**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 95.04.09 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> EASTER FUN - HARVEY COMES TO FED AGAIN! The Easter Bunny will be visiting Federation this Easter. Harvey will be hopping around the Galaxy over the holiday weekend, with his egg basket overflowing with groats. Harvey will organise all kinds of games and competitions, including hide-n-seek, treasure hunts, and an Easter Bonnet competition. There'll also be a chance to KILL DA WABBIT as Harvey flees for his life from the blood-thirsty hunters, all out to use him as the prime ingredient in their pies! See the rabbit run. Run, rabbit, run. You will also be able to explore the planet Cabbage again, the home of Harvey the Easter Bunny, and meet all his friends. This planet was written by Senator Hazed to use as an example planet showing how to use the tools provided by the game to make fun things happen on your planet. Those who have a copy of the third edition of the Idiot's Guide to Federation will be familiar with Cabbage, because the workbench files are printed in the back as an appendix - now's your chance to see it in action! To coincide with Cabbage's return, the first of our new Schools will be held next Sunday, and the subject will be planet design. The School will be held at 9.00 eastern in Jessica's Bar on Cabbage, so come along to find out just how you can make fun things happen on your planet. **>> HERE IS THE OLDS! Tantras is continuing to upload old issues of the Federation Weekly News Bulletin into the Archive library on GEnie. Individual issues are now available for 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993. Files #318, #319, #320 and #321 are ZIP files containing all the issues for the years 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993 respectively. Files #322-330 are issues for January and February 1994. The rest of 1994 will follow soon. Once the GEnie Archive is complete, we'll get the files uploaded onto Delphi. **>> GENIE NEWS: LOWER DAYTIME RATES, HOLIDAY SCHEDULE GEnie has announced a drop in the prime-time surcharge. Users who log on during prime-time will now only pay a $2 surcharge on top of the normal connect charge. This means players who wish to keep an eye on their factories or planets, or get those last few trader credits, or just come into Fed and chat, will be able to do so without paying an arm and a leg (or an equivalent and an equivalent). Friday April 14, Good Friday, is a GEnie holiday. This means that all prime-time surcharges are waived for the day. **>> SATURNIANS SLIP SODAS, SOMETIMES SLURPING STRAWBERRIES! (don't ask) The Saturnians have fled the Solar System! Well, sort of. Our crack NewsDroids discovered a mass emmigration from the planet Saturn and through the Interstellar Link to... Saturn??? It seems the Saturnians, ready to escape the wrath of Bella, found an alternate dimension where they now hide on their own analog of Saturn. Since it's not part of OUR Solar System, Bella can't evict these troublemakers. When our NewsDroid tried to follow, the Interstellar Link refused access; somehow, the Saturnians are controlling who can enter or exit their alternate dimension. "Zis iz ze start of our mazter plan!" Zzzax shouted over the comm units. "Ze Zaturnians zall reign zupreme! Zexterminate! Zexterminate! Zexterminate!" After a Dalek appeared and threatened a lawsuit, Zzzax quickly changed his war cry to "Ze Zaturnians zall zlay zou zall!" More updatez az we get zem! **>> TIT FOR TAT Duke Aja's a bit cross with one of his ex-serfs. It seems newly-promoted Thane Sorak decided to leave Aja's Duchy of Sphinx and join Budwarp's Epini... but he didn't tell Aja in advance, or give any reason after the event for his defection. Very bad-mannered. So, to even things up a bit, Tellurani decided to switch the other way... she seceded from Epini and joined Sphinx! We hope she told Budwarp why. **>> AT YOUR AGE! By the time they get to planet-owning level, you expect Fedders to know their way around. Once they become a Duke... then they -*really*- ought to be able to find their way round the Solar System blindfold! Which is why were astounded recently to spy a certain Duke trying to map the maze in the Martian Ruins! Better late than never, we suppose... unless he'd got lost and was frantically mapping in an attempt to get out? **>> THE FIRST ANNUAL FED AWARDS We've had our first nomination for the awards. Freak has nominated himself as nosiest player, because he is always asking questions!! Hazed would like to nominate herself as "Most beautiful demi-Goddess whose name begins with an H" but we are sure she's not eligible. If you want to nominate anyone for the awards, mail your nominations to the addresses at the end of this bulletin. **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Planets are just like buses... for weeks, we've had no new planets, and now they've all come along in a bunch! This week, we offer a review of Erica's Trilight and Kain's Empyrean. We also take another look at Fastjack's Morpher, which has been completely rebuilt. Spacesinger's planet, Block, has only just gone in so we'll give him a week to sort it out before we despatch a newsdroid to explore. Brain's and Asrianna's planets will be back in early in the week so we will review them next week, too. As well as new planets, there have been a number of planet advancements. Sorak's Tyr is now a mining world. Aren's Naug and Galena's Mallavia are now Industrial worlds. Brandy's Nexus and Bgg's Cafe have become Technocrat planets. Stop press... hold the front page... this just in! China is the new Duke on the block, having defeated those nasty Martians and saved the Galaxy from a fate worse than death. Her new position has pushed one of the existing Dukes into the Senate, and the one with the highest bid (or, failing that, the one who has been Duke the longest) was Nightstalker! We'll bring you a run-down of which planet is in which duchy next week, once China has had a chance to recruit some planets for her newly-formed fief. **>> TRILIGHT BY STARLIGHT Erica's new planet, Trilight, is just the place for those who are interested in ancient ruins. No, we're not talking about Hazed! It's a world of archeologists, all busy digging up the secrets of the past. Much of the planet is still not open to visitors (presumably the archeologists don't want big feet (or equivalent) trampling through the remains of some important alien village). A message tells you that they hope to have the rest of the planet open for business in time for the Quasenart Celebration, whenever that is! Much of the planet is made from some strange material, obviously alien in origin. This must be what's got the archeologists so excited. The usual services surround the landing pad, including a rather strange bar. North of the landing pad is a huge arch, made of that alien stuff, but whether this is significant our explorerdroid wasn't able to ascertain. Moving east of the landing pad takes you to the main area where the archeologists are working. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see much of what they were doing... a pass is needed to enter their site, and although we had a pass we lost it when we blundered into a deadly wall, and couldn't get back in again. Take a look at Trilight, it's interesting. **>> HOME OF THE DEITIES Hazed would feel right at home on Empyrean, Kain's planet. It's the home of Gods and Goddesses from all kinds of religions and belief systems. Once you venture away from the usual landing pad amenities, you find yourself almost immediately being judged by the Chinese God of Storm! But he seems fairly tolerant, because he told our explorerdroid it was a chosen one and let it pass. Phew! Among the places you will find here are palaces for various deities, and statues of famous Fedders. When we explored Empyrean, the puzzle wasn't working... we understand that it is now. But despite that, we were impressed by the ideas used, although it could do with a bit of a tidy-up as far as spelling and typing errors go. Definitely worth a look. **>> ALL CHANGE! Fastjack's Morpher is an amazing shapechanging planet... and at the moment, its shape is that of a medieval (note the spelling, Fastjack!) world. The main part of the planet is the castle belonging to Lord Fastjack and Lady Kate; behind the castle is a garden with a maze, that our explorerdroid decided not to venture into for fear of never being seen again. We applaud anyone that takes the time to redesign their planet, as Fastjack has done. **>> PICKY, PICKY, PICKY A note to planet-owners and potential planet-owners: please take the time and trouble to fix up the typing errors and spelling mistakes in your planets. It will make it much more enjoyable for people exploring your world, and this will bring you in cash from the tourist trade. It's also more likely that you will get a glowing review in the news. No matter how brilliant the ideas in your planet are, if it's littered with mistakes then we probably won't bother to explore the whole thing. **>> SPYNET REVIEW Congratulations to everyone who was promoted during the week. The new Captains were Adamos, Ian, Godfather, Klatu, Galia, Piranha, Instill and Jacko. Adamos, Darkfalcon, Zolak, Tralfagar and Freak were promoted to Adventurer. The Traders Guild admitted Deth, Jeb, Zolak, Adamos, Gallahad, Lordfoul and Freak. Deth, Jeb, Zolak and Gallahad made it to Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle provded no match for the intellects of Jeb, Caleb and Greybeard. Asrianna, Caleb and Ukla solved the fiendish GM puzzle. All three moved on to become Explorers. Kain and Spacesinger are now Squires, with their new planets rotating serenely in the heavens. Sorak was promoted to Thane; Aren and Galena became Industrialists; Brandy and Bgg reached Technocrat. China became our new Duke, pushing Nightstalker up to Senator. **>> 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 Game Hosts are: Freya, Phoenix, Chrysalis, Lyrynna and Grannie. 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 Game 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 You can buy a copy of the very excellent Idiot's Guide to Federation for the paltry sum of $15.95. On GEnie, type ORDER from any main menu page. On Delphi and Cris, send a check for $15.95 to: Leah Parker, 4543 La Crescenta Avenue, La Crescenta, CA 91214-2912. **>> BULLETIN ENDS