LINE NOISE News from Chez Diesel 24 September, 1988 The most hated persona in Fed Data Space used to be Druid. After Pugwash killed him dead-dead recently, he returned but found it hard to avoid the missiles launched at him. Lynx succeeded in blowing him up, but then a truce was called and Druid now seems to be a reformed character. This left the other players with no-one to use as target practice. Pegasus in particular felt the lack and started screaming for blood - he was desperate for some gratuitious violence. To relieve the boredom, he and Snoopy decided to try and kill each other. This proved extremely difficult! They spent several hours chasing each other around and expended loadsamissiles, but Pegasus only killed Snoopy twice and Snoopy barely managed to dent the Spellsinger's hull, due to its superior armour (the hull strength has to be seen to be believed) and Pegasus' expertise, gained in practice sessions with Pugwash. Great fun was had by all, especially those who could spy on Snoopy and keep track of the progress, but a few unfortunate Commanders got in the way of the fight and found themselves on the receiving end of a deadly missile. Commander Jig came very close to death several times by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and since he wasn't insured (the silly twit doesn't see the point of it - he'll find out the hard way!) he is lucky to still be alive. But it was an expensive way to pass a few hours. The cost of the missiles, fuel and repairs added up to several mega-groats each - it's not something to be done too often! So you can imagine everyone's glee when an Obnoxious GroundHog appeared last night, just crying out to be bumped off! Prod was this character's name, and his foul language annoyed everyone straight away. The first to decide he had to die was Pugwash, who neatly despatched him with that old favourite, the Tdx. When he reappeared, Pegasus (being the kind, magnanimous horse that he is, always ready to help the underdog) showed him how to get a ship... And then blew him out of the sky! When Prod logged on this morning he seemed at first to have learnt his lesson, but before long he was spouting obscenities at everybody (he was even stupid enough to tell Pugwash that the Idiot's Guide was boring!) Everyone was desperate for him to get a ship so they could try out their shiny new missiles, but before he had a chance to even get a permit, Xaviour decided to assassinate Prod with the Tdx, not knowing it had been used against him the night before. No-one believed Prod would be stupid enough to fall for that trick twice... Which just goes to show how wrong you can be! The bozo went up in a cloud of smoke. Some people are just too dumb to live. Even now, Prod hadn't had enough. He returned under a different name (but it was obviously the same person; the swearing was a bit of a give-away). Pegasus, eager once again to blast the moron into tiny little pieces, helped him get another ship, but this time Prod seemed a somewhat wary of actually venturing out of Earth orbit. The coward quit. Disgusted at the loss of his target, Pegasus logged off as well... and missed the return of Prod. In the absence of Pegasus everyone else decided to wipe out this obnoxious character. Ships sat in every sector around Earth, so whichever way Prod went he would run into somebody. Unfortunately, this was no use at all... Prod had quit while in space, and been dumped on a random planet. Those with spybeams soon located him, and it was a race to see who would get to him first. Pugwash proved the superiority of the female sex by catching him in Jupiter Orbit and blowing him up again with three missiles in quick succession. And still he returned... and was shot down in flames yet again by Quickdraw Pugwash. Once more he came back, but at this point most people decided he wasn't worth wasting expensive missiles on. He was last seen as a GroundHog, still swearing, and highly unlikely to ever live to be a Captain. Someone else who may not live long is Zit. He's been putting rewards on people, so there are a few missiles primed just for him. All other weapons will become operational tomorrow - see the separate upload for full details. Also in tomorrow will be a new command, (shortened to ). This will tell you objects, mobiles and players in your location without giving you the long description. It will be particularly useful here in Chez Diesel, where it is easy to forget who you are talking to after a few pints of Diesel's Old Peculiar! (Incidentally, I've been working on a new brew, even stronger, which should be ready in two weeks). Other features appearing in the next few weeks include the bottle of Wh.o.sh, a very useful object; the chance to read the Spynet Review bulletins online; and Merchants will be able to offer jobs to other players (at last!) Monty will go lethal in a fortnight, and he'll home in on the player with the highest reward value (although he won't bother with smallfry like Commanders and Captains - he may even leave Adventurers alone). There will, however, be several ways of removing your rewards. A few recent changes you may have noticed...