[Denied] Knightroid's Head of Staff application

[Knightroid]

BYOND key:

Character names: Sara Cruz, Mayu Ooyama

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?: For about two years

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?:

Why did you come to Aurora?: Because I heard about the game from a friend

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Yes, I have read them. Multiple times.

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

Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: Roleplay is acting out a fictional event, most of the time as a fictional character. It allows us to interact and connect with people who have similar interests. I believe roleplaying should be about having fun. However roleplaying should not be one-sided. Roleplaying requires the involvment of everyone participating. If one person isn't participating, it ruins the experience/fun for everybody. Roleplaying is a way to exercise your creativity and your imagination, so boring/cliched characters/scenarios/events are a serious detriment to the roleplaying experience.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: I believe it is to keep an eye on their subordinates to make sure they're not powergaming/metagaming. While a player may anticipate possible threats to the station, the level of action taken to prepare for this possibility can sometimes be considered borderline metagaming/powergaming. As such, it is the job of the Head of Staff to rein is such players while doing it ICly. However, even the best of us isn't perfect, so that's why there's a set of checks and balances in place among the different Heads of Staff positions. If a Head of Staff is taking actions that are borderline powergaming/metagaming, the checks and balances that exist allow the other Heads of Staff to ICly bring said Head of Staff back into line without having to resort to ahelping.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: To set an example by showing other players how proper roleplaying is conducted. A whitelisted player is someone who has been approved by the admins and community as a good fit for a head of staff position, meaning they are an example that other players should look up to, and strive to better themselves. As such, I will do my best to follow the rules, both IC and OOC. As a Head of Staff, I will help guide the players under my command into doing their jobs to the best of their ability, while also ensuring that none of them overstep their position. If another Head of Staff is exceeding their authority, I will consult with said Head of Staff and inform them of that fact ICly. I will only ahelp as a last resort, if all other methods have failed.

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Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions.

Character name: Sara Cruz

Character age: 38

Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs):

Sara Cruz was born and raised on Yahzeeb, a small colony world out in the frontier. She displayed a strong desire for military service starting at an early age. At sixteen years of age, she got a waiver from her parents, and was able to join the planetary militia. She displayed a decent aptitude for leadership, though she could be a bit overbearing at times. Although Yahzeeb was a small colony on the frontier, since pirate raids were common, their militia was well-equipped.

During a Syndicate-sponsered pirate raid, Sara's unit was assigned to protect a suburban town. Her squad was designated as the rear guard, while the remainder of the platoon pushed forward. As they approached an intersection, two Synidcate exosuits positioned down the road opened fire on them, the rain of weapons slowly tracking towards them. The buildings around them were either leveled or completely burned out, abandoned cars providing the only sufficient cover. Because exosuits have greater endurance, retreat was out of the question. Nobody wanted to say it out loud, but their only viable option was to lay down fire on the exosuits while someone manuvered around behind them and planted C4 charges on the exosuits. It was a suicide mission. However, Sara volunteered to make the push while her squad provided cover fire. Sara started running, weaving in and out of burned-out buildings while cover fire and enemy fire alike whizzed around her, an energy blast gouging a deep furrow in her shoulder. Sara reached her targets, armed the C4, and planted the charges on the exosuits. However, one of the exosuits noticed her, and turned to open fire. Out of time and options, Sara ran for the nearest building. She hit the ground when the charges detonated. This likely saved her life; however, multiple shards of metal launched by the explosions lodged in her back, causing severe damage. Her squad radioed in a request for a medevac. For her willingness to sacrifice her life to protect her unit, she was given the planet's second-highest military award, which could only be earned through bravery shown during combat.

Aside from this incident, however, most of her time was spent training. Yahzeeb wasn't too heavily populated, meaning that major pirate raids were extremely rare. The majority of raiders were poorly-equipped, and easily driven off. She left Yahzeeb and started working for NanoTrasen as a security guard. Wanting to advance up the ladder, she took some time off to pursue bachelor's degrees in criminal justice and business management. She earned the degrees, and went back to working for NanoTrasen. She has earned a reputation among NanoTrasen security; partly good, partly bad. The good part is her unwillingness to give anything less than her best, and her seeming lack of fear when facing dangerous situations. The bad part was her chronic back pain, which some people thought was an excuse to avoid going out on patrols.

What do you like about this character?: She has the experience, training, and education necessary for the positions of Head of Security and Captain. Her past employment with the Yahzeeb militia gives her experience and training in leadership and combat skills. Her bachelor's degrees in business management and criminal justice provide the education in corporate regulations and efficient personnel management necessary for the positions of Head of Security and Captain. She is strong-willed, and will not go down without a fight.

What do you dislike about this character?: She dislikes sending people into situations she wouldn't/can't go into herself. She suffers from chronic back pain, meaning that extended periods of activity are not good for her health

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: Her experience and training as a squad leader in a planetary militia, combined with her bachelor's degrees in criminal justice and business management, makes her a perfect fit for the roles of Captain and Head of Security. Her unwillingness to give up without a fight makes her perfect for dealing with threats to the station.

 

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: I would rate my roleplaying as an eight out of ten. While I have significant experience in roleplaying, my dislike of bland characters has sometimes lead to conflict. I have taken acting classes, which helps with my ability to roleplay. I'm good at connecting dots, which lead to one particular instance where I was messaged by an admin who believed I was metagaming. It was a vamp round, and my character was the victim of vamp mind control. During a discussion with a fellow crew member, my char came to the conclusion that the vamp (although my char didn't specifically know it was a vamp) was using some type of power that could compel people. I based this conclusion on first-hand experience and prior conversations. I was messaged by an admin, who wanted to know how my char came to the conclusion that it was mind control. I explained to him that my character did not specifically say mind control, but rather, the ability to compel people. I based this on a statement my character heard. When a character who was arrested for murder whispered something to the warden, the warden proceeded to blindly follow the murderer into a maintenance tunnel, ignoring someone who called out to him specifically. Once I explained the circumstances, the issue was dropped.

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Extra notes: I deleted my old chars, Ayano Aishi and Morrighan Macha. I was only using those while I adjusted to all the changes that happened after being away for so long.

EDIT: RIP. Nobody's commented on mine, but a bunch of people commented on Crab's.

[Promanguy1223]

Since no one is giving feedback on yours, and barely any on mine. I'll go ahead and give you some feedback. To me you seem like a generally okay player, I've seen you in OOC chat talk, and your a pretty nice guy. I haven't had to much interaction with your characters but I have seen them in game. But player wise its a +1.

[ben10083]

I really like the backstory, but I was hoping for more backstory about her NanoTrasen career, but overall I will like to see this play out. +1

[sonicgotnuked]

Honestly, from what I have been witnessing and I mentioned to them, I will have to give them a -1.

They simply show a little too much metagaming and valid hunting behavior while playing as Sara. They seem understanding to it, but I honestly wish for them to have more time playing security and improving their play before they make another head of staff whitelist.

[sonicgotnuked]

I understand where you're coming from, Sonic. I have been working on this issue, and am doing my best to improve on this.

And Hive, attacking someone's personality is a low blow, a really low blow.

 

I do see improvement within him, he is better now as I had to deal with him being a lot worse as the station AI when he first started playing a little while ago and he seemed understanding then. If I find a turn around with his mistakes, I would see no reason to give a +1.

[Knightroid]

I understand where you're coming from, Sonic. I have been working on this issue, and am doing my best to improve on this.

And Hive, attacking someone's personality is a low blow, a really low blow.

 

I do see improvement within him, he is better now as I had to deal with him being a lot worse as the station AI when he first started playing a little while ago and he seemed understanding then. If I find a turn around with his mistakes, I would see no reason to give a +1.

 

Thank you, Sonic. I'm always open to criticism, as long as it's valid and constructive, and presented politely. Even if the criticism is valid, bashing someone is not going to convince someone that they need to change. All it does is provoke conflict.

If my whitelist application is accepted, I would appreciate it if people would provide advice and constructive criticism based on my performance.

[Knightroid]

I really like the backstory, but I was hoping for more backstory about her NanoTrasen career, but overall I will like to see this play out. +1

 

Sorry I didn't include much about her NanoTrasen career, I didn't think it was that relevant. I also didn't want to write too much in her bio. If you want, though, I can expand on it.

[Butterrobber202]

The Backstory is kinda... eh for me.

Reported Metagaming and crappy conduct leaves me in a neutral stance.

EDIT: I'm staying neutral more on the basis I haven't seen much of you, more than the reported stuffz

[Scheveningen]

The backstory leaves so much to be desired. As does the player's conduct on our server. There's more than what I've just listed below but this is based off of what's happened in the past 2 weeks.

2017-09-17 03:07:11 || juani2400 || Blew up a borg because the borg wanted to throw a positronic brain into the trash bin. Only got confirmation from a roboticist, while there was a Captain. Caused a huge explosion, given that the borg was exploded in Robotics. Two fuel tanks were exploded with it.

2017-09-22 00:18:46 || pratepresidenten || Reported for SSDing when caught as a traitor warden. By the report, they did not do much all round apart from not doing their job.

2017-09-22 21:42:08 || alberyk || Keep an eye for valid hunting/metagaming behavior, pretty much trying to overcharge and shove someone into solitary without any real reason.

2017-09-27 00:16:58 || sonicgotnuked || Warning added by sonicgotnuked, for: Assumed all comms compramised when raiders talk on the common channel. Please make sure you do not metagame or valid hunt as you are starting to get closer to larger punishments due to your history.. || Notes regarding the warning: Was understanding when I told them. If continued, I suggest punishment in the form of a three day security ban to refresh them on the metagaming and valid hunting rules for the server..

2017-09-27 01:19:48 || sonicgotnuked || Ghosted out of their security officer to play as ERT during a code red situation. They were injured inside medical close to death but still getting some treatment, I told them to ahelp next time.

Utterly opposed to this whitelist. I don't need to detail why this is wrong. -1

[Scheveningen]

furthermore I'm scrubbing this thread of hostile responses and handing out warnings to those who cannot merge two neurons to come up with a more constructive response than a single paragraph as to why they think negatively of the applicant.

[Knightroid]

I can understand your opinion, Ven. As for the incident with the borg, the borg was slaved to the station AI, and was performing antag-like actions. I had never had to deal with this situation before, so I honestly didn't know that you had to have permission from the captain first. However, there was no excuse for SSDing when I was caught as the traitor warden. To be precise, I wasn't being taken in for being an antag, I was being taken in for neglect of duty. That was my first time playing warden, though, so I didn't really know what the position of warden entails. Now that I know, however, I've realized that warden isn't a good fit for me. For the incident with wanting to put the person in solitary, the perp in question murdered three people. Given this, I didn't think communal was a good idea. As for assuming that comms were compromised when raiders talked on the common channel, I did not know prior to this that the general comm channel was not encrypted. Given that the Aurora II is a research station, I assumed it would be to prevent corporate espionage. And when I ghosted out of a sec officer to play ERT during a code red situation, my character had a punctured lung, and was on the verge of death. And I was not getting treatment when I ghosted; the doctor treating me had to leave the operating theatre for an unspecified reason.

Again, I can understand your opinion. If you think I need some more time before applying again, I'm willing to accept and respect that.

[hivefleetchicken]

-1 I would highly advise you clean up your OOC behavior, in the discord especially. You have a VERY severe disregard for our rules.

You are not someone I want representing our playerbase' more dedicated demographic with the behavior your currently exhibit.

[Faris]

Got to be honest here, not the biggest fan. There are times I've had to come as either Captain and point out some flaws pertaining to you to your Head of Security to deal with or even recently today have to charge your characters for being unable to conduct their jobs within reason. I feel you should spend more time familiarizing yourself with the roles you're playing and as cited by others, the skirting of rules issue needs to be worked on.

For now, -1.

[AmoryBlaine]

I've only played one round with Cruz, and they were okay. I would say that you need more time before applying for the position of Head. I've been a Security Officer for over a year now as a few different Characters, and I don't see myself as ready for the position either. I think that it would be good to focus on getting better at organization, efficiency and reaction time- and reaction itself- to situations.

I can recall from the round I had with you, Cruz did not act at all past the point of calling out the location of an intruder- which was already established. I know you did not have an suit, but the Security team was down to yourself and two cadets on patrol with the wounded Officer and the Warden as your most dire assistance. You should have gone to get it. You also left your taser in favour of more munitions. I understand that the situation prior was mainly hostile, but your No.1 concern is non-lethal detainment as long as it means it isn't going to cost the company a lot to cover financially by the end.

So really, I think if you were to spend a couple more months getting better at the occupation you might have a better chance at passing this along. Neutral. Neither +1 or -1

[Sytic]

I believe I also have to back up claims to OOC harassment. They exclaimed on Discord they would like feedback, and started being hostile to people who gave negative feedback. After about thirty minutes or so however, I was able to break through to the person and help them with their application. I have not seen their character in-game to get a refined opinion, though.

Neutral.

[Munks]

The only memorable interactions I have with Sara Cruz are negative ones. If we see each other in maint, she flags me down and attempts to detain me, demanding to know why I am in maint (usually with me as a paramedic). Simple questioning would be one thing, but the big problem is that she cited suspicious conduct to me and legitimately tried to hold and question me about why I was in maintenance. This is generally on code green, if not immediately on round start, so it comes off as validhunty and without understanding of her role and limitations as a Security Officer. In one occurrence, I ended up having multiple officers, include the head of security that time, come down on me in the halls after our interaction, questioning why I "fled" from Cruz indicating she took it as a serious enough offense to report over comms and came up with something bad enough to have the whole department looking for me, even the HoS.

Also yesterday I saw her attempting to detain a drunken officer in the bar. Which maybe would be okay, but she left for a bit, then came back, saw a completely different officer in the bar (the drunken one had left) and she started wordlessly cuffing him and walking off with him. She hadn't said a word to the guy, listed a charge or a mentioned a warrant or anything, and obviously hadn't even looked at the name of the person she was arresting because it was a completely different person. When she finally realized her error, she stumbled around a while trying to figure out how to uncuff, which i'm not entirely sure she even knew how to do from watching it (this is something you shouldnt even leave cadetship without knowing how to do)

All in all, it's a pretty routine trend for interacting with Sera Cruz, and while its not much more than a general lack of understanding as opposed to genuine malice with your shortcomings, it's enough. I honestly wouldn't even be comfortable with this app if you were applying to go from Cadet to Officer, let alone Head of Security. You need a lot more time figuring out how this works. -1

[DatBerry]

Going to have to echo what Munks and others have said, Sara is simply too incompetent for a security officer, let alone a head of staff.

I suggest you make a security cadet character and try to learn the ropes properly from competent security officers, and give these pages a read, a little outdated but should give you a good idea of what's expected.

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Corporate_Regulations

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Station_Directives

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Security_Officer

and most importantly, this

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Guide_to_Security

[MattAtlas]

I believe Munks has said everything that there is to be said. I can confirm all that as it happens consistently over security comms.

Another problem with Cruz is your priority management. It needs a *lot* of work. Various times the station is on code blue or even red and you ignore the immediate threat to the station to arrest the engineer that is dismantling a window or putting up inflatable walls or whatever other minor infraction people do. I have seen this happen more than once and I honestly should not have to tell you to go look for the biggest threat. Until you fix your priority management and other issues detailed in this thread, -1.

[Faris]

Application Denied.

Take more time to adhere to the suggestions and feedback presented here by other people as the majority if not all is quite warranted and true. Feel free to apply again but I feel a period of at least a month before your next app might be best, not before.