**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 91.12.08 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL Russ, Piemur and Oddball are now the proud governors of mini-planets. Compact and bijou, the three tiny worlds contain just a handful of locations, but still provide all the amenities you need - including shipyards, insurance, hospital, trading exchange, and - of course - refreshments. Russ has uploaded a message in the Fed BBS explaining why Haven has been so reduced by the Galactic Administration. Oddball and Piemur have so far offered no rationale for the drastic shrinkage of their worlds. Tomorrow the code will be in for planet-owners to promote themselves as soon as they are ready. The command is , which seems quite logical, and will cause your planet to be upgraded as soon as all the requirements are met. To be promoted to Thane, and upgrade their planets to mining worlds, will cost Squires 2.5 billion groats. This money will be removed from their planet treasury. They will also need to have 10,000 on the time accumulation clock. Their own time no longer counts; they have to rely on visitors. Squires: when you are ready to be promoted to Thane, you must tell Bella so she can save off the files of your full planet and clear the workbench for you. You can then write a mini-planet. No planet-owner will want to have their economy running wild in their absence, so they can request that their planet is removed from the game. takes the planet out of the game for the specified number of days, commencing at the next reset. It can be reversed by using the command again to type in a smaller number of days - using a zero will, naturally, cancel it altogether. **>> HOW MUCH IS YOUR NET WORTH? The calculation of a player's fortune - their networth - now takes in account their success at running a planet. The amount in the planet balance is included, plus the amount they have had to pay to be promoted. (This figure is cumulative; Thanes will have 2.5 billion groats added to their networth; Industrialists will have 2.5 billion plus 3 billion added, and so on.) Because of the astronomically huge figures involved, networths will now only be displayed in round millions. Poor People's networths will be shown as "less than 1 meg". The promotion to Adventurer no longer needs a networth of half a meg - all you need now is 400 trader points. Traders, though, do need to demonstrate their success at earning money by having a networth of at least a meg. **>> DOCUMENTATION UPGRADED A new Version Notes file was uploaded yesterday - and by this morning it was out of date again! Our Illustrious Leader only told those jolly nice H-by-A people about the changes to networths (including that of Adventurer) this morning. Cursing loudly, they have amended the Version Notes file again to take account of this. It is now completely up-to-date, and includes full details of the new job system. Version Notes can be found on the Fed instruction page - Option 3 from the main Fed page. And that's not all! They have also provided new instructions about companies and about building planets. Category 13, Topic 8 in the Fed BBS (page 1045;1) is the new Idiot's Guide to Companies, and includes details of pipelines. Topic 10 contains the Planetary Construction information, including all the tweaks Bella made to the Explorer's Workbench. If anything in these documents is unclear, please let us know. As always, you can upload your questions in the Fed BBS. **>> SPECIAL EVENTS Piemur has uploaded a plea in the Special Events topic of the BBS. He desparately needs works of art to decorate his much-reduced planet, Phoenix. He has asked for pictures to be uploaded in the Fed Library that depict a person, place, or activity to do with Fed. We think this is an excellent idea, and we will give a prize of mucho groats to the uploader of the best picture. **>> I AIN'T GOT NO BODY Slew is still toting Tal's head around with him. It is starting to smell a bit! More alarming, when Slew's had a few too many drinks he uses the head as a ventriloquist's dummy! It could be worse - he could be using it as a football... He is continuing his search for other spare parts, but may not have much luck. Rumour has it that Diesel is serving a very popular new topping on her pizza... **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS Russ has been promoted to Industrialist, and his planet upgraded to industrial. That's the only promotion we know about this week, because no-one else has told us anything! Vaxhacker registered a complaint that we had failed to mention any of his recent promotions. But, sadly, we are not omnipotent and cannot report advancements in the news unless we are informed of them. If you would like to see your name in lights, drop us a line using the FEEDBACK option on the main Fed page. **>>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 by typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95. Federation has several category in the new MPGames RT. To get there, type M1045,1 from any menu prompt and SET category 13 (for information, instructions, questions and answers) or 14 (for general chat and discussions). The Federation Leader in the bulletin board is Occy (Mail ID: OCPAC). The MPGames RT also has a Federation library in the files area, Library 5. Library 18 holds the Federation News Archives. **>> BULLETIN ENDS