**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 93.08.29 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> GUEST NEWS-DROID Next week's news will be written by a Guest NewsDroid, Gemini, so please send her all your gossip and scandal. We are now recruiting newsdroids for future editions, so if you'd like to be a muck-raking journalist, contact Hazed! **>> SPY-RINGS AND INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE Bella's been thinking hard about how the Intelligence aspects of naval bases will work. She's decided that Senators will be able to set up spy-rings and tell them to infiltrate another duchy, planet or company. Once they have infiltrated and are securely in place, you'll be able to set them tasks. For example, you can use spy-rings to give you information about the economics of a planet, or customs information for a duchy. Or you could choose to use your spy-ring for sabotage - instruct it to blow up a factory, or wipe out the stockpile of a particular commodity. This is going to bring a new dimension to the high levels of the game. It will be more important than ever to know who your friends are - and, more importantly, who your enemies are! **>> REAL SOON NOW... Anyone who actually bothers to read the small print at the end of each news bulletin will no doubt be sick and tired of seeing that "A new version of the Idiot's Guide will be available shortly". But probably not as sick as we are of having to write that every week! Well, it now looks as if the long wait is almost over. The H-by-A Documentation Droids have gone back to work after their long, long holiday (or strike) and are updating the printed manual. The Third Edition will include several new sections. For the first time, the planetary construction manual will be included, as will the companies and factories information. Basic maps will show you the main thoroughfares on some of the Solar System planets, including directions to such essential places as Chez Diesel (of course!). The text of every chapter has been overhauled to include information on player planets, which were not in the game when the last edition was written. There's lots more pictures, and Hazed and Cryptosporidium have been pummelling their brains and have finally come up with A New Joke! We're not going to attempt to guess when the new edition will be available, but it will be Real Soon Now. And we mean it this time! **>> FEUDING AND VENDETTAS In Fed Data Space, just as in real life, we sometimes come across someone we don't like. The feelings they inspire can range from mild irritation to outright hatred. But in the vitual world, the cyburb of Fed Data Space, it's not so easy to ignore them. A disadvantage of communicating via the written word, even if it is in real- time, is that you miss out on all the little nuances that go with the spoken word - the lifted eyebrow, the smile, the shrug, the hand gesture. Something said (or typed) in jest can be taken at face value and cause offence. That's why people sometimes put smiley faces on the end of what they say, to make it clear they are not be taken seriously. Words when spoken vanish as soon as they are uttered. Not so words on the computer; even when they disappear off the top of the screen, scrollback facilities or capture buffers leave them available to be picked over and re- interpreted long after they should have been discarded. Then, of course, some people really are irritating little gits! Whatever it is that gets up your nose (or equivalent) about someone else, there are ways NOT to deal with it. Although a good argument can be fun, confrontational situations sometimes get out of hand and stray into the forbidden territory of harrassment. That's against both the Fed policy, and GEnie's policies. The most obvious no-no is swearing. No matter how wound up you are by someone's behaviour, don't resort to obscenity. Swear words with asterisks replacing some of the letters are OK but a bit unimaginative. You can be just as cutting without using the obvious swear-words - call someone an excrement-head if you really must be rude to them. It's easy for a needle-match to escalate. You feel you just have to top that last remark they made with something a little bit more insulting. You simply cannot let them have the last word! But don't let your last word be a swear word. No matter who started the argument, if you resort to obscenity, YOU are in the wrong. In Fed, harrassment is doing something that prevents someone else from playing the game. For example, sending them thirty-seven identical sendmail messages, so their "real" messages zoom off the top of the screen. Or bombarding them with nonsense tight-beam messages while they're trying to trade. Or standing next to them in a bar and buying them 43 pizzas. Even if they've been annoying you intensely, this is not the way to get your own back on them. Harrassment could get you barred from the game, so don't do it. Federation has its own mechanisms that allow you to resolve your disputes with other players, using either physical, economical or political methods. You don't have to resort to unacceptable means. Federation is known as the adult space fantasy, and as such the players are assumed to be mature enough to behave without constant supervision by gamesmasters or sysops. Knowing when to walk away from a confrontation is very important if you don't want to step over the line. No matter how intense things get in Fed Data Space, remember that it is still only a game, and you are playing because you enjoy it. **>> EXCUSED... Galimos claims he has a note from his doctor giving him permission to be as rude and obnoxious as he wants. Doctors in Fed Data Space are terribly corrupt, aren't they? **>> STEAMY WINDOWS Following our report last week that Symphony and Jarrepolo had been overheating in the sauna, it seems they are now getting special requests from not so honourable spybeam owners! Meanwhile, we've had reports that Jarrepolo has been steaming up the windows of his spaceship with many others as well. The names Demelza and Ishmee have been mentioned, as well as Emmi and Gemini who we thought were already spoken for. Jarrepolo swears he's just been checking the springs on those beds as part of a consumer watchdog group... and we believe him, don't we boys and girls? **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES It's been a very eventful week for planets and duchies. First off, Ramius' new planet was linked to the game. Ausland, in the Fremd system, is (as the name suggests) a planet colonised by Germans. Lots of buxom frauleins and biersteins. When it first went in, there were a few problems with the objects and mobiles, and a movement table error made part of the planet inaccessible. But these problems have now been fixed, and Ausland is well worth a look. Meanwhile, Marcia's Roissy went mini following her recent promotion to Thane. Later in the week, the planet Paradise appeared, owned by Zan. The newsdroid we sent to look around Paradise came back in shock, babbling incoherently about being forced to work in a mine, nearly being hung, involved in a game of polo, sunbathing on a beach and finally crash-landing in a hang-glider. It's obviously an eventful planet! Both these new planets signed Treaties of Alliance with Niun's duchy of Ocean, giving him by far the largest duchy. But then, towards the end of the week, Bochiman made it to Duke and planets starting seceding from other duchies and joining up with him. Most of his serfs were poached from Elex's duchy, Scadia. As if that wasn't enough, the next day Jim also became a Duke and is recruiting for planets to join him! Normally, when someone gets promoted to Duke, it bumps one of the current Dukes up to Senator, since there is only a limited number of slots for Duke. However, Bella recently removed two of the absentee Dukes - Piemur and Khan - because they hadn't been on the game for several months. Now there is again a full complement, so the next promotion to Duke will mean we'll get a new Senator as well. So, the state of play with the duchies is currently like this: There are four Independent planets: Arena, which will always remain Independent, Brewski, Oasis and Dahih Niun's Ocean has nine planets: Dunnottar, Sapien, Cabal, Xixax, Insanity, Nemesis, Source, and new boys Fremd and Paradise. Elex's Scadia is left with just Xhit, while Krell's Gotham has only Jinx and Regulus. Bochiman's new duchy Hell has stolen Starship, Valaria, Roissy, Oppiz, Mirai and Chaos. Finally, Jim's new Crime hasn't yet pulled at all - but it's early days yet. Finally, Akiko's planet Mirai has been advanced to Industrial level. **>> SPYNET REVIEW Congratulations to everyone who was promoted during the last week - or, indeed, at any time!! The week's new Captains were Bandar, Brett, Walter, Cybernaught, Tabby, Melchior, Mrbunny, Johncarter and Shekinah. The following people made it to Adventurer: Grendel, Iceman, Brett, Mornokk, Redwing and Stalker. Whitedove, Maha and Amigan became Traders. New Merchants on the block are Azure, Icepirate, Telidon and Ueshiba. The awesome JP puzzle proved no match for Chainsaw, Maniac, Pouncer and Gator. With two new planets, we have two new Squires: Ramius and Zan. Akiko was promoted to Industrialist as her planet advanced another level. The big promotions of the week were the two new Dukes, Bochiman and Jim. A number of mid-rank players took their first tentative steps towards entrepreneurism by setting up their own companies. Lurana became CEO of Balamarian Enterprises; Icepirate set up Spacejunk; Telidon formed Seductive Treasures; Azure started Mystical Sphere; and Darkness's new company is called Arcadian Enterprises. Sadly, Merchant Budman went dead-dead for reasons unknown. **>>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. You can download a copy of FedTerm from the Federation libraries (option 3 on the main Fed page). The Amiga version is in beta-test. 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 - and this time we really mean it!) 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 Krell (Mail ID: K.HILLYER), 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