**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 95.01.01 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to the first news bulletin of 1995, happy new year to all our players, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the past year. **>> WORKTHINGS' CONSUMPTION A new feature was added to planetary economies at the end of last week. Details were posted in various places, but even if you read those details don't skip over this section because some things have changed! Workers on a planet now consume goods produced by the planet. The workthings consume different things, depending on the level of the planets - these are listed below. The number of tons of each commodity they consume varies: from between 1 and 1/40th of the population of each of the goods (i.e. for a population of 2000 they will consume between 1 and 50 tons). They pay market rates for the goods they consume. The consumption happens at the end of each exchange cycle, after investment production has been added to the stocks. The goods are taken from your stocks and the payment added to your treasury. Goods consumed are as follows: Agricultural: Cereals, Textiles, Meat, Soya, Pharms, Tools, Games Mining: Cereals, Textiles, Meat, Fruit, Soya, Gold, Petros, Kats, Holos Industrial: Cereals, Hides, Textiles, Meat, Fruit, Crystals, Petros, Mechs, Electros, Holos, Sensamps Tech: Cereals, Woods, Hides, Meat, Spices, Fruits, Gold, Poly, Mech, Petro, Droids, Vidi, Studios, Libs Leisure: Cereals, Woods, Hides, Furs, Fruit, Spices, Crystals, Gold, Synths, Droids, Hypnos, Sensamps, Sims, Pharms, Arts Bella has tweaked the parameters of consumption a little since the new feature went in, and will continue to do so over the coming weeks. Over the last few days, the workthings continued to eat even if the goods were not available, which meant goods were going into deficit. As of today, this has changed: if the goods aren't available, it does not cause a deficit. At the end of January, if the necessary goods are not available, the disaffection level will increase. More information about how disaffection will work will be forthcoming nearer the time. The delay is to give planet-owners time to adjust their economies to take account of this new feature. **>> A CONFUSED PLANET-OWNER CONFRONTS OUR ILLUSTRIOUS LEADER Confused Planet Owner: Bella, have you gone stark raving bonkers? Bella: Possibly... [shrugs vaguely] CPO: This workthing consumption is completely messing up my planet! [tears hair (or equivalent) out] Bella: Why? CPO: My planet no longer produces everything it needs. I'm getting these huge deficits! I just can't keep up. Bella: Have you tried doing deals with other planet-owners or with traders, or maybe employing traders to work exclusively for you? Have you done anything to encourage CEOs to build factories on your planet? CPO: Erm... [shuffles his fee (or equivalent] Anyway, there are Galaxy-wide shortages of some things! Look at the size of my Gold deficit. Bella: Yes, it is quite impressive, isn't it, but there are over 100,000 tons of Gold out there in them thar hills waiting to be shipped. They just don't happen to be on your planet. Yet. CPO: But even if I did ship in Gold, and other stuff, I still couldn't produce everything I need, and my stocks would not be as high as they used to be. Bella: Yes, I often wonder why people want to produce absolutely everything. In economic terms, this is called "autarchy". The only two industrialised countries ever to try this route were Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. CPO: And were they successful? Bella: Well, the trains ran on time... but little else did. CPO: But if I don't produce everything then I get deficits. Deficits are bad, aren't they? Bella: Not necessarily. Your aim is to make money. You do not make money by producing things, or keeping large piles of things, you only make money by selling them. You are making more money, aren't you? CPO: I don't know. I am concerned about my huge deficits! Bella: Well, on average, on the night that this new feature went in, planet-owners made three times the normal profit. Of course, those who took the trouble to work out what was really happening made far more than three times normal, and those who just felt it was a disaster would have made less. CPO: What about my huge deficits? Bella: What about your huge deficits? CPO: Some unscrupulous weasel will come along and dump mega-tons into my deficits, and I'll have to pay over the odds for the goods. Bella: And this is a problem? CPO: Yes. Bella: I assume then that (1) you have negative markups on all these commodities in your exchange, and (2) you have a lot of enemies. CPO: Huh? Bella: Since your workthings are buying at market prices, they are always paying you more than you are paying people to deliver. CPO: Even if I am paying over the odds because the deficit is so large? Bella: If you are in deficit, then the workthings also pay over the odds when they consume. CPO: Oh. Bella: Indeed, now that I have the figures that I needed, which meant I had to allow things to go into deficit, I have stopped the workthings driving things into deficit, since it's a very easy way for planet-owners to generate cash. CPO: How? Bella: You can work that one out for yourself. CPO: But what happens when lack of goods means the disaffection level goes up? I just won't be able to keep my populace satisfied at these rates of consumption. Bella: I have already cut the consumption by half, and I will be adjusting the other parameters over the next couple of weeks, before dissafection takes effect. I will also be making alterations to factories to increase their production - and of course, investing in infrastructure also boosts factory production. You have invested in infrastructure, haven't you? CPO: Erm... well no, I put all my investment into security. Bella: My, you -*must*- have a lot of enemies! I suppose that's one way to keep your population in line... **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Silas' new planet, Silo, linked early last week. As has unfortunately become the fashion, it's a mini-planet. In last week's news we said that from now on new planets will be reviewed in the few days after they link, and if they are only mini- planets, they won't get a review at all. We said we would make an exception for Astrin and China, because they linked their planets before we issued our edict. We will also include Silas in the exception, since he issued the order to link before the news was published. These three planets will be given a full review when the owners tell us they are ready for inspection. However, there's a time limit on this - you have until the end of the month to finish construction; after that, you don't get a review. Anyone currently building planets, think carefully: do you want to become a Squire so desparately that you are willing to sacrifice a good review, and the tourist income from people exploring your planet, by putting in an unfinished world? **>> BAR BOARD BOREDOM Barberousse, where were you when we needed you? Tantras and Elwoodblues decided to practice their foreign language skills on the bar board recently, resulting in the following exchange: 06040 - Elwoodblues: Qui veut coucher avec Tantras? 06091 - Tantras: Tout le monde ont envie coucher avec moi! 06111 - Elwoodblues: Non. C'est trop incroyable! 06122 - Tantras: Excusez-moi, monsieur. Tu ne pense rein! Votre tete est vide! 06133 - Elwoodblues: Et ton lit, aussi. 06143 - Bil: lover's quarrel 06162 - Tantras: Mon lit est vide? Je crois vous ici... Tu es rien, monsieur? 06172 - Elwoodblues: Ce n'est pas moi. C'est Bil. 06182 - Tantras: Les Yikes! Donnez-moi le barf bag! 06182 - Elwoodblues: fini Are they planning to switch to playing the French version of Fed? **>> SNIPPETS Knightfall is considering opening a custom escort service company to cater for the lonely bachelors in Fed DataSpace. He feels there is a definite need for it, and he plans to supply FedBabes on a cost plus basis. Overheard during the week: Maxwell, regarding his wife Emmi marrying Skurge: Well, there is some intrinsic value to being married to someone who isn't dead. Silas, Squire of Silo, regarding the food consumption rate of his workthings: Don't know where they put it all, but I'll be needin' a sewage treatment plant, I'll bet! **>> SPYNET REVIEW Once again, the data-collecting droid went on the fritz and managed to lose a days-worth of information about promotions. Apologies if you haven't been mentioned! The new Captains were Pixie, Palpatine, Juniper, Stryder, Danny, Murf, Rosinante, Sorak, Catastrophic and Meng. Juniper, Sorak and Rosinante were promoted to Adventure. The Traders Guild allowed Cygnus to become a member. Jeb, Scarlotti, Elwoodblues, Benson and Mcgruff reached Merchant. Ceinwen and Destiny solved the awesome JP puzzle, then went on to crack the fiendish GM puzzle. Primetime has reached Explorer. Silas became a Squire when his new planet linked. **>> 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 and Lyrynna. 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