Fed II Star - 2005 Review of the Year

OCTOBER

The month of October started with a momentous announcement - after years of work, Galactic Administration scientists, in conjunction with the Imperial Navy, the Magellan Society, and independent corporations Armstrong Cuthbert and TC&B, got the Interstellar Link working again. Initially there were two new star systems available - Arctica and Rigel 4. The 'JUMP' command shows a list of available destinations, and 'JUMP systemname' sends you through the link to your chosen destination - provided you have paid off your ship loan! 'DI SYSTEM systemname' gives more information about where you can go.

Aliens who had been trapped in Sol ever since the constant shift closed down the link many years ago made plans to travel back to their home worlds and see if any of their friends and relatives are still alive.

Armstrong Cuthbert started to offer cargo jobs to planets outside of the Solar System, with AC offices automatically opening up on all landing pads, although Akaturi couriers were not required to use the link to make their deliveries. AC also changed the way jobs are handled, so they now vanish from the workboard after a while if nobody wants to do them.

The Fed II Workbench was released - a set of Windows programs that let you design the maps for your planet, and specify messages such as a customized no-movement message. Along with the Workbench came a detailed manual written by Hazed, explaining how to use the software, and what you could and could not do, as well as what was required to make your planet files compatible with the game. Of course, nobody bothered to read it...

Mac users who were disappointed not to have a version of the Workbench they could use, were mollified by the addition of commands that allowed location names and descriptions to be changed from within the game. They could then save the commands so they would stick, or leave the maps to revert to their old state at reset.

As the month progressed, more out-of-Sol planets were added - first those designed by the test team and then those belonging to players who had reserved a planet name. Catspaws was the first player to have her star system rolled out.

The month ended with Halloween, and Diesel did what she always does given any excuse - she threw a party. There was also a special Halloween Scavenger Hunt event, where players were given clues leading them to hidden objects secreted all over the Solar System.