LINE NOISE News from Chez Diesel 9 April 1989 JNR GUILDTHING Congratulations to Omi, who is now the Junior Guildthing. He finally found the missing piece to the GM puzzle a few days ago and filled the rank left empty by Pugwash and Hawk's instananeous leap to Explorer. This leaves Spacehound, Zugger and Omi still to work out what they are doing wrong - with Magius increasing his stats as fast as he can so he can join in the fun of killing himself every day. There were a few problems with the new version that went in on Monday. Anyone who painted their ship found that the description disappeared altogether, and rich bastards using spybeams to poke their noses into lower players' business were not receiving everything correctly, which made spying on secret conversations rather difficult. Monday's new version also provided a 10 meg reward to anyone who could kill Pegasus, and it wasn't long before gangs of mercenaries were trying to claim the prize money. The first to succeed were Pugwash and Hawk (with interference from the TWF scum). It seems a little odd that Pugwash, the High Priestess of the One True Religion which reveres Saint Pegasus should condone, let alone take part in, attempts on his life, but I'm sure she will think of a justification. The two Explorers streamlined the Peg-killing procedure and started cutting the JPs in on the deal. The poor horse was being destroyed every hour much to the glee of those claiming the 10 meg - until realised that to pay out the shares to the participants, they either had to hand the dosh over in 3500 groat coins, or pay the extortionate tax levied by the blood- sucking Galactic Administration. Our Illustrious Leader was not at all happy about the ease with which the gangs were bumping off her most powerful mobile, and took the unprecedented step of providing a second new version in the same week, which went in on Friday. In the new-new version, Pegasus is faster than a speeding bullet - he has a very annoying habit of dodging blasts from twin lasers, which makes him more or less invulnerable. Since she was putting a new version in anyway, Bella also corrected the bugs (sorry - features) and made a few more alterations. A '-' after someone's name on the list shows that they are - now you can tell who the unsociable bastards are. She has also put Fed into a shell - when you log off you are put back to the READ, PLAY, QUIT menu and can read the review then rejoin the game going back into Compunet Data Space. The menu also contains a fourth option - BUILD - for Explorers to write their planets. The basic location editor should be ready some time in the next week. This will probably be the last new features we will see for a few weeks. Our Illustrious Leader is now spending her time giving the game a jolly good hoovering, the result of which won't be visible, but will clean up the code and provide the extra memory in the persona records for details of Explorers' earnings from their planetary economies and corporations. Those of you who have reached the stage of thinking about your planet should goto FEDDER where Hazed-by-Alcohol have uploaded a guide to planetary construction. This tells you how many locations you can have, what type of locations they can be, as well as giving general hints about how to design a planet sensibly. Further sections will follow as soon as the authors have a chance to try things out. Selling like hot cakes at the moment is H-by-A's most famous publication, The Idiot's Guide to Federation II. If any of you are foolish enough not to have purchased this indispensable book yet, mbx me for details of how to obtain your very own copy. I'm happy to report that Xaviour has decided not to top himself after all. This will be a great disappointment to the people who were waiting with knives in one hand and begging bowls in the other, hoping for a mention in his will. I don't know what prompted his change of heart (indeed, I don't know why he contemplated suicide in the first place!) but I am glad that Fed won't be losing another high-ranking player. And now let me climb onto my soapbox... I mentioned in my last Line Noise that Omi very nearly came to a sticky end. He was running around with no insurance and a weedy little ship when he encountered Captain Crypto's twin lasers. He had a lucky escape then, and I think it taught him a lesson. Had Crypto fired on him just once more - as he had the opportunity to do - Omi would have been dead-dead. A year's hard playing would have been down the drain. This would have been an absolutely terrible thing to happen to Omi; only once before has a high level player died dead-dead, and that was when Pugwash had a minor brainstorm and forgot to reinsure herself before attempting something risky. If Crypto had bumped Junior off completely, all the players would have been shocked, and Crypto would have been blamed for the tragedy. But this wouldn't have been fair. Isn't spending all your cash so you cannot afford insurance just as stupid as forgetting to re-insure? Omi assumed that as long as he told everyone he had no insurance, they would leave him alone - a very foolish assumption. It might just as well have been one of the mobiles who attacked Omi and they wouldn't have stopped to ask if he was insured or not. High-ranking players take great delight in killing off obnoxious Commanders who make a nuisance of themselves, and boast when they succeed in killing them dead-dead. The Conclave has a history of laughing derisively at anyone who's claim is based around the fact that they weren't insured. So why should it be different if people who have been playing for months, for whatever reason, don't renew their insurance? I'm not having a go at Omi here, it could have been anyone - he's certainly not the first player to find themselves very complacent about their immunity from attack. With the ship mobiles getting tougher, they cannot afford this attitude any longer. Right, I've stopped pontificating. And finally, news of the strangest partnership seen in the history of Fed. They've been the bitterest enemies for many months, and since the famous Trial their animosity has worsened. The Odd Couple are Pugwash and Magius. Quite why the Sexiest Explorer should lower herself to even speak to Old Red-Eyes, let along join forces with him, escapes me - particularly after the way she suffered at his hands. So far she hasn't told me exactly what is behind this shock alliance, but when I find out the story I will let you know.