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AOL NEWS YEARBOOK Earthdate June 1997 |
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AOL NEWS YEARBOOK Earthdate June 1997 |
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THE MONTH IN BRIEF The most momentous event of the month happened towards the end, when Interactive Broadcasting announced that Fed would be leaving AOL in early August and moving to the web, and that it would no longer be free but would be charged at a rate of 60 cents an hour. This caused mass panic from players who didn't understand why this was happening or what it would mean for them, but most people settled down after Hazed posted an FAQ answering all the common questions. Some players were so upset at the thought of having to pay for Fed in the future that they suicided dead-dead. Sadly, other players who decided they were not willing to pay to play the game under any circumstances, decided to wreck everybody else's fun and there was a sudden outbreak of previously safe planets becoming deathtraps. In the rest of the month's news... After a long wait, the ONLINE command for new planets was finally put back into the game and we saw a flood of new planets, much to the horror of the ReviewDroids! The problems continued to be fixed. The restriction of the amount of groats you could give at one time was lifted, but this was coupled with draconian new tax laws to soak the rich. Joy and rapture filled the Galaxy as the much-loved and much-missed MOOD command was put back into the game, and the popular news feature MOOD OF THE WEEK returned. Shortly afterwards the ability to buy customized rounds of drinks also came back to the sound of much raising of glasses and wassailing. FETCH and STORE were enhanced so they would operate on five bays at a time, thus saving a lot of typing. The comm channels were increased to 25 to give players plenty of space to spread out over the spacewaves.
The following Imperial Edict was issued by the Imperial Treasury a few days ago:
At a press conference to explain the change, the Senior Treasury Assassin told the surviving journalists that the measure was one of a series of new measures promulgated by Ming to promote harmonization within the Imperium, and to address requests for the limits on the amount of money that can be transferred to be removed. The STA pointed out to the assembled journalists that this was a classic example of the responsiveness of the administration to the concerns of the citizens of the Empire. There were no questions...
It ranks right up there in the list of things you would have thought impossible, but last week one of the Interactive Broadcasting team actually played Fed using a mobile phone! It was a new phone developed by a company called Nokia, and as well as a phone it was a personal organiser with a screen about the same size as a Psion. It had a cellular modem in it so it could connect to the Internet. And using it, Clem (our sales and marketing droid) logged onto a service in the UK that runs a version of Fed, and was able to play. (Admittedly it wasn't easy typing in commands on the widgy little keyboard...) Isn't technology wonderful?
A few weeks ago we reported in the news that we had played Fed using a mobile phone. Several people have asked us for more details of the phone: it is the Nokia GSM phone which has Internet capabilities - a built in palmtop computer and a cellphone modem. It is on sale in Europe at a cost of $500-$600.
It was a quiet Sunday night when those fiendish hosts Icedrake and Uniquette decided they were going to have a party... in the Venus Shuttle! Arriving at this once sanctified location, the two tied up the shuttle pilot and took it over. As Uniquette screamed, "Faster, faster!" Icedrake shoved the pedal to the floor. Curious, they were soon joined by Kellbo11, Rixmatiz, and Preach1999, all of whom joined in on the fun, watching the stops whip by in a blur. When the pedal got stuck, though, things turned ugly. Rixmatiz threw up in the corner before Icedrake could hand out barf bags, and Kellbo11 jumped out of the shuttle after getting scroll-sick. Our cleaning droids are still scraping little bits of Kellbo11's body from the mine shaft walls. Finally, everyone turning green, the group staggered out... and were so disoriented they spent several minutes walking into walls. Icedrake tried to teleport home, only to woozily zap himself into the jail cell instead (after landing back in the shuttle several times!). The last parting words by the hosts, though, were ones that shot fear across the galaxy... "Let's do it again tomorrow!"
"Is not a trader a person? Does he not eat the same pizza, drink the same ale, as others? Do not the same TLs blast him out of the sky? Does not the same acid cause him to lose dexterity and the same 25,000 IG cure him? If you tickle us, do we not tickle back and thwap the random qualifiers? If you prick us, do we not lose stamina? If you poison us, do we not have to reinsure? And if you shoot us, shall we not put a reward on your head?"
Someone out there is very concerned about plumbing:
Humans, of course, need to visit a bathroom several times a day for hygiene and comfort reasons. Droids and other mechanical beings do not; and many aliens take care of bodily waste in other ways. For example, the Aldebaran Jooksees dispose of their unwanted matter by converting it to liquid which they constantly spray out in a fine mist, leading to the lovely rainbow effect when they stand in front of a bright light (and the popularity of umbrellas amongst tourists on their world); the Lleldavanii use the equivalent of hoover bags which are simply changed when they get full; while an obscure, and now extinct, race from the outer fringes of the Galaxy used to convert their unwanted matter into nuggets of gold which would be excreted while they slept (this race is extinct because neighboring races had never heard the story of the goose that laid the golden eggs!). So you can see that it is rather humano-centric to worry about bathrooms suitable for humans, when throughout the Galaxy many races have different needs. We suggest you simply ensure that when you are going to be away from your ship for any length of time, you make use of the primitive but effective fittings in your vac suit!
A player is concerned about national borders and jurisdictions:
What an old-fashioned question this is! Every schoolbeing knows that by the time humans had colonized the planets in the Solar System - let alone developed the technology to allow them to fly through hyperspace to other stars - such petty divisions as countries, states, political units and so on had been abandoned completely by the enlightened new world Government who brought peace to the world and ensured that anyone who tried to disturb that peace was ruthlessly stamped out.
Many centuries ago, the ship classes were given their current names by someone high in the upper echelons of the Imperial Navy. Exactly who got the job of thinking up these names is lost in the mists of time; but it's clear they didn't have much of an imagination! His rather dull names were adopted and have been used ever since. By now they are considered part of the grand traditions of the spaceways which are so beloved of those who look back nostalgically on a time they consider greater than the present; so despite occasional attempts to rename ship classes to something slightly more exciting, the heritage lobby has always won out and the names remain the same.
We received this query recently:
We consulted a scientist from the Galactic Administration and he explained it all to us, in simple words that even our droids could understand. Amazing. Give that man a holo show! Apparently, cargo holds are designed to use Hilbert compression to bring each lump down to a standard size, by moving any excess bulk into n-dimensional space. We have no idea if this is true or not, but it sounds plausible enough, so it'll do.
This letter was sent to Alan Lenton, the creator of Fed DataSpace:
Funny you should ask that, because actually Alan IS a sociologist! He studied sociology at University and has a degree in it. He has always claimed that he is the world's only practicing sociologist, since no-one else gets to create their own universe and watch the people who live in it respond to changes he makes. In fact, we are sure that the reason the Fed universe is so compelling is because of Alan's background in sociology.
An inquiring mind asked:
Well, when you issue the command, the instructions go to an Architect who draws up the plans for the facility that you wish to build. The plans are published so that your planet's population can make their comments on the proposed facility. A public inquiry starts which takes into account the economic benefits that your facility would bring, as well as the negative impact on the environment. As a result, the plans are changed several times in an attempt to placate both the eco-lobby and the capitalists; four years later, the result a set of blueprints for a mediocre building that nobody much likes but nobody can really object to, either. Once the plans are, finally, approved, the building can actually start. An invitation to tender is sent out to construction firms around the Galaxy and a frantic bidding war starts, as companies desperate for the work undercut each other by offering to do the work for ludicrously low amounts of groats. The lowest bidder is awarded the contract, and they start work by demolishing whatever is on the site for the facility, and digging an enormous hole for the foundations. The building works proceeds, slowly, amidst much confusion. The company cuts as many corners as it can (how else could it afford to do the work for such a low price?) and many workthings die in accidents. They use substandard materials wherever possible and bribe the Galactic Administrations building inspectors to pass their shoddy work as satisfactory. But the work falls behind schedule and the costs mount up until the whole project turns into a construction nightmare. Finally, after ten years of trauma, the facility is complete. At this point, scientists install special time warping equipment around the building and warp it back in time to just a few hours after you initially commissioned the project.
I had been intending to ask you for a while why WT's get lost permanently after doing a build. I was thinking maybe I paid them so much (those cushy government jobs) that they could then retire and never have to work in a factory again. But now I read today's news and find out the terrible truth! Ack! But it said only "some" of them get killed. So what happens to the others? Are they the ones that get to retire? Seriously, though, I'm in favor of proper working conditions so that every WT can retire rich. Isn't there some way....oh, but wait a minute, maybe that would raise the cost of builds. Maybe I should think about this....
A concerned player asks:
Well, first off, it is all but impossible for Ming to die at all, surrounded as he is by highly-trained bodyguards and living in a Deathstar that has full security measures implemented to prevent any possibility of assassination. But if, for some reason, he were to die he would immediately be reinsured automatically. Such are the privileges of being Emperor of the Galaxy... insurance brokers know what's good for them! But for the sake of argument, let's assume that some skilled terrorist manages to penetrate the Deathstar's security, makes it to the throne room without being detected, defeats the bodyguards that surround His Imperial Majesty, and sticks a knife in his chest, fires a laser at him, decapitates him with a light-saber, or otherwise kills him. And let's suppose that the economic wing of the terrorist organization has bribed the right person in the Galactic Administration's insurance office so that Ming doesn't get the automatic reinsurance that he's used to. And then let's consider the possibility that another terrorist manages to penetrate the Deathstar again and kill Ming for a second time, thus sending him dead-dead beyond any hope of revival. What would happen then? Well, as the Emperor of the Galaxy, the Supreme Ruler of Known Space, the ultimate power known to man, Ming likes to think he is the center of the Universe. He no doubt imagines that as he breaths his last, stars all over the Galaxy will start to go out, extinguished in the grief at losing their ruler. However, we suspect that someone else would just come along and take his place and pretty soon become equally cruel and despotic!
Well, it's all to do with the technology that allows you to travel through hyperspace and visit other Solar Systems without a voyage lasting for years - the Interstellar Link. Building a link takes a lot of resources and energy, as any prospective planet-owner will tell you! Nowadays Slarti's Planet Shop takes care of all the details; you just have to provide the raw materials and give them a large amount of money. But back when link technology was developed, and the first link was built on the fringes of the Solar System, techniques were much, much cruder and not as advanced as they are today. The only way to provide the raw materials needed to construct the link was to destroy a planet, and the only way to get the energy needed to warp space and form the permanent link was to destroy another planet. So that's what happened to Neptune and Pluto.
A plaintive suggestion from someone who seems to be guilty of Whoosh abuse:
Thank you." There's no answer to that!
~/o Rockabye merchies on channel
5....
When you think of the word, Gaming, what comes to mind? For most of you, Federation is the first thing you think of. Gaming covers a wide range of subjects, many of which you've done, and may not consider it Gaming. As kids, we all played games like Cowboys and Indians, House and a host of others. As teenagers, we played cards or board games. Maybe some of you, like myself, were active in Role-Playing Games (RPGs), video games and play-by-mail. Now, the main reason for participating in these for entertainment. You game for fun, to relax, kill some time, or to interact with others. For some of us, it has become a second life, one away from the office or factory or the problems of everyday living that dominate our lives. It has become a form of escape. All games have a few things in common. They are, in one form or another, a tool to entertain yourself. They can also be, for some, a form of therapy. In general, games are a part of our lives. We grow up with them and as adults we continue to play them. Games have a set of rules, which are there to give the game direction, or to make sure we all play a certain way, but also to leave just enough open areas to allow you to vary them or to alter them so the game doesn't become boring. Most Games have key positions: Game Masters, Player Characters and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). Game Masters are the Referees, the persons who set up the scenarios that you play; they are the Guides that give you directions and play the NPCs that you interact with. Player Characters are simply: you. No Game can function without a player. NPCs are the background, those game generated characters you may play against, or interact with. In Fed, the mobiles are NPCs. Ok, you're probably thinking, Ki, just what does this have to do with Fed? Well, it boils down to this: Federation is a game, a large one, a personal one, but still, just a game. No, it isn't life, like some of you tend to think. And as such, you've got a responsibility to yourself, and to the rest of us, to play well. You have to remember, this isn't just your game, but mine, and hers and his. You share a virtual world with many, many others. What it means to be a good gamer is not only to allow me to play, but to try and contribute to the game as a whole. To make it enjoyable, not only for yourself, but for the rest of us.
I munched on a Katydidic, and sat back enjoying some Lubs on the rocks. I was quite comfy in my chair with the remote Controller in my hand, watching the normal channel 9 chatter passed over my holovision. There were the beggars, those who gripe about the lag, and not to forget, the people begging for factories. Normally this stuff scrolls off my screen and I don't notice it, but this conversation in particular kinda made me chuckle: Paragon220 tunes to channel 9 and politely, not to mention, brown-nosingly asks for factories. Not only did he ask for factories, he asked for *decent* factories. After a few minutes, the PO's smart alec side had been sparked, and they started replying to Paragon's request. JFunkman and GraceII replied with a hearty, "Decent facs, you won't find any of those on our planets, just immoral ones!" Others were a little more helpful, well not really. JJDEFAN said he had plenty of room for decent factories, but he needed agri facs. CptSkntASG proclaimed, "decent facs? the only facs i need, aren't decent like alloys and tools". Paragon, like most new merchants was very umm, shall we say, persistent, smiling through the abuse. Finally, Learjet35A (who btw is a thane now), saved poor Paragon and said not only did he have room for decent factories, he even had the inputs for them. I assume Paragon finally ended up with some *decent* factories, and I got a good chuckle out of the whole deal. In closing, I'd like to leave everyone with this thought: What exactly are *decent* facs according to merchants? Well from what I can see, anything with a high base price that they can sell to exchange, and not have to haul inputs. Is asking for factories on Channel 9 smart, or just plain brave? Well, depending on the mood of the PO's, they will either be ridiculed, laughed off the channel, given the third degree or obliged. Factory Seekers beware: PO doesn't always mean Planet Owner! <G>
10. Pretend to take the acid and
annoy the 10 merchants waiting for it.
10. It's cycle day 12 and you still
aren't sure what an input is.
Your comm unit relays a message from NatBridger, "if i didn't have to have to have a hull and engines and fuel, i'd really be able to haul!". Your comm unit crackles with a message from Kammerkazi, "Sprit....i will take ALL the woods you can throw into Snigger....:)) Really?? i need them!! You think they grow on trees????? <g>" Your comm unit relays a message
from Quasar6000, "HEY I DIED ISN'T THAT
COOL???!!!". Your comm unit relays a message
from Dillhead, "Now that I have some money, how do I
start an empire?".
210515:293 - BRIGUYMHS2: Can anyone help me?? I need to know how to leave a message on th board 210526:776 - Fotballgod: gm, come to cantina on earth, look for fotballgod, he needs a tradeing permit. 210530:518 - Bnerv: message I really hate it when I see people who post on the board and think they have to put message in front.
Wondering when moods are going to come back LordAvon had entered the room. what the heck are moods? Kellbo11 has entered the room Searching for lost limbs, Disarmed has entered the room. Holding his hospital gown shut, LCdrJardek has just arrived. Not tonight dear I have a modem... DrZigman is here. locked wife up so he can play fed SPJammerII has just arrived. Need tanned hides? 1-888-SPANK ME RetUSAFSP is here. About to snooze from lack of sleep, Peggysus6 is taking forty winks here.
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