LINE NOISE News from Chez Diesel 4 September, 1989 BELLA RETURNS! Our Illustrious Leader has returned from her holiday, her skin tanned an even more virulent shade of green than usual. She appears to have enjoyed herself, although she wasn't able to buy her favourite drink - Snarcott's Finest Rigellian Green Chilli Vodka - and on her return dashed straight to Chez Diesel (Social Centre of the Solar System, as seen in the National Press) to assuage her withdrawal symptoms. Yes, I did say National Press. Chez Diesel was reviewed by The Observer a few weeks ago. Along with a truly horrendous photo of Our Illustrious Leader, your favourite bar got its name in big letters. At last reviewers are starting to understand what is important about the game! But I digress! Once back in the comfort of Chez Diesel, Benevolent Bella set about improving life for her minions in Fed Data Space. A new version went in with some exciting changes. First, the not-so-exciting; a few additions to companies. Managing Directors can now sell factories or convert them to produce a different commodity. To convert, the command is - # is the number of the factory in question, and the commodity is the new goods you want to produce. This costs 3 meg multiplied by the level of the planet; ie 60% of the original buying cost. To sell the factory, the command is . The price you will get varies from a half to nine-tenths of the original cost. This means that if you made the wrong decision about your factory (or were advised wrongly by so-called friends) you can at last switch to producing something a little more profitable. Another not very exciting change to companies: dividends issued are now shown on the company display. On to the slightly more exciting, but completely incomprehensible. The Events Writer for those Explorers who are designing their planets is now in. It is the most user-unfriendly part of the planet building tools so far. You are confronted by terse prompts asking for information like 'field values' but nowhere does it explain what the questions actually mean! Go and have a play with it if you like, and if you can understand it I'll buy you a free pint of Diesel's Old Peculiar. However, those very nice Hazed-by- Alcohol people will be coming to your rescue with a further installment of their Explorer's Guide, once they have wormed the necessary information out of Our Illustrious Leader. Expect this in a few days. And now... the really and truly exciting new feature is... GOTO! The Galactic Administration has been working tirelessly for many years to come up with a method of keeping the space-ways safe from marauding pirates and Saints, and they think they have cracked it. Navigation beacons have been installed on all the planets, and will guide your ship around the Interplanetary Wastes faster than a speeding bullet. The command is and it works from planetary orbit to planetary orbit. So if you want to travel effortlessly from Mars to Titan, you place yourself in Mars Orbit, type and you will be whisked along the trade route faster than you can say 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'. Before you can make use of this marvel of science, you need to program your ship's computer with the recognition signals of each of the beacons, and you do this by simply landing on the planet in question. Selling your ship, or upgrading your computer, automatically transfers the data across to the new computer. However, if your computer gets damaged in a fight you may find some of the data is corrupted, in which case you'll have to reprogram the routes in question. Of course, this system isn't fool-proof. There are one or two minor drawbacks to using it. If you run out of fuel while travelling along a shipping lane your ship will grind to a halt; and the trade route may not always be the fastest route from one planet to another. However, this is a small price to pay for freedom from the terror of unfriendly mobiles. There's a mystery in Fed Data Space with the complete disappearance of Magius. Following the cancellation of his wedding to Roxanne, the red-eyed scumbag alien TWF so-called reporter has vanished without trace. Last seen muttering about topping himself (at last!) his absence has caused much worry among the foolish females who have been taken in by his guile. Good riddance to him, I say! Fed Data Space will be a better place without him! DATA SPACE, the free Federation newsletter, is changing its production schedule slightly. In future the issues will be produced every six weeks, instead of monthly. This will enable the Editroids to spend more time on each issue, improving the quality (but surely the quality cannot possibly be improved any further!) Issue #004 will be out in about two weeks, and will feature an interview with Ken Farnen, the boss of Matrix, whose users will shortly be able to access Fed Data Space. DATA SPACE still needs you to write features for the centrespread. If you would like to have a go, but are not sure what to write about, mbx me (DIESEL) or talk to Pugwash on Fed. And please send in some letters! The Hazed-by-Alcohol directory has now been refurbished, with a number of new gotos to make it even easier for you to access their magnificent work. The directory itself has the goto HAZED. It contains the on-line version of The Idiot's Guide to Federation II, which is now fairly out of date but still gives basic information to new players who are too tight to pay for the current printed version - goto IDIOT. MORON is the goto for the forthcoming Advanced Idiot's Guide. This will contain full details on how to run a company without going bankrupt, and will also cover the ranks above Guild Master, including planetary economies, once they have been implemented. Planet-builders should rush off to SCOTT for the Explorer's Guide, which tells you how to construct your very own world in only six days (with the seventh day for staying in bed recovering). And Dead Horse Software Services have a goto of DHSS. Speaking of the Idiot's Guide, which I was a few paragraphs ago, Version 4.0 is now available. Bringing the Guide right up-to-date, it covers the latest changes to the game - including the just-implemented GOTO command. The Trading section has been completely rewritten (again!) to be as clear as possible without blinding you with science, and new sections cover many features introduced to Fed Data Space recently. And the good news is that the new version is available at the same price as the old one - just seven Earth pounds. See the ad in the HAZED directory for details of where to send your cheques. The end of the month sees the PC Show in Earl's Court, and what better excuse is there for a huge meal, lots of booze, and a party at Chez Diesel (East London branch)? Yes, I speak of none other than a FED MEET!!! The meet will be held on Saturday 30 September - see the Hazed- by-Alcohol directory shortly for details. Federation II will be demonstrated on the ICC stand by my good self, so even if you can't make the meet itself come along and say hello. I'll have copies of the new version of the Idiot's Guide available for sale, so bring your dosh!