Fed II Star - January 8, 2006

PLANETARY PROGRESS

Bella has been continuing to monitor planetary economies and thinks things are now running the way they should be, so promotion to Founder is getting close. At tomorrow morning's reset, all planets whose treasuries are negative will have the balances set to zero; positive balances will be left alone. This will be the last time the balances will be zeroed, so from now on all POs will have to start paying attention to their economies and tweaking the spread and stock levels to make sure they stay in the black - and, with any luck, make some money too. The Idiot's Guide to Fed II has a section on planetary economies that will remind you of the commands you need.

We plan to promote all existing planet-owners to Founder next weekend (assuming nothing happens to delay things...). What will happen when you become a Founder is that the company will sell all the shares it owns, with the proceeds being added to the company balance. The company will then be liquidated and all the cash will be distributed amongst the company's shareholders, with the portion belonging to the company's treasury stock and that belonging to the CEO personally going into the planet treasury. For all the existing POs, who already have planet treasuries, their share of the cash will be added to the groats already in the planet balance.

In the first instance, the promotions will be done manually, but then Bella will code in the actual promotion mechanism, and in next week's news we should be able to tell you the exact requirements.