**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 91.07.14 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> GOVERNORS IN BANKRUPTCY SCANDAL Planetary Governors were raging against the Galactic Administration today as their planets faced financial ruin. They claimed that they were expected to run their planetary economies without any training or instruction, and with the odds stacked against them. There were reports of planet treasuries plumetting into the red, and despite all the Governor's attempts to reverse this trend the money kept on flowing away. A spokesthing for the Galactic Administration's Department of Cruel but Fair Trading expressed concern about the situation, and said they were looking at making changes to economies which would make it easier for Governors to show a profit. **>> WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED... Initially, Bella planned to let Squires play about with the trading exchanges on the planets for several days, before she put the planetary treasuries online and made them accountable for their tampering. This would have given the Governors a chance to experiment, find out how the exchanges worked, and see what happened when they changed different variables. But instead, several of the Squires decided to try to get rich quick by building up enormous stockpiles of goods while the planet's didn't have to pay for production, which could then be sold later - free groats, in effect! Our Illustrious Leader was not pleased about this because it was threatening to disrupt the economy of the entire game. So she immediately added the code to make the planets pay for goods they received, and receive money for those they sold. She also wiped out the over-large stockpiles that had been accumulated. The result was that planet owners suddenly found themselves in command of systems that they didn't have any idea how to work! All they could do was watch in horror as money drained out of the planet treasury. Tampering with variables sometimes made a difference, but not enough to completely reverse the trend. **>> HOW TO CONTROL PLANETARY ECONOMIES There are a lot of new commands which show information about the planetary economies, and others to change the variables. has been enhanced, so that if you own the planet you not only get told about the development level, the population, and any factories on the planet, but also the following: SPYNET Report for Scratchwood ------------------------------------- Development level: Leisure industries Population level: 1000 Turnover tax base rate: 10 Treasury Balance: 5408559 Accumulated player time: 219 Investment levels: Energy: 0 Education: 0 Social Sec: 0 Inf'str': 0 Health: 0 Security Forces: Internal: 0 External: 0 Intelligence: 0 Counter Int: 0 Factories in commission: # 442 Producing Games ------------------------------------- Much of this information is irrelevant at the moment. The bits which are operational are the Treasury Balance, which starts with a float of 10 meg and then increases or decreases as the planet buys or sells, produces or consumes goods; and the Accumulated Player Time, which shows in minutes the tourist activity on the planet. The command gives a detailed breakdown of the trading exchanges. It is split into the five commodity groups: agri, mining, tech, industrial and leisure. Here's an example of a digest: Summary for Scratchwood Industrial goods [time = 21 markup = 3% level ] Name Stockpile Prod Demand Stock Producing Generators 1 23 15 + 26 Yes Polymers 1 23 8 + 13 Yes Lub-Oils 1 22 24 - 96 Yes Pharmaceuticals 1 19 14 + 24 Yes Petrochemicals 1 5 1 + 3 Yes RNA 1 20 4 + 10 No Propellants 1 21 16 + 8 Yes Explosives 1 10 8 + 11 Yes LanzariK 1 20 11 + 22 Yes Nitros 1 8 3 + 5 Yes Munitions 1 2 3 - 13 Yes MechParts 1 9 21 - 41 Yes You can change the stockpile level for each commodity with . The Markup refers to the percentage that the exchange will make in profit on all transactions. The Solar System exchanges are all set to 10%. If you set the markup to less than 10%, you will make less of a profit but may attract more customers; setting it to more than 10% should make you more money, but you might not get so many traders. For example, if a commodity has a base price of 500 groats, and the markup is 10%, then ignoring exchange fluctuations and shortages, the exchange will buy the commodity at 450 groats and sell it for 550 groats. If you change the markup to 5%, then the difference between the buying and selling prices will be less - 475 and 525 - so less profit will be made. Increasing it to 20% makes the buying price 400 groats and the selling price 600. You change the markup with . Each exchange cycle, the planet will produce the specified amount of the commodity, and consume the amount it needs. If it produces more than it consumes, then the stock of that commodity will increase. If it consumes more than it produces, then the stock will decrease, and will probably be in minus figures. When the planet produces goods, your planetary treasury is charged for them at base price. When goods are consumed, the treasury is paid at base price. But when a Trader buys or sells, the treasury is debited or credited at the market price, which takes account not only of the markup you have set, but also whether the exchange is high or low. Now, in theory, you should be able to set the stockpile levels for each commodity to a sensible amount, and then make a small profit by letting it tick over on its own. A larger profit can be made by spotting a shortage of goods and releasing some from your stockpile to Traders. But obviously something isn't working right, or the planets wouldn't be experiencing the huge losses. Bella is going to make the goods that the planet produces and consumes be paid for at market rates instead of base rates. Hopefully that will make a difference and will stop the spate of sudden bankruptcies! **>> NEW FOR TRADERS At last, that 10 warehouse limit doesn't seem so restricting. Why? Because now you can sell off your unused storage space. will list all the warehouses you own, and show how many of the bays are empty. If you were silly enough to buy two warehouses on the same planet, they will both be listed, even though you can only use one of them. Each warehouse has a number and you sell unwanted property with . You'll receive 400K for the warehouse. **>> NEW FOR JOBBERS Attention all Poor People, still hauling cargo around the Solar System in the (seemingly) never-ending chase for Trader Points. Our Illustrious Leader has taken pity and has now decreed that SlyNet jobs (the ones you pick up in bars) will give you 2 Trader Points for each job successfully completed, and jobs given to you by Rich People will award you 4 Trader Points! This will not only speed your climb to Trader-hood, it will also mean that you will be willing to work for JPs for less groats - so they will make a profit on the deal! **>> NEW FOR EVERYONE One of the things that the free weekend showed, when there were 40 people in Fed Data Space, was that it's much easier to communicate using XT messages to talk to selected people than it is to have millions of comms messages going to everyone. Now, when you log on, you will be automatically allocated a channel, split roughly by rank. GroundHogs, Commanders, Captains and Adventurers will be tuned to channel 1. Traders, Merchants, JPs and GMs will have channel 2, and Explorers and Squires channel 3. Of course, you don't have to stick with these channels - you can tune to another channel (there are still eight available) or switch off entirely. **>> THE BEST WILL GET BETTER The Idiot's Guide to Federation II is, without doubt, the most amazing publication in the history of history itself. It is impossible to improve on perfection, but those jolly nice H-by-A people are about to do so! It's a year since Edition 2 of the Guide was written, and a lot has changed in Fed Data Space since then, so it is time for Edition 3. The new edition will be updated to include all the changes and new features that have transformed the game from when it first appeared on GEnie. It will have a new chapter about companies and factories. An added bonus for new players will be a set of maps showing the planets in the Solar System. And, if you are very lucky, we may try to find another joke! If any of you wish to make suggestions about vital information that you feel is missing from the Guide, let us know. Of course, we have no intention of giving away all Fed's secrets - we like to leave some things for you to discover yourself! **>> PAINT YOUR WAGON! The price of painting ships has been reduced to 750 groats, and in a bid to brighten up the landing pads - which have been a vast sea of manky grey - Flatlander is organising a special competition to find the most colourful and imaginative designs. Here's the details, direct from Flatlander himself: ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | | GET RICH QUICK PAINT YOUR SPACESHIP CONTEST | | | | | | WHO HAS THE BEST LOOKING CRAFT? | | | | | | 1st Prize = 100,000 IG times your rank | | | 2nd Prize = 50,000 IG times your rank | | | 3rd Prize = 25,000 IG times your rank | | | | | | There will also be several honorable mentions with groats | | | to go with! Put on your creative hats and get out your | | | paint brushes. Consideration will be given to style, | | | originality, and imagination. | | | | | | Just bring your spaceship to the Mars LP between 10:00 and | | | 10:15pm CDT any night this week, Sunday through Friday | | | (14-19 July) and Flatlander will have a look at its paintjob. | | | Winners will be announced Saturday night at CD's at 10:00pm | | | and prize money paid immediately if you're present (at some | | | later date if you're not available to pick it up then). The | | | judge's decisions will be final. The winners' spaceships' | | | descriptions will be published in a future FED News. | | | | | | If the evening time is impossible for you (e.g. Hawaii), you | | | may attempt to arrange another time to rendezvous with | | | Flatlander by leaving a message for him at CD's or (better) | | | posting a message on Occy's Corner stating some times that | | | work for you. | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- The prize money is being donated by a consortium of Squires - who, despite their financial problems and imminent ruin still acknowledge the importance of sponsoring the arts. What nice guys! **>> WHO IS THE VILEST OF THEM ALL? A confrontation last night between Oxcart and one of Fed's more mysterious characters ended in tears and hopsitalisation for poor Ox. The Vile Cryptosporidium is a fairly infrequent visitor to Fed Data Space, but when she does grace us with her presence, you can be sure there will be trouble of some sort. She's connected in some way to those jolly nice H-by-A people, although she is considered something of a black sheep in that otherwise magnificent organisation. She's also rumoured to have something to do with Pegasus, the dangerous winged horse. It is unclear how last night's incident started. Cryptosporidium was accusing Oxcart of conducted a smear campaign against her, which Ox denied, although it is difficult to see how her already murky reputation could be blackened any further. Harsh words were soon replaced by lasers, and the two erupted into violence. They chased each other round the Solar System, but Oxcart found he was just no match for the superior fighting skill of his opponent. Cryptosporidium has always been considered, by those who know her, to be the greatest fighter ever seen in Fed Data Space. But perhaps, in the new generation of Fedders, there is one who will be able to knock her off her perch. If anyone can put Crypto in the hospital, we will make sure they receive a large reward. But she doesn't appear very often - so make the most of it if you see her! **>> 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, 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. Federation II has a category in the new MPGames RT. To get there, type M1045,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 14. The Federation II Leader in the bulletin board is Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC). Topic 1 of the Fed category contains the Federation II policy statement. The MPGames RT also has a Federation II library in the files area, Library 5. **>> BULLETIN ENDS