IDIOT'S GUIDE TO FED2
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS
One of the things you will need to do in Fed is to form alliances with other players. Sure, you can make it in the Galaxy by being the strong, silent, loner type - but that might get boring in the long run! After all, Fed is a multi-player game, and you cannot ignore the presence of other players. What would be the fun in that?
One of the first things you need to know is how to communicate with other players. You can find out who else is in the game by typing 'WHO', which will list the current players showing their name and rank:
>who
Commander Bond
Groundhog Dork
Industrialist Hazed
Commander Ivanova
Adventurer Magellan
Commander Newbod
Captain Picard
Captain Pugwash
8 players
'QUICKWHO' or 'QW' will give a shorter version by simply showing the character names.
 |
>qw | |
|
||||
| Bond | Dork | Hazed | |
Ivanova | |||
| Magellan | Newbod | Picard | Pugwash | ||||
| 8 players |
If you want a more local version, 'WHO planetname' will tell you who is currently on the named planet, and 'WHO rank' lists the players of that rank in the game.
If you are talking to players in the same location you can use 'SAY message'. For example, if you type:
say hello everyone, can I buy you a drink?
the players in the same room as you will see:
Newbod says, "hello everyone, can I buy you a drink?"
'SAY ' can be replaced by a single or double quote; no closing quote is necessary.
All other messages are sent and received via your communicator, which is part of your personal kit when you start the game. There are a number of ways to communicate with players who are not in the same location - by sending your message to a named individual, to all players, or to specific groups of players.
The least selective level of communication is 'COM message' which broadcasts the message to every player in the game (provided they have their comm unit switched on). This is the most public way of talking in Fed, and conversations held on the comms are staff moderated.
Private conversations can be carried on using 'TELL playername message' which sends the message to the named player only. 'TELL' can be replaced by 'TB' - that's an abbreviation of tightbeam, which is how these messages are sent!
Somewhere between the two are transmitted messages. 'XT message' (XT is short for TRANSMIT) sends the message to all players tuned to the same comms channel, which allows players to separate up into groupings - small or large - to talk about specific subjects. Channels are created when they are needed, and vanish again when no-one is using them.
To tune to a channel, the command is 'JOIN CHANNEL channelname' - this will join you to an existing channel, or create a new one. You can see what channels already exist, and who is tuned to which one, with 'DISPLAY CHANNEL'. 'DISPLAY' can be shortened to 'DI'. To find out who is on a specific channel, type 'DI CHANNEL channelname'. To leave the channel, either join another one or use 'LEAVE CHANNEL'.
As you can imagine, it is possible to carry on a number of conversations simultaneously - some private, some public. To avoid embarrassment, the Idiot's Guide recommends that you learn to tell the difference between various levels of communication. Fortunately, your communicator can be a great help. For example:
Your comm unit crackles with a message from Newbod, "Hello everyone, what's happening?"
Indicates a message broadcast using 'COM'. Had the message been sent using 'XT', your communicator would 'relay a message'. For 'TELL' messages, your communicator 'signals a tight beam message'. Armed with this information, you should be able to avoid blushes!
