**************************************** * * * FEDERATION DATA SPACE NEWS SERVICE * * * * from * * H-by-A * * * * October 28 1990 * * * **************************************** BLOODBATH! ---------- Yesterday was the day you had all been waiting for - the repeat of the very popular Fighting School. Between 3.00 and 6.00 EDT the persona file was frozen so that players could spend as much money as they liked on huge, well- armoured ships, and lethal weapons, and risk their lives without fear of the future. General Hazed led the theory sessions in Chez Diesel, and coped admirably with a rowdy crowd, who seemed keen to skip the boring technical details and get on with killing each other. Sargeant-Majeuse Cryptosporidium allowed herself to be used as a target drone for the practice sessions, and managed to restrain herself from fighting back - for a while! Some confusion was caused by Pegasus, who in his usual psychotic manner insisted on joining in with all the fights. Hazed and Crypto managed, after many tries, to dispose of him and the mayhem proceeded without interruptions. The session finished with a gigantic free-for-all. Shoot Anything That Moves was the rule, and poor Ginja found herself in the hospital on many occasions due to the bad lack of being at the top of the list. This determines at whom shots will go when their is more than one target available. She even managed to die dead-dead, so it's just as well the persona file was frozen! Hazed and Crypto had their sights on Piemur, the Head of the Conclave - whose ego has been swelling dramatically in the past weeks - but the wimp ran out halfway through the session, preventing them from cutting him down to size. Our thanks to all who attended for making it a truly fun, blood- thirsty evening. STUPID STUPID! -------------- Poor old Stupid got into a terrible mess. He decided that he wanted to have as much money as possible to spend on a big ship for the Fighting School. Ten minutes before it commenced he converted all his assets to ready cash and sold his two factories and his ship, safe in the knowledge that after the event they would be restored to him. This wasn't actually necessary, because Hazed and Crypto were handing out money to everyone who needed it. But perhaps he wanted to be prepated in advance. Imagine, if you will, his horror when at 3.00 Bella appeared and informed everyone that she was just about to save out the persona file! Yes, the silly boy had jumped the gun. He had managed to lose around 5 meg - permanently! Despite his devastation, he performed well during the Fighting School. Perhaps he was taking his suffering out on others? Hazed took pity on him and reimbursed him with about half of what he had lost, but decided to withhold the rest as a penalty. Obviously Stupid is very aptly named! VAST PROFITS MADE ON FACTORY SALES ---------------------------------- As promised, the command was implemented early last week. Unfortunately there was a slight bug in it. This meant that people were receiving far more for the factories than they had originally paid for them (you are supposed to receive between one-third and nine-tenths). Piemur was the first to discover this 'feature' and, realising it was not due simply to inflation, was quick to exploit it by selling all his factories, buying new ones, selling them again... and so on. Soon other players caught on to the scam and the property markets went wild as factories were built and torn down, bought and sold. It is not known exactly how many people were involved in the fraud, or how much money they made before Piemur snitched to Bella and she put a stop to it. But factories were numbered in the thirties before this happened; they have now reached the mid eighties! One person who did not find out about the bug in time to take advantage of it was Santiago. He was furious that his arch-rival, Piemur, made a killing - and was allowed to keep the money! He applied to the Galactic Administration for compensation but was politly shown the door. THE BUG POLICY -------------- This seems a good point to clarify the policy on bugs in Fed. Should anyone discover a bug that loses them money, they will (probably) be compensated for their losses. Should the bug be a groat-maker they will be allowed to keep their ill-gotten gains provided they report the bug, and provided their exploitation doesn't make them so rich it unbalances the game. Be warned, though - in the past, people who have exploited bugs to excess and failed to report them have had nasty things happen to them. The last person to try and defraud the Galactic Administration ended up with an insurance bill for 20 meg! MESSAGE FROM THE GRAVE... ------------------------- A communication has been received from the late Freddie, whose tragic suicide was reported in last week's Bulletin. It has been uploaded in the Fed BBS, and goes some way towards explaining what was on his mind during his last tragic minutes in Fed Data Space. We urge you all to read it, and we hope that Freddie avails himself of the reincarnation service and appears among us once again. PROMOTION NEWS -------------- Congratulations to Stupid, who made Merchant last night. Lady was also promoted last night - to JP. We understand that she was helped in her task Piemur, and made it at the first time of trying. It won't be long before she is chasing him for the title of First GM - he may regret his generosity then! Piemur seems rather stumped on the fiendish GM puzzle. He and Santiago are definitely not co-operating! At least, that is according to Pie - we haven't heard Sago's side of the story yet, nor do we know what progress he is making (if any). We are willing to bet it will be many weeks before anyone solves the puzzle. We know, we've been there before! THE BORING STUFF AT THE END --------------------------- 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. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed, Cryptosporidium, Bella or Clem in the game * leave a message in the game log * send mail with the Federation Feedback option from the main menu Federation II has a category in Scorpia's Games RT. To get there, type M805,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 29. The Scorpia RT also has a Federation II library in the files area, Library 22.