Official News page 2

PLUTOCRATS ARE GO

by Hazed

The test team have spent the last week trying to break the new Plutocrat code, and unfortunately they succeeded - they did their jobs in finding bugs which Alan then had to fix. I myself was guilty of breaking the code several times. No programmer likes to be told there are problems with his code, and Alan is no exception, but he gritted his teeth and found the cause of the various problems, so finally the code went live yesterday.

Unfortunately, one bug crept in regardless of all the testing: Plutocrats have unexpectedly found that they cannot trade on the exchanges. While you could make a case that they should just sit back and watch as their member POs do all the work, it's not what was intended, and will be fixed in the next couple of days.

The first real live Plutocrat was Oddball:

The Chicago system has just become the hub of the newly formed Chicago cartel!
Oddball has been elevated to the ranks of the plutocracy!

He's earned herself a place in the Hall of Fame (or Shame).

At the time of writing, we have 10 new cartels and the owners will now start touting for members. Expect to see all kinds of advertisements posted on the noticeboard! Of course, not all POs are going to be welcome:

Your comm unit crackles with a message from Hazed, "Pugwash is considering moving out of Sol. I wonder which Plutocrat she should inflict herself on?"
Your comm unit crackles with a message from Hazed, "Maybe she could take bribes to NOT join someone's cartel."

At the moment, Plutocrats can't do much with their cartels - they can accept members or reject them, but that's all. Next to come will be the ability to throw out existing members, and the tools to fiddle with tax rates and so on, as well as setting a membership fee.

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