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Welcome to the Advanced SIMming Techniques Guide. By now you should have already passed the Basic SIMGuide for your Division, and should be familiar with the basic rules and standards of SIMming, both on IRC, and in Email. The goal of this guide is to pick up where the Basic SIMGuide left off. To show techniques that members in UCIP have used to further enhance their SIMming experiences. It should be noted that there is no right or wrong, way to employ SIMming techniques once you have learned the basics, and each individual will develop their own style and flair for SIMming. If you have any techniques that you have seen or like to employ, please contact the Academy Executives so they can be considered for addition to this Guide, as we are always looking for ways to further enhance what we in the Academy teach to our Cadets and students. This Guide will cover many subjects, and it is hoped that it will be useful to both new SIMmers and experienced SIMmers alike. If there are any questions or concerns after having read this guide, please contact one of the friendly Instructors in the IRC channel #Academy and they will be happy to direct you to the right place and person to speak with. |
If you are not already familiar with the 10 Basic Rules for SIMming, please review them. They are extremely important to every SIM, and are included below
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This guide is organized into 9 Sections, organized in order of relevance to each other. It is recommended you read this document in full, as each Section builds on things covered in the previous section(s).
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1. Character Development |
Too many people SIM for ´power´,´ rank´, and ´status´. These are intangible items, and while they can make a person feel good, these people often forget about the pride you can feel in creating a well established and well thought out character. Often, they forget to have fun while on their quest for those items, which, to them, are important and mean everything. Character development happens every time you play your character, write a log, or attend an IRC SIM. Anything you do with your character results in development. Characters are constantly being defined, rewritten, and refined. They evolve, just like their players do, and some of them can be quite complicated. There are several keys to true character development. One of the first´rules of the trade´ is that whatever happens··· happens:Adapt. When something bad or totally unexpected happens to or around your character, your character should have a ´natural reaction´. When having trouble figuring out what that ´natural reaction´ would be, ask yourself "How would I feel / react to that if I were that character? Once you figure that out, the rest should be easy! Often in adapting your character past these ´bad events´, you may take a few weeks to years for your character to fully assimilate the consequences of whatever the event was. In most cases, it can be hard to see past the moment, past that your plans have been tampered with or altogether ruined. You need to be able to recover and SIM well from such incidents. If whatever your plans were, were vital to your character´s development, you may have to postpone them, or alter them to fit the situation. Remember, above all, this is SIMming, and the best part about SIMming is you never know what is going to happen next! Even the best laid plans can come to ruin by a simple plot twist or unexpected event happening on your SIM. The best you can do is adapt, and move on. Part of the challenge is being able to adapt, and these unexpected twists, while frustrating, can make the game a lot more fun if you learn to employ them carefully into your own plans! It can be a lot of fun to figure out how to take the current events and figure out a believable and logical way around it to your goals. It is important to remember that whatever happens to your character, it is really happening to your character. This means it is important to remember actions and consequences. If your character breaks a bone, it will be sore for some time afterwards. Remember that at all times when SIMming, you are playing your character, and should react how your character would react, not how you, the SIMmer, would react. Most importantly, consistency is the key to character development. Through character development, you explore aspects of your character, and others come to know your character and are able to reliably expect certain reactions from your character. In time, it can become like ESP. This greatly enhances your ability to be able to SIM well with others, as well as their ability to SIM well with you. |
2. Constructing your Character Biography |
A Character Biography (commonly referred to as a Bio) is also very important to character development. Not only does it save you having to repeat basic information to new people, but it allows you to keep track of important events in the life of your character. Your Character Biography also can help you focus your character during times when you may loose track of what you are trying to do or where you are trying to take your character. Below are some basic elements that are most commonly found in Character Biographies. They are not ´law´ and you can be as detailed and flexible as you want with your character information. You can include more, or less information, whatever suits your needs. A Character Biography can be as short as a page, or as long as a dozen pages in length. There are no hard rules about that. Additionally, many SIM Administrators (Commanding Officers) require that you have a Character Biography before you will be granted promotions.
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3. Enhancing your Logs |
Good variety is important to getting people to read your logs, and thus, help to enhance your own SIM experience. UCIP utilizes mailing lists to make it easier for you to distribute your logs to the crew of the SIM you are on. It is up to your CO to make sure everyone who is on the SIM, is on the list, so they do not miss out on anything important. Writing logs and sending them to your fellow crewmates can be a powerful tool in developing your character. It is important to remember that everything you log, and everything that happens in logs you do not write, can or may affect your character on some level. As an example, if you write that your character has gone into the holodeck, and the ship is attacked, the natural result of that might be the holodeck going offline or malfunctioning. One technique that people like to use for consistency between logs is to past the last few lines from their last log into the new log, and go from there. Not only does this help the person to focus on writing their own log, but it also helps other people to understand what is happening, and in what order.Something that needs to be emphasized is attention to detail. Details can make your logs come to life. It can make an otherwise boring log very interesting to read. Below is an example of how a little detail can make a big difference. Lt Dex walked out of the turbo lift on his way to sick bay. Upon entering sickbay, Dex spoke to the chief,"I have come to get my physical Doctor". The Doctor looked at Lt Dex and began the examination.As you can see from that small log, there is nothing technically wrong with it. However, it is short, and a log of this length is NEVER acceptable. Now, observe what happens when you add details and emotion to the log: Lt Dax strutted out of the turbo lift with the doors swooshing closed behind him. He slowly commenced his way down the twisting corridor, nodding slightly as other crew passed by. Dax smiled thinking about dinner with his girlfriend from the night before as he edged closer to sickbay.Dax smoothly walked into sickbay as the doors politely parted, and then slid closed behind him. Moving quickly, he pounced upon the biobed grinning like a child with candy at the doctor who was now standing there with an eyebrow curiously raised. "Well Doc", Dax spoke smoothly with a clam and giddy tone, "I´m ready for my physical!" The Doctor glared at the strangely happy Lieutenant as his eyebrows shifted formation. A small smirk appeared on the Doctor´s brow as he picked up a small scanning device and began taking several standard readings from the rather hyper trill who could not seem to sit still.Now, compare the two logs. Exactly the same thing has happened in both, however, in the second one, emotion and detail were used to describe the situation more sufficiently, and to create a picture of what was happening in the reader´s mind. It is the little details that make the log come to life, and the emotion that shows the mood. It´s really quite easy to do this once you get the hang of it. Try it with a few logs yourself. Write something short, and then expand on it. You´ll be amazed at how quickly you pick up this important skill! Take note that a decent good quality log will be about one to two pages long, sometimes more, and sometimes less. If you notice your log getting longer than two pages, you may want to consider breaking it up into several logs to stretch over several days. This will give other crewmembers time to react and respond to what is happening in your logs. Remember that some COs will require you to do a mixture of personal and duty logs. You should review the Basic SIMGuide for information on what that entails. Try to balance out your duty and personal logs so you can achieve both character development, and contributing to your SIM´s plots. You can even combine personal and duty into a single log if you wish! |
4. Joint Logs |
A lot of people like to do joint logs, but not everyone is actually familiar with doing them. A joint log is a great way to bring character interaction to your Email SIM. You basically get with one or more of your fellow SIMmers and write a log together with your characters interacting with each other. Not only do you get to work together on one log, but you both will get credit for the log! Joint logs are extremely useful for mission briefings, big duty tasks, parties, special events, getting to know other characters, and many other opportunities that will present themselves as the SIM progresses. There are two different ways you can go about writing a joint log, the first, and most popular is by taking ´turns´ writing the log. Simply write your portion and leave a note at the end for the next person. Then send it to them, so they can write their portion. Repeat this cycle until the log is finished, then whoever wrote the last portion sends it over the mailing list. Unfortunately, this method can take anywhere from several hours to several days depending on how much time you and the other person have and what time zones you each live in. Patience is a virtue however, and you can make a great joint log with this method! The second method for writing joint logs is described in the next section of this document. |
5. Using IRC to work around Events |
Every SIMmer who is able should download an IRC client. The most popular Windows IRC client is mIRC, which you can download at www.mirc.com. For more details on setting yourself up to use IRC, please review the document entitled "How do I get onto IRC?" which you can find through the Academy website. Email SIMs tend to be oriented more towards character development and detail. They take place at a slower pace than an IRC SIM, and allow more time for development. IRC SIMming is a lot of fun, however, it tends to be more action oriented than an EMail SIM. IRC SIMs are held at a certain time each week. They require fast reading and quick thinking. Even if you do not wish to be part of an IRC SIM, it is highly recommended that you at least Guest on one a few times to get an idea of what IRC SIMming is about. If there isn´t a ship you are interested in, there are Cadet SIMs twice a week, and the Academy is always ready and willing to help you out! IRC can come in really handy for the Email SIMmer when you need to work your way through complicated events on your SIM. It allows for faster paced action, and you don´t have to wait hours or days for others to respond to what is happening on the SIM. Just remember that if you intend to do an IRC SIM to help work around events, and you intend to send a log, do NOT send the IRC log. This is considered very unprofessional and is a pet peeve of EMail SIMmers. Instead, convert your log into paragraph format. Not only does this make it easier to read for everyone, but it also allows you the opportunity to add details that may have been missed, or to edit conflicts that may occur within the IRC session. |
6. CART |
This acronym describes four aspects that are very important to any Advanced SIMmer. It stands for: Communication, Adaptability, Respect, and Teamwork.
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7. Using The Weekly SIM Report |
The weekly report for your SIM is probably the most important document you will ever receive. This report includes a lot of handy things such as: Awards and promotions, weekly quotes, current mission/order, a plot summary for the last week, log counts, information about new crewmembers and changes happening, places to meet on IRC, etc. If you read nothing else, read the report. If you are short on time one week, read the report, it will catch you up on whatever major events have happened on the SIM. The report is the COs tool to bring the SIM together and make sure that the story makes sense. If there are conflicts between logs, they will be resolved in this report. When in doubt about what is happening, read the report, and ALWAYS check with your command team if you are going to write a log that will cause a major change in the course of the plot or what is happening on the SIM. It is better to seek out permission than it is to have your log retracted and have to write an entirely new one. |
8. Taking Advanced Courses |
The Advanced Course section of the Academy is dedicated to teaching you the information to help make your SIMming experience more realistic and believable. It is highly recommended that you take the Advanced Course relating to your chosen position on your SIM. While some of the exams themselves can be hard, taking the courses is well worth it, as it is like taking ´extra credit´ on your SIM when looking for promotions. If you are interested in taking an Advanced Course, you will need to email the Course mailing lists in order to enroll. More information on this can be found on the UCIP Academy website. |
9. Becoming an Instructor |
Instructing at the Academy is a great way to become involved in UCIP. Not only do you get learn more about leadership and teamwork in UCIP, but you also get to help out new members by passing on your knowledge and experience to them. Many people find teaching to be a satisfying and rewarding experience. People who work in the Academy are not working there for rank, though it can count as ´Brownie Points´ when being reviewed for other positions or promotions. While instructing others, you not only get to feel good for being helpful, you get to meet and talk to very interesting members of UCIP. If you have the time and patience, and take pride in your work, you may wish to become an Instructor at the Academy. This will enable you to begin to contribute to UCIP on more than just a SIMming level. If you are interested in becoming an instructor, send an inquiry to acadex@academy.ucip.org and let the Academy Executive group know! They are always happy to accept new people into the Academy Team. |