**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 92.11.01 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> SMUGGLERS AHOY! Tomorrow (Monday) Bella should put the finishing touches to the code she's slaving over for the last month, and smuggling will go into the game. We've been reporting how it will work over the past few issues of the news bullet as we've received dribs and drabs of information from Bella, but here are t full details of how it will affect people trading. Much of this information been printed before, and some parts are already in operation, but we've dec to repeat it all anyway! (Planet owners and Dukes can find out about their special commands by readi the government category of the bulletin board). When you use an Interstellar Link to jump to another system, you can only j directly to Sol, or to planets in the same duchy. If you want to move to another duchy or an independent planet, you have to go via Sol. will list the systems that you can jump to directly from t planet you are on. When you jump into a duchy, you will be charged a customs duty on any goods are carrying. The duty will vary from duchy to duchy: it's set by the Duke controls the duchy. Sol's customs rate will be permanently set at 10%. Independent planets have no custom's force so do not levy a duty. The duty payable on all trading goods carried, and is calculated using the base pric the goods. Goods carried as part of a job, either from transportation centr or from a Rich Person, are not subject to customs; neither are commodities via factory pipeline. tells you, among other things, the customs rate for th duchy that planet is a member of. It will also show whether any planet has special tax rate of its own (the Most Favoured planet and the Most Favoured rate), and if any planet has been embargoed by the duchy. If a duchy has embargoed a planet, you cannot take goods from that planet i the duchy. If you try to jump to a system carrying embargoed goods, you'll turned back at the border. If you wish to take embargoed goods into a duchy, or if you don't want to p the customs duty on your legal goods, you can try to smuggle the goods in. Instead of using the jump command, type instead. Whether you succeed or not depends on a number of factors: - The higher your smuggling ability, the better your chance. Everyone starts with a smuggling ability of 1. Each time you successfully smuggl it goes up by 1; each time you get caught, it is halved, but it never goes below 1. Your smuggling ability is shown on your display. - The smaller your ship, the easier you will find it to slip through the border undetected. This is based purely on initial hull size, regardles of added extras. - The more money and resources the Duke has pumped into the customs operation, the less chance you have of succeeding. When smuggling goods into Sol, it depends who's on duty at the time so the chance varies. - And luck plays a part, of course! The game calculates whether you're successfully evading the customs or not. you succeed, you enter the system and can sell your goods. Embargoed goods fetch a far higher price than legal goods! If you are caught smuggling, you are given a number of options - surrender, attempt to bribe the officer, try to bluff your way out, run for it, or fig If you type anything other than one of the five commands (listed below) it default to - so if you get hit by line noise, or if you log off this point, you'll surrender. - - you admit to trying to smuggle, and are let off with a caution, but you lose any embargoed goods and have to pay double the duty on legal goods. - - you try to talk your way out of it, but if you have a high reward value you are less likely to succeed. Failure results in all you cargo being confiscated. - - You can attempt to bribe the official who caught you. You will have more success if their wages are low, but the value of the goods you are attempting to smuggle will also have a bearing; they'll want more of a bribe if you're going to make an enormous profit from smuggling.If you fail, all your goods are confiscated, and you go direc to jail (do not pass go, do not collect 200 groats). - - You can try to run for it. You'll have a better chance of crash the border if your ship has extra engines installed. The quality of the customs is not a factor here. If you lose, the cargo is confiscated - a so is the ship, leaving you with the added humiliation of having to buy new ship from the planet that just nicked your old one. - - You can try to fight your way out. Your weaponry and computer level are taken into account, versus the quality of the customs vessels If you lose, you will lose the ship and the cargo and (probably) your life. If you succeed, you may take damage to your ship or your cargo as make your getaway. If you escape with no damage, you'll get a 1,000 gro price on your head. As soon as this is all in and the commands are clarified, we'll be amending Version Notes file so new players know what to do. **>> GALACTIC ECONOMY STABILISES Following the massive upheavals in planetary economies, the markets have no stabilised. Planet owners who are not online and ignore their planets will break even or make a very small profit. Bella intends to increase the profi made while planet owners are actually online; and those who actively work a tweaking their economies will make even larger profits. Rich Players will no longer be able to teleport with goods in their cargo holds, since they can trade so fast that it distorts the markets. The excep will be Barons: they will be able to teleport into their own system with go to help them build the machinery necessary for the Duke puzzle. **>> SORRY... Bella would like to apologise for the lack of a reset on Thursday. She had go to the hospital to see the specialist about her leg, and it took much lo than she expected. [Note for new readers: last Christmas, Bella was run dow a car and her leg was broken. It's mending but she's still limping.] **>> FRIGHT NIGHT! Not even a high-tech futuristic environment like Fed was immune from Hallow Krell wrote a special planet that was made available for the occasion, fill with all kinds of creepy nasties - spiders and wraiths and gravediggers and spooks and, of course, a vampire! The planet Endor, in the system Phobos, attracted many visitors - few of wh left alive. Some met their ends in the Dark Maze, some in the catacombs, so were clawed by a great beast, or fell into an open grave, or were trapped i spider's web, or had their blood drained by the vampire's fangs. We are unable to give a full report on the planet, because of the five newsdroids we despatched, one came back disfunctional (it appeared to have turned into a vampire droid!), one overdosed on garlic, one became deranged and two vanished completely! The SpyNet Review showed the following people dying on the planet: Ariadne, Rezrov, Borg, Dagmar, Occy, Dennisthemenace, Serge, Davidge, Hazed, Krell (twice), Katlinn (twice), Daneel (twice), Destoyson (twice), Topper (four times), Starman (four times) and - the champion dier - Random (five times). Some Fedders actually seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of terror and pain. Ma was heard exclaiming ecstatically over the torture chamber in the castle. Others were walking around in couples, using the spookiness as an excuse to clutch each other tightly. Krell seemed particularly keen to guide parties unsuspecting tourists into dangerous areas, laughing as they died horribly. The bars on Endor were serving special drinks for the night. Particularly popular were Zombies, Blood Transfusions and Black Widows. We were loathe t enquire too closely about the exact contents of these cocktails! For those who were unable to visit Endor, Krell is hoping to upload a "walkthrough" of the planet to the library. No doubt the planet will make further appearances in the future. To cater for those who just couldn't stand all the terror, Oddball's old pl was brought back from the dead. Hazed's Scratchwood was also supposed to be available for the night, but Bella didn't put it in. (She says that she for but Hazed didn't believe her and was last seen muttering darkly about 'that slimy green fat-arsed Rigellian bitch!') Incidentally, we notice that Endor was classed as an Agricultural planet. W certainly don't want to even think about what they might be growing there! Enormous thanks to Krell for working so hard to provide a splendid planet. **>> WAY BACK IN THE MISTS OF TIME... ...when the universe was young, and Fed had only been on GEnie a short whil the people from the Amiga Starship Roundtable held a party in Fed Data Spac hosted by the legendary Lady. It was for them that the Starship Cantina on Earth was created. Now they have another party planned, and this time they won't just have a Cantina, they'll have a whole planet! The planet takes the form of a starsh naturally, and you'll be able to explore it when it is launched on November with a big party on Saturday November 28. We'll have more details about the Amiga Starship Weekend in Fed nearer the time. **>> CHRISTMAS IS COMING, BELLA'S GETTING FAT Just a little advance warning for you: Santa will be visiting Fed over the Christmas period, with a large sack of groats and maybe some free Fed time all the good little girls and boys, and you'll be able to visit Santa's Gro and Workshop at the North Pole. Fed folks will also be taking part in a GEn Christmas Fair. More about the festivities soon. **>> PLANET NEWS We have been told that the death location has been removed from Khan's plan Neutarus, although we haven't verified that ourselves. We haven't seen anyo die there recently, anyway! Condor has asked us to print the following ad for his planet, Rookery: Come to Rookery, Condor's world! This beautiful blue-green lump of rock floating serenely in the Regulus system is the perfect place to spend your vacation! Come try to solve the puzzle, worth a whopping 10,000,000 IG, and get your name engraved on a monument soon to be erected on the Landing Pad! Have a great time flying an aeroplane in the Aerial maze, or explore the planet on foot! Above all, have a wonderful time on the beautiful planet Rookery, in the Regulus system. **>> CURRENT ALLIANCES There has been only one change to the state of the duchies this week: Muse joined the duchy of Inversity. However, since from tomorrow embargoes and customs rates will actually be enforced, here is the full list of who's in who: Inversity: Haven Scratchwood: Zippy Independent: Deneb Mebeskon Brewski Ibex Elwyn Xixax Loki Gotham Hell Rhylannor Quartus Vitro Canna Capella Rookery Neutarus Harlequin Oppiz Jinx Zodiac Muse Cabal Bliss Henceforth, we shall only report changes to the alliances. **>> GOSSIP AND SCANDAL We've been hard pressed to find anything worth reporting over the last few weeks. Either you're all behaving yourselves, or you've all come to an arrangement not to tell our newsdroids what's going on. Remember, we pay go groats for stories that we print, so it's worthwhile grassing up your frien All we could come up with this week is a vague rumour that Tao, still an Adventurer, has been raising his stats. He's availed himself of Chez Diesel Executive Services several times, and has been pumping iron furiously in th gym. Where did he get the groats for this self-improvement? Rumour has it h been meeting in bars with a certain Rich Bitch. Has he become a toy-boy? If who is his benefactor? **>> PROMOTIONS NEWS This week, Buck and Starman made it to Captain. Well done both of you. Starman went on to make Adventurer, together with Maha and Borg. Bugman joined the Trader's Guild. (It should be noted that Bugman is no releation to Spongy, who used to be Spongybugman. There is no truth in the rumour that Spongybugman fissioned to create two new beings.) Riccardo has been promoted to JourneyPerson, and Marcia has solved the awes GM puzzle. It's surprising she found time, with all the scandal she seems t find herself embroiled in! Congratulations to all of you. **>>CONTACTS The following information will appear at the end of every News Bulletin, so don't have to read it if you already know it. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed or Bella in the game * leave a message in the game log * a message to Hazed or Bella * send GEnie mail with the Federation Feedback option from the main menu You can order a copy of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federatio typing ORDER at any GEnie menu. Cost - a mere $12.95. (New edition will be available shortly!) Federation has several categories 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 discussion The Federation Leader in the bulletin board is Krell (Mail ID: K.HILLYER). There are also private categories for Explorers, run by Krell, and for the Conclave run by Oddball (Mail ID: D.STALZLE). The MPGames RT also has a Federation library in the files area, Library 5. Library 18 holds the Federation News Archives. **>> BULLETIN ENDS