Category:News Bulletins

News Bulletins are news reports and advertisements which are accessible in the Commerce and Communications Network. News Bulletins are gathered from all the major news agencies throughout the Tri-System. They are selected for individual users by a News Dicing program and presented as text in the CCN.

Design

News Bulletins can unlock previously unavailable items for sale in the Ships section or they can denote changes in the prices of commodities on specific planets. Others have no impact. Privateer 2 includes a total of 233 News Bulletins. One is randomly selected each time you land and can be viewed using the CCN. 136 of the bulletins change the price of commodities; 91 of these are locked to specific planets and 45 of then randomly select a one. 8 of them unlock new items and the remaining 89 cause no change to anything (30 of these are advertisements and 59 are news stories).

Your Guide to Space Travel

News Bulletins

Gathered from all the major news agencies throughout the system, this collection of relevant (and sometimes slightly less than relevant) items often contains insights into lucrative trading opportunities. Check out before you buy cargo for your next run.

Click the exit button (dashed arrow) in the upper right corner to return to the main menu.

Department of Neurology Rehabilitation Guide For Anterior Amnesia

NEWS BULLETINS

Whereas life for the intrepid spacefarer is exciting, glamourous, dangerous and, consequently, rather short, the majority of the Tri-system's inhabitants live predictably dreary lives (except on Hermes). As a consequence of this, there is a thriving industry dedicated to weaselling out the most sensational, the most profound and the most bizarre news from around the Galaxy, and beaming it direct to the consumer in real-time holophonic Feel-D (a facility sadly available only to the private user at the present time: you'll have to make do with text).

As a consequence of this frenetic news-finding activity, it is relatively easy for any Tri-system citizen to be pretty much au fait with what's going down around the worlds, but it is also very easy for them to become entirely embroiled in emotively-written and yet utterly insignificant news. For that reason, the so-called 'News Dicing' facility has been added to the CCN, which means that for the benefit of the busy traveller, only news items considered essential to the individual are transmitted. For example, if the ND program considers a user to be a trader, news items with potentially profitable information will be forwarded, whereas a documentary on the mating habits of the Karactican Mewing Slug would probably be intercepted and prevented.

Unfortunately, the ND system is still relatively prototypic, and anomalies will be generated from time to time: the relatively crude assessment of the bulletins means that an action on the individual's part such as going to a Tri-D pool match could well result in him being forwarded sports news that is perhaps not exactly to the user's taste. Compound this fact with advertising agencies employing systems analysts to design advertisements which will be forwarded to as broad a popular spectrum as possible, and it is easy to see why you will, from time to time, find something absolutely ludicrous in your post box.

The operation of the News server is very simple - once you have read the item, click the exit button to return to main menu.

Origin's Official Guide to Privateer 2: The Darkening

Ship Availability

All ships are available from the very beginning of the game except the Freij Mk II. The Freij Mk II becomes available after you read the news bulletin entitled "Civilian version of Freij Craft released." (Although many of the bulletins are just plain silly, some trigger new equipment, such as this one, and others cause price fluctuations. See Getting Rich Quick, p. 78).

NEWS BULLETINS

It's a good idea to check out the news bulletins every time you visit the CCN booth. Some bulletins are just plain silly, but others make new weapons available or cause price fluctuations you can take advantage of. (See Getting Rich Quick, p. 78, for more information on price fluctuations.)

After reading the news bulletins listed below, you will find the corresponding items available on the Buy/Sell Equipment screen.

News Bulletins

News bulletins are the source of all "get rich quick" cargo runs. They also alert you to the availability of new equipment (see Equipment Availability, p. 64). A few are crazy advertisements and "dummy" reports that have absolutely no effect on gameplay.

For the bulletins that do affect gameplay, price changes go into effect, and new weapons become available, when you read the news bulletin. If you don't make a habit of checking them out when you use the CCN booth, you'll miss out on a lot of opportunities.

Some key things to remember when interpreting news bulletins are:

• Bulletins that affect prices generally explain the reason for a shortage or a surplus of something.

• Bulletins that report surpluses drive prices down. These signal a great place to purchase the commodities mentioned.

• Bulletins that report shortages drive prices up. These signal a great place to sell the commodities mentioned.

• Bulletins only cause price fluctuations on the planet mentioned in the bulletin. If no planet is mentioned, the news bulletin does not affect prices at all.

• New prices are set when you open a bulletin that affects them. The changes remain in effect until you've landed four times. On your fifth landing, prices revert to default levels (see Commodity Price Chart, pp. 75-77).

• If you get two bulletins that affect the same commodities, the second bulletin cancels out the first.

TABLE OF PRICE CHANCE BULLETINS

Some news bulletins are easier to figure out than others. The table below lists all news bulletins that cause price changes. In addition to these there are also some "dummy" bulletins in the game — bulletins that look and sound like those listed below, but have absolutely no effect on prices.

Bulletins are listed in alphabetical order, according to the first word of the title.

Title. On screen, the title of the bulletin appears in the red bar above the main body of text.

Note: Some bulletins were designed to change prices on a planet picked at random. For such bulletins, if the name of the planet appears in the title, it is marked by [planet] in the list below.

Planet Affected. Planet on which the changes take place. Random indicates that the bulletin is designed to affect prices on a planet chosen at random.

Commodities Affected. The prices for these commodities change as listed in the Price Modifier column. A particular commodity (Grain) or an entire group (All Medical) may be affected.

Price Modifier. The average default prices for affected commodities are modified by the percentage listed. A percentage greater than 100% indicates a rise in price — the further above 100%, the greater the price change. A percentage less than 100% indicates a price drop — the further below 1 00%, the lower the price.

Prices change only on the planet listed in the news bulletin. (There are no news bulletins that affect commodity or super station prices.)

Examples: If the price of Rhodium is at 150% on Hermes, Rhodium is selling there for about 150% of 10 credits (which is the average default price for Rhodium on Hermes). Thus, the new price is about 15 credits. If the price of Rhodium is at 50% on Hermes, you can buy and sell it for about 5 credits.

Appearances

• Privateer 2: The Darkening
• Origin's Official Guide to Privateer 2: The Darkening