**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 93.08.8 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> THE FREE WEEKEND What would Hot Summer Nights be without one of our popular free weekends? Yes, in case you haven't noticed (how could you miss it?) Fed is FREE this weekend, and will continue to be free until Monday August 9 at 8.00pm eastern. Our free weekends have two purposes. They are a special treat for our regular players, but more importantly, they give people who haven't played Fed before a chance to have a look at the game and see if they like it. So, welcome to all the new players who have started this weekend. When the game was reset this morning, over 150 new personas had been created, and there were about 700 player-hours on the clock, since the freeness started on Friday. New players should make sure they read the QuickStart Guide, which gives you the very basic information you need to get started in the game, and takes less than 10 seconds to display. Once you are in the game, you can ask for help from the other players. **>> ALL ABOUT US! What you are reading is the weekly Federation news bulletin, which we write and upload every Sunday. It tells you about new features and commands in the game, explains if anything has changed, and talk about things coming up in the future. New features are added to the game frequently - sometimes more than once a week - so it is important for players to read the news each week to keep up-to-date with changes to the game. The news also tells you what the players have been doing - and to whom! In other words, scandal and gossip. So if you have any information about other players, please send it to us! We pay groats for anything we print, and we do protect our sources - you can remain anonymous if you prefer. The Federation team is made up of the following: Alan Lenton is the creator, designer and programmer of Fed. In the game, he plays Bella, a Rigellian woman with green hair and a rather large bottom. Clem Chambers is Alan's partner - the business and marketing side of things. In the game, he prefers to be anonymous, skulking under a number of pseudonyms. Fi Craig is responsible for the documentation, the weekly news, and general customer satisfaction. In the game, she is the delectable demi-goddess Hazed. **>> EXTRA SOLAR WORLDS In order to accommodate the vast number of new players joining during the free weekend, most of the planets owned by players have been removed from the game. Normally there are about 25 of them. We drew straws to see whose planets would get to stay in this weekend - Noe's new planet Elsewhere and Condor's Rookery won the lottery and are available for you to explore. The rest of the planets will be back in the game on Monday evening. **>> NEW NEW NEW! Bella spent the early part of last week ironing out the last problems in smuggling, which now seems to be working fine. She made one small modification for planet owners: when you display your planet, you will be told how many of the workthings are currently being used by factories or building projects. She also made a change so that if a Duke doesn't log onto the game for 30 days, they will be temporarily put down to Explorer. All planets in their Duchy will become Independent. This will free up Duchy-slots and solve the problem of absentee Dukes. Don't worry, though - they'll be made into a Duke again when they return, but they'll have to appear twice in one week to be reinstated. **>> BETA-TESTERS WANTED Amiga FedTerm was released to the public a few months ago, but it became apparent that a bit more work needs to be done to the program. We have removed it from the libraries temporarily. Meanwhile, we'd like some volunteers to beta-test the program. If you are interested, please mail us. **>> AUGUST CONFERENCES Oxcart (who has taken over from Krell as the Fed category leader in the MPGames board) will be hosting a special Beginner's RTC next Sunday, August 15. All those who have started playing Fed during the free weekend will be able to attend and ask about all the things they're not sure of. The RTC will be held in the MPGames conference area on page 1045, at 3.00pm eastern. At the end of the month, on August 29, Bella will be the guest at an RTC to talk about programming Fed. **>> MOOD OF THE WEEK... ...goes to Tellurian, who following his promotion last week to Thane, was sporting the mood "Pleathed with this Thanity". **>> SPECIAL AWARD Congratulations to Maxwell, who received a special award from the Dark Side of the Moon (Occy's organisation). The award was for helping new players, and Maxwell received 5 meg. **>> ON-AGAIN, OFF-AGAIN... Once again, Gemini and Tellurian have had to halt their marathon attempt to make love in every bar in the Solar System, due to Gemini's death! Not for the first time, she made a careless mistake and went dead-dead. Fortunately, she has started again so we assume the marathon will recommence once she is over the shock. At least, we hope so, because we'd hate to waste all the effort we've put into recording their efforts so far! **>> GOSSIP, SCANDAL AND LIES Marcia may have sworn to love and obey her two new husbands, Telidon and Zagmar, at the group wedding last week but her passionate liaisons with Justy haven't abated. It makes us wonder just what the advantages of being married to Marcia are: she seems to treat all men the same whether she is married to them or not! Mojo is still desperate for some kind of attention, and was begging for someone to spank him with a blue plastic spatula. He even offered money to the person who would oblige! Ashley agreed, but we don't know how much she was paid for her services. Friday night, things got a bit wild as (for a change) the men performed a striptease act for the delight of the ladies. Tasslehoff bared all for their viewing delight, especially for Cinderella's delight! She returned the favour and took it all off for the men, causing Tim to pass out with excitement! Meanwhile, Noe was seen doing vulgar and disgusting things with a cucumber, which we cannot possibly report on in this family bulletin! **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Tellurian's planet, Nemesis, turned mini following his recent promotion to Thane. Barberousse's new planet, Source, was linked to the game. Our newsdroid didn't explore it thoroughly; what it did look at seemed plagued with typos. Oxcart has left Elex's Duchy of Scadia and joined up with Niun. We don't know why. **>> SPYNET REVIEW The free weekend has bumped up the number of promotions even higher than the increases seen during the last month, with a record number of Captains in the new players who have decided to try the game out. Old players have also been taking advantage of the free weekend to gain promotions. Congratulations to you all. The new Captains are Crazy, Rastur, Muzzlehatch, Kat, Budman, Tana, Dwrolf, Killer (twice), Josn, Moorack, Lordfoul, Darkness, Geobardi, Kendric, Harnaz, Xavier, Pouncer, Verthandi, Khelban, Blackadder, Space (three times), Omar, Starlance, Tim, Kinnison, Gemini (twice), Matbar, Korin, Draco, Corry, Sauron, Race, Matt, Sagen, Robbins, Tosagore, Necronomicon, Indiyo, Mong, Symphony, Zorglub, Tyranna, Vak, Hyseph and Magneto. And the weekend isn't over yet!! Adventerers and -euses are Raoul, Corwin, Budman, Darkness, Gloin, Sauron, Azfire, Capo, Draco, Mong, Kermes, Lordfoul, Tana, Hypatia and Gemini. The new Traders are Rand, Iskra, Guru, Caryna, Quarl, Danl, Budman, Gloin, Draco and Gemini. Nightstalker, Razor, Killeshandra, Ashley, Maniac and Killeshandra made it to Merchant. The awesome JP puzzle was solved by Dyars, Baron, Ishmee and Nightstalker. Tao, Aahz and Maxwell cracked the fiendish GM puzzle. We can expect new planets from Sleazy, Maxwell and Aahz, who became Explorers. Barberousse became a Squire when his new planet, Source was linked to the game. Cyrfox's planet, Chameleon, advanced to Tehnical level and he became a Technocrat. Bochiman pushed Hell up to Leisure status, thus becoming a Baron. He's started building the facilities he needs for Duke, so Hell will shortly become a bottomless pits for willing traders to sell to. **>>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 Oxcart (Mail ID: J.LONG29). There are also private categories for Explorers, run by Oxcart, 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