LINE NOISE News from Chez Diesel 24 October 1998 As I predicted, Monty went 'live' last week (although a day later than anticipated) and there was fear and trembling in the hearts of many Fedders. But not on the part of some of the Merchants, who only looked upon his new lethal capabilities as a challenge. First to tackle the dastardly Pirate was Zugger, who despatched him with ease. Pugwash and Pegasus were eager to add to the bloodshed and waited impatiently for the Pirate to regenerate. After half an hour the sinister black ship was sighted in Venus orbit, so the intrepid pair rushed off to wait for him to enter the interplanetary wastes. But they waited in vain! He continued to orbit Venus, and after some time Pug and Peg decided that the prospect of taking both of them on at the same time had so terrified Monty that he was not willing to leave the safety of the planetary defence system. Disgusted at this cowardly behaviour, the Dynamic Duo returned to their home base for a refreshing pint of Old Peculiar. Compunet then crashed, and as soon as it was put back up again Pugwash logged straight onto Fed to see if the Wimpish Pirate had decided to leave the shelter of Cargon. Finding him lurking somewhere in the Solar Orbit, Pugwash let fly with her twin lasers - but unfortunately was hit by chronic line noise so failed to see when the black ship disintegrated under her onslaught. She only knew she had actually killed him when she noticed he had disappeared. She left in a sulk and decided to try again the next day. Meanwhile, Our Illustrious Leader had decided this was all a little too easy. Monty was toughened up a bit and let loose on an unsuspecting Galaxy once more. Omi was the first to try his hand against the new, improved Pirate, but he soon found himself recuperating in hospital. Pugwash, aware that Monty's viciousness had been increased, decided to risk another encounter, but she came to grief when the Xerxes unexpectedly appeared in the Sector and joined in - on Monty's side! She hastily retreated and repaired, then went back for another try once the Xerxes had moved on. But alas, she too was blown to bits. Zugger, cocky from his victory the previous day, thought he still stood a chance despite Monty's increased hostility (his firing rate was increased from once every 3 seconds to once every 2 seconds). He let fly with his twin lasers, and then legged it to get the Leviathan repaired whenever the hull looked in danger of giving out on him, returning to the fray sure that THIS time Monty would die! What he had failed to realise is that as soon his ship left the sector, Monty's hull instantly repaired itself. So he just succeeded in spending an awful lot of money of repairs! However, with the help of Spacehound and Xaviour he finally managed to nail the bastard for a second time! In case you are wondering why anyone should bother to deliberately provoke a fight with the Pirate, you WILL get something out of it. Apart from the excitement, the danger, and the knowledge that you will have helped make the Spaceways a safer place, the Galactic Administration will be offering a substantial reward. But also, one of the (many) requirements for reaching Journeyperson will be... yes you've guessed it... killing Monty! Unfortunately (or not, depending on your viewpoint) the version of the game which allowed players to blast the Pirate was extremely bug-ridden so Our Illustrious Leader has put the old version back up until the problems have been sorted out. There were some very strange things happening... ship's fuel gauges were showing minus amounts of fuel; the exchange was charging Traders when they sold it goods; and Pegasus killed someone (no that's not strange, it happens all the time!) but they didn't actually die! This managed to corrupt Pegasus' persona record and for several days the 's' on the end of his name vanished and no-one could do 'tell' messages to him. I mentioned recently the emergence of The Alliance. There's nothing new about players forming groups; the original Consortium, B&Z Loans, and the semi- mythical Cartel. But The Alliance has attracted many members - in fact it seems that there are very few regular Fedders who are NOT members! This rather begs the question, just what is the Alliance for? Can any group as apparently indiscriminate give any real power or benefit to its members? Firstly, they are there to help each other with hints and tips on how to play the game. But since very detailed information appears in the Idiot's Guide; new developments are announced in Line Noise; and Fedderss have always been willing to help each other on an informal basis, this seems a little superfluous. Secondly, the senior members of the Alliance lend groats to those who need their networth bumping up to make Adventurer or Trader. All well and good, but again, there was never a shortage of people willing to give interest-free loans (and in some cases outright gifts) to those who needed it. I can understand the appeal of joining an organisation where you know someone will always dip into their wallets for you, but if that is the only reason people are joining I should think Snoopy and the other rich members will soon run out of money! But their main aim seems to be to protect the members. Protect them against what? Against the enemies of the Alliance, that's what. And who are these vicious and terrifying enemies that necessitate such a large banding- together. Erm... well, there's Omi. He is definitely Public Enemy Number One! And there's... hmmmm... that seems to be it really! Of course, this grouping has been seen as an irresistible challenge to Pegasus, who relishes the idea of a 20-1 fight (that's if the Alliance can organize things to get all their members logged-on at the same time!) And with his fighting experience (and with the help of Pugwash) maybe the Alliance do have something to fear after all... In a bid to test the fighting skills of his members, Snoopy is offering a cash prize to any member who manages to make a dent in his hull. I wonder if this contest is open to non-members as well? There was a mini-meet at Adventure '88 in Surrey last Saturday. Those who remember Adventure '87 (where Fed had it's first public showing) will recall that due to an exploding disk-drive Bella had to rush back to London for a replacement. Determined not to have the same trouble this year, Our Illustrious Leader simply took along a C64 and a modem, so interested people could log on to the real thing. What could possibly go wrong? What went wrong was that the mainframe decided to throw another wobbly. The net crashed and Pegasus had to fly Bella back to London to get the problem sorted out, leaving Pugwash to tell dissapointed punters that they could have a go later, honest they could... The problem was fixed eventually, and several people were shown around the game by Pugwash, Pegasus and Bella - with the help of Zugger and Magius. There was quite a bit of interest in Federation, but most of the enquiries came from people with computers that can't access Compunet (Beebs and PCs seem to be the favoured machines for comms buffs). However, when the promised TTY link appears in December this will make Fed available to many more people. It was also apparent that most people who attened already played one MUG and were not really interested in looking at any others. They just wanted to log on and play without running up their phone bills! I guess I can sympathize with that attitude. The day ended with a slap-up meal in Pizza Express (where else?) which was fairly restrained but still very enjoyable. It's less than 3 weeks to the Commodore Show so I suppose I ought to do a little research of the Hammersmith area and find a suitable venue for the Fed Meet. Do restaurants allow bookings for 85 people? Snoopy says that he will buy all Alliance members a drink at the show... now that's the best reason for joining them I've heard yet!