**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 91.01.13 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> AN EXPLORING WE WILL GO Those of you who are busy designing your planets will be thrilled to know that you will be able to start uploading the information sometime in the next week. The Explorer's Workbench has been written and tested; all that remains is for GEnie's programming droids to link it to the menu on page 220. Once this is done, selecting the option will present you with a menu asking you what aspect of your planet you want to work on. To start with, the tools that let you enter and edit the planet locations are the only ones you can use, but the rest will follow shortly. Those jolly nice H-by-A people will be adding to the instructions contained in the Fed BBS, so you will be able to find out how to use the Explorer's Workbench. They are also going to upload some text files into the Fed Library containing a "sample planet" so anyone who is designing their own world can see how various things are done. **>> WHAT DOES A PLANET NEED? One thing needs to be clarified. The actual running of the planetary economy, upon which promotions above Explorer are based, is not dependent on how the planet has been designed. You are allowed up to 80 locations free, and can design them in any way you wish, exercising your creativity to the full, but in order to run the planet once it is built you need only a few locations - a landing pad, a trading exchange, a bar and so on. Obviously, you want to attract visitors to your planet, because that's how you will make groats out of it, so giving people something interesting to explore is a good idea. But it isn't necessary. Neither does it matter what kind of planet you choose to design. Although your planet will start as a agricultural planet and then develop into a mining planet, and so on, the descriptions of your world can be anything you like. Indeed, you don't even need to make it a planet! It could be an moon, a space station, a collection of little asteroids linked together by shuttles - anything you like! **>> NEW FACTORY LIMITATION The Solar System is becoming increasingly over-industrialised. A quick count last night showed twenty factories running on Earth. This causes a drastic shortage of workthings, meaning that only those plants paying the highest wages will actually run. Because of this, there is going to be a limit on the number of factories you can own. Each company will be allowed only eight factories. This limit will be brought in next week, so you are warned to start selling off excess factories now - otherwise you will lose any factories over the first eight, with no compensation. When you are deciding which of your factories to sell, be aware that while at the moment you can build any factory anywhere, at some point in the near future the workthings will be given specific skills and will not be able to produce goods for you if they don't have the correct training. Each planet has a development level. You can find out what level a planet is by using the command, which will also show you the number of workthings available. Of that number, 90% will have skills related to the planet level, 5% related to the level below, and 5% above. So if you are running a Droids factory on Earth, you will soon find you just can't get the staff! Similarly, you will also be limited to ten warehouses. At the moment, the most anyone could want is seven - one on each of the Solar System planets - but once players' planets appear, you will want to start trading outside the Solar System, and will buy yourself extra warehouses. You will be provided with a way to sell warehouses, so you can switch them around until you decide which planets need them most. We repeat our warning - next week a change will be made to the game limiting you to eight factories, so offload your excess now. **>> WELCOME NEW PLAYERS GEnie has had a surge of new users in the last few weeks, and many of them have found their way into Fed Data Space. We would like to extend a warm welcome to new players. If you have any questions about the game, you can contact us by using the FEEDBACK option on the Fed menu. We do recommend that new players take the time to download and read the manual. Although people are only to willing to help you get started in the game, you'll miss out on a great deal of fun if you don't know what's going on around you. **>> DID YOU KNOW...? That you can be notified when people enter or leave Fed Data Space by asking for a ? It costs 25 groats and will last until you log off yourself. That once you know your way around the game, you can type BRIEF to turn off the long descriptions? FULL turns them back on again. That you can slide down the banisters in the Mansion on Earth? That you can become an Instant Emperor by using the command? That the printed version of the Idiot's Guide to Federation II contains a wealth of hints and tips on playing the game, and you can obtain it by typing ORDER at any GEnie menu? (Yes, we slip those advertisements in at any excuse!) **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS Congratulations to Charyn, Valdor and Enhancer who became Captains during last week, to Aahz and Kirsch who made Trader, and to Rickster who was promoted to Merchant. Otoole also made Merchant, and is now struggling with the fiendish JP puzzle. He hasn't got to the dangerous bits yet... but we advise people to stay out of the Martian Ruins until he has figured out what to do! **>> IT'S PARTY TIME Well, yes, we know that "every night is party night" in Fed, but occasionally parties get organised in advance instead of just spontaneously combusting. For reasons best known to himself, Taran has decided to throw a party on January 26. He's uploaded an invite in the Fed BBS, which we urge you all to read - it sounds like he is planning one mega-party! It will start at midnight and go on until everyone passes out. **>> A NOVEL SUGGESTION Sometimes players come up with suggestions to improve the game. Sometimes they are even good suggestions! Razbeck recently came up with the following idea: Suicidal behaviour puzzles Fedders. With great regularity you hear this plaintive cry, "Help, I'm out of fuel in mid space and I can't buy any!" After some discussion it is determined that the poor Captain or Commander is in a hopeless mess and must suicide his or her way out of it. While these careless souls can be commended for calmly accepting their fate, it remains a puzzle as to why they routinely refuse to make their death meaningful by volunteering for target practice. Why suicide when some generous Fedder will spend the time and money to blow you to bits in proper and glorious fashion? Indeed, why suicide when you can earn groats (to pay for your new insurance policy??) by auctioning off the right to destroy your now useless, drifting ship? Suicides on the verge consider: bring meaning to your death! gain groats through your death! Put away that pocket knife and get someone to kill you off properly. Thank you, Razbeck, we're sure that will catch on. Any takers? **>> WHAT'S IN THIS PIZZA? Over the Christmas period, Diesel was offering a new variety of her famous meals - reindeer pizzas. Well, now she's run out of reindeer, which will come as something of a relief to those who are sick of finding bits of hoof and antler in their food. We have been trying to find out what she is currently using to give the pizzas such a distinctive taste, but she won't tell - she just mutters something about "secret recipes". If you have any information about what goes into the pizzas, we'd love to know. **>> LOVE'S GREAT ADVENTURE It's a bit early for the joys of Spring, but sex is rearing its ugly head again in Fed Data Space. Strangestorm and Amytodd were conducting a secret tryst in the Penthouse on Earth recently when they were surprised by our informant, who wishes to remain anonymous. Our source tells us he is not sure exactly what was going on, but Amytodd looked very embarassed - and Strangestorm rushed out of the room without stopping to put his pants back on! Captain Valdor has been wandering around with a huge soppy smile on his face, sighing deeply, and making up appalling poetry. It seems he's in lurv, and the lucky recipient of his affections is Trader Ariel. She is enormously flattered by his attentions, but unsure whether she reciprocates his feelings - he is a little beneath her, being a lowly Poor Person... but then, perhaps she likes them young? **>> WE'RE NOT OMNIPOTENT! It may come as a shock to you to learn this, but we at H-by-A are not the all- seeing, all-knowing beings you thought we were. We do our best, but we only know what we see or are told about. So if you know something that you think ought to go into the news bulletin, tell us about it! **>>CONTACTS 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 You can order a copy of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation II by typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95. Fed has a category in SCORPIA's games BBS - Category 29. You can get there by typing M805;1 and then SET 29. Library 22 is the Fed file library.