**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 94.04.03 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> APRIL FOOL! Happy Easter, everyone. This holiday weekend, there are two extra planets for you to explore in Fed DataSpace. Blackadder has written us a special April Fool planet called Tacky-Yawn (in the Digestive system), the planet where good taste runs backwards. It's full of the most excrutiating puns, terrible practical jokes, appalling satires, and some very libellous tight beam messages that our beloved Editrix looks rather unhappy about! Tacky-Yawn is certainly not a planet for those with delicate sensibilities. Puzzle solvers might want to try their hands at the Fluffy Bunny puzzle (but make sure you're insured first!). It will be in the game until Tuesday morning, giving you plenty of time to visit. Also available is Cabbage, the planet which Hazed wrote as an Appendix to the Idiot's Guide. You've read the book; you've eaten the vegetable; now explore the planet! Harvey, the Easterbunny has been hopping around the Galaxy this weekend (despite a little mishap which saw him killed dead-dead on his first evening in the game! Yes, even bunnies make mistakes). He'll be back this afternoon for the Easter Parade, with a prize of a free copy of the Idiot's Guide going to the best-dressed Fedder; then this evening he'll don his kevlar and tin hat ready for the great Rabbit Hunt! Diesel will be serving free "lapin au moutard" to all those who make a kill. **>> NEWS FROM CHATEAU BELLA Many of the high-level players have been asking, with some impatience, when they can expect the new version of the game which includes the long-awaited secret Senator commands. The good news is that after spending over four weeks sweating over de-bug print-outs, Bella has finally located the cause of a rather nasty bug which was holding up her work on the new version. This really is something of a breakthrough, and she can now press on with the rest of the coding. We tried to persuade Bella that she really should give us a date which we could pass onto you, but she lapsed back into her characteristic vagueness. However, now that the nasty bug has been dealt with, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. (And no, it's not a fast-approaching shuttle!) **>> A PLEA... When you send us GEmail with a question, or a problem you are having in the game, please include your persona name in the letter. At the moment, we have no way of matching up a GEmail ID with a Fed persona. And if your problem is something to do with a planet, tell us the name of your planet, too. This makes it much easier if we need to take a look at any of the game logs for your persona, or if we want to track you down in the game to talk to you. If you are asking for a new version of your planet to be linked into the game, we will need your log-on ID each time you want any changes made. This will make absolutely sure there are no mistakes. **>> AMIGA FEDTERM At last, after possibly the longest beta-test in the history of the world, we have released Amiga FedTerm to the general public. FedTerm is the front-end program for Federation, adding many features to make your time in Fed even more enjoyable. With FedTerm, multimedia comes to Fed because you can display pictures and play sounds which are triggered by words or phrases sent by the game - you decide which words will set off which sounds or pictures. You can download Amiga FedTerm from the Federation Official Library on page 220; it is file #102. This file contains the main program files, the documentation for the program, and some sample sound and picture files to get you going. You can download further sounds and pictures from the library. File #103 contains lots of sound effects, like guns, sirens, doors and so on. New players: we strongly recommend that you get your persona set up in Fed before you start using FedTerm (this applies to the PC and Amiga versions). Many thanks to all those who helped us beta-test Amiga FedTerm. Without your feedback, it would have been far more difficult (if not impossible) to eliminate all the problems. **>> AN UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION Twice now, Fedders have got together in person for official UnConventional Conventions. We've had two UnCons so far - last year in Los Angeles and the year before in Washington. Leaving it rather late as usual, we are now making plans for this year's UnCon, to be held in May. Plans are for a weekend gathering in the Gulf of Mexico, staying in a house by the beach. If you're interested, please send some GEmail to GRAINNE, who is organising this year's UnCon. Hazed will certainly be attending - "winged horses wouldn't keep me away, darling" she said. There's a grim possibility that Cryptosporidium might attend, too. When things are a little more fixed, we'll give you more information in the news. **>> SYMPATHIES... Many of you will know Explorer Patch, who has been playing Fed on and off for a long time. Patch is a pilot in the air force, and we heard last night that his plane went down over the ocean. He and his co-pilot were rescued and are both alive, but Patch is pretty badly banged up with several broken bones. Our sympathies go to Patch and to his family. We wish him a speedy recovery. If you wish to send messages to Patch, send them to Seramarias who will pass them along. **>> FEMALE RANKING Gypsyrose thinks there should be a female version of the Squire rank. She isn't certain what the rank should be, though. She suggests Squirebabe, but we're not so sure about that one. The last time this discussion came up, Hazed made the observation that female Squires are, of course, Squirrels. Any more bright ideas out there? **>> MULTIMEDIA LIVEWIRE The April issue of Livewire magazine is now available. You can get to the Livewire page by selecting the option from the Fed page. There are multimedia versions to download for the PC (Windows or DOS), the Mac, the Amiga and the ST - and text only versions for those with other computers. Fed gets a minor mention in a very interesting article about Online Communities. **>> PLANETS AND DUCHIES Mosquito's planet, Kama in the system Sutra, was linked into the game early in the week. Our newsdroid gave it a cursory glance, and decided that it looked very impressive and deserved more time than was available to get the report into this news bulletin. It will take the time to explore properly during the week, for a full report next Sunday. Mosquito has allied herself with Ramius' Ausland. Meanwhile, Maxwell has advanced his planet, Dawn, to Industrial level. Amigan is busy with his Duke builds and has been having fun teleporting around the Galaxy. Silk's planet, Fortymile, is approaching the number of minutes required for advancement to mining. He expects to promote in the next few days. Keep an eye on the bar board for details of his progress. Lonehawk was the first person to solve the Big Puzzle on Tantras' planet, Vertigo. He gained 10 meg for his trouble. There are smaller amounts of cash available to others who solve the puzzle. If you like puzzles, this one is certainly worth having a go at - our newsdroid keeps going back for another go, and is determined to get to the bottom of the secrets of Vertigo! Budwarp's planet is ready to go, and will be linked into the game on Tuesday or Wednesday. **>> SPYNET REVIEW Well done, everyone who achieved promotion this week. The new Captains were El, Locutus, Alucard, Marko, Protoceratops, Falsetta and Sinker. Blargg, Falsetta and Hapgranph made it to Adventure or Adventureuse. The Traders Guide admitted Kathy, Samanth and Starman. Axfire, Samurai and Cryptonson were promoted to Merchant. Longshot and Waite solved the awesome JP puzzle. Sthil made it to Explorer. Mosquito was promoted to Squire as her new planet went in. Maxwell became an Industrialist when he advanced his planets. Finally, Ramius played his 1000th game! **>> 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 * 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 official libraries (option 3 on the main Fed page). The third edition of the unexpurgated printed Idiot's Guide to Federation is now available, price $15.95. Type ORDER from any GEnie main menu and buy one. Or more! Federation has several categories in the 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 and the Sentate, run by Krell (Mail ID: K.HILLYER). The MPGames RT has a Federation player library in the files area, Lib 5. **>> BULLETIN ENDS