| 3,496. That's how many paperclips I found in the Fed2 Star office. That includes all the ones on all on the desks, and in all the drawers, even in the locked drawers, which I had to unlock just to check the paperclips, although I swear I didn't look at any of the secret and private things in Hazed's desk drawers, and all the paperclips on the floor underneath the desks, and all the ones that had been swept into the corners and the nooks and the crannies when the cleaning droid last did its job in here.
Whoops. 3,495. I just broke one.
Anyway, it's been a boring few days in the office, and while all the other newsdroids have been enjoying their rest - no doubt getting their tubes rebored and their sensors polished - and Hazed has been lying back being fed chocolate by her acolytes, I've been holding the fort in case there's some breaking news that just can't wait until everyone else gets back from their extended break.
As it happens, I have some odds and ends to report, but in my opinion it all could have waited. I mean, what's the emergency with all of this stuff? Well, I'll let you judge for yourselves...
NEW VERSION OF TESLA PLANET CHECKER
A new version of Tesla for Windows has been released. This is the program that checks your planet files and tells you if there are any errors that would cause problems in the game, or stop the files from being loaded.
All POs need to have the most up to date version of Tesla, and you need to run your files through it before submitting them to us. Every time. Even if you have only changed one teeny, tiny little thing.
The first thing we do with new planet files sent to us is to run them through Tesla. If Tesla reports an error, we just chuck the files straight back at you to be fixed. So you might as well save time and effort, and use the checker in the first place!
The latest version is 1.05. It has some new checks which it counts as errors:
- Filenames with spaces in them
- Map titles that contain characters that are not letters or numbers
- Map titles that have capital letters in the wrong places
- Locations with Sol-only properties on them (ie courier and pickup)
- Locations with no-exit messages in the wrong format
An error is something dangerous that has to be fixed - Tesla will stop dead when it finds an error, so you need to fix the problem it tells you about then run the checker again, at which point it'll tell you about the next error - just keep doing this until no more errors show up.
This version of Tesla also warns you about locations which are up against the edge of the map. We prefer that planets don't have locations positioned like this (apart from location 0 which is the storeroom) for two reasons. The first is that it messes up the map display on FedTerm; the second is that it doesn't give you any room to expand the planet in that direction. Tesla counts this as a warning, not as an error, which means it's not fatal - but if you submit a planet with locations against the edge, we'll probably ask you to move them.
You can download the new version of Tesla here.
NEW LOCATION AND MESSAGE EDITORS
There are also new versions of the two main tools in the Workbench - the location editor and the message editor.
The message editor is version 1.20 and this version of the editor fixes a problem where at some screen resolutions, the message editor window is not large enough to display all of the buttons.
The location editor is version 2.01 and it adds several new features:
- Planet Map button - this reverses the effect of the Space Map button so you can remove all the space flags if you add them by mistake
- Location vocab - combined with events, this allows single-word commands to be added to the location
- Custom property - this allows you to designate a location or set of locations as a certain type which you can then check for using events
None of these are desperately significant to those designing planets - the last two items only apply to people writing events, which are not released to players yet. So these upgrades are not compulsory. Still, if you want to stay up to date with the very latest tools, you can get an upgrade to the Workbench editors here.
PS - there is one more addition to the location editor, but it's not something that you should use. There are two new location properties: courier and pickup. These are labelled Sol only, for good reason: they can only be used on planets in the Solar System. Until now, there have been two different versions of all of the editors, one for staff use when editing Sol planets, and one for players to use on their own planets. But it's not easy, maintaining two different sets of editors, so from now on they are being combined. This means the two Sol only properties have shown up on the player location editor - but don't use them. If you do, Tesla will count them as an error, which means your planet won't be put into the game.
WORKBENCH MANUAL UPDATED
Now this is rather more significant. The manual that tells you all about how to design a planet has been updated. Not only does it take in the new features added to the editors, it has also been clarified - we hope - so that it is easier to follow.
Everyone who is working on a planet needs to download the most up to date version of the manual and have it to hand. You can get it here.
MEET AND GREET WITH BELLA LOG PUBLISHED
Last night, we were privileged to have Bella as the guest for the Meet and Greet at Chez Diesel's with Jezz as the guest host. It was a fascinating discussion including some of Bella's thoughts on the origins of the Fed universe, what lies ahead for us and what the Green Goddess herself has learned from watching all of you. This is a must read for anyone who couldn't be at the event.
Read the log of the session here.
A NEW WAY OF LISTING INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDS
For those climbing the PO ranks, wondering which infrastructure build to do next, there's a new page in the manual which will help. This lists all of the builds and splits them into the economic levels at which you can first do them.
So as a new Founder, you know you only have to concern yourself with the builds listed under agricultural, and each time you promote, you can look at the builds for the new rank.
See this new list here.
That's it. That's the urgent news that required me to kick my heels (or equivalent) for the past week. Surely there's nothing here that couldn't have waited a few weeks? For this, I've been bored out of my cybernetic brain.
Oh well, things should liven up a bit tomorrow. Some builders are coming in to mend the holes in the floor of Hazed's office. About time - two years those holes have been there!
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