AmazingDragons HoS Application!
#1
Usual character name: Ben Wyatt, Al Coholic, Friend Computer, Ben - Y - ATT - 9, and a few others
BYOND username: AmazingDragons
Discord username (if you are on our discord): AmazingDragons
Recommended by (if applicable): A few people, but so long ago they've probably forgotten
Goon servers you play: All of 'em

Reason for application:

Security is fun, and a good HoS makes the whole round more fun for everyone. The gear helps, but more importantly the HoS acts almost like a gamemaster in terms of making sure the round is progressing smoothly and making sure that the antags, sec, and the crew are all of having fun. I'm good at making the game fun as a secoff, and considering I've played hundreds of hours as an officer I have the experience and temperament to affect the round in a greater way as a HoS.

Security experience (300 word minimum):

A lot of y'all might not recognize me because I returned recently from a hiatus. If I need to put in a few more rounds to remind everyone who I am that's totally fine, but I'm hoping my presence in the community hasn't been totally forgotten. In total I've played about 700 hours, and security is one of my most played jobs. I picked it up early and stuck with it, because it tends to put you in the centre of the chaos of the round, which I love. Through this time I've managed to become reasonably robust, but arguably more importantly I've picked up on when to be robust and when to be willing to lose to antags to keep the round exciting. I'm more than happy to be the guy drinking poisoned martinis at the bar to make the round intriguing. Security controls the pacing of the round, and knowing how to approach each situation in a way that makes it fun for everyone is the most important skill of a secoff.

I've played a bit of detective, but it never really stuck. Nothing beats chasing a wizard down a hallway while screaming on the radio for backup and I find that you get the true sec experience as an officer. When rounds are slow I really like to engage with the crew as much as possible. I find that patrolling is either ineffective or a little metagamey, and either way it's not really a fun way to catch a troublemaker. Catching someone who hasn't even started to cause trouble is super duper lame, and it's a whole lot more fun to be told by crewmembers that you're chatting with about what THEY think is wrong with the station, and then starting your investigation from there. If the antags haven't managed to make enough commotion for it to come to you, it's usually not worth your time trying to preemptively stop imo.

I've done a lot of teaching as well. Not so much since I came back, as I now have no idea who is or isn't experienced and I try not to over-step, but back in the day I knew all the security regulars, so when I saw new people I made sure to offer guidance and try to meet them where they're at. Plenty of people want to learn through trial and error, and so long as they're not making things worse (preemptively executing prisoners for example) I'll leave 'em alone. However, a whole lot of people are super receptive to some kind of advice or guidance, ranging from little bits of advice like "hold your harm baton from the UNELECTRIFIED end" to letting them shadow you and supporting them wherever they need it.

Finally, I've played a fair amount of command and AI, which has a lot of crossover with security. Those roles tend to impact the pacing of the round and the decisions one makes in those positions can make the round more or less fun for the people there. No judgment towards people who do believe in demotion, but I try to avoid it whenever possible. People sign up for their roles because they like that particular access, gear, equipment, etc., and unless I really feel that the station needs it (for example a TTV bomber sprinting back to research to make their third batch) and even then I tend to check in with other members of command and the security team. It tends to take a lot of agency away from the person being demoted, so I personally choose to avoid it. In general, I try to take a very utilitarian view towards decision-making, like I laid out above, maximizing everyone's fun as best I can.



Answer two or more of the following:
  • What advice would you give to other sec players?

If you ask me, the responsibility of sec is to progress and maintain the round as the crew creates a story together. That means progressive discipline for antags (warnings/tickets/fines -> arrests -> confiscated gear -> exile -> execution), and while I think that a lot of security officers pick up on some variation of this pretty quickly, the finer details lie in your ability to let the station slowly go to shit. If every time the antags do anything, you're on their ass dishing out an appropriate punishment and stopping any possibility of crime, you've followed the letter of progressive discipline very effectively, but you haven't managed to create a fun round. If the round is slow, consider getting plastered at the bar until something bad happens, and then dramatically losing the conflict because you're wasted. On the other hand: if half the station's depressurized, and the other half is filled with plasma, and the AI is rogue, you gotta be a supersoldier. Confiscate the syndicate gear, smash your way into upload, and scream and pray into the mic for an engineer to fix something instead of trying to optimize their pipeburn. A great story is all about pacing, and if the crew feels that the threat of death and destruction rises over time, hits a dramatic peak, and then comes crashing down one way or another, you've killed it.

Also, COMMUNICATE. Your one real advantage in sec is your team, and if you're not communicating, you're hamstringing your whole team. Literally communicate everything. How annoying is the clown being, who gives off bad vibes, who did you arrest and confiscate a flamethrower from. This plays into the previous point, wherein the pacing of the round mostly comes down to security. If the right hand doesn't know how strict the left hand's being, they can't make effective decisions. And communicating also means when you go radio silent they might need to check maintenance for your body. It makes the game more fun for you.

  • What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)

I was a traitor mechanic who had planted nukes, and was making demands of the station to not blow everything up. A secoff arrested me and refused to let me touch a computer, pda, or terminal, until they had defused all of the nukes. They kept going on and on about how foolish I was, and how they were obviously going to dismantle all of my work and it would all be for naught. Right up until we both got blown up together along with the rest of the station. I was crying laughing with how awesome that secoff was, rping as super confident and in control right up until the end.

  • Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
As a solo security officer, you need to be able to lay down the law. You have a pretty big responsibility to the station in terms of your ability to affect the round in a positive or negative way, so when I play solo I really try to manage my time. You can only put out so many fires, so using logic and some roleplaying to make decisions is super important (the captain is probably a tad more important to save than the clown). I also lean on the AI pretty heavily as a solo secoff. The AI can set people to arrest, track known antags, get eyes on situations before you, and even occasionally bolt antags in. It's obviously not something that should be abused as it can take a lot of power away from antags and as I mentioned above that's pretty awful for a fun round, but it can be a really useful way to manage shit when you can't personally handle every antag on your own.When I have a team I try to rp a whole lot more, and if the team is wholly capable then I'll tend to be the weakest link in terms of actually stopping antags. I'll communicate, make sure that arrest logs are updated, and chat with as many crewmembers as possible. Then, if I have to step it up and secure the station I will. I also try to help the newer secoffs and assistants as much as possible. Sec in particular can be suuuuuuper unforgiving to learn, and having someone around to explain mechanics and precedent is so helpful. And then when the new player gets chopped into little pieces you can grab their disk and revive them. It's a good feeling.


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.


[*]Red t-shirt on, I walk the halls,
[*]Dodging pranks and fixing walls.
Lawbooks torn, the clowns conspire
[*]I’m chasing chaos, drawing fire.

[*]Traitors lurk, the AI lies,
[*]Greytiders scream, “SEC BAD!” with cries.
[*]But still I guard this floating zoo,
[*]For space, for order — and NT too!



Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will):

1. Silicon-banned for not understanding laws.

2. Banned for leaving at roundstart as captain.
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#2
Alright! Here's some actual feedback (In the right application this time). Please bear in mind I'm not a regular sec player and this is all just my opinion so you're free to quite reasonably disagree.

So funnily enough I had some time to watch you playing while watching others play to give them feedback, but I also wanted to get some time in watching you play both security specifically and giving you the time. I'll split this into two parts of generalised feedback and then speak about a specific round that I think gives some good case-examples, then summarise at the bottom for anyone who doesn't want to read it all. 

General feedback:
  • You in general seem to have good knowledge of the game, which is always going to be useful for a HoS. I saw you involved in a variety of job roles and it seems like your understanding of the game is pretty well rounded. Always an advantage.
  • You seem to have a pattern of both indulging gimmicks and doing gimmicks which is good! I know I personally appreciate when someone is willing to give me some time if I'm doing a particular gimmick that requires a little audience participation. On the flipside, you ran a gimmick at one point that in my opinion fell a little flat involving being a particularly zealous inspector. It's always a tricky middle ground playing deliberately micromanaging characters for a bit whether you're being entertaining or just an obstruction and that's okay, not every bit is going to land, but this one ended up in a dressing down from the HoS and you cryo'd after. This is not a "Don't do these bits" piece of feedback at all, I think it's perfectly fine to do them, but it seemed like you struggled a bit reading the room this particular time. However, I must point out this was one bit and in the rest you did a really good job with that so I wouldn't read too much into it, more just a "It's okay to spot if a bit is going flat and switch tactics, it'll happen!" thing. 
  • Good general communication: You seem to be particularly aware of general radio communication which when its busier can be an easy thing to drop. I saw you responding to cries for help both as sec and non sec that can sometimes be missed when its busy. Being able to multi-task the chat and what's happening around you is always a good thing in my books and I personally feel very vital for the HoS who is going to be in a more supervisory position for delegating the team out and leading, but also might sometimes be quite busy and still need to issue orders and rally the team.
  • You seem willing to "take the bait", if someone sells you a story well RP wise I saw a couple of times you clearly knew what was going on but indulged it. I think that's always a useful skill to have as a security officer and HoS, where you are going to need to be aware of giving people space for gimmicks. But at the same time when lines crossed to something you needed to deal with, you did, so that's good. 
  • When things were very chaotic you tended to slip into what might just be a character position of yelling and being a little flustered. I don't think that's a bad thing at all, makes sense RP wise too and sometimes you need to be a little more curt in a crisis, but bear in mind as a HoS people might read into that a bit (often unfairly) as being dismissed. It might be good as things calm down to re-touch base with people and pick up old leads. You might already do this and I just got unlucky with what I saw though. Given you were very chill with people 90% of the time I'd buy that if you told me you do this already.

Specific round:
  • This was a very recent round on Oshan, with a Nuke and their Child for personal context. 
  • A little on the other foot compared to the general feedback: the HoP was running a gimmick that wasn't quite working out in my personal opinion. I do appreciate you gently indicated that might be so RP wise by offering the logic of "paying people generally keeps them happier and productive" while also not commanding them to stop. A nice, polite suggestion can sometimes work wonders to help steer someone and it's going to be a thing you'll end up doing as HoS sometimes too. So that's good. 
  • Several times during this round you were aware of a situation, for example the security team accosting one of the syndicates. You were communicative on radio and asked if you were needed, but when you didn't get a response and visually confirmed the situation was in control you let it be and got on with other things. Knowing when not to cluster on a big interesting thing happening (and potentially letting antags have a sliver chance of getting out of it) in my opinion is a vital security skill and an important one for the HoS. It also let you:
  • Walk in on something else interesting happening: The nuke in the bar. Now, the first instinct of some of your fellow officers was to immediately stuff the nukes in the armory. You didn't do this, negotiated a basic set of house rules with the bar owner, and went with the gimmick. This is a very subjective manner and I accept fully not everyone's going to agree here but in my opinion: this is what I want to see security doing when it can and was very pleased. You let the crew engage with something novel happening even though it was a potential risk, and I think it shows that "I just want to win" mentality isn't there. You also adapted well to plans when security decided they -would- take the nukes in (and after a threat was more established by some syndicates coming by to actively try and steal it) that seems like a really solid balance between "Let a thing happen" and "Okay we need to do our job now" approach and I'd hope to see that from HoSes. It's a REALLY tricky thing to balance and it's not going to always go right, but it did this time and I think your mindset was good here.
  • You adapted well when the detective silently took one of the nukes and poorly communicated they'd secured it, leading to you briefly being on a wild goose chase trying to find it while they were radio silent, but you didn't lose your cool once you knew. That's always good, communication is sometimes gonna be patchy and not getting riled about it is important for team dynamics.
  • You in this shift and others mostly seemed to keep to your own independent patrols. That's fine, but I think if that's how you usually work and it seems to be it made it difficult to assess how you do working directly with team members or training security assistants. I didn't see any training going on, which is fine but I'd say it might help your application to make use of these opportunities to show you're great at introducing people to the department and also just making an impression on your team to get some feedback here. 

Summary: 
  • Things I liked: Your willingness to go with a bit, good general skills and communication
  • feedback: Make use of training opportunities and maybe pair up a bit more with the team to make a good impression and show off your training chops, and if a bit's falling flat don't be afraid to adapt it.


This is a leaning towards but not quite fully +1 in general, I'd need to see a bit more training stuff and I'll keep an eye out during the application period, so hopefully I can come back and more strongly confirm it, but it seems like you have a good general mindset for it. 
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