Question Quick Imp-ressions

OK,. I loved this as micro scenes. but its kind of world breaking as a canon story. How did Imp, Mischif and Monkeywrench get certififed for Sims so fast? Let alone get good enough at them to take on Wondercute? Previous stories have established that using the sims requires training, and that everyone gets hammered their first few times out in them.

It didn't have a time frame, so figure a week of intense sims and practice, with Imp taking the lead.
I loved it as a micro, and still enjoy it now.

konzill wrote: OK,. I loved this as micro scenes. but its kind of world breaking as a canon story. How did Imp, Mischif and Monkeywrench get certififed for Sims so fast? Let alone get good enough at them to take on Wondercute? Previous stories have established that using the sims requires training, and that everyone gets hammered their first few times out in them.

Difference between doing it as a Student and Trainer. Students need to input all their stuff, get it vetted, practice with it etc. Trainers have the whole of the Sim staff to help them do all that.

You'll notice that there was no direct Imp / Mischief / Monkeywrench attacks on Wondercute? And even what Imp was throwing at them included their own creations?

With the help of the whole of the Sim team Imp created a simulation using stuff that was already available, just used in innovative ways, she and her helpers didn't really have to do very much in the Sim itself.

SPOILER ALERT
Below is a stream of conscious commentary I type up as I read the story. There will details from the story included in it. If you have not read the story yet and don't wish to have details of it spoiled, read no further.



Quick Imp-ressions comments
Oh god, the micro-scenes you did have become canon! Her finding weak spots and places where someone could enter and exit the campus without detection, good to see her already proving her worth on that end. Room for special topics classes, have to wonder if it is for her art classes or for her 'special' lessons for Mischief. Leaving out how the student died 4 years, sneaky Sam, but not smart when dealing with Imp. Especially setting her up with the room Scrounge, a hoarder, used.

Funny how she first went with thoughts of how to bypass the seal, forgetting she has the key, old habits are hard to break. And her reaction to seeing the clutter and mess left in the room, priceless. Wonder who Doctor Avarice is now. Dr. Seuss books. *shudders* That grin Imp makes gives me chills.

Bwahahaha, the green eggs and ham bit, hard to get it right but you nailed it.

"Do you like green eggs and ham?" the Imp repeated with a smirk. "Do you like them, Sam I am?"

Delarose should have put a large sign in the office the first day Imp was on campus, an angry face of him with the words "Don't Antagonize the Imp!"

Now Crocodile Hunter impersonation, with Mischief tagging along. Snark side of the force, ouch, my sides hurt from laughing too much. Cat in the Hat's hat now, and teasing Sam through it all, she is incorrigible. Green bacon bits, nooo! How could she do such a thing to bacon, that is just wrong.

In and out of Sam's office without anyone noticing, Imp still in prime form. Fearing anything she does to try and stop these pranks by Imp might just make it worse, yeah, Imp could drive Batman around the bend. Sending Mischief this time, with a sausage and Canadian bacon pizza with a couple of eggs on top and smothered in pesto, at least it is edible.

Gunny upset at Wondercute just being themselves again and missing the lesson he was trying to teach them with the sim. Solve both their problems at once, uh oh, when Sam chuckles it isn't good for the students. Sending Imp against Wondercute, that is just brutal.

Imp working on a painting, Mischief shows up with a pig for the next prank, who is thankfully spared being painted green and greased up by Gunny calling and telling her about a new source of fun. Poor Wondercute is going to meet a level of craziness even Jade didn't know existed.

Capture a supervillain but no further info. A Pikachu shows up, getting Jade excited. Imp, Monkeywrench, and Mischief as Meowth for Team Rocket, even doing the whole spiel. Bunny goes to pick up the Pikachu to protect it, only to get zap, then they have hundreds of Pikachus called out by Team Rocket.

"Oh, poo," Generator exclaimed as a massive swarm of beloved cartoon mascots charged straight at them.

One teacher and two freshmen and Superchick thinks they can beat them, no problem. Never underestimate your opponents! Bunny lost and Team Rocket slipped away, not a good start. Oh boy, that outfit on Imp, Imp monologue and Superchick interrupts her. Faked out by grenades, Monkeywrench throwing bananas that explode and unleash a slippery liquid. Slip them up and stink bombs, oh this is mean.

"Pull the lever, Kronk"

Emperor's New Groove, funny. And unleashing Jade's own Hello Kitty robots on that, that is just insult to injury.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with marshmallow fluff, chocolate quicksand, Oompa Loompas with Mischief as one of them. Plus a killer unicorn, she hit them with everything they would normally like and then some. Bwahahaha, Imp changing Gunny's ringtone to that song and off silent mode, no one is spared from her pranking. And the song gave Jade an idea, oh boy, this backfired.

Imp shows up and wishes to talk inside, a bottle of vodka as a peace offering. Cat and Hat brand vodka, heheh, even her peace offering plays on the joke. Autographed, first edition print of Green Eggs and Ham, worth a pretty penny I'm sure. Hired students to clean up the place, even had a few more gems among the junk, no hard feelings towards Sam now. Even happy about the sim thing, had a lot of fun. And she left behind a brand new copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

It was funny and fun to read as micro-scenes, it is still is the 2nd time now that it is canon. Hope we see more antics of Imp in the future, always fun to read.

konzill wrote: How did Imp, Mischif and Monkeywrench get certififed for Sims so fast?

As I understand it, the only requirements are a sim suit (you'd almost certainly want one of your own), and for your powers to be stable and known well enough to describe in terms of the simulator's code. That was the reason for the initial "checkout" runs - to make sure that when the student's brain (or whatever Tink uses ) thinks like it's casting "Fireball", the game engine simulates a Fireball.

konzill wrote: Let alone get good enough at them to take on Wondercute? Previous stories have established that using the sims requires training, and that everyone gets hammered their first few times out in them.

The needed training isn't in "how to use the sims", it's in "how to work together as a team, using all your available power(s), under heavy psychological pressure".

The problem is that all along it's all been Serious Scenarios for Serious Teams. That's translated into a handicap for the other (We're Serious!) teams in having to adapt to Wondercute's uniquely misleading presentation. Generally they can count on a gun is a gun being a gun. Until it's a banana. But all of Wondercute's opponents have looked and played the same way, so they've never really had to shift mental gears to face an opponent. Until now. That's the Imp-ression I get.

Dreamer wrote: SPOILER ALERT
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with marshmallow fluff, chocolate quicksand, Oompa Loompas with Mischief as one of them. Plus a killer unicorn, she hit them with everything they would normally like and then some. Bwahahaha, Imp changing Gunny's ringtone to that song and off silent mode, no one is spared from her pranking. And the song gave Jade an idea, oh boy, this backfired.

Imp shows up and wishes to talk inside, a bottle of vodka as a peace offering. Cat and Hat brand vodka, heheh, even her peace offering plays on the joke. Autographed, first edition print of Green Eggs and Ham, worth a pretty penny I'm sure. Hired students to clean up the place, even had a few more gems among the junk, no hard feelings towards Sam now. Even happy about the sim thing, had a lot of fun. And she left behind a brand new copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

It was funny and fun to read as micro-scenes, it is still is the 2nd time now that it is canon. Hope we see more antics of Imp in the future, always fun to read.

Some third party needs to sneak into imps apartment and make her alarm clock sound Reveille. Really loudly.

MUWHAHAHAHAH!

This gets 5 out of 5 mad cackles despite being short.

I can actually see an alliance of sorts forming between the Imp, gunny and maybe Ito. Gunny and Ito probably always have overbearing and overinflated teen egos to deal with and Imp would probably love to help (ahem) deflate said egos. 'You just have to catch the supervillain' gunny said . . .

So the most Imp-portent question is did this start off as an idea for a Canon story, or just some goofiness that kept going?

Remember that the use of the Simsuits is really just doing stuff. The Simsuit bypasses the nerve impulses and the simulation acts, not the body. The training sims are to make sure powers and gear works right, and so the students can get used to the slight differences between the simverse and real world. It normally only takes an hour or two at most in the suit. The big thing is the data entry for powers and gear.

Another question is there an evening Martial Arts class available for the staff? Imp could really use some training.

Sam didn't really get Imp mad, just annoyed enough that she wanted some revenge. More Imp v Chickenhawk, than Imp v Crash Test Dummy, and no where near Imp v Fuzzy Wuzzy.

I want to see Imp and some of the GSD cases, like Kaiju, Razor and Diamond, Slab, the Furies, and the rest. Here on Astarte's Island.

null0trooper wrote:

konzill wrote: Let alone get good enough at them to take on Wondercute? Previous stories have established that using the sims requires training, and that everyone gets hammered their first few times out in them.

The needed training isn't in "how to use the sims", it's in "how to work together as a team, using all your available power(s), under heavy psychological pressure".

The sims aren't a thing unto themselves, but a teaching tool. The main point of the sims is to make the training as realistic as possible, especially in classes like Team Tactics. I think the problem here is that we are confusing two different things: the very brief training on how to use the sims, and the coursework that that training was meant to get one ready for (and the sometimes grueling schedule of simulations which established teams are put through independent of specific classes).

From what we've seen, there usually are two training sessions for familiarizing yourself with the sim system, one individually and one as a team.

The first one is just a five minute shakedown meant mainly to test the sim suit and see if the user experiences any disorientation or other odd effects. It is aimed at highlighting anything in the sim isn't quite behaving the same as in the physical world.

The second is specifically to test whether the sim suits are syncing correctly with others, and would be another fifteen to twenty minutes of just walking around and interacting in view of each other within the sim. If you recall from "Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy", all that first team session was supposed to be was them walking around campus; getting dry-gulched by simulated 'Lympies was definitely not on the agenda.

In other words, they are aimed mainly as a shakedown test of the system and their interaction with it, not training on how to use it.

So all they would actually need is maybe an hour of practice at most. The time to get sim suits made would be the real limiting factor, and as Domoviye said, the story doesn't specify a how long they were preparing.

This is assuming they were using the sims directly in the first place, rather than directing a programmed simulation with relatively few direct inputs from the ones running it. I am guessing they actually were in the sims themselves, rather than them tweaking the behaviors of some mock ups, though, as running the sim from outside is probably harder than just getting inside it.

I think the main point people are missing is this...

The sims have to be very realistic for the team being instructed. It doesn't have to be so for the instructors. Instructors can (and do) cheat in a variety of ways, including not being immersed in the sim, but monitoring from the control room. We have seen Bardue interacting with the Kimbas inside the sim, for instance, but no evidence that he ever donned a sim suit.

Imp was not there as a pupil. She was there as an instructor. She didn't need a perfectly-fitted sim suit with perfect sensory feedback; what she needed was an Imp simulacrum that she could control. In fact, she didn't even need the real Mischief and Monkeywrench there either; all she needed were reasonable simulacrums of them (like the ones Overclock and Make made of the New Olympians). She could control the simulacrums herself, or have the real M¨& M do it, or the sim techs do it, or an AI program do it. It doesn't matter for the purpose of teaching Wondercute a lesson.

Sir Lee wrote: She could control the simulacrums herself, or have the real M¨& M do it, or the sim techs do it, or an AI program do it.

Next sim run. An army of imps doing the cancan.

Sir Lee wrote: I think the main point people are missing is this...

The sims have to be very realistic for the team being instructed. It doesn't have to be so for the instructors. Instructors can (and do) cheat in a variety of ways, including not being immersed in the sim, but monitoring from the control room. We have seen Bardue interacting with the Kimbas inside the sim, for instance, but no evidence that he ever donned a sim suit.

Imp was not there as a pupil. She was there as an instructor. She didn't need a perfectly-fitted sim suit with perfect sensory feedback; what she needed was an Imp simulacrum that she could control. In fact, she didn't even need the real Mischief and Monkeywrench there either; all she needed were reasonable simulacrums of them (like the ones Overclock and Make made of the New Olympians). She could control the simulacrums herself, or have the real M¨& M do it, or the sim techs do it, or an AI program do it. It doesn't matter for the purpose of teaching Wondercute a lesson.

The only problem with the Mischief and Monkeywrench simulacrums is that there is no database of info on them to work with. On the other hand they didn't seem to use any powers in the sim either.

Also, Monkeywrench is a devisor, and Mischief's powerset, while probably uncommon all as a bundle, has fairly standard powers. Duplicating them (especially for a short sim with little interaction) would not take the same amount of time as replicating say, Jade, Razorback, or Seraphim.

NJM1564 wrote: Some third party needs to sneak into imps apartment and make her alarm clock sound Reveille. Really loudly.

The bugle tune is classic, but my dad was Navy when he was younger, and he just loved waking us up by shouting, "REVEILLE REVEILLE REVEILLE! ALL HANDS HEAVE OUT AND TRICE UP! REVEILLE!" Decibel for decibel, a Voice of Authority shouting like that is way more jarring than some cute little bugle playing Reveille.

Kettlekorn wrote:

NJM1564 wrote: Some third party needs to sneak into imps apartment and make her alarm clock sound Reveille. Really loudly.

The bugle tune is classic, but my dad was Navy when he was younger, and he just loved waking us up by shouting, "REVEILLE REVEILLE REVEILLE! ALL HANDS HEAVE OUT AND TRICE UP! REVEILLE!" Decibel for decibel, a Voice of Authority shouting like that is way more jarring than some cute little bugle playing Reveille.

Yes but whoever's voice was on that recording would wake up one day to find out that someone swapped his wardrobe with Jericho's hand me downs. And rule one with practical jokes is to not involve innocent bystanders.

Uh, some appropriate Hollywood sound clip such as, I don't know, R. Lee Ermey? That should be hard to trace...

I think people are missing the fact that you don't have to be in a sim chair to be in a sim, especially if you are not going to be in direct conflict with the enemy.

Remember Phases's dark pheonix? It was just the sim techs running an Ayla bot. If the techs could build bots to represent The Imp and her minions then they could direct thing form the booth.

Jarjaross wrote: I think people are missing the fact that you don't have to be in a sim chair to be in a sim, especially if you are not going to be in direct conflict with the enemy.

Remember Phases's dark pheonix? It was just the sim techs running an Ayla bot. If the techs could build bots to represent The Imp and her minions then they could direct thing form the booth.

I believe it was sam that was running the Ayla bot. And I don't think any of them could Mimic Imp to any degree.

JG wrote: Powers are hardly necessary to drive someone nuts.

In fact, the activity is usually easier, and far more satisfying without them!

Anyone who has baby sat or worked at a camp can vouch for the validity of this statement. And in the case of camp; some times it gets worse with the older the person is. I've wanted to kick leaders out of my classes cause they where driving me nuts.