**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 95.06.18 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> NEW AND DIFFERENT A new version went in yesterday with a number of small and unnoticeable tweaks and fixes, but it also made some changes to the way planets load into the game. The planet checker which scans planet files for errors when the data is loaded into the game on reset has been tightened up considerably, to bring it in line with the checker in the Explorers' Workbench. As part of the testing procedure before it was put into the game, the techdroids ran a number of the existing planets through this new, stringent checker, and found that several planets failed. The owners were all notified several days ago to give them time to correct the errors before the new version went in, but if you suddenly find the planet on which you built your factories or base has disappeared, this could be why! Everyone who owns a planet would be advised to go into the Workbench and run the checker, just to make sure there's nothing that will make the game reject the planet on loading. Because the checker has been tightened up, we're going back to the old way of loading planets: when you use the Add option, your planet will link into the game at the next reset, without human intervention (or Rigellian). **>> TO BOLDLY GOTO The other change that you will notice is a change to the command. Until now, your navigation computer has failed if your ship comes across another player's ship, causing you to graunch to a halt between planets. This no longer happens. Now, there is a small chance when using the command that your navigation computer will hiccup and deposit you somewhere unexpected, in a random location in the Interplanetary Wastes of the Solar System. **>> BOOM! Next time someone makes a huge hole in the surface of Mars by tampering with ancient equipment they don't understand, go and take a look at the resulting crater to find out just who it was that blew up! **>> CHANGE OF DESIGN Most players are already aware that the Fed team plan to make some changes to the design for the top end of Fed - there's been plenty of debate about it recently. Here Hazed gives the details of the plans, and the reasons why the changes are being made. The original design for Fed called for the highest rank to be Emperor of the Galaxy, supreme ruler over all other players, with some pretty hefty powers to affect the economy of the game and control individual players. These plans also called for Dukes and Senators to wage warfare against each other by setting up spyrings and units for infiltration and sabotage of other players' planets, duchies and companies. Thus, the last few ranks of the game would differ from those coming before in being political rather than economic in nature, and in pitting players directly against each other, either competing for the role of Emperor, or engaging in acts of war. Over time, we've become aware that many players don't want one player to have supreme power over them. There has been considerable unease expressed about the possibility of an Emperor abusing his or her powers to affect players adversely. There has also been concern about Dukes and Senators having the powers to wreck other players' economies by sabotage. Throughout all the other ranks of the game, Fed is a game of cooperation and alliance, not of violence and war. We now feel that our original plans for the top end of Fed just will not work. We mean that not in a technical, coding sense, but in a sociological sense in that they would change the nature of the Fed society completely. After putting a lot of thought into the overall structure of the game, we have designed a new plan for the top end of the game. This is the broad design; details will be developed later. Under the new plan, there will be no Emperor. Dukes will become the highest 'playing' rank and in effect will be the mini-Emperor over their own duchy. The current limit on the number of Dukes will be lifted. The rank of Senator will be higher than Dukes, but will be a non-playing rank. It will be for players who have finished playing the game but wish to keep their persona intact and chat with their friends. Retiring to the Senate will write an entry into the hall of fame, showing their wealth as a final score. Senators will not have any cash, they will be entitled to free services anywhere in the Galaxy, including buying drinks, clothes, insurance, ships and so on. They will have teleporters as a matter of course, and may have other privileges to be decided later. There will be a Senator-only area on Earth, and each Senator will build their own space station which guests can visit by invitation only. Dukes will not only rule the planets in their duchy, they will also get to keep their own planet, which will become the Capital of the duchy. The Capital's interstellar link will double-up as the inter-duchy link. Players will only be able to jump between duchies from one Capital to another, but they won't have to jump back to the Solar System link. A new level of gameplay will be introduced for Dukes. Having defeated the Martians back in time, Dukes will now have to defend their duchy from the aliens who are out for revenge. Dukes will have to build up information networks in order to get advance information of the Martian's plans, and make sure they have enough troops stationed in the appropriate place to defend against invasion. The Martian attacks will be generated by the Fed team and Game Hosts, although the game itself will decide exactly which planet will be the target. The other major change is that smuggling, as it exists now, will be taken out of the game, since it's clear that hardly any players actually bother to smuggle goods. Dukes will still set customs rates and favored rates as they do now. The nature of an embargo will change: if another duchy is embargoed, it means there will be no direct inter-duchy link between the duchies and players will have to jump via a neutral duchy. This means Dukes will no longer have to build up their customs forces, instead all their resources will go towards repelling the Martian boarders. Arena Space will remain in the game as an area where players go for fights, challenges and tournaments - and we'll add some mobiles to spice things up. This is the broad outline of our plans. We have put a lot of thought into this re-design and we think these changes will benefit the game and add enjoyment and challenge. **>> WHAT ARE HOSTS FOR? A recent discussion some players were having with Hazed brought up the question of what, exactly, the function of Game Hosts is? One of the reasons we have Hosts is to help newbods get started in the game, guiding them through the first few minutes of culture shock as they enter the new environment of Fed DataSpace, aiding them in getting a permit and buying their first ship, and showing them how to interact with other players. Of course, all this information is in the QuickStart Guide, but it's easier to understand what you should be doing if it's explained by a real person (and nobody wants to read manuals anyway!). Hosts are also there to aid more experienced players. When you promote in Fed you find yourself having to learn new skills, whether it's trading, running a company, designing a planet, or managing the planet's economy. The Hosts can help you if you have questions or if there's something you're not sure about. The Hosts run special events in Fed, such as the monthly Trivia games and Schools, Freya's weekly Tea and Questions session, and special events that are laid on from time to time. They also spend time in Fed simply entertaining the players! The Hosts are -*not*- game policemen, with a brief to scrutinise your every move and report back to Big Sister Hazed. Fed players are assumed to be able to police themselves and their colleagues. Hosts will only step in where there is a serious breach of policy, such as someone using repeatedly offensive language or harrassing another player. And that doesn't happen often! **>> CONNECTING TO FED A question that is often asked is "Can I connect to Fed via the Internet?" The answer is, not directly. Fed can only be accessed through a commercial system; you can't telnet directly to the game. There are a number of different versions of Fed, available through a number of different systems. In the US, this version of Fed runs on the Kesmai/Aries system and you can connect to it via GEnie, Delphi, or Cris. A separate version will be available on AOL shortly. Fed is also available in the UK and Europe, on the On-Line network. A separate English-language version runs in Greece on the CompuLink network, and a French-language version in France on the Minitel system. But for all the versions you need to have an account on a host system. **>> FEDERATION UNCON 95 Federation's annual UnConvention will be next week, June 23-25 at Freya's farm in New York. All Fed players are welcome to join us and meet the demi-divine Hazed and many other well-known fed players. Freya's farm is located in rural Sullivan county NY approximately 100 miles NW of NYC. Crash space is available so feel free to bring sleeping bags, tents, etc. We do plan to picnic and barbeque and talk about everyone who isn't there. But, as those who have attended UnCons in the past know... we never quite know what we'll do. It's quite important for you to let Freya know if you plan to attend so we can send you directions and more detailed information. Please email Freya at FEDASST [GEnie] or FED4 [Delphi]. **>> PLANET RETURNS! Yes, it finally happened! Zzzax gave back Mosquito her planet Kama! Zzzax snagged the planet when Skeets went dead-dead, and then refused to give it back! "It zhall be our new military headquarterz!" Zzzax triumphantly proclaimed. Skeets and her hubby Wildstar threatened to sue... and when that didn't work, they got the Winged One himself to track down the planet and drag it back out of ZaturnSpace and into FedSpace! Now, Skeets is demanding that Zzzax pay rent for the time he occupied his planet... while Zzzax is retaliating by saying he'll show everyone the naked pictures of Skeets and Cryptosporidium (Mosquito! Have you no shame???) he found hidden in a corner of Kama! As of this writing, the conflict hasn't resolved yet... who knows what Mosquito will volley back with! (Do we DARE ask?) **>> GEEZER et al v. H-by-A [WEEK 4] The discrimination suit against Diesel's Executive Services continues to roll along the long and torturous paths to Justice. Geezer, joined by the demure Grannie in his crusade against the Powers That Be says he has began to receive inquiries about the possiblity of expanding his lawsuit. 'What provisions has Diesel made for non-humanoids? What about wheelchair access to spaceships?" asked Geezer, "and why isn't there a Senior Citizens discount at the Interstellar Link?" Grannie noted that wool for knitting is in non-existent supply at planet exchanges and that there was no "buy milk and cookies or buy oatmeal command". When it was pointed out to her that custom meals were available she responded, "Have you washed behind your ears today, young lady?" H-by-A Services continues to maintain a stoney silence about the pending lawsuit. Our only clue to their defense plans were the mutterings overheard in CDs of, "how about a command to turn [name deleted to protect the innocent] blue?" **>> CATCH PHRASES On a routine assignment, gathering bits of naughty rumours, a newsdroid paused to pick up this comm message to fulfill the weekly word quota: >Your comms unit crackles with a message from , 'When I use sell ware # , does it sell my actual warehouse, or just what is stored there?' Because the newsdroid only needed 25 words to meet the requirements and was determined not to work harder than it absolutely had to, it omitted the author of this question. **>> POST-MEDITATED MURDER Federation welcomed a new denizen this week, Jara. After greeting Jara and welcoming her to the galaxy, the populace was shocked to hear of her plans to kill Wildstar. Especially since Wildstar is already dead! When others informed her of Wildstar's persistent lack of life, Jara simply stated, 'That will not slow me down one bit.' **>> BREACH OF ETIQUETTE A Merchant who shall remain nameless (although we hope you know who you are and are blushing at you read this) has developed a nasty habit of stranding Poor People in the Martian ruins after they help him with a puzzle. Now this just isn't nice. If someone has gone out of their way to assist you, you shouldn't just abandon them to find their own way out. Word will soon get around and you'll find yourself with a bad reputation and a shortage of willing helpers! **>> PERSONAL/CLASSIFIED ADS AND PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS *Public Service Announcement From Egg: I am NOT a chicken egg! *Lonely SF [foreign national] looking for SMs, must be exciting and generous and willing to provide transportation. Please leave sendmail for Lola. *Public Service Announcement From Freya: I'm innocent! *Public Service Announcement From Sparky: I'm MORE innocent than Freya! *Charming widowed F PO looking for SM companions **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES There are no new planets to report, except that Asrianna's Sine has reappeared because she has regained her former rank of Squire. She's rejoined Chance's duchy of Chaos. Mosquito's Kama and Ukla's Snafu are now mining worlds, so get your shovels ready, there's gold in them thar hills! Djmayhem's Halcyon has advanced to become a Technical world. Luv is working on her planet, to be called Lemon. She's putting in a puzzle that can be done both by individual explorers, or couples that like to explore together - it won't rely on a locked door with just one key! An excellent idea, which she tells us was suggested by Starman. **>> SPYNET REVIEW There were three d-ds during the week. We lost Trader Osiris, JP Duncan and Squire Wildstar. R.I.P., guys. Congratulations to everyone who promoted during the week. The new Captains were Julien, Viper, Tarot (twice!), Funkdafied, Jake, Siquoma, Patch and Jara. Kitiari, Tarot, Viper and Siquoma reached Adventurer/euse. The Traders Guild has new members in Starman, Hermes, Brain, Kitiara and Tarot. Starman, Brian, Hermes, Dibdevlin and Wyrd made it to Merchant. Trista solved the awesome JP puzzle and the fiendist GM puzzle, then became an Explorer. We look forward to seeing her planet soon. Asrianna made it back to Squire after her unfortunate death. Mosquito and Ukla are now Thanes, and Djmayhem is 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 Game Hosts are: Freya, Egg, Lyrynna, Grannie, Sparky, Zzzax, Shady, Geezer and Magneto. 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