Goonhub
03-21-2019, 02:58 PM
Usual Character Name: Casey Spark
BYOND Username: Gerhazo
Recommended by (if applicable): Flaborized, Flourish, SimianC
Times Available: Very varying, but generally between 7-10PM CET(GMT+1) and nearly always online on Discord for most of the European day. Depending on timeframe I'm also available during earlier hours, often when there's usually a low population(excluding the currently ongoing influx of new players).
Reason for Application (300 word minimum):
Though I'm mostly recognized as a silicon player as S.P.A.R.K., for some time now I've also been playing security when I had the time to help alleviate their low numbers and the station falling to chaos with nobody crewmembers can resort to for protection and being constantly forced to take their defense into their own hands.
The job is unique because it requires having a correct mindset of playing purely for fun and working in such a way that enhances the round and allows further events to develop rather than just ending them the moment the perpetrators are caught. My main inspiration was working with Flaborized as they radiate that mindset and helped me solidify my belief in it rather than feeling pressured to just follow the space law to a letter like the other officers I observed would. I want to continue spreading that mindset and help other officers to also be seen positively rather than treated with scrutiny.
I believe the lack of that mindset in most players is what causes the security department to often be so empty. It can be seen in the ongoing(at the time of writing) influx of players. A decent amount of the folk have flocked to the security department. Although some of them were genuinely acting with malice, from the mentorhelps I have read over the period there were people who genuinely tried their best. Their lack of a proper mindset and feel for the server's mood however causes them to be met with scrutiny and yelled at away from holding the positions, which they will do and likely avoid for a long time in fear of messing up again. This applies to all players, not just the new ones.
Having recently become a mentor, I've spent a significant lot of my time answering questions, especially the last few days, and just spectating the servers to help out players in hopes of them finding their niche and sticking around(at the time of writing I'm sitting at 1069 mentions of my name in mentorhelp PMs in less than a month, also partially the reason I haven't been playing in the game itself as much recently). I'd want to continue that effort and help people give security a chance while helping them out in shaping their judgement of situations in a similar fashion to Flaborized managing to fill out the department just by asking people to join in between rounds. Antagonist interactions with security officers are often the highlights of a round and lead to very memorable situations. Although I'm not a security main, as some would say, I do enjoy playing the role a lot and often have great experience when doing so and would want to help others get there as well.
I also am often free during hours that are usually lowpop and would hope to use the position to enhance these rounds.
Security Experience (300 word minimum):
I've been playing on Goonstation for 10 years now with some periods of inactivity, not always as security but I dabbled in it often. I'm familiar with all of security equipment, I can operate ThinkDOS fluently to use the SecMate to change the records as well as the helper device that's present in the department for doing it by hand.
I wouldn't say I'm the most robust person but I've gotten out of and resolved many difficult situations like a mindslaved captain + subverted AI or managing to subdue and banish the same werewolf to the martian outpost thrice having it escape every time(damn you Dryad!!!).
I really like the balancing of security equipment as every tool has a purpose with its own benefits and downsides. The barrier for some time felt mostly like just a fun thing to use for forming walls during trial cases or bullying with the additional round highlight projectile reflect attempt time-to-time but the recent buffs definitely made it a much greater tool and one to be considered.
Security private channel communication is a thing I value a lot and try to use as often as I can, seeing Bartorex join me and Flaborized for one round of security and constantly doing very insightful callouts and relaying information efficiently really amazed me and is something I wish to replicate in my gameplay. People who have experienced a round with me will probably know the magnitude of tickets I hand out. The ticket program is one of my favourite things as it lets me mark and denounce actions that are clearly against the law but wouldn't bring anything positive to the round and to either my or the perpetrator's experience had I arrested them. Sometimes people play along and even start doing multitude of petty crimes to amass as many as possible, starting a game of cat & mouse between us, which is a funny interaction both between us and people observing it happen.
I try to be as lenient as possible and mostly reserve brig time if the crime involved murder or severely impairing someone's experience(destruction of property, stealing job-sensitive equipment). For people who aren't redeemable(werewolves who've murdered a lot of people) I reserve borging or fun challenges, i.e. recently having deported a werewolf to the mars outpost and ordering them to return with the vault's gold. Syndicate equipment I confiscate and if it isn't too inherently dangerous, I try to provide a petition to get it back or re-instate the antagonist as a special officer if something much worse happens with the return of the goods as a promise. If I witness a spy using their PDA to steal someone's limb, I detain them and use their limbs to replace the loss before letting them go. All of these things let the events expand and develop in usually funny and interactive for all parties way. I'd also want to incorporate holding trials into my repertoire, though that's slightly more difficult to manage as a regular security officer.
As a mentor, I have access to HoS on fridays and having tried the role out allowed me many unique interactions with the security officers, as they were much more likely to ask me for advice or help than if I were just a regular officer they happened to spawn with. I was the one they called for help when one of them was injured or required assistance with their internals having ran out. I believe I can use that kind of perception to try and help shape other officers to be able to experience the security department in a similar fashion.
In your opinion, what are the flaws and benefits of the current security layout (brig, cells, security room etc):
I really enjoy security layouts that are clearly split and segmented into parts. I believe they should be easy to navigate through, yet possessing checkpoints that portable flashers can make great use of and that allow for easy defense. Having non-obvious weak spots that can be exploited but require prior preparation is a great plus.
Cogmap 1's security layout is my favorite as it fits all these expectations. has a very clear entry lobby, a visitation desk with view towards the general population brig. Has the main security area with the computers and equipment as well as the secluded brig area with the various holding locations and the armory itself. There's a lot of room for subterfuge with how you can't observe the entire department at once due to its size. The inconspicuous bathroom is a very thin wall away from freedom towards the elusive maintenance tunnels, allowing for a daring breakout or placement of a fake wall in advance to allow for a future escape and confusing looks of the security officers.
There are too many layouts to discuss them all which is why I mainly talked about the cogmap 1 one. However cogmap 2's layout also incorporates many of the same ideas, though it is significantly less segmented, it still has weak spots while also having a lot of interactive areas such as the visiting windows and intercoms.
I'd also like to bring up Clarion because from what I know it's a popular RP map and one that I've played on often even on #2. Though it also isn't as segmented as cog1, it's understandably so as the map is designed to be compact. There unfortunately aren't any visiting areas or such, but there is a very niftly designed interrogation area accessed from either security or the brig cells, which I really like. It doesn't have as many weak spots as the other layouts, but still borders one of its walls with a maintenance tunnel, making impressive breakout attempts still possible, even if not as easy.
Previous Bans (While this will not affect your application lying about it will):
Basing on my banned medal, at least one in 2010 although considering the time gap I don't remember much nor the severity. Possibly more as I was ~9 years less mature back then.
That said I'm sure of not having been banned nor warned in the last several years.
BYOND Username: Gerhazo
Recommended by (if applicable): Flaborized, Flourish, SimianC
Times Available: Very varying, but generally between 7-10PM CET(GMT+1) and nearly always online on Discord for most of the European day. Depending on timeframe I'm also available during earlier hours, often when there's usually a low population(excluding the currently ongoing influx of new players).
Reason for Application (300 word minimum):
Though I'm mostly recognized as a silicon player as S.P.A.R.K., for some time now I've also been playing security when I had the time to help alleviate their low numbers and the station falling to chaos with nobody crewmembers can resort to for protection and being constantly forced to take their defense into their own hands.
The job is unique because it requires having a correct mindset of playing purely for fun and working in such a way that enhances the round and allows further events to develop rather than just ending them the moment the perpetrators are caught. My main inspiration was working with Flaborized as they radiate that mindset and helped me solidify my belief in it rather than feeling pressured to just follow the space law to a letter like the other officers I observed would. I want to continue spreading that mindset and help other officers to also be seen positively rather than treated with scrutiny.
I believe the lack of that mindset in most players is what causes the security department to often be so empty. It can be seen in the ongoing(at the time of writing) influx of players. A decent amount of the folk have flocked to the security department. Although some of them were genuinely acting with malice, from the mentorhelps I have read over the period there were people who genuinely tried their best. Their lack of a proper mindset and feel for the server's mood however causes them to be met with scrutiny and yelled at away from holding the positions, which they will do and likely avoid for a long time in fear of messing up again. This applies to all players, not just the new ones.
Having recently become a mentor, I've spent a significant lot of my time answering questions, especially the last few days, and just spectating the servers to help out players in hopes of them finding their niche and sticking around(at the time of writing I'm sitting at 1069 mentions of my name in mentorhelp PMs in less than a month, also partially the reason I haven't been playing in the game itself as much recently). I'd want to continue that effort and help people give security a chance while helping them out in shaping their judgement of situations in a similar fashion to Flaborized managing to fill out the department just by asking people to join in between rounds. Antagonist interactions with security officers are often the highlights of a round and lead to very memorable situations. Although I'm not a security main, as some would say, I do enjoy playing the role a lot and often have great experience when doing so and would want to help others get there as well.
I also am often free during hours that are usually lowpop and would hope to use the position to enhance these rounds.
Security Experience (300 word minimum):
I've been playing on Goonstation for 10 years now with some periods of inactivity, not always as security but I dabbled in it often. I'm familiar with all of security equipment, I can operate ThinkDOS fluently to use the SecMate to change the records as well as the helper device that's present in the department for doing it by hand.
I wouldn't say I'm the most robust person but I've gotten out of and resolved many difficult situations like a mindslaved captain + subverted AI or managing to subdue and banish the same werewolf to the martian outpost thrice having it escape every time(damn you Dryad!!!).
I really like the balancing of security equipment as every tool has a purpose with its own benefits and downsides. The barrier for some time felt mostly like just a fun thing to use for forming walls during trial cases or bullying with the additional round highlight projectile reflect attempt time-to-time but the recent buffs definitely made it a much greater tool and one to be considered.
Security private channel communication is a thing I value a lot and try to use as often as I can, seeing Bartorex join me and Flaborized for one round of security and constantly doing very insightful callouts and relaying information efficiently really amazed me and is something I wish to replicate in my gameplay. People who have experienced a round with me will probably know the magnitude of tickets I hand out. The ticket program is one of my favourite things as it lets me mark and denounce actions that are clearly against the law but wouldn't bring anything positive to the round and to either my or the perpetrator's experience had I arrested them. Sometimes people play along and even start doing multitude of petty crimes to amass as many as possible, starting a game of cat & mouse between us, which is a funny interaction both between us and people observing it happen.
I try to be as lenient as possible and mostly reserve brig time if the crime involved murder or severely impairing someone's experience(destruction of property, stealing job-sensitive equipment). For people who aren't redeemable(werewolves who've murdered a lot of people) I reserve borging or fun challenges, i.e. recently having deported a werewolf to the mars outpost and ordering them to return with the vault's gold. Syndicate equipment I confiscate and if it isn't too inherently dangerous, I try to provide a petition to get it back or re-instate the antagonist as a special officer if something much worse happens with the return of the goods as a promise. If I witness a spy using their PDA to steal someone's limb, I detain them and use their limbs to replace the loss before letting them go. All of these things let the events expand and develop in usually funny and interactive for all parties way. I'd also want to incorporate holding trials into my repertoire, though that's slightly more difficult to manage as a regular security officer.
As a mentor, I have access to HoS on fridays and having tried the role out allowed me many unique interactions with the security officers, as they were much more likely to ask me for advice or help than if I were just a regular officer they happened to spawn with. I was the one they called for help when one of them was injured or required assistance with their internals having ran out. I believe I can use that kind of perception to try and help shape other officers to be able to experience the security department in a similar fashion.
In your opinion, what are the flaws and benefits of the current security layout (brig, cells, security room etc):
I really enjoy security layouts that are clearly split and segmented into parts. I believe they should be easy to navigate through, yet possessing checkpoints that portable flashers can make great use of and that allow for easy defense. Having non-obvious weak spots that can be exploited but require prior preparation is a great plus.
Cogmap 1's security layout is my favorite as it fits all these expectations. has a very clear entry lobby, a visitation desk with view towards the general population brig. Has the main security area with the computers and equipment as well as the secluded brig area with the various holding locations and the armory itself. There's a lot of room for subterfuge with how you can't observe the entire department at once due to its size. The inconspicuous bathroom is a very thin wall away from freedom towards the elusive maintenance tunnels, allowing for a daring breakout or placement of a fake wall in advance to allow for a future escape and confusing looks of the security officers.
There are too many layouts to discuss them all which is why I mainly talked about the cogmap 1 one. However cogmap 2's layout also incorporates many of the same ideas, though it is significantly less segmented, it still has weak spots while also having a lot of interactive areas such as the visiting windows and intercoms.
I'd also like to bring up Clarion because from what I know it's a popular RP map and one that I've played on often even on #2. Though it also isn't as segmented as cog1, it's understandably so as the map is designed to be compact. There unfortunately aren't any visiting areas or such, but there is a very niftly designed interrogation area accessed from either security or the brig cells, which I really like. It doesn't have as many weak spots as the other layouts, but still borders one of its walls with a maintenance tunnel, making impressive breakout attempts still possible, even if not as easy.
Previous Bans (While this will not affect your application lying about it will):
Basing on my banned medal, at least one in 2010 although considering the time gap I don't remember much nor the severity. Possibly more as I was ~9 years less mature back then.
That said I'm sure of not having been banned nor warned in the last several years.
![[Image: QuYlTbi.png]](https://i.imgur.com/QuYlTbi.png)
