Official News page 4

DETAILS OF PERSISTENT OBJECTS

by Hazed

Now that most of the objects you find in Sol are persistent - that is, they do not vanish out of your inventory when the game resets - we can start doing some interesting things with them. The first thing is that we can have special objects available for a limited period, like the stardust you could get at last Sunday's Meteor Shower Party.

We can also have one-off objects only given to special people... like the prize mug given to Jezz by Freya for winning the last quiz. If you haven't seen Jezz's mug, ask her to show it to you.

You, too, can have special objects on your planet that are given out at special events, or as prizes for achievement - perhaps when somebody solves a puzzle. Once events are thrown open to players at Techno and above, you can write the events to add these objects to your planet; or if you don't want to wait that long, talk to me about a custom event and object, where I do the work in exchange for a payment of slithies.

Future plans for objects include even more exciting stuff. Remember the charms that you used to be able to buy from Gallaghers, the snooty store on Earth, to hang off your keyring? We're going to convert all your existing charms to objects, which means we will be able to put new charms on sale again (they were withdrawn before for technical reasons to do with running out of flags). We will also bring back the medallions that used to be sold by Family Jewels on the Moon.

Now that the weight of an object matters, there is a limit to how many things you can carry, even if each of them only has a weight of 1 unit. So we'll be adding an object storage locker to spaceships, in which you can stash the stuff you don't want to carry around with you right now. You will be able to choose which of your charms, souvenirs and prizes you show to other players, and which objects you keep in your inventory because they are useful.

Eventually we will add a display cabinet to planets so that POs have an alternative place to stash excess objects - one that allows visitors to the planet to see your trophies.

So objects are going to become much more valuable - in monetary terms, in that things like charms are bought with slithies, and also in social value because those that miss out on getting an exclusive item will be envious. This leads to the possibility that players might be tempted to trade objects outside of the game. Sure, Fed2 isn't the sort of game where you need tons of expensive equipment in order to operate, such as magic swords, armor, potions, plus-4 trousers of golfing and so on, so I don't think we will ever see the kind of trading that other games like World of Warcraft have.

So, here's the official bit. If you want to trade Fed2 objects with other players, offering them for sale, go ahead. But we take no responsibility for the results of your transaction - if you get cheated, it's nothing to do with us. You also need to be aware that if the planet an object comes from is removed from the game (because the player dies) any objects that come from that world will vanish. Also, if the PO takes the object template out of the planet's files, then that object will vanish too.

If any of you do manage to make money from selling Fed2 objects - well, please remember us, and spend some of your profit on slithies!

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