**>> SPYNET BULLETIN **>> EARTHDATE 95.10.01 **>> AN H-by-A SERVICE **>> Compiled by Hazed plus a team of specialist newsdroids **>> your news and gossip and get paid good groats! **>> WHERE ARE THE NEW PLANETS? The poor TechDroid has been under rather a strain, working on the code to let Explorers link their planets into the game. It turned out to be a lot more complex than expected, which is why you didn't see the new code last week. However, he's just about got it done now, so unless there are any major last minute hitches, the new version that allows you to bring in your planets and promote to Squire will be in during the first half of the coming week. In the process of writing the code, the TechDroid has done things slightly differently to the way described in last week's news, so all you Explorers should pay attention now to make sure you know how it's going to work. When you have finished writing your planet, and have successfully run it through the workbench checker, come into the game and type . The game will liquidate your company and put the resulting money into the treasury of your brand new world. However, you have to sell off all your factories and your warehouses first; if you don't, your company will not be liquidated and the process won't go any further. If the company successfully liquidates, your planet will be linked into the game, and if it has been successfully run through the checker, it will be open for business. However, if it hasn't been checked, it will appear in the game but will be closed until you go and check it and fix any problems. You will be given a mega-warehouse on your new planet. Each bay can hold a million tons! You cannot buy warehouses on any other planet. **>> RUNNING YOUR NEW PLANET As a new planet owner, you have to manage your exchange so that it provides you with a nice profit, but at the same time stays attractive to traders. The Advanced Idiot's Guide gives you the basic details of the commands you should use, but it doesn't cover the strategies; for that, you should seek advice from the Duke of the duchy you join. A note about the Advanced Guide: it hasn't been updated. Why? Because there are still a lot of things that we are changing about the way planets run, and until the code is in we won't update the Guide. The information in the Advanced Guide about the commands you use to manage your planet, and the way the exchanges work, is still current and will not change much in the future. Stock deficits are no longer reduced to zero, however they will not go below 1000 tons. The exchange still stops producing goods when the stock reaches twice the stockpile level, but the stock can go higher if the exchange gets the goods from outside means (a Trader dumping on the market, for example). At Galactic Midnight, any stocks in excess of 20,000 tons will be wiped out. At the moment, you cannot put money into your planet treasury; the planet has to make its own money. We are going to rework the way money is held generally in the game, so this restriction will no longer be necessary - more details on this when we make the change. Right now, to promote your planet you buy investment points to boost your planet's production. Contrary to what the Advanced Guide says, the points cost 200 meg, but you only need 10 of them to advance a level (so you pay the same in the long run). However, we will be changing the way this works in the future, so you don't just purchase points, you have to build facilities for your planet. We'll give you details of this in a few weeks. **>> THE CONSEQUENCES FOR EXISTING PLANET OWNERS Right now, there's no way for any of you to transfer money from your personal balances into your planet treasuries. We didn't think it would be necessary for you to do so because, after all, a planet is supposed to make you money, not be subsidised out of your pocket! However, this is only a temporary measure, so don't panic about not being able to use your millions. The change to the value of production points will have no monetary effect on existing planet owners. The TechDroid will run a conversion routine on existing planets, to halve the number of points you have (any odd numbers will be knocked off, and 100 meg put into your treasury to compensate). The effect this will have is to halve the effect the points have on boosting your planet's production. **>> WHAT ELSE IS NEW? Here's a list of the other changes that happened last week, or are expected in the new version. We have raised the amount of locations, objects and events you can have on your planet. You can now have 120 locations, 14 objects or mobiles and 25 events. These are absolute limits that the workbench will enforce; once you reach the limit, it won't let you write any more. We've tidied up things to do with planets being closed. The list doesn't distinguish between a planet being closed or offline; it just shows it as being closed. If you look at the planet display, you'll be told if the planet is closed. If a planet is closed, it won't show up on the list. We've decided that planets with absentee landlords shouldn't hang around indefinitely without supervision. If a planet-owner is absent from the game for 31 days, the planet will close for business, just as if the owner had closed it. It won't open up again until the owner comes back and opens it. **>> THE INVASION OF THE COMMAS You will notice that some of the displays in the game are now displaying money with commas, to make it clearer. So far, company and factory displays, and the display have been changed. We'll add commas to all the monetary displays as various bits of the code get changed. **>> CLOSED PLANETS: A DETAILED EXPLANATION FOR POOR PEOPLE Here's an explanation to make sure everyone understands just how the process of opening and closing planets works, and the effect it has on people on the planet or in the duchy. If a planet-owner wants to make any changes to his planet, he has to close the world before he can use the Explorers' Workbench to do the alterations. When he closes the planet, it immediately stops anyone from going to the planet, either by jumping, teleporting or travelling. The list will show the planet as being closed, as will the display. Any player in the star system will periodically get messages asking them to leave the planet. Anyone who leaves the game from the closed planet, and comes back while it is closed, will be moved to the Meeting Point on Earth. If the planet that closes is the capital planet of the duchy, then no-one will be able to enter or leave the duchy, because the hyperspace link will be unavailable. Anyone with a teleporter will be able to 'port out of the duchy; others who are desparate to leave can sell their ships and to a planet in anothe duchy. It is likely that Dukes will take a great deal of care not to close their capital planets for more than a short time, otherwise they will soon find their planet-owners seceding from the duchy to join other, more reliable, Dukes. **>> CLOSED PLANETS: A DETAILED EXPLANATION FOR RICH PEOPLE If you want to make any changes to your planet, you have to close the planet or you cannot use the Explorers' Workbench to do anything except list the files. There are two stages to a planet being closed: a planet can be closed, or it can be offline. This distinction only matters to the owner of the planet. If you type , your planet will be closed. Nobody will be able to enter the star system, and anyone still in the system will periodically be asked to leave. Your planet display will show that the planet is closed. You still cannot make any changes in the workbench, though. You have to wait until your planet is offline. The planet goes offline when there is nobody left in the system, and there are no objects/mobiles belonging to the planet in the recycle queue. Of course, this might happen immediately if there's no-one on the planet and all objects are where they belong. You will be told if there are objects/mobiles that are holding up the process, and how long it will be until the planet will go completely offline. Once it goes offline, you will get a message informing you. You can then go into the workbench and make your changes... not forgetting to run the planet through the checker once you're done, of course! **>> WHERE OH WHERE HAS MY PLANET GONE? Last week, Oxcart was surprised - nay, horrified! - to log on and find his planet Jinx had vanished. It hadn't just closed, it had gone altogether and didn't even appear in the list. An appeal to the TechDroid elicited information to explain why it had vanished. A "feature" of the new way planets spin in and out means that if you're working on the planet in the workbench at the time the game fires up, it will not load any of the details of your planet. It will be as if the world doesn't exist. Poor Oxcart's planet was missing until the game was reset (which was done after not too long, in exchange for favors that were not specified to us newsdroids). The TechDroid has fixed things so the effect of this is not so drastic now... if your planet goes missing for this reason, you should log off then back on again, and that should bring the planet into the game. **>> IT'LL TAKE -*HOW*- LONG??? There was a teensy bugette in the routine that calculates how long it takes for a planet to go offline... planet owners were being told their worlds would close in such a large number of seconds that it would have taken several years!! In fact, the planets went offline as soon as the objects had all been recycled, it was just the message they were given that was in error. A fix for this startling bug is ready to go in with the new version. **>> A TIME OF CHANGE, A TIME OF CONFUSION by Hazed There have been a lot of comments from players, particularly from Dukes and planet owners, that many of the changes we've made to Fed recently are negative. They take away powers, or privileges, that you've got used to and give nothing back in exchange. Fed is going through a time of change right now. We have plans to alter just about all levels of the game. Most of the changes to the lower ranks are in, and we are now working on the changes that affect planet owners. We're going to be putting in a number of new features, which we have told you about in the past, such as the new system of investing in your planet by building facilities. The changes you have seen so far to the planet owning ranks have been in preparation for this - laying the groundwork, so to speak. Over the next few weeks and months, you'll start to see the positive changes we'll be making. Dukes are disgruntled right now because they have nothing to do. True, they haven't. They haven't got a way to make money out of their duchy or their capital planet. But they will have, when that code goes into the game. It won't be immediately, because the PO levels have to be changed before we move on to changing the Duke level. It would probably be a lot easier for all the players if we could put all our planned changes in at once, rather than a little bit here and a little bit there. But that just wouldn't be possible. The more changes that are made in one version, the more likely it is that there will be problems with the version, and the harder it is to find out just what is causing the problems. No matter how hard the TechDroid works to test code before it goes into the game, when the players are let loose with a new version, under live conditions, they can always come up with things we never thought to test - ways of doing things that we didn't anticipate. This upheaval will continue for a while. When it's all over, we hope you like the way that Fed works. If you don't, then you have the option of "voting with your pocket-books" by stopping playing. Of course, we hope you won't do that, and we're confident that the changes will result in a game that is much more enjoyable for all ranks. Hazed **>> TRIVIA TONIGHT! Don't forget, tonight is Trivia night with Lyrynna taxing your brains with questions about Fed. Join the fun at 9.00pm eastern. **>> BE A CHAMPION FIGHTER IN THE ADULT SPACE FANTASY We all know that Federation, the adult space fantasy multi-player game, is not a violent game. It's not about fighting, it's about trading. But sometimes, it does the soul good just to have a blast! Every second Sunday of the month its your chance to show off your fighting prowess and display the might of your powerful twin lasers in a fighting championship in Arena Space. If you've never fired a mag gun or a laser, come along and pick up some tips from the masters and mistresses of space warfare; if you think you've got what it takes to show the old hands a thing or two, issue a challenge and show us what you're made of! Join us on Sunday, October 8th, at 9.00pm eastern in Arena Space for the fighting championships! **>> GRANNIE SUSPECTED OF GOING FERAL Investigations of comms reports and the Spynet Review have proven beyond doubt that Grannie did, with intent and malice, murder the Duchesse Aja earlier this week by directing the unsuspecting Aja, via teleportation, into the cold, airless embrace of space vacuum. When we visited the Duchesse in her hospital room and asked her to comment on this surprising turn of events, she answered saying, 'Well... who would suspect GRANNIE of such a thing?' We then asked the Duchesse who she'd guess would have more of a motive to want to murder her. 'Well,' she replied. 'Um... it might be nothing, but my dear Oxcart sure has been buying lots of life insurance policies lately. But he told me they're all for the purpose of providing for us when we get old and decrepit.. like Grannie.' **>> LAURA ASHLEY CATALOGS MISSING! "I can't believe it!" Rani told our newsdroids just days ago. "Someone stole the Laura Ashley catalogs!" Yes, it's sad but true. Someone's stolen all the Laura Ashley catalogs from Citadel! Rani's ordered more, but until then, the redecoration is on hold. Even worse, the catalogs belonged to Hazed and Freya, whose affections for Laura Ashley designs are known throughout all Fed DataSpace. Rani expressed concern for her dear friends' mental state when they discovered the catalogs were lost, but decided that they'd survive somehow or another. **>> SQUATTER'S RIGHTS It was reported this week that planet-owner, Silas has taken up residence within the Ritz bar on Surfside. Asked to comment, one eye- witness said, 'Yep! That's right. He never leaves. Never. Nope.' It is rumored that this incident is resulting in a Senatorial hearing on Fed Date-space Squatter's Rights. Loud posturings and debates have been observed from behind the closed doors of the Senatorial chambers, as the Senators revel in, at last, having something to do. **>> SEEN ON BARBOARDS THIS WEEK Starman: My going price is a gig. But I have references :) Starman is presently being sought by Federation Authorities to answer to charges of prostitution. **>> LOVE, TRUE LOVE Redb was heard earlier this week bidding Oxcart adieu over comms, saying 'Good night Ox honey!' This was after the pair had reportedly been seen in close conversation at one of Fed's night spots. This can only lead to conjecture as to whether Oxcart is already leaving his allegedly 'demanding' spouse and Duchesse to take up with known gigolo, Redb. It was additionally unclear as to Oxcart's state of being during the exchange, however evidence would suggest that Redb was solving the mystery for himself, as he was heard to comment 'Oh, you're back to being male again.' Unfortunately, our hidden microphone was unable to more light on the encounter. **>> ENGAGEMENT It's safe to say that Instill and Lorelei will soon be joined at the hip. The pair have been flooding the comms and barboards with assertions of each other's adoration, not to mention their fervid rendezvous and tete-a-tetes a tetes. Apparently, the comely Lord Instill has at last rid himself of his ennui over the death of Hannah enough to entertain a lively chase for the affections of newly arrived Lorelei. The upcoming merchant had recently been seen carrying the favor of Industrialist Talisan ne Galdur, wife of the blood-thirsty Senator (a move many regarded as fool-hardy). When our newsdroids asked Talisan to comment on the abrupt abnegation of her 'champion', she would only say, 'She's a lucky girl... Instill is a fine man.' **>> BAR CRAWL Grannie had a good turnout for her pub crawl this week. Festivities got off to a quick start on Sine's Riverside Park. Refreshments at the lovely outdoor site included long island teas, bowls of snacks and no ants. Amano was in a conspicuous quandary, fretting about his need for a maniclawist. Drspock queried the group, saying 'Hey, what's the good word?' This sent Starman into a fright and he promptly asked 'Word? I didn't know I had to bring a word!' As Drspock, obviously inspired by the scene's loveliness, fell into a reverie in contemplation of an infinite loop that had embraced Fed the previous day and night, Grannie urged Amano to propose the first toast. Amano glibly responded, saying, 'Who... me?' But he quickly recovered his equilibrium (as those of his species are known to do) and sent a previously secreted bottle of champagne 'round. He then stood and proposed, 'A toast! May you always buy low and sell at maximum price!' The group drank and Grannie applauded. Starman (betraying his confusion), said 'Is that how we're supposed to do it?' But he wasn't left to ponder long, as Grannie prompted him, 'Okay Starman, your turn!' Over Starman's protests of 'But I only know French toast!', he was pushed, floating and struggling, to the front, where he was moved to speak, saying, 'May you always be insured before making a bum pun in front of Grannie.' Capt was next pushed to the fore, and he quickly found his tongue. 'May your life be filled with adventure and groats!' he exclaimed. Capt was cheered and patted on the back, then Ukla stepped forward and saluted, 'May you have friends with good taste in beer!' This brought hoots and howls of agreement and moved Drspock to add, 'Better to have friends with good tasting beer.' Grannie tipped the attending waitdroids an obscene amount, and they next passed around glasses of Everclear with bits of fruit floating in it, a tiny umbrella and a sign that says, 'Keep away from open flames'. This confection inspired Amano to raise his glass and proclaim, 'May the Duchy planet never go off line while you're IN the Duchy!' As Starman wondered why his Everclear wasn't clear, Ukla lifted his tumbler and offered his personal favorite, 'May you have enough money to do all your builds!' Just then, the riverbank exploded from open flames approaching the drinks too closely and Grannie fell from her chair. This open conflagration moved the party to even more ascorbic wit, as toast followed close upon the heels of the last. 'May you never use 'say' when you mean 'tell',' said Grannie. 'May you never use 'post' when you want to use 'send',' said Starman. 'May you never 'send' to the wrong lover,' exclaimed Ukla. 'May you never use the wrong name!' sighed Grannie. 'May you always remember which character you're using,' postulated Ukla. 'May you remember to use the right macros for the right character,' added Starman. Afterwards, the party moved to the Epini Bar, complete with its island music and thatched roof. As a bowl of nuts made the rounds, the party drew up the mismatched chairs and set to drinking seriously. Capt was heard to comment off-handedly, 'Don't play with your nuts in public!' The Everclear as well as some of Epini's mercenary rum was broken out and the party soon spiraled down into oblivion. **>> SPYNET REVIEW Congratulations to everyone who was promoted during the week. The new Captains were Sparks, Bluebeard, Ellemenno, Sting, Stinger, Mike, Randyith and Chuck. Bluebeard, Capt, Arachnia, Randyith and Lorelei were promoted to Adventurer or Adventureuse. Zedd, Bluebeard and Randyith joined the Traders Guild. Zedd and Bluebeard were promoted to Merchant. Rokmonster and Menua proved themselves to be successful CEOs by promoting to JP. Cygnus advanced his planet, Dark to mining level and became a Thane. Drspock is now a Baron, having promoted Conception to a leisure world. **>> 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. The current Federation Game Hosts are: Freya, Porcupine, Lyrynna, Grannie, Sparky, Zzzax, Geezer, Magneto, Syfari and Goblin. Their function is to answer questions, help new players get started, and make fun things happen. In the event of a problem or question, you can: * talk to Hazed or one of the Game Hosts in the game * a message to Hazed * send mail on your host system to the Federation team: on GEnie, mail FEDII.2 or use the option on the main Fed page on Delphi, mail FED2 or use the option on the main Fed page on Cris, mail FEDERATION2 You can buy a copy of the very excellent Idiot's Guide to Federation for the paltry sum of $15.95. On GEnie, type ORDER from any main menu page. On Delphi and Cris, send a check for $15.95 to: Leah Parker, 4543 La Crescenta Avenue, La Crescenta, CA 91214-2912. **>> BULLETIN ENDS