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WEB FED NEWS YEARBOOKS Earthdate February 1999 |
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WEB FED NEWS YEARBOOKS Earthdate February 1999 |
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OFFICIAL
NEWS |
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What was in February 1999's Official News:
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A new version of FedTerm32 was released with an ignore feature, allowing you to block TB, XT or COM messages from people you don't want to hear from. Valentine's Day was celebrated with a puzzle planet, Questforlove, solved by Smicawber and Etolf. Hazed ran a love heart hunt on the web site, won by Chooch. And for the blood-thirsty, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre provided ample opportunities for violence and mayhem. Taber and Clopin were awarded the much-desired Carpenter award for excellent planet design, for their worlds Harmony and Valshtike. Deuterium was the recipient of the even more hotly coveted Walrus of Merit for the planet Rebellion. Congratulations! Hazed uploaded the Workbench listing and the Genesis file for the planet Cabbage, a sample planet showing some of the different effects that can be achieved. Download the files from http://www.ibgames.net/federation/fedinfo/cabbage.html. Hazed announced her new web site, f-space at http://www.ibgames.net/fi/.
When did you last change your password? If you haven't done it recently, perhaps you should go and do it now. And remember to never, ever tell your password to anyone else, not even your best friend or your Fed spouse or lover. Nobody from IB will ever ask you for your password, and even if we ask you for details of your account we don't want your password, so you don't ever need to tell anyone, never ever. Your password is there to protect your character, and the only way to keep that protection complete is to keep it absolutely secret. No exceptions. This has been a public service announcement from the Galactic Administration Security Bureau.
Here's a little time-line for you. 1997: Duke puzzle removed from
game. Players complain. It seems some people are never satisfied. Many of the new crop of Dukes are finding things aren't so rosy on the other side of the promotion fence. One even went so far as to ask me in the game recently if we had any plans to put in a Resign command which would let players drop back to their previous rank. The Dukelets are now discovering that having spent months being bored Barons, they are now destined to be bored Dukes as well. As far as the game mechanics go, there is not a huge amount for Dukes to do. A Duke's role is as a teacher, a moderator, and a leader of his, her or its POs, which is far less to do with pressing the right button in the game and far more to do with understanding the game thoroughly and passing that knowledge on to the next generation. Which poses a problem for a lot of our Dukelets, many of whom didn't take the time to understand each rank thoroughly before rushing onto the next. How can they teach someone to finer points of planetary economies when they don't really understand it themselves? Federation is more than just a game; it's a whole social environment. You get out of it what you are prepared to put in. Those who are bored should stop complaining that they are bored, and find themselves something to do. Here's a few suggestions: 1) Throw parties. Why not try to make your duchy the happiest place in Fed DataSpace? Invite the whole Galaxy to come and party in your domain. 2) Run events. Have contests in your duchy to find out which of your POs is the best... fighter, role-player, drink-inventor, whatever you want! Get your POs to find out which of their factory-owners is the best, too. 3) Design great planets. Learn how to make wonderful puzzles. Teach your POs to do the same and make your duchy the best place to explore. 4) Go back and fill in your knowledge gaps. Start an alt and climb the ranks again, only this time don't try to get through the ranks as fast as you can; take your time, and learn everything there is to know about a particular rank before you promote and move on. 5) Explore and map the Solar System planets and try to find all the objects and mobiles, then work out which mobile is particularly interested in what object, and which objects have special uses. There's just a few idea. If anyone has more ideas of how bored Dukes can fill their long, empty days, send your suggestions to feedback@ibgames.com.
REAL LIFE NEWS: LIGHT UP THE SKY - OR NOT Russian scientists planned to experiment with a giant mirror in space a few days ago, lighting up the night sky with a beam of light up to 10 times as bright as the new moon. The spinning mirror, about 80 feet across, was launched from the Mir space station. It was supposed to direct a focused beam reflected from the sun onto the dark site of the earth. The aim was to test whether a series of much larger mirrors could be used to illuminate cities across the Arctic, which get little or no light in winter. Sadly, the experiment was called off after the shiny metal object got stuck and failed to unfurl. The broken mirror was then attached to a cargo ship filled with trash and sent back to Earth, where it mostly burnt up in the atmosphere with the remnants splashing into the Pacific. Seven years bad luck to the Russians!
NEW MOON, FULL MOON... WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? We received the following letter from a concerned Fedder:
I challenged the NewsDroid who had written the story in question, and it started to snivel. NewsDroids are pathetic, aren't they? A tiny bit of bullying and they just fall apart. But I digress... "Don't blame me," it sobbed. "I just copied the article out of the local newsreel. They said New Moon, so I just repeated what they said without thinking. How was I to know it wasn't right?" We relayed this information to Jefwfunk who was not impressed with this excuse. "NOW we know!! Not the proper response of a bonafide journalist methinks," was his comment. At this point we felt duty bound to take the side of our NewsDroid, pathetic little worm though it may be, and trashcan as it no doubt soon will be, pointing out that blindly copying other people's work without any effort to research the accuracy or otherwise has long been a tradition for journalists. Since the great unwashed seem to feel that anything printed in a newspaper must be true, why shouldn't journalists act as thought that were the case? There was no further reply forthcoming. I think he was stunned by the blinding logic of my argument.
The attempt by the Martian spokesthing, Abraham, Squire of Alliance, to convince the populace of Federation DataSpace that the Martians are harmless continues. His latest press release is full of laughable assertions that the damage and death caused by those alien interlopers over the centuries is accidental. We choose to print his press release in full since we trust our readers to be intelligent enough not to be taken in by this ridiculous propaganda.
Since when is killing Martians off by the hundreds a fate worse than death?? Having Martians as sovereigns is not such a bad thing. Look at me, I am kind and extremely friendly. We Martians have been given a bad rap. They say history is written by the winners of war. Well, I guess they are right. In my last letter you didn't respond as to why it is so important to eradicate the Martian culture. I understand that it is important to test your people, but isn't there a less, how do you say, violent way to test someone? Please, stop the killing of the innocent travelers who ended up on Horsell! The heat wave machines are just for keeping warm not killing. The chronofield was set up to prevent the introduction of germs into our ship. Please stop taking pieces of our ship, we won't be able to ever leave that time frame if you take all the broken pieces, our breached hull needs to be repaired. You should be warned that the masses inside the ship are currently trying to contact the High Council of Elders. They want to attack your dataspace with a full invasion force in retaliation! Sincerely,
The winners may write the history of a war, but the war between Federation DataSpace and the Martians is far from over. It has been waged for centuries, in all corners of the Galaxy, and it will not end until every single member of one species has been eradicated. Being on the side of the Federation, of course the Chronicle wishes that it's the Martians that are eradicated, and not us. We fully support the efforts of our brave Barons in staving off attack after attack by the time-travelling Martians who, having failed to win with outright warfare, have resorted to tampering with the very fabric of time itself to try and change history. The Martians in Horsell are not innocent travellers - they are violent and vicious soldiers. The heat rays are deadly weapons. Any attempt to pass them off as radiators is pathetic. The final paragraph of Abraham's press release gives the game away. This is a blatant threat that if we don't surrender to the Martians, they will send a full invasion force. I think it's clear where the lines are drawn. Fellow citizens of the DataSpace that we love, do not be fooled by the smiling face of this false emissary of the Martians. The only good Martian is a dead Martian, whether it's now, back in time, or in the future.
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