**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 94.12.04 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> WELCOME, NEW PLAYERS Fed has now opened its doors to players from Delphi and from the Cris network. Welcome to you all! This news bulletin is readable by all Fed players, because it's on the main game menu. On your host systems, there are areas for you to post messages if you have any questions, and file libraries or databases where you can download the game manuals and other useful information. Don't be afraid to ask questions of the players in the game! The Party Hosts (who are flagged as such on the list) are awaiting your every question with baited breath; even if they aren't around, the regular players are usually willing to help you find your way around. This news bulletin is published every Sunday. It gives you details of any changes to the game, new features, and official messages from the Federation team; it tells you about any special events coming up in the future; and of course it blows the whistle on all the sordid secrets the players try to hide! Make sure you read it each week to keep up-to-date! **>> HELPING HANDS (OR EQUIVALENT) Old players have been mucking in to help with the sudden influx of new players: but not just through altruism and the goodness of their circulatory organs! A certain Duke organised his planet-owners into a rota system, making sure that his supporters were the first to offering a helping hand to new players - thus trying to ensure their support in the current political campaign leading up to the Emperor elections. Even Pegasus was seen extending a helping hoof to a newbod! Shock horror! Is the winged horse, reputed to be the meanest son-of-a-bitch in the Galaxy, turning over a new leaf? Has he been possessed by some angelic force? Maybe he's been kidnapped by aliens and replaced by a pod-Pegasus? Whatever, we're sure the kinder, gentler Pegasus won't last, and we'll soon see a return of the eye-poking, sneering, violent homicidal maniac we have come to know and... erm... know. **>> CRASH BANG WALLOP! We have had a few more of those mystery crashes over the past week. We need your help to find the cause! If you are on the game and it goes down, please contact us and tell us what you were doing, and where you were. It could be something -*you*- are doing that makes the game fall over, without you realising it! To add an incentive, if your information leads us to the cause of the crashes, we'll send you a free Fed t-shirt! We apologise for the inconvenience these crashes cause. If you are affected by a crash, please talk to Hazed or one of the Party Hosts and they can reimburse any lost groats. New code went in today to help minimise losses in the event of a crash. Every hour, the game will automatically save the persona of anyone in the game, in the same way it saves out planet and naval base data. Why don't we put back the command? we hear you ask. A good question. The answer is that it's a very system-intensive command, and excessive use can slow the game down considerably. This can have an inadvertant effect on time-sensitive puzzles. **>> SPEAKING OF TIME-SENSITIVE PUZZLES... Of all the puzzles in Fed, the GM puzzle is the only one that requires double-quick reactions as you make your dash for freedom while Snark disintegrates around you. The slightest network delay can put paid to your attempt, leaving you frazzled to a crisp and very frustrated. Bella is thinking about making changes to the GM puzzle so the time- sensitive part is replaced by something that cannot so easily be messed up by sudden slowdowns. At the moment, it's only a thought... and if she does make any changes, it won't be until next year. **>> JARROW FIXES BROKEN SPYSHIELD Jarrow Shipyard has, at last, fixed their wonky spybeam shield. The shield installed in the shipyard is an experimental model, stolen from the Galactic Administration's R&D department several years ago. It is thought-sensitive; usually it's transparent, and lets beams through without any problems, unless the salesdroid embarks on a super-secret deal; at which point the thought-detector senses the salesdroids excitement and turns on the shield, cutting off any spybeams. Trouble is, over the last few years, the thought-detector has been much too senstive... or the salesdroid gets excited far too easily... because the shield was activated any time a newbod buys a starter special! Jarrow has finally paid a black-market scientist to adjust the mechanism (or the salesdroid) and the shield is working as it should be: in other words, not at all unless one of the Godfather's henchdroids trundles into the shop! **>> QUESTIONS ABOUT WAREHOUSES By a spooky coincidence, we received two sendmails recently with questions about warehouses. First off, a player bought two warehouses on the same planet. Yes, the game will quite cheerfully take your money off you for as many warehouses as you like, but it won't let you use more than one of them so it's a bit of a waste. Before you buy a warehouse, remind yourself where you already have one - lists all your warehouses. If you do accidentally buy an excess warehouse, you can sell it with . You won't receive full price for it, but you won't have wasted your entire half meg. The other warehouse query was this: "Has it been noted that warehouses in NewFed seem to hold more? Normally I can only store 75 tons in a bay, but some of my bays now have 111 tons." There's a misconception here. Warehouse bays are pretty large. In fact, they're almost infinite in size! If you had a million-ton lump of alloys, you'd fit it into a warehouse bay with room to spare. But you would never have a million-ton lump of anything, because there are limits on the size of your purchases from an exchange (10 tons for traders and Merchants, 25 tons for JPs and over). So where did this 111 ton lump come from? Well, it probably came from a factory. Under normal circumstances, a factory produces 25 ton lumps, stores them in "stock in hand" and then sends them to the set destination when the total reaches 75 tons. But if you set up a pipeline to send an amount that is not a multiple of 25, you'll be left with an odd amount in the "stock in hand", which may go over the 75 ton mark before it's put into your warehouse. Additionally, if you have a factory sited on a planet where the owner has invested in the right things, your factory will become much more efficient, and will produce lumps bigger than 25 tons, so again you will end up with odd amounts in the "stock on hand" and thus strangely sized lumps in the warehouse. **>> ELUSIVE REWARDS? Many planet-owners offer huge rewards to players who solve the puzzle on their planets. The idea is to entice players to spend hours and hours wandering around in a dazed fashion, thus bringing in more tourist revenue. But planet-owners do require proof that you have, actually, solved the puzzle. Sometimes the culmination of the puzzle includes a code-word or phrase that they want you to mail to them; sometimes they want to see a capture file. Indeed, claiming the rewards can sometimes be almost as difficult as doing the puzzles themselves! We're heard rumours that Trader Steve has solved Tantras' puzzle but hasn't been able to get hold of him to claim his reward. These rumours are completely unsubstantiated, and we haven't spoken to either Steve or Tantras, but we have never let such mere details spoil a good news story in the past! If it's true that Tantras is welching on his promised reward, then we think he should be punished for dashing the hopes of a poor Poor Person, and we are volunteering to do the punishing! **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES For the first time since the switch to NewFed, there were no new planets last week, and the only planet promotion was Tisnar, which became a Technical world. So there's nothing radical going on in the Duchies. Pink is still working on her planet, Idyll - she put in a small version of it last week, and hopes to have the full works completed sometime during the coming week. We'll review it once it is finished. More people seem to be putting in mini-planets, then completing their construction later. They want to become planet-owners as soon as possible, rather than waiting until they have put the finishing touches to their masterpieces. Whether this is a Good Thing or not is debatable, but it's certainly becoming popular. We usually explore and write about new planets the weekend after they link. If they are not complete at that time, we don't always get a chance to come back and give them another look. We would advise people who are putting partially finished planets into the game to tell us when they expect to have it finished; then we will hold off exploring until there's something there to explore! Otherwise, you may miss out on a chance to be considered for that prestigious award, the coveted Walrus of Merit. **>> OFFICIAL NOTICE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF PERSEPOLIS Later this week the planet Persepolis, in the Perseid system, shall be open to visitors and traders. But due to construction delays caused by our Squire's chronic indecision, only temporary facilities will be available at the LP and vicinity; the rest of the planet shall be off limits until early next year when we anticipate completion of construction. Until such time Persepolis is complete, the Ministry of Tourism shall provide 7 spaceships for target practice. Each ship shall have a different Computer Level (1-7), so you will have a choice of practicing your shooting against an opponent of your desired difficulty. None of the ships will fire unless provoked, but you should not fire wildly lest you shoot down an unarmed 8th one, the Persephone, or you will get a high price put on your head! See the Wanted List to figure out which ship you want to shoot - the ship with the lowest reward shall be Level 1, going up to Level 7 with the highest reward. If you should spot any errors on Persepolis, or have any problems, questions, or comments, Send Perseus - the owner/ruler of Persepolis. **>> EXPLORE OLD PLANETS Plantking has uploaded a new version of his offline tour program into the MPGames Library on GEnie (page 1045). CANNA111.ZIP runs on the PC, and lets you explore seven full-size planets. It's file #4772. **>> GOSSIP, SCANDAL, LIES... THE INTERESTING BITS! Sukotto has fallen for the gentle charms of Winter. Somehow, we don't think they are discussing the climate all those times they've been snuggling in the Ritz! Mira was threatened with blackmail recently by Jake, who caught her cannoodling with Poohbah and threatened to tell Topper unless Mira paid him a vast sum of hush-money. Speaking of Topper: he seems to have fallen prey to the dread disease: Politician's Tongue. He recently declared that Maha was a most upstanding, responsible, serious, and polite person! Either Topper's been drinking too many of his own Oasis specials - or he's so desperate for votes that he's resorted to gross political flattery. He'll be kissing babies next! **>> SPYNET REVIEW Here's our usual run-down of the promotions during the last week. There were an enormous number of low-level promotions, with the influx of new players from Delphi. Congratulations to everyone who reached new heights. The new Captains were Jesse, Soriam, Bobman, Bgg, Christine, Skeets, Killa, China, Pooh, Slowhand, Doreen, Cisco, Luv, Clandestorm, Revenger, Shadowrunner, Darth, Chani, Bil, Treb, Woozlemeister, Ellegon, Tansy, Kepoch, Indy and Max. The new Adventurers and Adventureuses were Jeb, Pooh, Clem, Bgg, Breaker, Shadowrunner, China, Christine, Cisco, Chani and Luv. The Traders Guild admitted Bill, Napi, Hans, Cisco, Christine and Clem to its august ranks. Cisco, Alfrescoe, Erica, China, Shadowdemon and Starstruck became Merchants. Skeets solved the awesome JP puzzle. Kainaw advanced his planet and became a Technocrat. **>> 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 FED2 or use the option on the main Fed page on Cris, mail FEDERATION2 **>> BULLETIN ENDS