There is a new permanent puzzle in Fed II DataSpace. The Magellan Society, an organization that sponsors expeditions and explorations to new planets, are on a recruitment drive to gain new members, and as a test they have organized a treasure hunt that spans many planets in the Solar System. Those who complete the puzzle are granted membership in the society, as well as some little extras as a prize - including a voucher for a ten-day customs exemption certificate. Your name shows up on the SpyNet Review when you complete the puzzle, and the SpyNet Notice tells everyone you are a member of the society.
To start the puzzle, visit the Magellan Society Exhibition, in a new location in Earth's spaceport, and talk to Victor, who is in charge of running the treasure hunt. He will give you a succession of clues, each of which should guide you to a specific location. For each clue, when you find the correct location you will either be given an object, or you will have to pick up the correct object. Go back to the exhibition and Victor will take your object and give you the next clue.
The puzzle is aimed at Commanders and Captains, to encourage them to explore the planets. Anyone can do the puzzle, but those lower ranks get some extra help - they are told which planet each clue relates to. More experienced players are expected to be able to work that out for themselves.
You should be aware that none of the objects or solutions can be obtained by going through the tour of the Solar System, which is just holograms!
Don't worry if you don't finish the puzzle all at once - your progress is saved over resets, so you can carry on where you left off. If you lose an object that you haven't yet taken back to Victor, you can just go back and get another one.
Congratulations to Angel, who was the first player (outside the test team) to solve the puzzle and join the Magellan Society. Altogether, 21 people completed the puzzle in the first 24 hours.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
NEW PLANETS OPENING FOR BUSINESS
News now of two new planets offering trading opportunities, and a puzzle aimed at new players, that will be coming your way soon.
The first of the new planets is a space station orbiting Earth. The Magellan space station is owned by the Magellan Society, whose listing you can read in the Encyclopedia Galactica at http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/galactica/magellan.html. Lying so close to Earth, and yet not directly under its control, this privately owned space station is a haven for business people wishing to avoid Earth duties, as well as a popular vacation spot.
The Magellan space station is open now for exploration, and you will find it SW of Earth. Tomorrow the economic operations will open for business: Armstrong Cuthbert will be offering cargo and Akaturi jobs to and from the station, and the exchange will welcome Merchants and Traders, as well as CEOs looking for a place to build factories. Magellan's economic level will be Leisure.
The Magellan Society are keen to gain new members and they have thrown open the membership challenge to all comers. The challenge takes the form of a treasure hunt, where prospective members are given a clue that points them to a particular location on a particular planet, from where they have to obtain an item to return before they can receive the next clue. To encourage newbods, the Magellan Society will tell Commanders and Captains what planet each clue refers to - higher-ranking players are expected to have done enough exploration to figure out where they should start looking!
The treasure hunt will be opening some time in the next week - look out for details on the electronic bar board.
Some time in the next ten days, the shopping mall known as Paradise will also open its doors to the public. More usually found traversing the spaceways, making only brief spots at other planets, malfunctioning ion drives have forced the vessel to take up orbit around Venus until such time as repairs can be effected. Paradise will also offer full economic opportunities, at the Industrial level.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
The first of the new planets is a space station orbiting Earth. The Magellan space station is owned by the Magellan Society, whose listing you can read in the Encyclopedia Galactica at http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/galactica/magellan.html. Lying so close to Earth, and yet not directly under its control, this privately owned space station is a haven for business people wishing to avoid Earth duties, as well as a popular vacation spot.
The Magellan space station is open now for exploration, and you will find it SW of Earth. Tomorrow the economic operations will open for business: Armstrong Cuthbert will be offering cargo and Akaturi jobs to and from the station, and the exchange will welcome Merchants and Traders, as well as CEOs looking for a place to build factories. Magellan's economic level will be Leisure.
The Magellan Society are keen to gain new members and they have thrown open the membership challenge to all comers. The challenge takes the form of a treasure hunt, where prospective members are given a clue that points them to a particular location on a particular planet, from where they have to obtain an item to return before they can receive the next clue. To encourage newbods, the Magellan Society will tell Commanders and Captains what planet each clue refers to - higher-ranking players are expected to have done enough exploration to figure out where they should start looking!
The treasure hunt will be opening some time in the next week - look out for details on the electronic bar board.
Some time in the next ten days, the shopping mall known as Paradise will also open its doors to the public. More usually found traversing the spaceways, making only brief spots at other planets, malfunctioning ion drives have forced the vessel to take up orbit around Venus until such time as repairs can be effected. Paradise will also offer full economic opportunities, at the Industrial level.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
Thursday, April 07, 2005
FED PLAYER ON HBO2 -Thursday April 7
If anyone has HBO 2, you can catch Rocketmunkee on a rerun of the show "Carnivale", episode 17: "Creed, OK"
Rocketmunkee plays the "doting dad". Two great scenes. Thursday night, 04/07
Way to go, Rocketmunkee!!
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
Rocketmunkee plays the "doting dad". Two great scenes. Thursday night, 04/07
Way to go, Rocketmunkee!!
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
INVISIBLE OBJECTS
Fed II DataSpace is full of invisible objects. They are all around us, undetectable to the eye, but influencing our every move, and controlling what we do. Unseen, but oh so powerful.
No, this isn't a call for you to don your tinfoil hats to protect yourself from alien mindrays. It's an explanation of how some of the things you can do in Fed are programmed, and it's something you will be able to do yourself when we put in player planets and allow you to modify them.
Invisible objects in Fed allow you to use commands in a location that don't have to be programmed in the game. Think about how a visible object works - the tree on Mars, for example. The tree is an object and it has a command word attached to it, the word 'CLIMB'. That means you can type 'CLIMB TREE' and something happens.
Now walk up the road a little to Chez Diesel, and type 'PLAY PIANO'. The response you get is produced by exactly the same mechanism as climbing the tree, it's just that the object called piano is invisible, and instead of showing up on a separate line, it is mentioned in the room description. The effect for you, the player, is to allow you to manipulate things that are mentioned in the room description.
So why am I telling you this - apart from making all you wannabe planet designers drool with anticipation at the things you will be able to do?
Because the ability to have invisible objects is something that Our Illustrious Leader Bella invented for Fed II, and we now need to go back over all the existing locations and find the things mentioned in the descriptions which you would, logically, be able to do something with. We can then add in the necessary invisible objects to let you do just that. That's an on-going project that we are doing over time, but we need your help. As you walk around the planets, if you find something mentioned in a location that you think ought to let you do something, please mail feedback@ibgames.net and give us the details.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
No, this isn't a call for you to don your tinfoil hats to protect yourself from alien mindrays. It's an explanation of how some of the things you can do in Fed are programmed, and it's something you will be able to do yourself when we put in player planets and allow you to modify them.
Invisible objects in Fed allow you to use commands in a location that don't have to be programmed in the game. Think about how a visible object works - the tree on Mars, for example. The tree is an object and it has a command word attached to it, the word 'CLIMB'. That means you can type 'CLIMB TREE' and something happens.
Now walk up the road a little to Chez Diesel, and type 'PLAY PIANO'. The response you get is produced by exactly the same mechanism as climbing the tree, it's just that the object called piano is invisible, and instead of showing up on a separate line, it is mentioned in the room description. The effect for you, the player, is to allow you to manipulate things that are mentioned in the room description.
So why am I telling you this - apart from making all you wannabe planet designers drool with anticipation at the things you will be able to do?
Because the ability to have invisible objects is something that Our Illustrious Leader Bella invented for Fed II, and we now need to go back over all the existing locations and find the things mentioned in the descriptions which you would, logically, be able to do something with. We can then add in the necessary invisible objects to let you do just that. That's an on-going project that we are doing over time, but we need your help. As you walk around the planets, if you find something mentioned in a location that you think ought to let you do something, please mail feedback@ibgames.net and give us the details.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
THE SHAREHOLDERS ARE REVOLTING!
(And the CEO ain't so good, neither!)
One of the new features that Manufacturers have to cope with is a revolt of shareholders who are unhappy at the way the CEO is running the company. Our valiant test team were under instructions to encourage enough dissatisfaction to provoke a revolt, but they never expected it would happen quite as suddenly as it did!
As unexpected extra reset which Bella had to do to fix a problem saw this pop up on the SpyNet Review:
> spynet review
The Spynet Review - Being an account of births, deaths, promotions and other interesting happenings during the current session.
Bread & Roses has suffered from a shareholders' rebellion
Diamond Wine has suffered from a shareholders' rebellion
Merrie Maids has suffered from a shareholders' rebellion
At least the rebellion code will be getting a thorough testing!
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
One of the new features that Manufacturers have to cope with is a revolt of shareholders who are unhappy at the way the CEO is running the company. Our valiant test team were under instructions to encourage enough dissatisfaction to provoke a revolt, but they never expected it would happen quite as suddenly as it did!
As unexpected extra reset which Bella had to do to fix a problem saw this pop up on the SpyNet Review:
> spynet review
The Spynet Review - Being an account of births, deaths, promotions and other interesting happenings during the current session.
Bread & Roses has suffered from a shareholders' rebellion
Diamond Wine has suffered from a shareholders' rebellion
Merrie Maids has suffered from a shareholders' rebellion
At least the rebellion code will be getting a thorough testing!
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
NEW KEYRING CHARM FOR APRIL
Gallagher's, the up-market shop on Earth, has rearranged its merchandise again. You can now buy the special April keyring accessory, which is a gorgeous diamond containing a holo of a jester, in keeping with April Fool's Day. The charm will be available throughout April for the usual price of one slithy tove. If you don't have any slithy toves, you can buy them - they cost $10 for two slithies. To buy some slithies, go to http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/extras/index.html.
The March keyring accessory, the croquet mallet, has been taken off sale.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
The March keyring accessory, the croquet mallet, has been taken off sale.
Play Federation II
IBgames - We Build Worlds
http://www.ibgames.net/fed2/index.html
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