**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 95.01.22 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> NEW PARTY HOST Everyone say "Hi" to Federation's newest Party Host: Gazoo, the little green chap. Like the other Party Hosts, he is here to entertain you and to offer help and answer questions. He might even buy you a drink! **>> DOCUMENTATION UPDATE The Supplement to the Idiot's Guide has been updated to include details of the latest changes to the game. On GEnie, it's on the Fed menu on page 220 - select option 7 and the file will be displayed. On Delphi, download the file FEDSUPP.TXT from the database area of the Fed page. On Cris, download the file FEDSUPP.TXT from the database. **>> PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS... Despite our hopes that Bella had found the cause of the mystery crashes, there are still obviously some problems. Earlier in the week, corrupted planet data caused the game to throw a fit - Devon made changes to his planet that included adding three interstellar links and three trading exchanges (possibly the most audacious and innovative attempt to increase income since Occy's infamous drive-through trading exchange). The first time someone tried to trade on Tanarith, the game couldn't make up its mind which exchange to use, and fainted. Then later in the week there was another mystery crash - in other words, we don't know what caused it. Bella has one idea which she will be testing out (from a suggestion by Tellurian, who will win the Fed t- shirt if it does turn out to be a cause). Meanwhile, until the current game has stabilised, there won't be any new code going in. That means that Dukes and Senators won't be able to send spyrings to ferret out information on planets. We are sure planet-owners the Galaxy over will heave a sigh of relief at their reprieve! We do apologise for the ongoing problems, and the length of time it's taking to sort them out and put in the next batch of code. Thank you all for your patience. **>> AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM HAZED I don't normally write the news in the first person, preferring to hide behind the shield of the anonymous newsdroid. But what I want to say is important enough that I want you to be absolutely sure that this part of the news -*has*- been written by me. I want to talk about the campaigning for the Emperor election. Many people have strong feelings about who they want to see elected as Fed's first Emperor. Many of you want to do whatever you can to make sure your choice is the one that wins the election. But I want you to remember one very important thing. Federation is a -*game*-. It's not the same as real-world politics. It's not a matter of life-or-death issues. It's not something that anyone should be so serious about that they don't enjoy it any more. I do not want to see the campaigning for Emperor become as unpleasant as real-life political campaigns. In real-life, it seems anything goes - you are expected to throw whatever dirt you can in order to stop the opposition getting elected. But I do not want to see that happening in Fed. Please keep the campaigning to ideas and issues. Attack the policies of the candidates, speak out about how you think they would make a bad Emperor. But do not bring personal insults into the campaigning. I have offered the services of the weekly news bulletin to print any campaign material that I am sent. But I will not print personal attacks on candidates. Please, keep it civil, keep it entertaining. This is a game, it's supposed to be fun. Keep it that way. Hazed **>> MEGA-REWARD For some strange, deep, and mysterious technical reason, that is completely beyond the understanding of mere newsdroids like us, since the switch to NewFed last October there has been a limit on the size of some amounts of groats that the game can handle. The limit is 2 gig. The restriction hits duchy treasuries and company balances, so CEOs and Dukes need to keep an eye on their balances and make sure they don't get too close to the 2 gig limit. If any of these balances do go over 2 gig, the game cannot cope, and converts them to very, very large negative numbers. Sometimes people forget about the limit - or they get caught out by an unexpected influx of groats. But sometimes someone deliberately sets out to find new types of money that the restriction applies to. It's akin to a child dropping something off a high balcony, just to see if it will break. Tellurian somehow managed to drive his reward up to the 2 gig mark. Quite how he managed to get people to spend so much money putting rewards on him we do not know. But sure enough, when his reward hit 2 gig, it turned into a large negative number. If only someone had been able to kill him before that happened... what a fortune they would have made! So, it's proved necessary for Bella to put in a fix so that rewards can't get too big. The limit on rewards is now 500 meg. Which should be enough for anyone! **>> BELLA GOES TO AMERICA Bella is going to be visiting the US for a couple of weeks, and is looking forward to meeting some of the players. Meanwhile, she will be leaving the game in the capable hands of the demi-Goddess Hazed. We question her wisdom here... if you remember, last summer in Bella's absence Hazed attempted a coup to take over the reins of power, then tried to kill Bella in a number of ways. Bella obviously has a short memory! **>> MEET THE AD-PERSON GEnie players might be interested to know that on Wednesday, January 25th, 9:30 PM Eastern, the MPGames RT will be holding a special online conference with Anne Kenney. Anne works for the advertising agency that is now handling GEnie publicity, and she wants to talk to MP gamers of all kinds to get a better handle on the multi-player world. What you like about the games, why you play them, what keeps you coming back to them, etc. All players of GEnie's games are welcome. **>> PLANET LOCATION DISPLAY Plantking has provided a very useful little program for those of you with a PC. It displays your planet's location data, from a capture of the List Locations output in the Explorers' Workbench. For each location you are shown the length of the description, the flags you set, a diagram for the 8 main directions and a lit of the other 5, the movement error message number, and the in/out event numbers. GEnie users can download PLANET2.ZIP from the MPGames library, it is file #4874. **>> MUSICAL BASES Tantras learned this week what happens when you don't keep your planet stocked with the commods your base owner needs to maintain his base. Ramius moved his naval base to a place that is always stocked to support base builds, Cheri's Aise. A logical move, since a survey shows that at least four Senators and two dukes do their builds on Eire planets. Apparently one duchy knows how to deal with work thingie consumption. Certain parties were not happy with Ramius's decision, and applied some pressure on him. Ramius caved in and moved his base back to Vertigo. A chastised Tantras has been seen practicing a skill he hasn't used in a while... trading his planet. It is curious to see that Barberousse's backers were concerned when one of their bases moved to Eire. It shouldn't matter if the base of one of the Senators supporting your candidate moves from one duchy to another. How will Eire respond to this blatant show of distrust by Barberousse's camp? Surely this has thrown a bucket of cold water on Sean's lukewarm support for Barberousse. **>> EMBASSY PARANOIA Speaking of Sean, and duchies, and candidates, and so on... Sean has build an embassy on Dierdre's planet, Cove. Budwarp, Dierdre's husband, is said to be upset about this. Bud obviously assumes that the purpose of the embassy is to do harm - but remember, embassies can be benign instead of malign, and can offer aid rather than be sited for a more sinister purpose! Meanwhile, our newsdroid asked Sean again if he was any more certain about who he would be voting for. Last time we asked, he tentatively said he supported Barberousse... but didn't seem any too enthusiastic. This time, he said that he was sure a better candidate will come along before the elections actually happen! This tends to suggest he may be thinking of running himself... But we need three new Dukes before any of the existing Dukes is bumped up to Senator. How can Sean be sure that three people will complete their builds, and solve the devilish Duke puzzle, before the election? Could it be that he is funding some of the builds? **>> HEAR HERE THE SPEECH OF ELEX! It was a normal day in Federation DataSpace; the coteries were paranoid, Rich People needlessly feared of an execution, Poor People coerced into registering their ships on certain planets, Planet Owners insisted on knowing the future even though they were not seers, Marsrats multiplied and prospered, newbods were clueless, and RPs were still whispering their superfluous anxiety. Elex entered the scene; he was serene, composed, and phlegmatic as ever. Then came the auspicious crackle from the comm units. Elex: 'Ladies and/or Gentlemen' Vagrants Unknown: 'And ITs!' 'And horses!' Elex: 'In these troublous times, it gives me great pleasure to appear before you to speak on the subject of ------. We naturally, and rightly, take pride in our accomplishments locally. The scattered multitude hushed, trying to work out what Elex was saying. Banter then flared over the comms, as par. Elex: 'But we should not forget those who have strived on the regional, national, and, dare I say it, INTERPLANETARY level.' At this point, our aspiring illustrious leader inquired if the crowd had had enough of his speech yet. Of course not! This is the first time he had been goaded into a public oration. Elex: 'Well, I had planned to do an Imperial Bank. I'll be *happy* to hold anyone's groats! Sol tariffs would be adjusted to encourage trading. I'd set them immesurably high against any duchy dumping. That would disrupt other folks trading. Of course, you could *try* to smuggle <+grin>...' This set off a horde of questions, fears, and a stampede that our poor newsdroid was caught in, loosing the rest of the speech. Sorry. **>> IN THE FAMILY WAY It would appear that one of our esteemed colleagues in FedSpace is striving to attain a heretofore unreached rank. No, it's not Emperor, but Godfather. Recently, many players have been spotted talking and tb'ing each other about a mysterious "organization". What the plans and motives of this "organization" are remain shrouded in mystery, but one thing seems clear... a new faction is arising. No one could be reached to comment on who this group intends to support for Emperor, or who its enemies might be, but it is rumored that a certain Captain wishing to collect Tellurian's monumental reward may have ties to this organization. This newsdroid was going to try to reach that Captain for comment, but didn't wish for the whining and complaints that it might lead to. Our enquiries as to who it might be behind this budding Godfather, lead to the suggestion that if he were identified in this glorious publication, my knee-servos might be broken! When I asked him what I could write about, he only offered that people who "believe in family" might wish to seek him out. Well, this newsdroid won't stand for this kind of intimidation. The press must remain free of this blatant graft! My journalistic integrity circuits won't allow me to bow to this outright coercion! His name is...Ack! Mmmph! Mmmph! Hey! Unhand me this instant - you can't silence the tru...::Clang:: ::Rattle:: ::Clunk:: ::Fizzle:: Oh, my. It would seem we have a position open for an investigative newsdroid. A reward has been posted for any information resulting in bringing these fiendish goons to justice. **>> HEAVENLY BODIES There's a new sex-symbol in Fed DataSpace, sending the women's hearts a- flutter. It's rumoured that even Hazed's knees go weak when she's in the same room as this gorgeous being! But then he does have a bit of an unfair advantage. We're speaking of Gabriel, whose angelic looks outshine any of the other Fed males. Ladies, just look as this: >Wearing only soft denim jeans, long blond hair caresses the arc of his wings. His eyes are deep azure & the tatoo of a sword shimmers on his bare chest Doesn't it just make you swoom? Meanwhile, Bgg has been building himself a harem... rumour has it he's been chatting up all the new female Captains, and offering them a steamy hot-tub session. And Ardonne and Carla spent an entertaining hour unzipping their spacesuits in Chez Diesel one night last week... during which, Carla gave Ardonne a hickey! **>> TWO TO TOUR Two new planets grace Federation DataSpace, Primetime's Esquire and Sorak's Tyr. The former, Esquire, is a wonderfully written planet that takes you back (or forward!) to the days of school and baseball! On this planet you are invited to bars, movies, and a faculty roast. When asked about the faculty roast, Primetime answered that it is better to roast the faculty instead of listening to them! The movies were a special treat for the science fiction fan. The shows were better than 3D, almost as if you were actually there. Don't bother buying tickets as there are ways to sneak in, although our newsdroid was most proper and bought a ticket! In spite of all the entertainment provided, our Newsdroid wanted to watch a game of baseball. It found the stadium - huge, brilliant, accommodating, and empty! Herein lies the mystery of Esquire. Well done, Primetime - Esquire is a very good planet! The latter, Tyr, is a very interestingly written planet that takes you to confounding places we haven't yet figured out. One is cautioned to move very carefully around Tyr. If caution is not heeded you may end up in a slave corral being whipped by the slave master, or in a crypt being beaten to a bloody pulp. It is also suggested you do not follow the road signs, they are a bit misleading and do not always point to where the sign says. Sadly, Tyr has many spelling erros and typos, which hopefully will be fixed soon. **>> SPYNET REVIEW Here is this week's round-up of promotions and other interesting events in Fed DataSpace. Once again, a couple of days' data went missing so apologies if your promotion has been missed out. The new Captains were Nik (who immediately went d-d), Monti, Melina, Ardonne, Meatloaf, Carla, Pulcherrimus, Fastjack (back from the dead), Vasilios, Xxxxyl (we think we got the number of Xs right!), Scavenger, Vinman, Tuesday (but it happened on a Saturday), Gabriel, Helena and Jadis. Pulcherrimus, Fastjack, Carla, Meatloaf, Kate, Gabriel, Melina and Clovis were all promoted to Adventurer or Adventureuse. The Traders Guild has new members in Waldo, Kain, Siobhan, Fastjack, Meatloaf (going up the ranks like a bat out of hell!), Carla and Pulcherrimus. Siobhan, Cleric, Fastjack and Static made it to Merchant. Xxyl solved the fiendish GM puzzle - after three years! Surely that must be some kind of a record. Brandy became an Explorer. Sorak's new planet, Tyr was linked into the game and he became a Squire. The same happened to Primetime when Esquire was added. Aja promoted to Industrialist by advanced the planet Sphinx. Silk became a Technocrat with the advancement of Fortymile. Dirge's Tempest moved to leisure, and he became a Baron. Is he going to build for Duke so he can influence the election? Sadley, Explorer Skeets went d-d. Merchant Fastjack also managed to kill himself, but he has returned to his previous position. Not so sadly, cheers rang out around the Galaxy as the homicidal foul, Psychochicken, snuffed it for good. **>> 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 Gazoo. 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