Sub Space Static 194


Classification: Open

******Subspace Static Week 7 Year 194******

TU changes

Player response has been pretty negative on TU changes. As a result nothing will be changed until an alternative scheme can be put together. I will keep you posted. A couple of players have asked that the FET be 'capped'; that is no new players are allowed to join it. This I am not going to do for the following reasons:
The FET are nowhere as big as everybody makes out.
The FET is large and efficient due to the skill of its leading players. I refuse to penalise them for doing a good job.
3. I refuse to dictate what affiliation a new player must join. He will just drop out if forced to play what he does not want to.
4. The new rulebook with its revised descriptions should help make the less popular groups more popular. Many at present suffer because their rulebook descriptions are a bit naff.

******Subspace Static Week 11 Year 194******

Confederate Assault

CIA forces have launched a ground assault against IMP St Petersburg. This was apparently in an attempt to reclaim debts owed the CIA by the IMP. A single CNF ship, the 'Karma', moved into St Petersburg's space square and was fired on by Imperial vessels. CIA ships moved to defend the 'Karma', though the battle was inconclusive.
The battle above the planet has apparently continued, with more IMP and CNF ships joining in and some fleeing the area.

Pirate Assault

It has been reported that RIP ships attacked and boarded an unarmed FET battlecruiser in the vicinity of the planet Mandy. A further RIP ship was destroyed by the colony Thermopyle whilst trying to take off from the same planet. It is unclear exactly what the RIP were trying to do on the planets surface, but it is unlikely tat they threw away a supra freighter for nothing.

Fredericksnager Falls

The GTT colony in Inferno has fallen to Flagritz forces after a savage three week bombardment. The IMP have recently made peace with the Flagritz, but it deems unlikely that they will just stand by and let human colonies be wiped out in this manner. What the GTT will do, if anything, remains to be seen. They certainly made no move to defend the colony before it fell.

Blockade Busted

IMP ships blockading the RIP colony of Barbary Coast fired on the two RIP ships that were seen trying to leave. An assortment of Confederacy ships, including BHD, CNF, Rat and DIE ships that 'just happened' to be in the area fired on the IMP vessels in 'defence' of their piratical allies. The Imp were, by all report, 'soundly trashed'.
It is believed that a number of IMP battlecruisers were boarded by the RIP, further increasing their potential to do harm.
This looks likely to cause wide scale war.

******Subspace Static Week 12 Year 194******

Confederacy Supports Pirates

Over the last few weeks the Confederacy affiliations, with the exception of the CIA, have openly shown that they are in support of the RIP. Firstly a large Confederacy fleet helped the pirates to break an Imperial blockade over the pirate colony Barbary Coast in the Misre system. This left a number of Imperial ships derelict. FET ships who later came to aid were shot at, and one was destroyed.
If this were not enough, the CNF itself has been supplying troops to a RIP ground party that is, as I write, assaulting an FET colony in the Ruin system. That the colony has held out against such assaults for the last three weeks is only due to the skill and determination of the defenders and it looks likely that the colony will fall.
The open support that has been offered to the RIP has got back to the EEM HQ in the core Empire and its Chairman, Gerald P Quickelshank, make an extremely long and turgid announcement which is paraphrased below:
'The open support of outlaws of all kinds, including the RIP, cannot be tolerated. Though the EEM remains neutral in any conflict between the Imperial and the Confederacy, it must step in when such a conflict goes beyond the bounds of political war. The RIP is the enemy of trade and the enemy of the EEM.
'Were the conflict in Ruin to have been initiated by the CNF via a legitimate position then there would be no case for this office to intervene. The assistance given to the RIP in Misre is completely reprehensible and as such must be punished.
'Forthwith, I have instructed the governor of EEM Thorn to withhold all trading rights from all Confederacy ships except those of the CIA, which took no part in any RIP supporting attack. With this one exception no Confederacy ship will be allowed to dock at EEM Thorn and no upgrades will be available. This embargo will be left on a case basis when the injured parties inform me that restitution has been made.
'I would like to point out again that these measures are not aimed at the Confederacy in particular and will be levelled at any affiliation aiding the RIP.' Meanwhile, in response to the threat posed by the Confederacy/RIP alliance, the FET PD Ahad 'Dubious' Jones has announced an exclusion zone around all of his affiliations colonies. Henceforth any Confederate affiliation other than the CA entering orbit will be fired upon.

War over Windward

The CIA assault on St Petersburg seems to have ground o a halt. The few CIA ships in orbit were beaten off by a much superior IMP fleet. Though a state of war between IMP and CIA still exists in the Windward space square and on the planets surface, it looks like all is winding down.

Viceroy Claims Capellan Periphery

The new Imperial Viceroy has claimed the whole of the Capellan periphery in the name of the Emperor. He has stated that any Confederacy ship or colony found within the periphery will be posted. With the recent decimation of the IMP fleet this could be hard to live up to, but it is only responding in kind to similar dictates by the CNF Prelate Thebian D'Kerrigan.

******Subspace Static Week 13 Year 194******

Hardpoint to Close

The EEM has noted that, for security reasons, their colony on Dogleg known as Hardpoint will be closed to all but trainee starcaptains as of week 20.

RIP Bounty

The EEM has announced that it will pay a 10000 stellar bounty to any starship captain responsible for the destruction of any pirate vessel. 100000 will be paid for the termination of the Pirate King himself.

New Harmony Church

The NHC is coming to the periphery in order to set up a centre for meditation and prayer on a hospitable world. The church desires a world with a breathable atmosphere and a good food source and transportation of 1000 colonists and 48BCM to that world. The church is willing to to pay up to 1 million stellars for the right location and transportation there.
The church is noted for its production of artworks of a religious nature and healing stones which are in great demand in the Core empire.
A representative of the church will wish to view all potential worlds before deciding which to choose. The final decision is expected to be reached by week 30.
Apply at Hypso or thorn where a representative of the church may be met.

More Drivel from the Ref

New Turns

A new turn form is soon to be available for BSE. These will be submitted on special turncards which will be circulated to you when the scheme starts.
These cards will have space for 10 orders only and special actions and surface explorations will not be permitted on them. They will, however, only be charged at 2.50. A 140TU turn on the same card, with the same order limit, will cost 4.00.
You will be free to use the cards of ordinary turn sheets, which will be charged as per normal. You can swoop between cards and sheets with the same position as you see fit. This is basically in order to allow players to submit turns that are easier to process at a cheaper rate.
Only turns on these cards, or on a fax of them, will be eligible for the discount.
The cards will be sent out as soon as they are printed with your turns. You may use them once you have got them.

'It's Not Fair'

This is the theme of many letters I have had over the year or so I have run BSE. These letters always focus on either how powerful another affiliation is or how weak your own one is. Frankly, they are tedious. There has also yet to be one with much more than a shred of justification in it. This is not because the player concerned is stupid, but because he only knows one side of the story.
The nature of BSE makes it a varied and complex game. There are many interactions between positions, both player and non player every week and many of these change circumstances within the game. This means that very little in the game is static and very little open to absolute referee control.
The game world was set up by KJC and new elements have been introduced by me. Those elements have always been balanced and the original set-up was fair. The original set-up of the Confederacy was comparable with the state of the Empire at the time.
This set-up has subsequently been altered by the players. The DTR was almost wiped out by disastrous play by the PD at the time and as a result is a very weak affiliation. Letters from the DTR PD saying 'It's not fair, we are very weak', however they are dressed up, do not cut a lot of ice because the DTR get itself that way.
I have picked on the DTR unfairly. I have had letters from almost every affiliation in a similar vein. In almost every case the writer has listed the things he wants me to give him to make up for this terrible unfairness and/or a list of rule changes to give him a fighting chance. I had thought I would paraphrase a few of them here, but there are just too many and some of them are just too embarrassing for those involved.
Please remember that there are two sides to every story and you probably only know one of them. Not so long ago everyone was complaining about how tough the Flagritz were. I have toughened them up and given them to player control Just ask them about how powerful they are. You only ever see your own disadvantages and other players advantages.
In short, the game is very complex evolving organism. You make your own breaks I do not give anything away. If someone is doing better than you it is because they are smarter, or luckier or have been at it longer. And the person who you think is doing better than you is probably writing in even now to complain about how powerful YOU are.
In future and 'It's not fair letters' will be answered through subspace static in an open manner, point by point. If you do write in this vein, make sure you are right, or you are going to look mighty silly. I think this will help everyone put their position in the game into perspective.
Sorry about that, I know most of you know all that anyway, and I am as guilty as the next man when I play games.

******Subspace Static Week 14 Year 194******

Freedom City, a colony between Imperial and Confederacy space and a long standing sore to the empire has been assaulted and shelled by a force of 14 Imperial star destroyers. FET, DNF and SSL ships in the area were also fired upon and destroyed. Some RAT ships were presumed present but somehow escaped combat.
The colony was the personal property of Dodgy Dave Munroe, an entrepreneur who set up Freedom City as a neutral trading point where anything and everything were considered as legal as long as they did not interfere with business. Despite the colony flouting Imperial law, it took more than 15 years for the IMP to launch an assault on it, perhaps due to the renown of Munroe's top pilot, an individual known only as 'Hunter'. Hunter is believed to be a psychic capable of tracking any ship and taking it out. (S)he flies a custom ship called the 'Slipstream'.
Perhaps, also, Dodgy Dave's relation by marriage to the FET Chief Exec, his appearances at Samuel's court and that he is reputed to be the only man to be 'made' by the SSL Godfather and remain outside the family may have added to his survivability. Neither Munroe nor Hunter were caught in the attack. Munroe is known to be the only private individual to control an Instellar Freighter, that being the kind of ship used by the EEM to trade between the Peripheries and the core Empire. Only six exist, five of them being EEM. The tale of how Munroe got one is a saga in itself.
It is believed he has evacuated, possibly to the Capellan or Darkfold periphery, and there will no doubt intend to start up trading again, using his connections with the core empire to smuggle back a variety of illegal substances.
The EEM has posted a 10 million stellar reward for Dave, dead or alive. 1 million rides on Hunter.
The Emperor has issued a statement indicating that Munroe has been 'hounded out of known space' and that he matter should be allowed to rest at present.

Confederate Reparations

Confederate Prelate and Bad Boy of the peripheries Thebian D'Kerrigan has announced his willingness to make amends following his blatant co-operation with the pirates in Misre. He is believed to have made 3 Battleships available to the IMP.

New Ship Classes

The head of the Imperial Shipyards on Earth has announced that he is willing to release Frigate designs to the Imperials. Following this announcement a number of other groups and affiliations have made similar offers so that most affiliations seem likely to receive access to some new class of ship. All of them, unfortunately will need 7 shipyards to build Further details will be announced next week.

Fallow ground

Both the IMP and FET have announced limited declarations of war, against Confederacy ships, within the orbit and space square of the planet Fallow. Fallow is an important source of thorlium ore and it looks like a bit of claim jumping has been going on at the instigation of the DIE.

Proof-reader Dies in Bizarre Accident

The proof-reader for Subspace Static, Gordon Gombola, was killed today. A large group or irate journalists grabbed him where he sat drinking coffee in our Hypso offices and demanded to know exactly what he did for a living. They pointed out that he was certainly not a proof-reader as 'Static' is always riven with spelling and typing errors.
Unable to offer an explanation for this state of affairs, Gordon tried to flee, only to fall from a window and die in the oceans of Utopia, 411 floors below.

******Subspace Static Week 15 Year 194******

Detinus for Sale

The EEM has announced its willingness to part with what is left of the colony Detinus. This primarily consists of a large number of colonists, plus a few troops. Whoever takes over the colony must be willing to guarantee the freedom of the colonists and it will not be sold to FET or IMP. Offers of over 1 million stellars are being considered.
The EEM would also like to remind everyone that Hardpoint will be closed to non trainee starcaptains from week 20. No Hiport will be found here.

Rubis Price Rise

The Kastorians have announced that the cost of enhanced landing software at Rubis will rise from 10000 to 30000 stellars n week 20. They would also like to warn people that any affiliation attempting to copy this technology will be considered hostile and banned from yank.

Isolated Skirmishes

There have been skirmishes involving DIE ships and colonies in the Capella periphery. Reports indicate that the DIE has an 'open' contract on the FET to which they have responded by posting any DIE ships seen in the Capellan periphery. The IMP is known to have posted a DIE colony, Outreach, which is in the Capellan periphery, though it is not publicly known where at this time.
This is in addition to the 'state of war' currently in existence around Fallow.

EEM Embargo

The EEM embargo on certain Confederacy affiliations is still in force. The EEM has announced that the Imp has been unreasonably intractable on this point and will be setting its own reparation levels in week 16 if no settlement is reached. Officials indicated that the IMP were trying to use the embargo to force Confederacy ships out of the Capellan periphery and that this was not the spirit the embargo was intended in.

Ref Waffle

The new turncards should be with you together wit a sheet detailing how that effect the prices. Although the new system officially started in 1/4/94 the new prices do not apply unless turns are sent back on the cards themselves: no 'backdating' will be allowed. The new ship classes have been slightly delayed because of my somewhat busy schedule and my having had a couple of days off. They should be with you next week when I have worked out the hull configurations.
You can expect some delays due to the bank holiday. I worked both days, so this should not be so bad, but as there was no post the turns were late going out.
I still get an awful lot of turns with no names/position numbers/account numbers on them. Please make sure all of these section are filled out on your turns or they may not get processed.
One 'It's not fair' from Simon Gough. He says it is not fair that IND starcaptains do not get promoted. Well, Simon, as you are not part of an organisation that has hanks it is quite difficult to get 'promoted'. Furthermore it is totally your choice to be independent. There are plenty of affiliations around to choose from and many of these will let you do 'your own thing'. I agree that some part of promotions also reflects experience. Most of it, I would suspect, represents training. I am sure that captains are busy brushing up on procedures, as supplies to them by their affiliation. Nobody is going to bother briefing a loner.
Being an independent is hard and I do not recommend it. You should always join an affiliation, even if you go your own way within it. If you want to be IND then you have to suffer the consequences. If may not be fair, but it is your choice.

******Subspace Static Week 16 Year 194******

Ship Design Imminent

The new ship designs, to be released by the core Empire and Confederacy, should be available to Periphery affiliations within the week. A full rundown of these ship types will be available in a special supplement to be released via sss in the very near future.

War Called Off

The FET would like to announce that they did not declare war in the orbit of the planet Fallow. We have to apologise for this piece of miss-reporting, but it was Gordon's fault anyway. The IMP, happy with the results over Fallow, have called the whole thing off. Reports are coming in that an IMP/FET/SMS task force has heavily hit a trio of DIE ships ver the planet Egghead. This underlines the IMP policy of posting any DIE ships found within Imperial space. It is commonly believed that DIE has a blanked contract against the IMP and FET.

EEM Sanctions

The EEM directorate has announced that it will lift sanctions against the CNF as it considers its debt paid off. They have further fixed the reparations payable by other affiliations as 50000 stellars each to IMP and FET. Sanctions to be lifted upon payment. CIA is excluded from this as no sanction were levied. RAT as no need to pay FET as Ahab Jones dismissed the debt to them.
This fixing follows an attempt by the IMP Viceroy to force Confederacy vessels out of the Capellan periphery using the sanctions as a threat. EEM Director Quickleshank stated that 'the EEM will not be used as a lever is periphery power struggles. Our only concern is the destruction of the pirates'.

******Subspace Static Week 17 Year 194******

This is mostly 'out of game' type news this week.

New Ship Designs Released

From the naval architects of Empire and Confederacy has come an assortment of new ship types which affiliations will be able to build or perform upgrades to. These upgrades can only be done at affiliation shipyards of class 7 or higher. They follow all the usual rules for upgrades. A shipyard must authorise the hulls etc. Ships not of the affiliation performing the upgrade may be upgraded in this manner: you can 'trade' upgrade ships. None of these upgrades are available at Hypso: they are player controlled only.
The ship class, affiliations which can build them and configurations are listed below. There are special abilities which pertain to some classes which are detailed underneath the list.

Indiamanclass 164-75-17GTT
Frigateclass 1720-58-20IMP, CNF, DTR
Predatorclass 2216-32-20RIP, DIE
Belterclass 258-22-12SMS
Free Traderclass 266-40-15AFT
Courierclass 2710-39-15SSL
Deep Explorerclass 289-28-18FET
Infiltratorclass 2910-25-18CIA
Templarclass 3013-45-15BHD
Runnerclass 314-32-17RAT
Hulkclass 328-35-9DNA


The Indiaman is the only one of these ships which is merchant class.
The Belter may perform sector GPI for 7TU only
The Free Trader may jump for 15TU
The Courier may be considered to have 200 extra jammers
The Deep Explorer is considered to always be carrying bio and physics labs for exploration purposes
The Infiltrator can cloak itself for 6TU
The Runner, in the hands of an affiliation which can cloak as a special, may cloak itself for 12 TU.
The Templar can carry 20 lifeforms per life support.
The Hulk, being a thrown together heap needs only a class 1 starport to be built.

Please also note that class 35, the Flagritz Scout, will not be called Scout explorer and that 36, Flagritz Baseship is just to be called Baseship. This is to allow them to be used by other aliens in the future. The name change will only apply to ships started from now on. The FGZ are not to be given new ship types, and after deliberation, I do not believe that they ever shall be.
The above classes have been considered in depth. I will not enter into 'It's not fair' discussions regarding them as they are meant to reflect the nature of your affiliation and balance your special abilities. [note that some were changed...]

It's Not Fair

Thomas Moe, of the DIE, was jumped in his three unarmed ships whilst in the orbit of Egghead and pretty much wiped out by a huge IMP/FET/SMS fleet. Thomas is rather upset about this (understandably) and has said 'I will not sit idle and let either you (the GM) or the offending parties get away with this travesty.' He goes on to suggest I use his letter in this column, so I am.
Thomas says he should not have been attacked. His first point is that he was nowhere near the 'warzone' around Fallow. He is correct, and this is not why he was attacked. He goes onto say that he was not posted and that there was no grounds to do so. Here he is wrong: he was posted and there were grounds.
The DIE had recently been stealing outposts. The IMP and FET also had reason to believe that the DIE had a contract against all IMP and FET ships. I am fully aware of how they came to this conclusion, though I think it should remain secret.
A policy of posting DIE ships in the Capellan periphery was thus begun in the interests of self defence, I allowed this posting. Three of the ships posted belonged to Thomas. He may not have been involved directly in any of the things the IMP/FET/SMS wanted to stop, but as a member of the DIE he was suspect and thus liable for posting. This was not a declaration of war against the DIE, as only those ships which were sited in the Capellan periphery were posted.
Thomas argues that he was 'defenceless'. Anyone who has played the game knows that any ship can become armed very quickly, or set up hostile colonies or ground parties. It is a sham that Thomas has been blown up as he himself did very little to deserve it. The only thing I would say is that as a member of a group of mercenaries which had for some time shown themselves to be opposed to the IMP both by word and deed it is fairly na've to think you can swan around IMP space and not get shot at.
Please not that I have only dealt with the game RULES here. In game actions and objections have to be done,....well....

******Subspace Static Week 20 Year 194******

Massive Assault on Outreach

A massive attack, consisting of over 30 GTT, FET and IMP vessels assaulted the DIE colony of Outreach in the Adamski system. The governor of this colony has repeatedly protested that he has Imperial permission to be there but has been unable to produce any evidence of this. It seems likely that his protestations will now end as he is unlikely to have survived the total destruction of his colony.

KAS Considering Offer

The Kastorians are currently said to be considering an offer made my GTT Commercial Director Reggie Perrin that might well be the answer they are looking for. Undecided as yet, the colony at Rubis remains as it is.

EEM Business

The EEM would like to point out that Hardpoint is now closed to any non trainee starcaptain. Detinus has also been provisionally sold to the GTT, though it will not be handed over officially for a week or two. It will keep its current market until then.

Stuff and Nonsense

I am on holiday from the 7th to the 17th of this month in order to go to the London PBM Con and to TSR's Gencon at Camber Sands. Hopefully I will see some of you at one or both of these events (Yes, I know it is a dull excuse for a holiday, but I just don't have a life).
As such Kevin will be doing the turns. As he is not au fait with everything that is going on you might find the odd turn is delayed until me return.
Some of the political printouts run off today (6th May) were corrupted. As such a very few of you, with very high political numbers, may not receive printouts. Sorry folks.

******Subspace Static Week 27 Year 194******

A new issue of the Intergalactic News for June is now available. A cope should be enclosed with your turn but if not please ask for a copy. It seems that not all players in BSE received a copy of the May/June issue of KJC News. If this applies to you, again ask for your free copy.
It looks like there is going to be a prolonged train dispute in the UK. As most mail is moved around the country by train this is going to mean delays in deliveries. However, the Royal Mail say that they are going to move much more by road so we will have to wait and see what happens. First signs do not look very promising for UK mail. Overseas mail does not seem to be effected and in fact could be improved. We have had a letter collection from our office at six o'clock at night delivered by noon the following day in Oslo!

******Subspace Static Week 29 Year 194 (part missing)******

New Harmony Church

The NHC has accepted a very low bid for the creation of it's colony, which will be within the Capellan periphery. It is willing to consider offers from Darkfold affiliations for alternative sites provided that a low fee can be arranged.

******Subspace Static Week 36 Year 194******

Colony Seeks Governor

The Ex SSL colony Corleone, located on the planet Degus in the Capellan system is appealing for a governor. The colonists clam that the SSL has abandoned them and are calling for someone to take over who will actually supply the colony.
The colony is on the site of an old equipment dump left behind by early periphery explorers and the colonists state that they have exploited this completely ad are set up for rapid and sustained growth.
Applications should call in person to Coreone and make the colonists an offer. The EEM would like to point out that an affiliation may only own two colonies in the Capellan system and so this offer is not open to the FTT and GTT. Obviously only Imperial affiliations need apply.

New Harmony Colony Founded

The first NHC colony has been founded in the Capellan periphery. Its location is not yet public knowledge, but the colony will be buying monks (which are available from Hypso) and selling heaven stones....which Hypso is buying.
The church asks that no BHD vessels call and that their vows of pacifism be respected.

Postcards from the Edge

I am back from my holiday and yes, I had a really good time. Sorry for any small delays that might have happened whilst I was absent.
The big subject for debate seems to be the CIA destruction of the shipyards at Jax. A large amount of slightly erroneous information has circulated about this. To make a few things clear:
Jax was NOT at SC level 9 when the attack was ordered.
The chance of the order working was very small.
The chance of it working again is even smaller. As with all things in BSE, the first time something is tried it benefits from a 'surprise' element. People watch out for it in the future.
Several players have commented that massive amounts of explosive must have been used to destroy the yards. I suggest these people take a reality pill; small amounts of explosives in the right place can bring a huge structure crashing down. A large number of modules were salvaged by the governor.
It is not purely a CIA prerogative to do special actions with agents. Anyone can. The agent hiring is the CIAs SOLE special ability. When they use it, people complain. When the FET used their special some time back to take a DTR colony, people complained. I have not seen the CIA complain because the IMP use their combat advantage to blow them up. The CIA have complained about the IMP ability to put up their security level at little morale loss and thus pretty much invalidate the only thing that the CIA can do. The CIA have some justification in this, though not enough that anything will be changed.
I would like to note that if anyone has any complaints about the game please send them my way and I will deal with them. It is often that the player cannot see the whole picture and is jumping to conclusions. More commonly it is that out and out lies spread by a number of players get treated as true by others.
Please remember: if I do not know anything about things you are worried about then I can do nothing to explain or remedy the situation.
Enough ranting. One last point, to those of you on CompuServe. My address is a personal one, not a work one. Mail send there MIGHT get replied to, but if it does it is on my own time, and my own bill. You are probably better communicating with me via the PBM FORUM. I get about 20 mailings (boy I'm popular) a day from various sources and replying to BSE (work) is at the bottom of the list!

Game Updates

As of this Friday (2/9/94) we have implemented the new program for BSE. This will mean a number of changes which are now in effect.
Most obviously, the printouts have changed. They look rather good as they are (they have been changed to HPLJ mode from Epson to take advantages of the capabilities of the laser printer), but will be further updated to put more graphics in the turn response.
Planet maps have likewise been updated and now broadly show the type of terrain present in each sector. The terrain is divided into water (including shallows, mud, marsh and sea), vegetation (grasslands, forest, jungle etc) urban and 'rock' (everything else). To narrow the types of terrain down further you will still need to map a sector. We will soon add routines which show where colonies are on the planet map too.
Some printouts will look odd for a couple of weeks. This is because 'between turn' adjustments are written to a text file and then printed out when the turn is run. Because the text file has been fed Epson stuff before, and is now printing n HPLJ mode, you will find that some turns will have large blank spaces between printing. This will soon sort itself out and is pretty much unavoidable. No information will be lost to you.
Colonies short of food have had their death rates corrected: starving populations will decrease much faster. Sorry for not warning you about this one: it was unavoidable. Anyway, you should have fed your people properly!
Death rates are now expressed as a percentage.
Colony levels 9 and 10 are now working properly and you can build class 9 and 10 shipyards, assuming that you wanted to. The ICM costs of shipyards double as the level increases: class 9 is 1280 ICM and class 10 is 2560 ICM.
Gambling complexes have been changed in two ways: the odds now slightly favour the colony, but positions have a small chance of making a big win (the colony should still make a profit overall). The morale benefit from gambling complexes has been increased. When a ship pays for maintenance at a colony the colony gets the 250 stellars paid for maintenance. The colony does not get the money paid to the crew (obviously).
The description given out to ships landing at a colony is now printed on the colony turn. One political position in each affiliation may be picked as 'recruitment officer'. He will get a lost of all trainee start-ups in the last month. The PD should write in and select a political position to gain the list.

******Subspace Static Week 39 Year 194******

Imperials Board CIA Trader

Imperial forces have boarded a CIA trader that was at rest in the SSL colony Al Dante. The CIA have claimed that the IMP have given them the right to 'service their outposts' in the Capellan systems. The IMP claim that the CIA have used this as a blanket excuse for all sorts of nefarious actions within the Capellan Periphery. Whoever is right, it is a fact that the IMPs are now in possession of a CIA supra freighter.

Stuff 'n Nonsense

BSE should have an automated accounts procedure from next week. This will mean that all funds for KJC games are held on a central account. KJC in general gives a 10% bonus to all payments of 50 pounds or greater. For BSE the bonus has previously been given at 45 pounds, but this will now have to be increased to 50 quid, in line with the other games. If you have a standing credit card debit of 45.00 pounds I will try to increase it automatically to 50 so tat you can get the bonus. I may miss you, however, so it would be just as well if you wrote in to say you want your debit increased.
Reaction to the new look turns has been good. Some of you may still be getting the odd turn which is interspersed with great chunks of empty paper. This will dwindle away in time.
The September issue of IGN should be enclosed with this turn. It if is not then drop me a note. If you are reading this after the end of September then we are probably out of IGN.

******Subspace Static Week 40 year 194 - 26th September 1994******

Justin has left KJC and so I, Kevin Cropper, will be doing the turns for a while. Justin was going to be leaving BSE in any case to work on a new game we were going to begin writing. This project has now been delayed.
The game turn around or the actual game itself should not be effected unless you are in the middle of some complex plot. Please bear in mind when doing special actions that the previous replies will have been done by Justin and while I have an idea as to what was going on I might not know the whole picture.
My aim for BSE is to sort out all the remaining small bugs, finish the new rulebook, produce an affiliation booklet and then heavily promote BSE. I want BSE to be the flagship game of KJC. For the record I see BSE as a power game, not a computer assisted role-playing game.
If anybody has any thought son how the game can be improved or should be changed drop me a note. I can be contacted at KJC on the normal number.

******Subspace Static Week 41 Year 194 - 1st October 1994******

Both sides in the dispute around the Alien Artefact seemed to want peace this week but an Imperial vessel moving into the orbit around the planet spotted a ship on the IMP posted list and opened fire. The orbiting CIA Pocket Battleship Empress Sarah gave supporting fire to its attacked sister vessel. Fire further IMP vessels then joined the battle but although several other CIA ships were in the vicinity, they chose to stay out of the battle. In the skirmish, several vessels took minor damage with the exception of the IMP vessel which started the fight. This ship was directed. Further battles look to be certain but both sides seem to want to keep this a limited war area - possibly!

The SSL colony Corleone (2273) in Capella has been looking for a new colony governor (owner). Any interested parties please get in touch by the end of week 43.

***Game News***

New programs were added at the end of last week which tidied a few more bits up. From now on, reminder messages will be printed on turns when the latest Intergalactic News (IGN) is out, similarly with KJC news. This should stop people missing them. The current issue is September and you should already have a copy. If not please ask for one. Along with this, there are a few other things which we have sorted out, most of which will go unnoticed. The main one is that when you land on a planet surface (not in a colony) you will be told the terrain type of where you have landed.

Now that we have much bigger ships in the game, we have changed shield factors for colonies slightly. Previously they were; the first 100 shields were worth 20 each, the next 100 were worth 10 and the third 100 were worth 5 with the rest worth just 2 each. We have changed the third stage so that the 5 points stage increases to 201 to 1000 shields with any over this worth 2.
One quick thing we plan on adding in the next couple of days is a symbol for a Hiport. You will then be able to tell at a glance which colonies have hiports and which do not.

Quite a few people do not seem to know the numbers for the new affiliations. They are:
RIP=17, FGZ=26, DNA=66, CNF=65, CIA=64, DIE=62, BHD=63, RAT=61, IND=14
Please use these numbers if you want to put them on your starport/enemy lists. Thanks.

There is a new ship set-up form for starting extra ships. One should be enclosed.

I have been thinking of changing the week dates for BSE so instead of starting the new week on Monday, it starts on Thursday. At the moment, we run the colonies Friday dinner so turns which arrive Saturday are presumed to have arrived Monday. If the new week started on Thursday, we would process Thursday first post, do the battles, colonies and political printouts if due, and then have the rest of Thursday and Friday to get the held over turns processed. This should mean that you get your turns back for the weekend instead of the middle of the week. It would also be better for us as Monday/Tuesday are the busy days with the other games as that is when the weekend post hits us. Let me know what you think.

Research - this seems to be the main area of concern. At the moment, colonies produce research points from what are effectively special complexes. I personally favour changing the rules so that a research centre is a specific starport complex. The number you could build would depend in the size of your colony and each one you add would cost more than the previous one. Sort of like a single complex wool be like a husband and wife research team but as you increase the size of the unit, you have administration and high equipment costs so it costs progressively more. On the plus side you could then have five instead of four different things produced from your special complexes.
The number of different restricted items which could be produced from a colony could be based on the colony size, not restricted to three. Also, the number of research points which an item costs should b based on the item, not a general 1000. If you have any thoughts on research, please let us know.
One thing which we have added, is a record for what a colony is researching. If you own a colony and you are researching an item could you let me know what it is (with proof please!) so I can register it. Thanks.

Finally, thanks to all the people who have been in touch to wish me luck. There is certainly a lot which need to be done but we'll get there.