**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 93.07.11 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> CATASTROPHE! What's the absolute worse thing that could happen to anyone in this computerised age? To have their computer kit stolen. That's why Hazed is looking particularly glum at the moment: her flat was burgled twice in the space of two weeks, and the second time they took her computer. She's dug her ancient Atari ST out of retirement, so is able to get online and compile the news. But one of the things lost was back issues of the news bulletin, held on her hard disk (of course Hazed didn't do regular back-ups!). We are appealing for help: do any of you save the weekly news bulletin? If you do, please contact us! **>> WORKING CONVALESANCE Our Illustrious Leader should have spent the last week recuperating from the operation to remove the bionic steel rod from her leg. But being Bella, she couldn't resist the tempation to tamper... so she put in two new features, one for Very Rich People, and one for Very Poor People! The Poor Person feature provides a new way to get trader points. Instead of hauling cargo around, or risking all on the roulette wheel, points can be gained by correctly matching up the mobiles and objects. Most of the mobiles in the game have a "preferred object" - the object they particularly want to receive. Now, as well as getting more groats for a preferred object, you will receive anything between 5 and 10 trader points. This applies to objects and mobiles on player-planets as well as in the Solar System. Although we cannot vouch for the logic of matches outside Sol, in the Solar System examining any objects or mobiles you find should enable you to make the correct connection quite easily. The Rich Person feature is for members of the Senate. A new command, , tells them which objects are out of the game being recycled, and how long till they reappear. Obviously Poor People doing object-mobile matches are going to be very interested in this information! This week, Bella is officially back to work, nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, back to the future and so on. She'll be working on the smuggling code, to make use of Arena space for when you fight customs ships. **>> HOT SUMMER NIGHTS! August is Hot Summer Nights on GEnie, with lots of special events all over the system. As always, Fed will be taking part in the promotion with several happenings. As a joint promotion with the Romantic Exchange area on GEnie, Jade has written a special planet full of love and romance. You'll be able to visit the planet with the partner of your choice over the last weekend in August: 27, 28 and 29 August. Another joint promotion is with the Religion and Philosophy RT. Glurg and Tellurian are writing a planet together (Tellurian already has experience with religious planets, of course). Although the planet won't be put in until September, during August Bella will be the guest at an RTC in the R&PRT. Finally, we hope that some time during August we will bring you another of our very popular free weekends. This hasn't been confirmed yet, so don't get too excited! **>> FUTURE EVENTS... Early October will finally see the FedCon planet, giving you the chance to experience the fun of the Federation (Un)Convention earlier this year. Halloween at the end of October will see a special Gothic Horror planet linked into the game. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with a special Family Thanksgiving Holiday planet written by Freya. And of course we'll bring you something special at Christmas too! Details on all these events nearer the time. **>> BEGINNER'S RTC Krell will be hosting a special RTC for Beginners on July 25 in the MPGames conference on page 1045. The RTC will start at 3.00pm eastern time. It will be a chance for all the recent new players to have their questions answered by Those Who Know. You may even be lucky, and get Hazed or even (gasp!) Bella there! Talking of new players learning fast... Magnazon had a swift lesson in how not to deal with a Rich Person's cargo! He accepted a contract from Emmi, and then instead of rushing off to deliver the goods, he hung around in CDs flirting with Lurana. Emmi (who is not known for her cool temper) was so angry she flung a beerstein at him! We think he got the message. **>> BOOM TIME! A number of planet-owners are rubbing their hands in glee, reaping the rewards of befriending the rush of new players. Looking forward to the days when the GroundHogs of Today become the Traders of Tomorrow - and the Factory-builders of the Day After Tomorrow - they are doing their best to ensure it's their planets that will get the benefit of of the booming economy. The opportunities are knocking for all planet-owners - it's up to you to let them in! **>> THE MARATHON IS ON! Oh whoopee! Gemini has returned from the dead, so her Marathon Bar-Hop with Tellurian will go ahead! They are determined to make love in every bar in the Solar System, and our newsdroids are already installing cameras to catch every minute of the historic event. **>> GOSSIP, SCANDAL AND LIES Just why has Occy been running around dressed in nothing more than a loincloth? Actually, we're not sure we want to know... We don't know whether it's just the hot summer sun heating up everyone's blood, but suddenly Fed Data Space is rife with couples... erm... coupling! Zodiac and Menace are getting married, Emmi and Maxwell have settled down happily together (she's given Altasren the boot), Magnazon has been declaring his love for Noe, Galimos (divorced from Lurana - that didn't last long!) has been panting after Ishmee as well as taking liberties with Emmi whenever Max isn't looking. Even Jade and Glurg appear to be getting back together, despite the horrific stories of Glurg and the donkey. Despite his impending marriage, Menace has lost no time in making passes at all the new ladies in Fed - trying to pass himself off as the official helper in order to gain their trust! Galimos is the latest person to follow in the footsteps of the late, great Pegasus by thinking up new and interesting ways to assassinate new players. He's been offering vast amounts to anyone who will bring him the black globe in the martian ruins. The globe is now surrounded by corpses! He's also been bribing the driver of the shuttle on Venus, and many confused people have become quite dizzy as they are whizzed round the circular line too fast for them to get off. **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Neuromancer has returned to Fed and has started to design a planet. She says it's going to be a cyberpunk version of Winnie the Pooh, with multiple puzzles. The mind boggles! Dane has also returned, and he's going to start working for Duke. Expect his planet to become a bottomless sink for all the commodities needed to build and run facilities. Glurg has elevated his planet to Leisure, but has practically bankrupted himself. It will be a while before he's ready to starting building for Duke. Mini-Valaria is now in. **>> SPYNET REVIEW The loss of the H-by-A computer equipments means we only have SpyNet data for the last few days. Apologies to those who are not going to get a mention! The new Captains were Capo, Maniac, Uni, Justy, Stormgod and Tammy. Killian, Justy and Magnazon were promoted to Adventurer. Gemini, Lepermessiah and Lazarus were all admitted to the Trader's Guild. Jarrepolo became a Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle was cracked by Dyars, Emmi and Tao. All three were assisted by Jarrepolo, who wonders if he could now be considered an expert object-holder, and if there's a record for consecutive object-holdings! Glurg has made if to Baron, elevating his planet several ranks in one go. Finally, the following two reports struct us as being particularly apt: 5261:Dead has just snuffed it in the Sol system - an expensive business! 5274:Dead has just snuffed it in the Sol system - alas poor Dead 2008:Suicidal has just snuffed it in the Sol system - an expensive business! 2015:Suicidal has just snuffed it in the Sol system - alas poor Suicidal **>>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 or Bella in the game * a message to Hazed or Bella * send GEnie mail with the Mail-about-Federation option from the main menu A front-end terminal program is available for Federation, for the PC and the Amiga. You can download a copy of FedTerm from the Federation libraries (option 3 on the main Fed page). 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. (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 discussions). 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 Senate, 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