THE MONTH IN BRIEF
Promotion to Trader was implemented in Fed II, and Chamberlain was the very first to take advantage of it and set himself up to dabble in the futures markets. As others followed, players struggled to get to grips with this brand new, very complex, feature. To allow them to exchange hints, the Traders Talk channel first appeared, and soon became the place for Traders to hang out.
The command to let you give money to other players was implemented. However, a limit on the amount a player could receive each day was imposed, so you couldn't instantly bump someone up to Captain.
Apart from that, it was a quiet month!
'TIS BETTER TO GIVE THAN RECEIVE
or, Giving It All Away
Is your wallet weighing you down? Do you have so many groats you need a wheelbarrow to carry them? Does the taxman loom, threatening to remove your excess wealth?
Worry no longer! Say goodbye to huge bank balance misery, because now you can give away your fortune! Yes, that's right, the 'GIVE' command has come to Fed II.
The command is - as you would expect - 'GIVE playername amount'. This will transfer the specified number of groats from your bank balance and deposit it in that of the named player.
So if you fancy yourself as a great philanthropist, you can now distribute largesse on those less well off than you, thus gaining yourself kudos and status as the most charitable person in the Galaxy.
Oh... there's just one catch. There are limits on how many groats a player can receive - no more than 1,000IG per day. That's enough so that a pauper can get help if he, she or it gets stranded with no fuel and no groats to buy more, but will stop anyone from begging to be bank-rolled up the ranks.
So to earn your status as Most Generous Fedder, you are going to have to spread it about a bit...
HAZED'S HANDY HINTS: CAN YOU AFFORD A NEW SHIP?
Who can forget that magic moment when you pay off your loan and become Captain of your very own ship for the first time? No more slaving for the benefit of the bank; all your earnings are your own to keep - well, subject to the greedy mitts of the taxman, of course...
One way to keep the infernal revenue from seizing your groats is to spend them, and what better purchase could you make than a new ship with an enormous cargo hold. After all, the larger your ship, the more containers you can carry; and the bigger the job, the more hauling credits you get.
But just when should you get a new ship? How much do you need to spend to get one that's big enough to make the upgrade worthwhile? What happens if you take the plunge, and then end up unable to afford anything bigger than your current vessel?
Fortunately, Jarrow Shipbuilders (incorporating Woodspring Ship Auctions) understand the uncertainies of the upgrade, and allow you to play around with different configurations before committing yourself. When you type 'BUY SHIP' you can run through all the questions about what size ship, how much armour, whether you want weapons and so on. At the end you will be told how much your chosen configuration will cost, and how much you will be given in part exchange for your old ship. Then you are presented with the contract and asked to sign on the dotted line, but you can refuse and walk away without making any commitment. The salesdroid won't even pressure you or complain you are wasting his time.
So you don't have to worry about whether you can afford a shiny new ship - you will know what the cost is, down to the last fraction of a groat, before you sell your current ship.
HAZED'S HANDY HINTS: MAKING READY FOR TRADER
As a Merchant, you have a decision to make before you promote to Trader - what are you going to do with your warehouses? They will be of no use to you at the next rank, and neither will the stuff in them, because Traders can't buy or sell on the exchanges.
So the obvious thing to do is to go on a massive selling-spree, and dispose of all your stored goods, then sell the property, thus amassing a huge wodge of groats which you can use to get you started on your new rank. After all, it costs you 400,000 IG to promote.
The drawback to that is the scourge of all money-makers: the taxman. If the number of groats you gain from your sales is too much, you will lose the excess.
So what to do?
Well, you could just leave the stuff sitting in your warehouses. It's useless to you as a Trader, but at later ranks, when you start to build factories, all those commodities will come in handy as inputs. You will also be able to sell on the exchanges again at later ranks.
It's not as if goods in warehouses have a sell-by date on them. Maybe it would be nice to think that things go off or wear out... fruit would go rotten, textiles would get eaten by moths, meat would get infected with salmonella or listeria bacteria, and would start to smell really bad, clays would harden, microscalpels would get blunt, and explosives would run the risk of really going off. On the other hand, livestock would multiply! But no, none of those things happen, so your goods will sit there happily until you need them again.
So my advice is to sell enough so that you get to the groat limit, but no more. That'll make sure you have the groats you need to promote, and enough to start you off with futures contracts, without feeding the greed of the needy taxman!
REAL LIFE NEWS: TEXT ME A BEER
Text messages have been used for a wide variety of things in the past: dumping your girlfriend, telling your wife you want a divorce, even sacking your staff. But now a chain of pubs in London has come up with the best use ever - beer vouchers!
The service allows your mates to log onto the web site http://www.buymeabeer.com, select a beverage, enter your mobile number and pay for the drink by credit card. You then get a text message which counts as a drinks voucher. Show that to the bar staff and you get your drink.
The service is available at 11 Corney & Barrow pubs in London, which cater for the city-working yuppy crowd, hence the selection of drinks on offer is pretty up-market - champagne, expensive wine, or very expensive designer beer. No Diesel's Old Peculiar, though.
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