ways to beat the kobayashi maru without cheating

[Tosk]

you slingshot back in time and and catch the kobayashi maru before it enters the neutral zone

For some reason, the time travel just won't work. No one can figure it out, it should work...but something is wrong. Damn it!

How about that trick they use in TNG and create some sensor ghosts. Trick the Klingons that there are other Starfleet ships incoming; full of Tribbles.

You create the sensor ghosts and move in to the Kobayashi Maru. All is well, the Klingons are off shooting at nothing. As you begin transport two more Klingons decloak and blow you to smithereens.

Otherwise, the option becomes ‘ignore distress call, obey the law of the neutral zone’ and that’s that. Maybe fire a photon at warp to destroy the maru, as ‘klingons don’t take prisoners’ and it’s therefore a mercy kill or preventing federation resources falling into enemy hands.

And then it turns out there was no Maru, and you just fired into Klingon space, an act of war!

The test itself is a cheat, which is why Kirk cheating is fine.

Exactly.

 

[jaime]

For some reason, the time travel just won't work. No one can figure it out, it should work...but something is wrong. Damn it!

You create the sensor ghosts and move in to the Kobayashi Maru. All is well, the Klingons are off shooting at nothing. As you begin transport two more Klingons decloak and blow you to smithereens.

And then it turns out there was no Maru, and you just fired into Klingon space, an act of war!

Exactly.

Neutral zone isn’t Klingon space, it’s a buffer zone.
That’s why we know starfleet is t a military otherwise there’s be ‘Wargames’ and accidental potshots into it that explode before they cross into Klingon space all the time xD

 

[Tosk]

Neutral zone isn’t Klingon space, it’s a buffer zone.

Yeah, but the torpedo continues on, streaking into Klingon space and strikes one of their ships!

 

[ED-209]

I'm guessing the closest to winning one could get would be to stay out of the neutral zone and honour the treaty.

 

[Mytran]

I'm guessing the closest to winning one could get would be to stay out of the neutral zone and honour the treaty.

That would demonstrate your character well (the actual purpose of the KM)

 

[jaime]

Yeah, but the torpedo continues on, streaking into Klingon space and strikes one of their ships!

Don’t they have self destructs unless Worf or Reed plays with them?

 

[penguin44]

Max range tractor beam

 

[XCV330]

prefix-code remote console the kobayashi maru, causing a warp imbalance self destruct combined with neutronic fuel to attempt to disable or impede the Klingon cruisers. Then circle in and destroy each Klingon cruiser for the glory of the Terran Empire leaving a chain of frozen corpses to mark where the so-called neutral zone once existed. while this will cause the death of the crew of the KM, they were going to die anyway, and the needs of the living outweigh the needs of the doomed.

 

[Delta Geminorum]

Why would you fire on the Maru?

"This is the eighth run-through and you haven't even hit a single Jem'Hadar. And you shot Moogie!"
"I could see that we weren't going to rescue her - so I put her out of her misery."
- Nog and Leck, during a training exercise to rescue Ishka.

 

[Tosk]

Don’t they have self destructs unless Worf or Reed plays with them?

It malfunctions.

 

[Delta Geminorum]

"Self-Destruct is offline."

Nelson from the Simpsons "Ha Ha!"

 

[publiusr]

Now, Kirk did get at least one cloaking device. The cadets may not know this. We did see the Enterprise in The undiscovered Country fly thorugh Klingon space--but that was post Praxis, when things were a mess.

My idea would be two ships. One cloaked following one that isn't--a lot like Undiscovered country.

The Klingons chase a Glomar that is of no value. Enterprise cloaks up--does a rescue (if the Maru exists), then leaves under cloak, as a thrid ship is sent as a distraction.

Less provocative than Operation Retrieve
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Operation_Retrieve

 

[Kor]

perhaps launch several shuttles on auto pilot with a com beacon broadcasting it's on a rescue mission while the starship sits just outside the neutral zone. if the shuttles get destroyed they know they are walking into a Klingon trap

But then you didn't rescue the ship, so you still fail the test.

Kor

 

[Mytran]

But then you didn't rescue the ship, so you still fail the test.

Kor

There's no correct resolution; it's a test of character

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Unless you cheat and reprogram the system (like Kirk did), there is literally no way to beat the Kobayashi Maru simulation. No matter what you do, the computer will automatically adjust for your actions and ensure that you lose.

 

[Admiral2]

Tosk and MLB are right. the program will always find a way to beat you, which makes it utterly useless as a training tool. There's a difference between a scenario cadets can't beat because they don't have enough experience and a scenario they can't beat because Deus Ex Machina is always on the enemy's side.

The purpose of training is to make the trainee face situations so difficult to overcome that the situations they come up against in real life are comparatively easy. That's the key: to use the failure to make the trainee think about why he or she failed and use that information to make the trainee more situationally aware, so that the next time they face a similar scenario they do better. Then here comes Kobayashi Maru, where there's no way to improve your odds. You always lose, and there's nothing you can do to change that fact. This is not the case in real life. Statistically speaking, even the Al Bundys of the universe win once in a while. The Kobayashi Maru, by design, doesn't reflect that reality, which means it doesn't prepare you for reality. We're told it's a test of character. That's dumb. I want officers that are flexible and innovative and able to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. I don't want officers that were trained hard to be good losers.

I'm not the biggest fan of Jim Kirk, but I think one of the smartest things he ever did was cheat on that stupid exam. The "original thinking" that got him his commendation made him exactly the kind of officer the Federation needs, whether it wants him or not.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

We're told it's a test of character. That's dumb.

How so?

It's important to point out that the test isn't supposed to be realistic. Starfleet wants to know how its command officers will react when faced with certain defeat. That might not ever happen in reality, but the Kobayashi Maru isn't SUPPOSED to reflect reality. If a cadet can handle this test with dignity and restraint - when they can't possibly win - then it's all the more likely that they can handle real world situations (where they MIGHT win) better.

Conversely, if the cadet falls apart under stress, it's Starfleet's way of thinning the herd, as it were. You don't want somebody like that getting a real command, do you?

And it has the added benefit of making exceptional cadets like Jim Kirk devise ways of gaming the system.

 

[Admiral2]

How so?

Because training shapes character as much as it reveals it. Having a test you can't pass no matter how you take it will build a streak of hopelessness into even the most stalwart cadet, that will come out to one extent or another in any but the most ideal situations. This is a bad thing.

It's important to point out that the test isn't supposed to be realistic. Starfleet wants to know how its command officers will react when faced with certain defeat. That might not ever happen in reality, but the Kobayashi Maru isn't SUPPOSED to reflect reality. If a cadet can handle this test with dignity and restraint - when they can't possibly win - then it's all the more likely that they can handle real world situations (where they MIGHT win) better.

Yeah. Like I said. You create good losers. I would rather have a cocky winner who "cheats death and pats Himself on the back for his ingienuity" that makes it his priority to win. Noble defeatists are useless to me.

Conversely, if the cadet falls apart under stress, it's Starfleet's way of thinning the herd, as it were. You don't want somebody like that getting a real command, do you?

A cadet who falls apart under stress would likely wash out before he even got to the final. That's what the rest of the course is for.

And it has the added benefit of making exceptional cadets like Jim Kirk devise ways of gaming the system.

It didn't make Jim Kirk. Jim Kirk acheived in spite of it.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Kirk's been messing with computers from the beginning.

 

[Maurice]

You can't "win" a game of Defender, either, that doesn't mean it damages your psyche (despite what Rob Fulop once hypothesized). The Kobayashi Maru is the same thing: they want to see how good you are at it, how inventive you are, how high you can score even knowing it's eventually Game Over dude. It's how you play the game that they're interested in. Kirk cheating at it got his scores thrown out of Twin Galaxies.