the lowliest Captain to the most infamous Senator can participate in the search. In fact all are welcome! There's a considerable reward posted though the exact terms of said reward are still hazy (something about lotsa groats or a date or two or something with the Duchess and maybe even a pinch on the rump). So for all those interested, get off your butts and start looking for these clues. You might get lucky. All inquiries are to be sent to Caterpillar via sendmail - or ask the larvae in person in the game. **>> PUZZLE REWARD From the Office of the Promotion of Tourism on Polaris: Lord Sukotto Torinaga has announced that the current Puzzle on Polaris will only be available to solve for 1 more week. Those who wish to solve its mysteries will have until Reset November 20, 1994 to do so. After that it will be removed from Polaris in preparation for modifications Lord Sukotto has planned. Please note the reward for solving the puzzle currently is 20 meg. This will be paid to anyone solving it (excluding teleporters). (signed) Richard Boyne Director, OPTP **>> EX UNGUE LEONEM From the claw (we may judge of) the lion: from a part we may judge of the whole. Who will be King of the Jungle? The Emperor race thickens and mixes as we get closer to the Day of Reign. The Reign Forest canopies over closely held secrets and many speculate how the Federation will represent itself to the new galaxies opening up every day. Candidates are seen sporting their purple robed moods in heavily populated areas; The Real Emperor, Vote early, vote often, or just plain Emperor. Other than this display and a few posts in the BB, our NewsDroids are left thinking, 'Yes? Is there more? What happened to mud-slinging?'. Some of the candidates have even disappeared, leaving their platform and jumping perot. Tellurian has avoided our NewsDroids and local officials with ease. Many attempts to call him or see him for an interview have been left unanswered. Has he dropped out of the public eye on purpose? What connection might this have with the disappearance of his ex-wife Gemini? Topper, looking to be ahead in the race, sits back quietly and gathers support. His actions speak louder than words. NewsDroids have watched him carefully to see any evidence of him vying for that support; all they have been able to uncover is his eye for the ladies. It is in the contract for Candidates to woo and court support! Elex has shown a great effort of being in Federation since he made his issues known and stated his intentions of running for office. This has been as consistant as his absence before his declaration. Emperors, in the past, have proved to be hard to approach. If he becomes Emperor, would Elex make his scheduled social appearances or only be seen by arranged interviews for press release? Occy, another of the prime candidates, has failed miserably to change his clothes since the move to NewFed; and is he prime! He has been heard to state over and again that he would not change until he received his groats back. As all know, all groats in Federation are FDIC (Federation Deduction and ImperialGroats Confiscations) protected, and those rules fall on Rich Persons as well as Poor Persons. If Occy becomes Emperor, will traders' groats be his desire, or will he start to launder groats? Dukes appear to be lax with who they will support; forming alliances that seemed impossible half a year ago, making concessions on their better judgement to spite another, and placing their pawns with great care. Nightstalker and Zagmar are firm partners and have control of many planets. Many are of the belief that they will back-up Topper; Nightstalker has made this fairly common knowledge and Zagmar sits in the backgrounds waiting. Amigan shows a favored status for Nightfall and his support for Topper. Then again, Amigan could easily break that alliance close to voting time and support the missing Tellurian -- should he return. What happened to the Hell-Ocean divide? And what happened to old allies? Sean, taking on the roles of his new position quite easily, does not sit alone. Budwarp, just recently making the grade, takes his seat next to him. Surely these two are fast in their alliance. Who will they vote for? NewsDroids, curious on this aspect, listened in on many conversations to discover a possible concession on who they will support. (Support first, that is, for their own candidate takes a back seat with "He will make a nice second Emperor"). With Sean and Budwarp together, couldn't they have a major sway on the outcome? Looney will most likely vote for Occy. NewsDroids have not figured this puzzle out, one is never seen talking to the other unless at the Great Senators and Dukes brunches on Bella's expense account. His voting power looks weak and continues to diminish as more and more of the "Irish Clan" become Dukes. The vote is up to the people! What part (Emperor) will the whole (Everyone else) choose to be judged by when more and more inhabitants flock the interstellar links and hyperspace bypasses, looking to settle on Federation planets? It depends on what people want: a dictatorship, military controlled, democratic, communistic, socialistic... **>> GOSSIP AND STUFF Windman and Cheri were married last night, and Emmi livened up their reception by her display of shimmying. Whatever that is! Devon is being very clumsy at the moment - he keeps tripping over his shoelaces while making a break for freedom as he tries the GM puzzle. Twice he's tried, and twice he's died. Third time lucky, perhaps? Lola is lonely and is looking for a few good men to keep her happy and entertained. She's been seen a lot with Senator Jim (or Jeem) recently but obviously she demands more than he can offer. Anyone willing to oblige the lonely lady? **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES With three new planets... no, hang on, two new planets... and a new Duke, the duchies have been moving again as planets migrate back and forth from one alliance to another. The three... or two... new planets started the week with Raven's Dichotomy. We were going to bring you a report of this, as usual. But Raven's been and gone and done himself in, so the planet vanished! Pity, because what we saw of it looked quite good. Raven has returned, he's already a Merchant, and when he makes it back to Squire Dichotomy will reappear so we'll review it next week. At the same time as Dichotomy's first, brief, appearance Tellurani's Citadel appeared; then, later this week, Scrooge's Hermitage. Both of these are reviewed below. Ciaran has reworked Ulster and changed much of the planet. There's still a few problems he wants to iron out; we'll have more details of the revamped planet next week. Chance has advanced his planet, Chaos, to leisure and has started his Duke builds. Neuromancer also continues to build for Duke. Budwarp finished his builds and solved the devilish Duke puzzle, taking up one of the unused Duke slots. There is still one more empty slot, so it'll be a while before any new Senators appear. Here's how the duchies currently appear: Looney's Insanity looks quite sad now, with just three planets: Jade's Dunnottar, Surfer's Surf and Blackadder's Hyperion. But Looney has made miraculous recoveries before, so he shouldn't be ruled out of the picture. Zagmar's Valaria boasts five worlds: Ciaran's Ulster, Rakshasa's Utopia, Djmayhem's Halcyon, Amerigo's Vespi and Gortek's Tula. Nightstalker's Nightfall has Akiko's Mirai, Chainsaw's Nautilus, Chance's Chaos, Kainaw's Tisnar, Cicero's Roma, Sukotto's Polaris, Xyzzy's Advent and Skurge's Vannitel. No longer the new boy, Sean's Eire has Maxwell's Dawn, Emmi's Addis, Silk's Fortymile, Cheri's Aise and Windman's Storm. Amigan's Athens is the current monster-duchy, with ten planets: Neuromancer's Paradigm, Tantras' Vertigo, Mosquito's Sutra, Talisan's Skan, Brawn's Outpost, Drspock's Corona, Romana's Brittany, Aja's Anomoly, Galena's Laconia and the new Scrooge's Hermitage. Finally, the new Duke of the block, Budwarp, has picked up two planets for the duchy of Epini: predictably enough, Dierdre's Cove, and the new Tellurani's Citadel. **>> A FORTRESS IN SPACE We all know Tellurani, one of the more deranged of the ne Galdur clan, is a vicious little beast, with a real penchant for violence. So it comes as no surprise that her new planet, Citadel, is a fortress that is obviously gearing up for war. This planet doesn't welcome tourists, or for that matter traders! It's not actually a planet, it's an old, battered space station in orbit around the star called Citadel. Thankfully for visitors made of less robust stuff than we metal NewsDroids, there is still air in the station. The landing pad is surrounded by the usual services, which are just about functional. But only just! We're not sure about the quality of any goods you buy from Citadel... check carefully for rust and mould. We said that Citadel doesn't welcome visitors. Our NewsDroid hadn't got very far in its exploration before it was surrounded by guards and thrown into a cell with no way out! Not a good start. By a very fortuitous coincidence, something blew up elsewhere on the Citadel, power failed momentarily, and the door opened, allowing our intrepid explorer to escape. From here, he was able to creep around the corridors of the Citadel and explore, finding weapons, barracks, torture chambers, more weapons... what an unpleasant place! Finally, the NewsDroid found its way to the bureacratic area, where it took refuge in one of the many embassies from other systems. Here it continues to hide, terrified that if it tries to leave the Citadel the guards will catch it and torture it! Tellurani's Citadel is a well-written planet, with an atmosphere well- suited to its violent and megalomaniac owner. It's worth exploring. **>> HERMITAGE On Hermitage, it was snowing. Hard. Now we NewsDroids aren't supposed to feel the cold, but that fluffy white stuff does clog up our sensors, and then it melts and water drips in through our access panels and our electrics start to short out. But in the name of good journalism, we huddled under a very large umbrella and explored the planet. Stepping out of our ship on Hermitage was like stepping back in time. The planet is a town out of history; the 19th Century to be exact. Obviously Scrooge takes his name seriously! And with places like Miser's Exchange, and Pennypincher's General Store, one gets an idea that the inhabitants of Hermitage also take after the planet's owner. The Golden Stag Inn offers a welcome respite from that ghastly snow... but much as we would have liked to stay there, we knew Hazed would not be happy if we didn't return with a good report! Trudging over the cobblestone streets - have you any idea how difficult cobblestones are when you run on wheels? - we found ourselves in a bank. Aha, we thought, a chance for riches! But trying to get down to the vault we were turned back, very roughly, by a rude guard with a club. At this point we took shelter from the beastly snow in a very comfortable town house, and decided enough was enough! Scrooge has made a good attempt to write a planet that Dickens would have been at home in. It's worth a look. **>> SPYNET REVIEW Congratulations to everyone who promoted during the past week. The new Captains were Homicidal, Ironman, Poohbah, Anathraxus, Nightmare, Jeff, Rico, Rusty, Raven (back from the dead) and Lothar. Nightmare, Maran, Paulus and Raven were promoted to Adventurer. The Traders Guild admitted as new members Solo, Mike, Alfrescoe and Raven. Winter, Kassandra and Raven made it to Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle was cracked by Arenanaug. We had three new Squires during the week: Raven, who then went and died, Tellurani, and Scrooge. Chance became a Baron. Budwarp solved the devilish Duke puzzle. Adventureuse Jonmonte went dead-dead, as did Raven. Finally, Budwarp played his 2000th game! **>> 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. The current Federation Party Hosts are: Mira, Redqueen, Caterpillar, Lyrynna and Varina. Their function is to answer questions, help new players get started, and make fun things happen. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed or one of the Party Hosts in the game * a message to Hazed * send mail on your host system to the Federation team: on GEnie, mail FEDII.2 or use the option on the main Fed page on Delphi, mail FEDERATION2 on Cris, mail FEDERATION2 **>> BULLETIN ENDS