The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 27, 2009

Trashley Can's Xmas Bulletin No 2

Ho ho farding ho. Everyone else gets to stay home for the holidays but I am stuck here in the office in case some breaking news breaks.

They say that warfare is 90% boredrom and 10% sheer terror. Well, that's a bit like what's it been here this Christmas. There was the panic of getting that bulletin out on Christmas Eve, then two days of twiddling my little metal digits, and now here I am again, rushing around trying to produce another informative bulletin.

This time, though, I know exactly where to lay the blame. It's Bella's fault. When everyone else was tucking into their Christmas neoturkey and pudding pills, she was coding up some changes to the Fed universe. They've just gone live, and that's why I've had to snap to it and do some work.

So I guess you want to know what's new, then...


CARTEL PIGGYBANKS

Cartels now have their own treasuries. The balance shows up on the cartel display, if you are the cartel owner.

This gives the Plutocrats one more place to stash their ill-gotten gains - or at least it will when Bella codes in the transfer command to let you move groats from your personal account into the cartel treasury. The money will then be available for you to use when you come to build infrastructure for the cartel, which will be coming soon.

Joining fees and bonuses are now paid in and out of the cartel treasury. This balance can get overdrawn, because it's quite likely that a new cartel will be paying out bonuses to get some members in before it has a chance to make any money.


CUSTOMS AND EXCISE COMES TO CARTELS

Plutocrats can now set customs dues which will be levied on goods being brought into the cartel. The charge is made at the time you jump into the cartel, ie at the hyperspace link if you're arriving from outside the cartel. The customs cutter will flag down your ship and an inspector will board to examine your cargo - and it seems these officials cannot be bribed.

For the Plutocrats, the command is 'SET CUSTOMS percent' where 'percent' is the percentage you want to levy, between 0 and 100%. You need to be in the hub system when you set the rate.

For those visiting the cartel, the levy is made against goods in your cargo hold. The value of the goods is shown when you check your cargo (it's on your ship's status) and the percent value is taken. If you're a Merchant or Trader, the money comes from your personal account; for an Industrialist, the money comes from your business, and a Manufacturer from the company; and if you're a PO then the money comes from the treasury of your highest level planet (excluding bio planets). If you don't have the money to pay - tough, it's taken anyway and you go overdrawn.

Sol cartel now has a 10% customs rate, which won't change.

So you can see it really will pay to do most of your trading within a cartel, rather than crossing borders!


IDIOT'S GUIDE UPDATED

It's not just Bella that has been hyperactive this Christmas - Hazed sent me a message to say that she had updated the Idiot's Guide and the Fed2 commands with this stuff.

She hasn't done anything to the in-game help yet - that'll come later this week.


That's it for this bulletin. I've just discovered half a bottle of sparkling luboils which one of the newsdroids left under its desk, and I'm off to blot out the misery of my existence.


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