So, folks...

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

I want you to take a look at this footage from Polaris and Cable's session this evening. I've given you all access, even the trainees, from whom I'm particularly interested in hearing. The reason it goes black abruptly would be because someone decided that cutting power to the Danger Room was a suitable way to end the scenario. (Hands up if anyone else sees the lack of field applicability for the 'shutting off the world' tactic?) Also, I wasn't able to clean up the audio properly, so what they're saying to each other isn't always audible over the gunfire and so forth. I'll just say that they were doing entirely too much talking, from my perspective in the control booth.



1) Opinions on the approach they took? Notice that they didn't start doing serious damage to the drones until nearly the end-of-scenario. Trainees, any thoughts on why?
2) Watching the footage cold, what do you think the purpose of the scenario was? (Nathan, Lorna, no explaining.) Based on your best guess, were their tactical choices appropriate?
3) Any observations on their level of teamwork?
4) Thoughts on the powers-applications they demonstrated?
5) Look at the readings I attached on their power usage. Notice any spikes? What were the results?
6) Put yourself in the scenario with them; what would your role have been?

Keep any comments constructive, people; questions are also more than welcome, whether it's for me (since I designed the scenario) or for the two who ran it. Trainees, you especially should feel free to ask as many questions as you like, as always.

Nathan, Lorna? Whatever does come out of the conversation - and I know I can trust you to take criticism well - I'll just reiterate that you both did pretty well, especially since you're both just getting off injured reserve. I do however want self-assessments on the subject of whether or not you figured out the purpose of the scenario that I didn't mention in the initial description.

Comments

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Well, according to the report - zero friendly casualties, all enemy units taken out. That's a win, no matter what the tactics.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Then you'd probably be surprised to know that if I was handing out letter grades (and not taking into account the fact that this was the first heavy scenario for both of them) I'd have given them a D. Borderline pass.

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

Well, if the objective was for them to fail it - it looks like you were disappointed. From what I can tell from the footage - neither Cable or Polaris is at top physical condition, and you kept ramping up the intensity. But they didn't break, and both of them walked out of there under their own power.

If that's "borderline" pass, I'd say the grading scale's skewed.

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

Since I get these reports, I might as well chime in.

Basic operational training; if you're in a no-win situation, you change the dynamics of the situation. Or, in other words, cheat. Because there are no correct answers in the real world.

That being said, Summers, intel is going to need between six to ten hours a week booked for the Danger Room. The more flexible we can keep the hours, the better. Let me know how that fits into with the rest of the X-units training.

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

Oversimplifying things, Remy. If that had been a real-world combat situation, maybe. If it had been a riot control situation dealing with civilians, Lorna and I both would have deserved an F, never mind a D.

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't see the validity of the exercise. People don't respond like the Danger Room, and training to handle a riot against a thinking machine is not applicable against a crowd of people. Different reactions, different dynamics.

Then again, the Agency was far more focused on infield training than created scenarios in any case, so I guess I don't really have the experience to judge.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Schedule for the next month's in your inbox. If you need more flexible than what's available, we can juggle anything but the trainee slots.

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

No, I don't mind making Betsy and Jake work odd hours. Keeps them from that burning on the job romance they've been planning.

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

Trainee chiming in.

1. My only guess is that they were instructed to use a minimum of force, incapacitate without destroying. As the difficulty ramped up, maintaining that fine control obviously became more difficult.

2. All I can come up with is a straight survival scenario. Do unto them before they can do unto you, with a steadily ramping difficulty level. Not sure if I can speak to their tactical choices, as I'm not entirely sure my guess about the purpose of the scenario is correct.

3. It seemed like they were doing an okay job of dividing targets at the beginning of the scenario, but as the difficulty went up and the situation became more complicated, teamwork died down a bit in the drive to stay standing.

4. The only powers application I hadn't really given much thought to previously was Polaris' using metal to create an outer layer of armor, which appeared to help her hand-to-hand as well as providing additional protection against the weaponry of the drones.

5. Need to come back to this one after looking at the readings and matching it to the footage.

6. Um, besides the obvious "stay the heck out of the way"?

So, questions. At some point do we get to find out what the purpose of the scenario was? And why they would have only gotten a D for their performance?

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

1: In agreement. Taking that into mind, if it's an object lesson about using nonlethal force - I'd say they succeeded in learning that pulling your punches is only going to get you killed when things get that intense.

2: Barring the presence of noncombat drones or areas identified as civilian sectors, it seems more like a skills drill than anything else. Cable found a way to beat the drill by taking advantage of a weakness in the system. He's done it before in real-world situations, and this time didn't put himself in the infirmary in the process.

3: Agreed. Communication seemed to break down for some reason. Good target coordination at first, things seem to break down once they start arguing - I'll put ten bucks that it wasn't about the scenario.

4: Pretty much standard manipulate/disable breaking down into brute force smashing at the end. Use of shields seemed easier for Cable, but Polaris has the advantage of having physical shields that take less concentration.

5: No clue how to interpret this.

6: Assuming the drones were hostile - take fire, distract and disable hostiles, enable rest of team to engage civilians (if present) and get out of the AO. Standard operating procedure.

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

1. Lorna and I have an edge over some of our teammates, though, in terms of using non-lethal force and still getting the job done. We need to be able to push that edge as far as possible.

2. Want to bet that the power supply's better-shielded the next time I'm in there?

3. It wasn't. Mistake number one on our parts, there.

4. Lorna, you and I - and Alison, you, too - should have a talk about different types of shields and where which type is most useful. Since we can all do it.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

1. Actually, no, they weren't. Why would they have tried to use a minimum of force anyway?

2. If it is, what do you think?

3. See any relationship between what you mentioned in your answer to question 1 about fine control and this?

6. Actually, interesting point - given how little cover there was and how much trouble Cable and Polaris were having shielding themselves, how would you have gone about doing that?

Just a couple of quick thoughts

[x-jetstream.livejournal.com]

As my morning is somewhat busy.

1) They were working well together until the heat got turned up. Then their ability to coordinate withered in the face of the pressure.

2) Seems obvious to me. You don't put our two biggest hitters in the Danger Room and expect the room to give them any sort of a workout. The drones were a form of stress. You were looking for stress-reactions and partnership exercises.

3) They worked well when they were coasting, but when the pressure was applied and the difficulty went up, their team-work collapsed.

4) Not my area of expertise, really. But I'd say that they performed tolerably well given the limits they were operating under. Although I would like to remind people _again_ that the world has three maneuverable dimensions, not just two. To make things worse, they turtled.

5) The spikes tell the real story here. When the pressure went on, they started jerking all over the place. No nice steady output curves here, but nasty little jaggies. Take a look at this graph here of magnetic flux to drone deployments. Should tell the whole story right there. And has Moira or Hank found a way to detect and track telekinetic output yet?

6) To not get pulped, likely. I'd have gone aloft and acted as a spotter, to coordinate their fire and keep the team-work moving along.

Jetstream
XO of X-Men Black

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

1) So even versatility has its limits, doesn't it?

2) Actually, the Room is perfectly capable of giving them a workout if I program it properly, but you're right. This was all about the stress-reactions.

3) Draw up a more detailed assessment of this, by the way - I'll ask Sam and Kurt to do the same.

4) You and I should actually talk about that. See if we can come up with something that would encourage those who could operate in three dimensions but don't to start incorporating that a little more.

6) Pretty much. There was an additional element, like I said, but I'm still waiting to see if Lorna and Nathan guess it themselves.

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

1. We weren't focusing. Stings the pride a bit to admit, but the scenario definitely wasn't the sole focus of our attention for the first little while there.

2. Hey, the Room's knocked me flat on my ass numerous times before, give it some credit. Sure, I could probably turn the place to a glass crater, but that's not a realistic field option. (Most of the time.)

3. See 1.

4. Do you know how energy-intensive it is for a telekinetic to fly?

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

1. Given that both Lorna and Nathan did not start doing serious damage to the drones until the end, as you said, it seems to me that the only answer would be that they were told not to, or had some other reason to believe that causing severe damage would be unwise. Given a lack of targets that resembeled people, I would guess that the initial objective was to keep damage to a minimum.

2. I believe the purpose was to stay standing, and do as little broad destruction as possible. Perhaps to do as much as possible from as far away as possible.

3. At first, they seemed to work together well, in so much as they took turns and did not compete for targets, though I cannot tell how much they were communicating. I am not sure if 'sharing' the drones in equal numbers is cooperative and appropiate team work. If one of the pair could have better spent their time shielding the other while the first did the bulk of the actual damage? (Mr. Summers? Am I permitted to use extra resources if I think I can figure out what they were saying? If so - Doug? Can you read lips?)

4. If the objective was to stay out of direct combat, could Lorna have coated the non-metal drones with metal and moved them that way? Rather than coating her hands and punching them?

5. Mathmatical analysis is not at all my strong suit, but it seems to me that the harder the scenario got, the less regular and gradual the spikes got.

6. Provide cover and concealment. If people with greater offensive capability are in a scenario with me, my power is best suited to give them a safer and less open area to fight from.

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

Hm. Re: the reading lips thing. No, I can't. But it's an interesting thought. Would probably help that whole communication aspect of my power in the long run.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

1. How often do we face inanimate opponents out in the field? Just because they weren't wearing holo-faces doesn't mean that they shouldn't be treated as if they were flesh and blood. (Incidentally, this is an entirely separate issue from the whole 'we have a limited supply of drones so please don't trash them by the dozens' talk I periodically give.)

2. Also a part of the answer, especially the bit about doing it from a distance.

3. Interesting. Nathan, Lorna, one of you want to answer the shielding question? (Angie, what they were saying wasn't actually germane to the scenario, not to worry.)

4. Lorna? Any thoughts on this?

5. Pretty much a given with certain types of powers. Especially psis, since they're their own power source.

6. Ah-hah. You've just given me an idea for a scenario for you, thank you.

2.

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

... Scott, I'd tell you were a bastard, but that's what you're supposed to be, so it would be redundant.

Lorna, did you guess that we were supposed to be having flashbacks?

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

Only after I nearly got us killed, thanks. My shield work still sucks.

[x-kylun.livejournal.com]

I am still learning to interpret the graphs, so I will be of little help with that portion of the discussion.

However, what struck me most about the video footage was that, until the difficulty level went up, both of them were paying far more attention to their conversation, whatever it was, than they were to their training. When my warriors let their attention lapse like that at the monastery, I reacquired it by the swiftest means.

If I had been designing that scenario, looking at the design and number of the drones, and keeping Polaris and Cable's abilities in mind, the goal would have been to force them to work at range, preventing the foe from closing. The wall turrets seemed to be little more than distractions to vary the exercise; it was the hand-to-hand drones that posed the greater threat. If their opponents had possessed greater skill than the Danger Room drones can be made to display, their inattention could easily have proved deadly.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

When my warriors let their attention lapse like that at the monastery, I reacquired it by the swiftest means.

That was the question I was trying to ask! Thank you!You have suggested to me before that casual conversation is distracting from swordwork, so I thought perhaps it would be distracting in the scenario as well.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say that I'd scaled the difficulty upwards in response to the fact that they weren't paying attention, but it was in fact part of the plan from the beginning.

I did however, indulge in a little improvisation. The wall turrets.

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

I agree with Kylun. I also noticed that Polaris and Cable were conversing much more than should have been necessary to organize a strategy. And if talking was so important, why not do it telepathically? If you're on the field in the middle of combat, the last thing you would want is for your enemies to hear you strategize. Telepathic communication would ensure that that would not happen, I'd imagine.

It seems to me that Polaris and Cable took Cyclops' "don't break my robots!" lecture to heart, and I think that was another problem. I understand that the drones are expensive and take a lot of time to build and repair, and that on the field we are supposed to limit (if not entirely prevent) casualties, but I fail to see how knocking out an opponent is not preferable to temporarily disarming them. Throwing things and people around is not going to take them out of the battle, especially if they heal quickly or have some sort of armor. Knock them out telepathically, rip their armor apart, disassemble their weapons so that they're unarmed (or jam the weapons so that they don't work). That sort of force needs to be implemented throughout the entire battle, not just towards the end when things become harder.

And turning off the power? That was cheap and foolish. Not only can you not simply end a scenario like that in real life, but the Danger Room could have been damaged by that maneuver.

The shielding was interesting, and it made me think. Dr. MacTaggart says that I produce some sort of personal force field around myself when I used my powers in order to protect myself from the intense heat, light, and radiation I generate. I wonder if I could somehow push that out and surround others with it.

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Shiro, I think you possibly need to go over the footage in more detail; did you notice the number of drones that fell out of the air with no apparent damage? According to Polaris and Cable's after-scenario self-assessments they were shutting down their individual power supplies or manipulating their internal components. It was a good, solid tactic, especially since both of them are capable of incapacitating human opponents with similar delicacy if they put their minds to it. In fact, where I would have started docking them 'marks' is where they started to get more sloppy about it.