WHAT’S NEW IN THIS VERSION OF FEDTERM
by Hazed
Security Warning
When you run new FedTerm, Windows may give you a warning that the program comes from an unknown publisher. Just click the Run button to proceed. You may see a tick box that says Always Ask Before Running and if you untick that it will stop annoying you every time you run FedTerm.
Look and Feel
The first thing you will notice when you fire up new FedTerm is that it looks different. It has fewer panels on the page: the list of people and things in the room has gone, as has the top panel which used to display SpyNet Reports and player descriptions. Those things now all appear in the main text window instead. This makes the screen less cluttered and gives more room for the text in the output window.
The side panel on the left now shows your personal stats and your ship stats at the same time – this includes your weaponry, should you have any. You don’t have to switch between them. You can turn off this panel, to give more room to the main text window, using the Stats Panel item in the Options menu.
On the right, the movement arrows have moved to the bottom of the screen. This panel can also be turned off with an item in the Options menu.
The player list does not have a right-click menu yet – that will come later.
The tabs for Story and Scrollback have gone.
Movement and Maps
As well as typing in directions or clicking on the movement arrows, you can use the arrows on your keyboard to move around. The focus must be on the input panel, but it will only work if there is no text in it.
As you move around, the name of your current location displays in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, as does the planet you are on along with the PO’s name. No more forgetting where you are!
If you click on a location on the map (either the mini map on the main screen or the full map on the Maps tab) the name of that location appears in the status bar.
The map shows some locations in different colours: blue indicates that there are Up or Down movements from the location, green is for peace locations in space, and green with a blue dot means it’s an interstellar link.
If you switch to the Map tab you will see a full-screen map, but you can’t move around on this tab.
Exchange Tab
There is a new tab for use in exchanges. This displays prices and lets you buy and sell with the click of your mouse.
The top left of the screen gives the price for commodities one by one. The top right shows your cargo hold, listing all the containers in your ship, and telling you how much space you have left.
Underneath that is a smaller input/output window so you can still chat on the comms while you are in the exchange, as well as see the result of your transactions. Anything showing here will also appear on the main screen (and vice versa).
On the left is the really cool part. It’s a table which lists all of the commodities by category. For each commodity, there’s a column telling you whether the exchange is buying or selling, a column telling you how much is available, and one for the price.
As the ticker gives you a price, the details are filled in. You can get a price for any commodity that hasn’t been filled in yet, or update one that has, by double-clicking on its Price/Ton square.
To buy a container of a commodity, double-click on its Exch Sells square. If the purchase goes through, the container will appear on your cargo hold display.
To sell a container, double-click on its Exch Buys square.
You can choose to have FedTerm automatically switch to this tab when you walk into an exchange using Auto Switch to Exchange Tab in the Options menu.
F-Keys
In old FedTerm, the F1 key was run at start-up. Now, there’s a separate entry for the Start-Up commands, and F1 is just an extra f-key to run whenever you press it.
Exit Confirmation
Now you can choose whether FedTerm asks for confirmation when you close the program down, or just shuts down right away, using an item in the Options menu.
