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+---- Thread: HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated (/showthread.php?tid=17051)
HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated - Diamond_Plated - 09-04-2021
Usual character name:
Nako Starbell
BYOND username:
Diamond_Plated
Discord username (if you are on our discord):
Diamond_#1852
Recommended by (if applicable):
Chayot
Goon servers you play:
1, Heisenbee
Reason for application:
I have seen Security Officers and Assistants in almost complete disarray, hardly working together and poorly coordinated. As a Security Officer, it feels as though you have equal or lower authority, hampering the capability to organize and lead the team effectively, as they see you as an equal or lesser, and instead would rather lone-wolf it and do their own things as they feel you can not organize them. With the authority and responsibility of HoS, I would be capable of having Officers communicate with each other more, and bring them closer together as a team so they are working together more effectively, rather than distrusting each other and feeling disconnected with the rest of the team.
Security experience (300 word minimum):
I’ve started out playing SS13 as Sec, and my first memories were of confusion and difficulty. Some people have stared at me like I was weird for joining, and very few have taken any note of me. It has made it really hard to learn and improve as the team hardly actually talks or knows any of their co-workers. This all matters as I realized early on that if I want to survive and learn, I would have to learn to work independently of the others and teach myself what I need to learn. It should be noted that for a new player, or at least a new player to security, this kind of start into it would be a great factor that would repel them from ever wanting to try it. People won’t get to stay long enough to develop friendships with their co-workers and enjoy security, all because most of the security officers are disorganized and untrained.
As I continued working my way through security up to becoming an officer, I already felt that everyone was still disconnected, and that it would be almost pointless to try and talk to them. This is really bad, and way later/recently, I have looked back and seen that people will develop extreme apathy and lack of care for their co-workers, and ultimately station crew, as they worked through their shifts with no help. I have always wanted someone that would step in and rally the security team, and that has happened a few times on occasion, but only one time I have seen was really successful. That round was probably my most favorite, as the security team was working in near perfect harmony, communicating effectively. Most often however, the security team is disorganized, feeding into the chaos rather than quenching it and restoring order.
As a side note, I don’t entirely care about the skill level of the officers and assistants, as what matters more is if they’re willing to co-operate with their team and act like everyone’s in it together to enjoy the round and have fun. Communication will greatly improve everyone’s fun in security, as they don’t just have to sit alone in the main security room talking with the rare staff assistant, and instead would be able to have conversations with their team and develop friendships with them. Friendships would allow people to build trust with each other, and allow them all to work more effectively together, or at the very least have a lot more fun as they’re working with people they know rather than complete strangers that are mute until they say “dyyyyyying” once and never talk again.
Answer two or more of the following:
- What advice would you give to other sec players?
- Advice I would give to other security players is please communicate more and utilize your security headset, and if necessary, your security alert. Your radio has a security channel for a reason, it allows you to say any bit of information you have that may be useful, or at the very least talk with other security officers and not flood general radio channels if you don’t want to. Onto the security alert, you do not have to wait until you’re dying to press it. Press the button when heading into an encounter that you think you’ll need more security than you to take on. That doesn’t mean to spam the button the second a staff assistant keeps shoving you with another staffie watching eagerly, but rather, if you see such a grand threat that you feel your life will be in danger such as a rampager, or maybe even a lesser threat if you do not feel confident in your skillset.
- Another piece of advice I have is to not walk around with your weapons on display for everyone to see. I’ve seen security officers walking around with their batons out looking for a threat, just to slip and hand their tools to the aggressor, adding a new toy to their arsenal. The baton and taser are great, but people absolutely love to try and take it from you, as they either want it, or know that you really need it, especially since you don’t want to have it put away. If you are going into a situation knowing you will need to apply additional force, at least start walking if you are going to have your weapon drawn. Running and especially sprinting is a very easy way to accidentally slip on that one banana peel left over by the clown twenty minutes ago, or to fly so fast to the threat that you accidentally step into a tele-trap or ambush and die. Walking lets you slow down and think carefully about everything you’re doing, allowing you to make more rational decisions and perform your task as needed properly.
- Advice I would give to other security players is please communicate more and utilize your security headset, and if necessary, your security alert. Your radio has a security channel for a reason, it allows you to say any bit of information you have that may be useful, or at the very least talk with other security officers and not flood general radio channels if you don’t want to. Onto the security alert, you do not have to wait until you’re dying to press it. Press the button when heading into an encounter that you think you’ll need more security than you to take on. That doesn’t mean to spam the button the second a staff assistant keeps shoving you with another staffie watching eagerly, but rather, if you see such a grand threat that you feel your life will be in danger such as a rampager, or maybe even a lesser threat if you do not feel confident in your skillset.
- What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
- My favorite security moment was at Horizon when everything felt like it was falling apart with chaos everywhere. To add to it, a changeling went into Abomination form in the middle of Medbay, and everyone kinda stared at it, not caring. I decided that I will not fail my job to protect people and will attack it, but before doing that, I used my radio. The message to everyone was something like “Ling at Medbay” “Everyone go to Medbay”. I thought I would be alone fighting it and most likely dying, however, an entire army of around ten people showed up to respond to the call, and they all proceeded to attack it on sight. This led to the changeling being exceedingly overwhelmed by the clowns and staff assistants attacking it, vastly outperforming security as there were only three officers, one of which being me. All of this proved to me that people are capable of doing anything and having fun, but it takes some communication and rallying to unite everyone to do what is needed of them effectively, rather than being apathetic and moving on with their day.
- My favorite security moment was at Horizon when everything felt like it was falling apart with chaos everywhere. To add to it, a changeling went into Abomination form in the middle of Medbay, and everyone kinda stared at it, not caring. I decided that I will not fail my job to protect people and will attack it, but before doing that, I used my radio. The message to everyone was something like “Ling at Medbay” “Everyone go to Medbay”. I thought I would be alone fighting it and most likely dying, however, an entire army of around ten people showed up to respond to the call, and they all proceeded to attack it on sight. This led to the changeling being exceedingly overwhelmed by the clowns and staff assistants attacking it, vastly outperforming security as there were only three officers, one of which being me. All of this proved to me that people are capable of doing anything and having fun, but it takes some communication and rallying to unite everyone to do what is needed of them effectively, rather than being apathetic and moving on with their day.
- What game improvements or changes do you think would benefit security players?
- A change that could potentially benefit security players would be to either make the armory harder to hack into, or practically impossible to do without a high level of skill. I don’t entirely care how they do it, but the main reason for this is because I have seen a surprisingly large amount of security players hacking into the armory. The majority of antags and greytiders steal the wall on the far side and go in, so it will not impair them, but it would be a great deterrent for security players hacking in to steal some “lethal and cool” guns and having dangerous sub-lethal weaponry without the warning, as well as preventing them from walking around and losing the guns to people that would have a different idea in mind for the weapons.
- Another implementation of this would be to actually fix the security access within the armory, as for some reason, security officers are allowed to take the guns off the racks without armory access needing to be granted. I kinda doubt this was intended to be a feature, as antags are still prevented from taking guns off the racks, but cruel or over-ambitious security officers can break in and steal the guns for themselves. Preventing them from having access to armory weapons whenever they want and instead only having it when they absolutely need it will discipline them to use what they’re given, instead of throwing grenades because big booms look cooler than the suspect being detained non-lethally and carefully.
- One minor problem that has been developing recently was the incapability of security to reasonably mend the wounded inmates consistently. Something that could be added to improve that would be two wall mounted menders that recharge near the brig that would only work on people that are cuffed, or whatever rendition possible to minimize the chance of abuse. Allowing security to care for their inmates will not destroy their relationship as badly as roughly throwing the inmate in despite being near crit, or in crit, and chuting them out into the window or table, almost guaranteeing their death if a doctor is not near. Security currently has no way of caring for the inmates, and so most officers just beat them up or kill them, of which beating usually results in them dying anyway as they got dragged in wounded and couldn’t be healed. Even if no countermeasures work to stop security from healing themselves, just straight up blocking security from being healed by it would work for a while, just so it can at least be implaced and have security develop a healthy habit of thinking and caring more for their inmates, and not treating them as a punching bag for when you are angry.
- A change that could potentially benefit security players would be to either make the armory harder to hack into, or practically impossible to do without a high level of skill. I don’t entirely care how they do it, but the main reason for this is because I have seen a surprisingly large amount of security players hacking into the armory. The majority of antags and greytiders steal the wall on the far side and go in, so it will not impair them, but it would be a great deterrent for security players hacking in to steal some “lethal and cool” guns and having dangerous sub-lethal weaponry without the warning, as well as preventing them from walking around and losing the guns to people that would have a different idea in mind for the weapons.
- Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
- When part of a full security team that is communicating at least somewhat, I feel relatively confident and relaxed, knowing that I have an entire team that is there to support me with whatever is needed. I start to utilize the radio more often, talking with my team and enjoying the round more, as people are alongside me and I don’t have to worry about not having anyone guaranteed to be friendly.
- When I am the only security officer, or at least part of a small mute team, I am relatively scared and worried, as I have no idea of anything that is happening. Officers that are grouped up or at least talking are much safer than a lone officer that is free pickings for anyone that is competent in quiet takedowns or good at fighting. I start getting worried, and tend to almost instantly distrust anyone that looks at me for too long, as usually they don’t intend to give me cupcakes, but would rather kill me and take everything off of me, and almost certainly would not have anyone able to rescue me.
- When part of a full security team that is communicating at least somewhat, I feel relatively confident and relaxed, knowing that I have an entire team that is there to support me with whatever is needed. I start to utilize the radio more often, talking with my team and enjoying the round more, as people are alongside me and I don’t have to worry about not having anyone guaranteed to be friendly.
Answer one or more of the following fun questions (because it's important for the HoS to be fun):
- Write a poem to convey your thoughts on security/NanoTrasen/space/bees/anything related to SS13.
- Working together brings harmony,
Permitting teamwork and a symphony.
Voiceless wandering is confusing,
Leading to blood and dirt diffusing.
- Working together brings harmony,
- What's a security gimmick that you've ran or wanted to run?
- Giving the AI a new law in which it has to pick a random staff assistant, and narrate their entire life as if they’re the protagonist of a movie. The AI is to assist the staffie with whatever they want, and if they are getting attacked, do everything in their power to support the staffie, as long as it doesn’t involve harming others. If the “protagonist” is killed, then the killer will be the new “protagonist”, and the AI can continue from there.
- Giving the AI a new law in which it has to pick a random staff assistant, and narrate their entire life as if they’re the protagonist of a movie. The AI is to assist the staffie with whatever they want, and if they are getting attacked, do everything in their power to support the staffie, as long as it doesn’t involve harming others. If the “protagonist” is killed, then the killer will be the new “protagonist”, and the AI can continue from there.
No bans, but some warnings.
P.S. If by some miracle the both of us end up getting HoS, rest assured that we aren't going to HoS/NTSO often, it would be a very rare once-in-a-while occurrence, such as a very late join in a round. Firstly, that would be poor behavior in relation to the other HoS's, as we would be taking away their chance of utilizing what they've earned. Secondly, that would ruin almost anything the antags would have planned for everyone, as they would just see a HoS and an NTSO marching up to them, almost certainly destroying their confidence and reducing them to hiding away from everyone, never fulfilling their goals or ideas.
RE: HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated - Chayot - 09-13-2021
Sorry to say, I didn't recommend you, Nor did I suggest that you apply.
That said, It is not as though I view you poorly, or think you are insufficient somehow for HoS.
Rather, I do believe you need to carve out for yourself a good standing as a member of security.
I have no issue with you pairing with Khaaku. However, in doing so, it is difficult for you to stand out individually--You often allow Khaaku to do the talking, and the leading.
This is not bad, however as a result I don't know how you make decisions, how you react to situations, being as it is that you often simply follow Khaaku's direction.
It's not as though pairing with Khaaku is the problem, I simply recommend that you speak up.
Yes, Khaaku is more talkative/engaging. But you too, speak up and let us see what Nako can do.
In your application, there are certain things you say which speak "inexperience" to me.
I won't drone on too long about specifics. Be balanced and lead by example.
Don't become afraid if your team is "small/Mute." Guide them.
All said, I've witnessed nothing but good behavior from Nako, hardly any less impressive than his counterpart.
However, I have not been able to witness him display qualities befitting of an HoS.
My advice: Even now, before you're an HoS, display leadership, good judgement, and discipline your team.
While you have Supported Khaaku in these regards, I want to see Nako take the initiative in a similar manner.
I'm not saying to speak over Khaaku, challenge him, or attempt to undermine his authority.
Rather, Crew and Security shouldn't feel that if Nako alone is here, they don't have to worry about being disciplined.
They should know and understand that Nako, too, is capable and willing to act at the capacity of an HoS.
Again, I have no problem with you pairing with someone--plenty of HoS' recommend a battle-buddy, So anyone who says it's a problem, I don't know what to tell them. (As NTSO, even I follow the HoS around and act as his "battle-buddy"--there's nothing wrong with it. You're just supporting your team member.)
All said, I cannot support this. Not a bad secoff, just lacking in experience.
RE: HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated - Mysticmidgit - 09-19-2021
Same thing I said on Khaaku's app, good team player (Which is a godsent for security) and an all around good officer. But if you two plan on doing some HoS/NTSO gaming together I will warn you that people may start complaining about one of you going NTSO multiple rounds in a row.
+1
RE: HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated - AlyasGrey - 09-19-2021
Feel like I was a bit slow responding to this, but +1.
Say the same thing I said to Khaaku, remember you're running a whole sec team. It's going to require a somewhat different playstyle than you're both probably used to. I'm sure you both already know this.
RE: HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated - Froggit_Dogget - 09-19-2021
Yea, your pretty cool.
However, Ive seen alot of examples where youll jump immediatly into attacking antagonists for existing, usually later on in the rounds, and usually antag critters. Also, you grab meds for every damage type, fill your oxygen, and grab insuls and a space suit every round. Play how you want, but being unprepared leads to more fun, as you have to play your environment more instead of tanking through them.
Ill say yes, because those are my only complaints, and your a great officer to have on the team, but i'd like to challenge you to not prepare for everything, and always let the antagonists make the first move.
RE: HoS Application - Nako Starbell / Diamond_Plated - Flourish - 10-10-2021
Hey, we really appreciate the time and effort you put into this application, but have decided to deny it as we haven't really seen you and Khaaku play sec independently of each other. I think you're a solid officer, but I'd really like to see how you communicate and work with those other than Khaaku.
You're welcome to reapply in 60 days, which would be December 9. I'd definitely encourage reapplying once you spend some time playing independently of Khaaku.