Unwinnable Training Simulation: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[The Acts of Caine|Blade of Tyshalle]]'', the College of Battle Magic has an advanced class that opens with the Lakefront simulation. In it, our student Actor is put into a VR simulation of Overworld, in the docks of the city of Ankhana, where he/she hears the sound of a woman being assaulted down a nearby alley by a single man. Those actors who confront the man will quickly find out that there are two others waiting on the low rooftops to jump some fool like you rushing to her aid. Even defeating all three won't do; the best student in the College, Kris Hansen, got that far only to be knifed by the woman, who is in on the charade. When Hari Michaelson, a Labour-caste near-dropout with terrible magick skills, enters the challenge, he becomes the first person in the history of the College to beat the simulation. Not bothering with spells, [[Combat Pragmatist|he gets the jump on the first man]], [[Badass|KOs the other two before they can recover from jumping into the alley]], and [[Satisfied Street Rat|knows better than to trust the woman]], who gets her throat cut when she tries to knife him. He only fails because the test expected him to use magick, and the instructor hacked the simulation to bring the other players back to life and beat him senseless, something that was never before needed for the Lakefront sim.

* "The two .38s roared simultaneously". [[James Bond]] concludes something like this in the first chapter of ''Moonraker'', which is basically a quick-drawing contest. He puts the other "guy" (a cardboard target) in hospital, but is "killed".

* This occurs several times in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', especially the ''[[X Wing Series|X-Wing]]'' books. As in [[Real Life]], cockpit-shaped simulators are essential tools for fighter pilot training - but here, holographic and gravity-altering technology makes the simulations ''much'' more realistic. They get used for all kinds of things, from training to testing new tactics to teamwork-building exercises, and they tend to be either this trope or [[Fictional Video Game]]. There are even a few times when the one in the simulator [[Training Accident|doesn't know it's a sim]].

** Most notably, the opening of the first ''[[X Wing Series|Star Wars X-Wing]]'' book by Michael A. Stackpole has a literal unwinnable simulation, popularly called the [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Redemption_scenario Requiem scenario]. In it, a flight of four X-wings must protect an Alliance corvette called the ''Korolev'' from waves of TIE fighters and bombers (flown by other pilots rather than the AI). Also, only two of the X-Wings could engage the TIEs, since previous runs showed that if at least two X-Wings didn't stay with the convoy, the Imperial frigate acting as a carrier for the TIEs would join the battle, making the situation even worse. Corran Horn beat the scenario after coming up with the strategy to quickly eliminate the more threatening bombers with proton torpedoes and then finish off the fighters afterwards, which as it turns out was how the scenario went originally.

* Early in the novel ''Gravity'' by Tess Garritsenn, there is a scene of a catastrophic space-shuttle launch that turns out to be a simulation. A higher-up had expressed concern that the team members were overconfident, so the instructors tried to take them down a notch and remind them, "Disaster is not theoretical."

* In [[The Culture]] novel ''Surface Detail'' a protagonist in an Orbital militia does one of these and complains that it serves no purpose.

 

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