Questioningmark's Command Whitelist Application

[QuestioningMark]

BYOND key:

QuestioningMark

 

Discord Username:

chiefst

 

Character names:

Cam Mueller

Marcus Federico Savoy

Robot Time (Often a Engineering named 'Tyr'.)

 

How long have you been playing on Aurora?

Off and on since 2020.

 

Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they?

I have received no bans or sanctions.

 

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?

Command head of staff's purpose can be summarised to a few points.

- You coordinate your department internally. That means in most cases, ensuring that people in your area are getting put to work doing stuff. You ask people to do things, get cooperation to happen and if you can coordinate from the back while doing so on the big picture. You don't need to get your hands dirty, and in a lot of cases may not have the skills where your specialists beneath you do.  You're also their interface with command, it's nice in a lot of cases to keep your guys informed and on the bead of what's going on.

- You coordinate with other departments externally. This is probably easier when there are other heads of departments around, so you can have an easier interface over command comms. In departments like Research, and Engineering a lot of that external work is going to be beneficial to other departments, and ensuring that what you’re doing in your section is producing fun for other people around you is good.

- You can with your influence set the tone or indeed guide a round a bit. With that in mind, they have both a duty and a responsibility in ensuring what you're doing is fun and engaging for people, especially in your department but also to everyone else.

 

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?

- You have a responsibility to the newbies. I already take any round I can time out to go help any apprentice or “Learner” role in any department, but when you’re in charge you have a responsibility as I alluded to in the comment on engaging people to make sure people with less experience and technical skill are getting engaged with and having fun. This extends OOC, be approachable, be friendly and invite people to communicate with you and ask questions. If they don’t get stuff about the game itself, be the guy who gets them settled in and feels the community is a cool one.

- Actually be mechanically experienced in the department you’re heading. If you’re showing up and don’t have a clue how to do the job, it’s just very bad. Goes without saying really you shouldn’t be the head.

- Be mindful of antags. You’re the guy who, in a command role, can massively influence their gimmick and when you’re driving a character who may be in a position to negotiate with them. I imagine there’s a lot of finesse to doing antagonist interactions as a head of department, and you certainly have a responsibility to make sure it’s fun for the wider round.

 

Explain how the recent events in the Spur changed your character and how they came to be employed on the SCCV Horizon.

Cam’s an old man now, a veteran of many ships. Originally joining the Solarian Navy as a simple rate in 2447 he progressed at a steady pace inside the navy serving on a number of vessels on inner ring patrols and middle ring patrols. To not exhaustively go through him skipping through a number of cargo merchants, and the likes, by the time succession of Biesel rolled around he was serving in the 17th fleet, 4th battlegroup (pre-Courtois’ reforms structure.)

Despite his best efforts, Cam’s been sunk in his career. It was during the slow drawback of Sol’s anti-piracy operations around the vicinity of the Republic of Biesel in 2456. While not officially attached to the 33rd, during a cross fleet logistics run to provide RCS juice and bluespace nets for a 33rd vessel on a warp equipped ship. Two radar guided cruise missiles through the command deck and a hasty surrender later by it’s Lunan officers the ship, SAMV Themistocles, was boarded and the equipment they were carrying plundered.

The pirates made no effort to come into the aft which had remained intact during the engagement. The engineers there weren’t worth the effort with them posing threats to detonate the ship outright and fight with their small arms if the pirates attempted to enslave them, and to just destroy them outright would waste another of their precious missiles. And with the result set, Cam and a crew of roughly 8 others sat in the hulk for 2 months playing cards, checking if anyone responded to their distress beacon, and prayer. It was during this time he found more solace in the islamic traditions of his parents, especially since his email log had 6 copies of the Quran sent by them attached in PDF. They were eventually picked up, and he found himself reposted.

Following a long on the SAMV Sobieski III, a Tbilisi-class Light Cruiser, that saw him run a small team as a senior rate in the engines once more. Having been made chief, he found a 4 year posting there pleasant as surrounded himself with a crew of fellow career engineers. Conducting his service there effectively and with minor merit, he shuffled around a great deal during the prelude to the Frost Era though doing nothing more than the occasional away team engine inspection and smuggling checks.

Dissatisfaction with the Navy’s way of operating had grated him over time. He’d been largely insulated from the Lunan dominated navy hierarchy given his hands on technical assignments and wearing his stripes for having seen combat in a largely garrison fleet. But with a group of fellow sailors he’d grown to call friends he eventually fell into producing a small enterprise in 2460 working in the SNMRRF facility in Uranus, ‘Metatechnical Solutions’. Performing refloating work and repair for crippled hulls on paper, Cam found himself the head of a small team maintaining the steady supply of ‘on roster decommissions’ produced and cycled to keep the shipyard open.

When the pirates struck, the crew were performing electrical refits for a trio of Lagos-Class Electronic Warfare frigates. With a pirate lifter inbound on them as they saw the other docks light up, and the realisation that they were sitting on 3 nearly fully operational EWAR vessels fresh for the picking. They performed the best they could at the time -  pinning the three vessels with the salvage gantry and sparking fires in the cold loops of the ships offline reactors before going EVA to hide in the derelicts of the boneyard; an attempt to make them impossible to steal.

With the vessels effectively denied, but not scuttled by the time the dust had rolled over from the incident, and the beancounters had done the damage the team, was considered a net positive on performance and contract renewal and investment was offered - but a better deal landed on the doorstep from the attention they got. Get bought out by Hephaestus Industries, incorporated into their company culture, and find posting on the corporate paycheck.

Skipping the worst of the Frost Ascension, with the disgrace the man had done to the Solarian Armed Forces suited him just fine. The Civil war was also a heartbreak, one he had the luxury of sitting out as he moved to New Hai Phong, but with an intense bitterness of the Lunan elite in his perspective scouring a glorious institution.

Working in the shipyards over the planet with the crew and gaining management training inside the company, eventually Camir found himself on the Horizon and soon after pushed for management postings.

 

What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted?

Chief Engineer primarily, but I might branch out later.

 

Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles?

Given them all a good read over.

 

Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking:

Cam Mueller

 

Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action?

Fully understand.

 

Have you linked your BYOND account to the Forums?

Yes!

 

Extra notes:

: )

Edited April 22 by QuestioningMark

[Rabid Animal]

I like Cam quite a bit! I haven't interacted with them too much but from what I have seen they're a competent engineer with fun rp backing them up. We need more CEs too.........

+1 from me

[rrrrrr]

Cam is a good character and, when it comes to knowledge of game mechanics, QuestioningMark is pretty darn good... he's good at explaining things on both an IC and OOC level to apprentices/new players, too. Not much to really say other than 'this guy is competent and a good roleplayer and I think it would be great if he got command whitelist.' CE characters are uncommon, too, although this trend has been changing, I've noticed. More would never hurt. +1

[tu3sday]

Throwing in my two cents here - QuestioningMark has always done a great job playing senior characters in a way that welcomes and educates newer characters to a department; I can vouch for it personally on several occasions, including here with Cam for my engineer character Julius. I know the player has a good grasp on the mechanics of the game and the etiquette of RP, and Cam as a character has done sterling work as an unofficial leader of the department and tutor in my time with Aurora so far.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hey! 

You'll be on trial from today (4/29/2024) to (05/06/2024) - Please try to gather feedback throughout your trial. Good luck!

[Uaine]

I like Cam overall, good roleplayer and very knowledgeable of everything engineering related.

I give this my +1, just keep him away from phoron. 

[Lilly Evans]

Got to interact with Cam recently in their new role. They were very engaging and while we were having fun ritual fight times in the holodeck, they kept engaged with their role as CE and ensured that came first over silliness. They also managed to take physical training and turn it into an exercise to teach new engineers how to fireman carry and the importance of it, which was awesome!

+1 all day.

[La Villa Strangiato]

Keeps in good contact with department. Teaches trainees; I can vouch for the latter, as this guy taught me engineering when I was first starting out on Bay. +1.

[N8-Toe]

has been great to have on the command team, and very communicative.

 

+1

[ASmallCuteCat]

QuestioningMark has been teaching me how to engineer, both in and out of character (he actually introduced me to the game) so I might be a bit biased with this.

 

He's a stellar RPer - very good at going with the flow, rolling with the punches as they come. He does an excellent job including people in roleplay - even characters from outside Engineering department - whenever possible. He knows how to do the leader role without being condescending or bossy, and when he's doing the leadership thing he is always right there with whoever's under his command, helping carry out the orders he gave. He communicates well, does an excellent job at keep everyone in the loop with what's going on, balanced with maintaining discretion and operational security when necessary. He's also amazingly patient with teaching and handling other players' mistakes.

+1

Edited May 2 by ASmallCuteCat
i swear i know how to english

[rrrrrr]

Posted already before the trial, but having now played more than a few rounds with QuestioningMark as Chief Engineer: he's good at it. He knows what he's doing. I don't think heaping superlatives would help much, 'cuz either you're good at "it" ("it" being managing and teaching) or you ain't. He's also a good roleplayer. He's also very active.

[hazelmouse]

I haven't been playing engineering during his trial, but everything I've seen while observing and while playing in other departments is very encouraging. He's attentive to the activities of his department and extremely communicative, which I love to see from command. +1 

[Lly2]

echoing the sentiments above; i haven't played engineering beneath mueller, but their positive effect on the department when they've been around has been very transparent

[Jaeger Brothers]

AHHH, I'm late but its a clear +1 from me.

I interacted with Mueller during a Rather weird round but they handled everything very well and I appreciate you for letting me use your Fax machine.

 

[MattAtlas]

accepted