Richard Harnley's HoS application

[GamerCake]

Usual character name: Richard Harnley
BYOND username: GamerCake
Discord username: GamerCake (gamercake.)
Recommended by (if applicable): None as of yet, but I have played alongside many great and admirable HoS' in my time
Goon servers you play: Mainly Sylvester, although I have played on Morty a couple times, when the server population was low on Sylvester


Reason for application:
I started playing Goonstation, and to an extend SS13 in 2021 and since then have kinda fallen in love with this game a little.
Security for one, has always been one of my favorite jobs to play as because it is a quite versatile and thrilling job.
Most times I see Security Officers run around aimlessly without a real goal other than "Patrol and make sure the station is safe", which does get not just stale but also ineffective at times.
Personally I believe my RP standards are pretty high and I enjoy doing it, every good HoS needs to be good at the RP that they do!
I believe I would make a good HoS because I am quite good at making plans and strategies, to then explain said plans to my fellow Officers. I think I also give good speeches 
I'd like to be a part and contribute to this community more, and the HoS role would be pretty perfect for that.

Security experience (300 word minimum):
I still remember starting out as a Security Assistant, learning very basics of Security and I won't lie it was extremely difficult at first, eventually I of course figured it out and fit right in to the Security team.
Most of my time as Security I spend either patrolling with my fellow Officers or writing reports, I quite enjoy the desk-job Security playstyle and think its crucial for a Security team for it to be as coordinated as possible.
Most of the time I don't bring suspects in for minor crimes, but when I do I try to be lenient the first time. In my thought pattern "Violence creates more violence".
However repeating suspects or major crimes like murder will be punished harshly, most of the time I coordinate with my superior when it comes to major crimes and their punishment.
I personally see Security as a service job, trying to help the station where they can and be helpful and kind to even the most rude crewmembers.
As a Security Officer I have dealt with all kinds of threats, Gangs, Syndicates trying to blow up the station or a Changeling stealing people's faces!
Even in the most stressful situations, I always try to keep my cool and understand what's going on, because you can loose focus quickly.

• What advice would you give to other sec players?
  If it had to be one thing, it would be look for the context!
  Too many innocent crewmembers get beaten into submission for being in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
  Every Officer should take atleast a second look at every scene they arrive on.
  
• What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
  It would be hard to pick a single one but, the most enjoyment I get is when uncovering people, or catching them red handed.
  Like gathering evidence that pins them to the crime and place, asking witnesses and taking statements.
  
• What game improvements or changes do you think would benefit security players?
  A megaphone.
  They would surely not just get people's attention, but also quite good for hostage situations!
  
• Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
  When you are the only Officer, you feel as though you are the town Sheriff, the lone protector of the Station so to speak.
  When you work in a large team, you automatically take a less assertive approach, since you have fellow Officers to rely on, or call for backup.
  I personally, somehow, feel more vulnerable in a large team, maybe because it makes you a bigger target.
  

• Write a poem to convey your thoughts on security/NanoTrasen/space/bees/anything related to SS13.
  "Officer Bob was chasing a Clown down the hall,
  but slipped on a banana peel into a wall,
  he knew something was wrong,
  when his baton was nothing but gone."
  
• What's a security gimmick that you've ran or wanted to run?
  I always wanted to do a sort of "Space Cops" kind of gimmick, where most action would take place in space, mostly inside a Pod.
  Pulling people over for speeding, arresting suspects with jetpacks, that sort of thing
  
  Perhaps even a "unarmed only" security force, where they would have to tackle, pin and detain suspects with only their hands.But this one does seem a little difficult.
  

Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will): 
I have never been banned on a Goonstation server, or to my knowledge any SS13 server for that matter.

[Lefinch]

Hi Gamercake, we don't interact much at all but I've been trying to make an effort of catching people playing for their applications and I got a bit lucky this week. Bear in mind I'm not a regular security player, so please take my feedback with a pinch of salt, but hopefully what I have here will be useful to you and admins too (as well as bump up your application)

So in summary we haven't had a huge amount of direct interaction, so this is all coming from rounds I've watched and in general I really like your dynamic as a security officer: I think you have the skills down as well as some of the harder-to-teach aspects such as good communication, the ability to pace things with antagonists appropriately, and just in general a good attitude when things can and do go wrong. Plus I like your general moxxy. I'll go into some detail below with some example rounds but the general sentiment is that I think while I can't say +1 I think there's all the right elements there that with some feedback from security players you're there.

Okay so example 1 and 2 are actually back to back rounds. It just happened that these two have the best sort of notes and I'm not bombarding you with too much by putting it all in, but the other rounds had the same sort of theme. You were an officer in both. I do offer some critique here, but bear in mind both that for the most part it's fairly minor and that I would argue in some respects what I have is subject to personal opinion, so you might disagree. 

• You are regularly checking and communicating with the team, both via the radio, using the PDA, acknowledging crisis alerts and heeding orders generally even when its busy. One thing I really liked is that you were generally where possible giving feedback once you had an antagonist arrested or in sight with the HoS and team but also were willing to show initative if an incident was escalating. One area of critique I'd give was that at times you'd have a bit of tunnel vision and react a little late to things. One example was being asked to respond to someone in distress in space, it was pretty rapidly communicated over general radio and security that the situation had been handled, but you missed it until you'd fully responded. Easy thing to happen but it's sometimes good to do a quick double check every now and then to save you getting lost in the weeds. 
  
• I really liked your approach with antagonists. When things were not escalated you'd take a very stand-off approach and gave one antag who was taking some time to compose themselves and talk a wide berth to let them escalate. This can be very, very hard to do and be patient on, and I think it's something that's hard to teach, and you were always very consistent about this, letting people do their thing is an important part of the game as much as you're there for achieve your security goals, being a HoS is sometimes about letting people have their time in the sun as a bad guy and I really appreciate you will regularly make sure this is available to people. You also let some obvious stuff go, one example being an arcfiend cueing you by their noise in a maints because they gave you a plausible RP excuse. Always great to see. 
  
• You stayed in your lane well inside security. You'd delegate evidence gathering to the detective where they were available, and even checked back with them about their investigations. A big part of HoS seems to be that willingness to delegate. It was also apparent when a situation was being handled by other officers you'd stand back a bit, or head off to something else. I think this is another important aspect of letting stuff with antags play out without crowding them.
  
• One area that I didn't see much of (it might well be happening but I didn't get to see it) was training, with assistants you were fairly standoffish. You had an incident where you essentially picked up one to engage with someone else. It was frankly funny, but bear in mind a good way to make an impression with the security team is engaging directly with them all. I think they took it well and again it was funny, but just bear in mind sometimes that might feel a lot like being brushed off. 
  
• This is very much a personal thing, but I appreciate that there was a situation in which the rest of the team decided to resolve a medical issue in a way I'd personally grumble at for not letting medbay do their thing and you spoke up about it. You ultimately rolled with it which I also think was the right decision, but being willing to talk it out with the team politely when you're also outnumbered in opinions seems like a good thing to me and your heart was in the right place for letting departments do what they do. 
  
• I liked that you seem to have general background plan for a gimmick, every round I'd see you'd be doing a thing if it was quiet: Putting notes on things, doing paperwork and so on. It's not hugely relevant to HoS but I do think that kind of colour on RP is good for the game in general and I appreciate it.
  
• There was an incident with some rogue AI in one of the rounds where things were a bit hairy, your reaction after escaping was to communicate and try and touch base with the team and HoS, which when it failed you were rushing to break open the armoury. I personally feel with a functional Captain you were aware of and not any real indication the HoS was in huge trouble this was a tad rushed, but I also appreciate that one's a bit of a judgement call and you weren't doing it out of nowhere. What was good is once you did touch base with the Cap and HoS you dropped that, which I think shows good understanding of changing plans.
  
• it's a small thing but a nice thing good to see from security in general: Talking with the rest of the station. It's a thing that when you're trying to focus on dealing with antags its very easy to develop complete tunnel vision: only talk with your team, talk over or ignore antags, ignore crew complaints or talks. You never seem to do this unless you're literally fighting for your life. Even small stuff like greeting or acknowledging the crew when they talk is always good to see and I think a good example for a potential HoS to be showing the rest of the team. 
  

So again overall if you don't want to chew through that is I think GamerCake has fundamental skills and a great general attitude. What critique I have is pretty minor and subjective. In terms of direct advice I'd say maybe consider building those relationships and pair up a bit more with the team while on patrols, if only to get in their memory a bit and encourage them to come here and give you some feedback too. Hopefully this helps in the mean time. Look forward to seeing you more in game.

[GamerCake]

Hi Gamercake, we don't interact much at all but I've been trying to make an effort of catching people playing for their applications and I got a bit lucky this week. Bear in mind I'm not a regular security player, so please take my feedback with a pinch of salt, but hopefully what I have here will be useful to you and admins too (as well as bump up your application)

So in summary we haven't had a huge amount of direct interaction, so this is all coming from rounds I've watched and in general I really like your dynamic as a security officer: I think you have the skills down as well as some of the harder-to-teach aspects such as good communication, the ability to pace things with antagonists appropriately, and just in general a good attitude when things can and do go wrong. Plus I like your general moxxy. I'll go into some detail below with some example rounds but the general sentiment is that I think while I can't say +1 I think there's all the right elements there that with some feedback from security players you're there.

Okay so example 1 and 2 are actually back to back rounds. It just happened that these two have the best sort of notes and I'm not bombarding you with too much by putting it all in, but the other rounds had the same sort of theme. You were an officer in both. I do offer some critique here, but bear in mind both that for the most part it's fairly minor and that I would argue in some respects what I have is subject to personal opinion, so you might disagree. 

• You are regularly checking and communicating with the team, both via the radio, using the PDA, acknowledging crisis alerts and heeding orders generally even when its busy. One thing I really liked is that you were generally where possible giving feedback once you had an antagonist arrested or in sight with the HoS and team but also were willing to show initative if an incident was escalating. One area of critique I'd give was that at times you'd have a bit of tunnel vision and react a little late to things. One example was being asked to respond to someone in distress in space, it was pretty rapidly communicated over general radio and security that the situation had been handled, but you missed it until you'd fully responded. Easy thing to happen but it's sometimes good to do a quick double check every now and then to save you getting lost in the weeds. 
  
• I really liked your approach with antagonists. When things were not escalated you'd take a very stand-off approach and gave one antag who was taking some time to compose themselves and talk a wide berth to let them escalate. This can be very, very hard to do and be patient on, and I think it's something that's hard to teach, and you were always very consistent about this, letting people do their thing is an important part of the game as much as you're there for achieve your security goals, being a HoS is sometimes about letting people have their time in the sun as a bad guy and I really appreciate you will regularly make sure this is available to people. You also let some obvious stuff go, one example being an arcfiend cueing you by their noise in a maints because they gave you a plausible RP excuse. Always great to see. 
  
• You stayed in your lane well inside security. You'd delegate evidence gathering to the detective where they were available, and even checked back with them about their investigations. A big part of HoS seems to be that willingness to delegate. It was also apparent when a situation was being handled by other officers you'd stand back a bit, or head off to something else. I think this is another important aspect of letting stuff with antags play out without crowding them.
  
• One area that I didn't see much of (it might well be happening but I didn't get to see it) was training, with assistants you were fairly standoffish. You had an incident where you essentially picked up one to engage with someone else. It was frankly funny, but bear in mind a good way to make an impression with the security team is engaging directly with them all. I think they took it well and again it was funny, but just bear in mind sometimes that might feel a lot like being brushed off. 
  
• This is very much a personal thing, but I appreciate that there was a situation in which the rest of the team decided to resolve a medical issue in a way I'd personally grumble at for not letting medbay do their thing and you spoke up about it. You ultimately rolled with it which I also think was the right decision, but being willing to talk it out with the team politely when you're also outnumbered in opinions seems like a good thing to me and your heart was in the right place for letting departments do what they do. 
  
• I liked that you seem to have general background plan for a gimmick, every round I'd see you'd be doing a thing if it was quiet: Putting notes on things, doing paperwork and so on. It's not hugely relevant to HoS but I do think that kind of colour on RP is good for the game in general and I appreciate it.
  
• There was an incident with some rogue AI in one of the rounds where things were a bit hairy, your reaction after escaping was to communicate and try and touch base with the team and HoS, which when it failed you were rushing to break open the armoury. I personally feel with a functional Captain you were aware of and not any real indication the HoS was in huge trouble this was a tad rushed, but I also appreciate that one's a bit of a judgement call and you weren't doing it out of nowhere. What was good is once you did touch base with the Cap and HoS you dropped that, which I think shows good understanding of changing plans.
  
• it's a small thing but a nice thing good to see from security in general: Talking with the rest of the station. It's a thing that when you're trying to focus on dealing with antags its very easy to develop complete tunnel vision: only talk with your team, talk over or ignore antags, ignore crew complaints or talks. You never seem to do this unless you're literally fighting for your life. Even small stuff like greeting or acknowledging the crew when they talk is always good to see and I think a good example for a potential HoS to be showing the rest of the team. 
  

So again overall if you don't want to chew through that is I think GamerCake has fundamental skills and a great general attitude. What critique I have is pretty minor and subjective. In terms of direct advice I'd say maybe consider building those relationships and pair up a bit more with the team while on patrols, if only to get in their memory a bit and encourage them to come here and give you some feedback too. Hopefully this helps in the mean time. Look forward to seeing you more in game.

Hello!
I really appreciate you for taking the time and actually observing me while playing security and giving your criticism!
Yes tunnel vision is definitely I gotta work on, sometimes I just get *too* focused on something and take in my surroundings not as much.
I am trying to be a tad more social with my other officers, and I did actually do some basic training with some security assistants, which I do quite enjoy!
Social skills are definitely not my best set of skills, which to be fair who's are? But I do try to communicate and generally build friendships with other officers during the round, it's far more interesting to me that way.

[Drakios]

I had a lot of rounds recently with Richard in sec while I was HoS, from what Ive seen they are doing a good job, not only when it comes to beign a good secoff also when it comes to be goofy sometimes which is important, they seem from what Ive seen so far level headed and communicate very well.

I personally haven't noticed anything bad as a player from them so far.

One thing I see as a negative point is the application itself, first of the 300 word minimum for the experience wasn't fulfilled, second at least for me the application as a whole feels like there wasn't put much effort into it, this of course is my personal opinion and for some people it might not be so easy to write something like that, but I think its worth mentioning.

In general I tend to a more positive side

[GamerCake]

I had a lot of rounds recently with Richard in sec while I was HoS, from what Ive seen they are doing a good job, not only when it comes to beign a good secoff also when it comes to be goofy sometimes which is important, they seem from what Ive seen so far level headed and communicate very well.

I personally haven't noticed anything bad as a player from them so far.

One thing I see as a negative point is the application itself, first of the 300 word minimum for the experience wasn't fulfilled, second at least for me the application as a whole feels like there wasn't put much effort into it, this of course is my personal opinion and for some people it might not be so easy to write something like that, but I think its worth mentioning.

In general I tend to a more positive side

Thanks for your reply!
Yes I must admit I'm not great at writing applications, but I tried putting as much relevant information as possible in it.

[Honeybadger]

Recently I have played a lot of security shifts alongside Richard Harnley, and I would like to say first off that you are a good officer that I like to see working alongside me. I've had great experiences with you both as an officer and socially, particularly highlighting a recent round on Oshan which started with a comedic confrontation and ticketing of Lynda Lee during a monkey hostage situation; and subsequently dealing with Lynda accordingly when it turned out she was an arcfiend and began assaulting people. This showed to me the kind of fundamental attitude that I expect from the HoS myself, being that you can disengage and have fun when appropriate but also put on the serious pants when the time comes.
I've also recently seen you tending to the training and needs of security assistants, ensuring they're equipped physically and mentally for the task ahead, showing to me that you're capable of taking on the feedback given to you here; another key marker of a good attitude.

That being said, with the standard disclaimer that this is my opinion based on personal experience, I do not think you are currently ready for Head of Security. Please don't be too disheartened by this, I think with more experience and time you are more than capable of growing into the role which I would like to see happen.

I believe you have two main areas that need work, radio communication and initiative. These are exceedingly hard skills and the only real way to get better with them in my humble opinion is to try, try and try again.  I do not have specific examples for poor radio communication, however on a couple of rounds I have seen you be confused, repeat old information, relay information far too late, or otherwise miss conversations over the radio. I think this is because you are incredibly observant to the things going on around your character (security tunnel vision) and have a small amount of blindness to the chat box. Were this to happen only occasionally it would be perfectly fine as it is an inevitability that happens to everyone once in a while, however it feels like something (to me) that happens consistently between different rounds.
Now for your initiative. Another difficult skill that only really is improved through time and experience, Though I believe this one to be especially important when considering someone for the HoS role. The crux of the problem here is that I rarely, if ever, see you deciding on things like sentencing and punishment of arrested antagonists. There could be a few reasons for this, Though I would say if you are making these kinds of decisions just a short message over the radio saying something like "x arrested for Y, I've sentenced them to 30 seconds in the brig" would go a long way to show you are making those kinds of decisions.

Though now, I'm going to go into another recent round where I was actually on the receiving end of being arrested by you. Once again, opinion based off personal experience. I was an arcfiend and had tried to set the captain free from the court room while he was on public trial.

- After I initially fled you found me in the maintenance tunnels. You did not immediately go for the arrest and instead briefly talked to me, allowing me the opportunity to weigh up my options and decide on my next move. This was good and how I would handle this situation myself. I then attacked, you tazed and cuffed me.
- On the way to security you passed the HoS, Roselin Wu, who told you that they have to go find the captain who had escaped their trial and they needed you to handle me.
- We reached interrogation, then the entire arrest process screeched to a halt. Instead of searching me and possibly striking up a conversation about the contents of my bag you simply put my entire bag into contraband without even looking inside, Then we silently sat opposite each other for a beat until I struck up conversation, around this point I slipped out of my cuffs.
- After a short chat I asked if you were going to interrogate me and you said something along the lines of "No, we're waiting for the HoS". Since I don't have your radio and I didn't hear you use it I didn't know if it's because Roselin said they were on the way, or if it was something you decided; nor how long I would be waiting.
- After another short wait, I grew impatient and decided I would try to take you hostage, attacking you again. Upon hearing the commotion in the interrogation room Roselin and another officer charged in. I was cuffed again then exiled by Roselin, who let you throw me out of the airlock.

This is all to say that during this entire encounter, upon hearing Roselin tell you to handle it I really wanted to see you take the initiative and see what you would do but that didn't happen. During an interrogation, it is the officer that is setting the tone and pace of the next 2-3 minutes of RP and to me it just didn't feel like you were quite there.

Once again I'd like to reiterate that you are a good security officer who I thoroughly enjoy working with, I just think you need some more time and experience under your belt to work on those skills that will one day make you a great leader and Head of Security.

[GamerCake]

Recently I have played a lot of security shifts alongside Richard Harnley, and I would like to say first off that you are a good officer that I like to see working alongside me. I've had great experiences with you both as an officer and socially, particularly highlighting a recent round on Oshan which started with a comedic confrontation and ticketing of Lynda Lee during a monkey hostage situation; and subsequently dealing with Lynda accordingly when it turned out she was an arcfiend and began assaulting people. This showed to me the kind of fundamental attitude that I expect from the HoS myself, being that you can disengage and have fun when appropriate but also put on the serious pants when the time comes.
I've also recently seen you tending to the training and needs of security assistants, ensuring they're equipped physically and mentally for the task ahead, showing to me that you're capable of taking on the feedback given to you here; another key marker of a good attitude.

That being said, with the standard disclaimer that this is my opinion based on personal experience, I do not think you are currently ready for Head of Security. Please don't be too disheartened by this, I think with more experience and time you are more than capable of growing into the role which I would like to see happen.

I believe you have two main areas that need work, radio communication and initiative. These are exceedingly hard skills and the only real way to get better with them in my humble opinion is to try, try and try again.  I do not have specific examples for poor radio communication, however on a couple of rounds I have seen you be confused, repeat old information, relay information far too late, or otherwise miss conversations over the radio. I think this is because you are incredibly observant to the things going on around your character (security tunnel vision) and have a small amount of blindness to the chat box. Were this to happen only occasionally it would be perfectly fine as it is an inevitability that happens to everyone once in a while, however it feels like something (to me) that happens consistently between different rounds.
Now for your initiative. Another difficult skill that only really is improved through time and experience, Though I believe this one to be especially important when considering someone for the HoS role. The crux of the problem here is that I rarely, if ever, see you deciding on things like sentencing and punishment of arrested antagonists. There could be a few reasons for this, Though I would say if you are making these kinds of decisions just a short message over the radio saying something like "x arrested for Y, I've sentenced them to 30 seconds in the brig" would go a long way to show you are making those kinds of decisions.

Though now, I'm going to go into another recent round where I was actually on the receiving end of being arrested by you. Once again, opinion based off personal experience. I was an arcfiend and had tried to set the captain free from the court room while he was on public trial.

- After I initially fled you found me in the maintenance tunnels. You did not immediately go for the arrest and instead briefly talked to me, allowing me the opportunity to weigh up my options and decide on my next move. This was good and how I would handle this situation myself. I then attacked, you tazed and cuffed me.
- On the way to security you passed the HoS, Roselin Wu, who told you that they have to go find the captain who had escaped their trial and they needed you to handle me.
- We reached interrogation, then the entire arrest process screeched to a halt. Instead of searching me and possibly striking up a conversation about the contents of my bag you simply put my entire bag into contraband without even looking inside, Then we silently sat opposite each other for a beat until I struck up conversation, around this point I slipped out of my cuffs.
- After a short chat I asked if you were going to interrogate me and you said something along the lines of "No, we're waiting for the HoS". Since I don't have your radio and I didn't hear you use it I didn't know if it's because Roselin said they were on the way, or if it was something you decided; nor how long I would be waiting.
- After another short wait, I grew impatient and decided I would try to take you hostage, attacking you again. Upon hearing the commotion in the interrogation room Roselin and another officer charged in. I was cuffed again then exiled by Roselin, who let you throw me out of the airlock.

This is all to say that during this entire encounter, upon hearing Roselin tell you to handle it I really wanted to see you take the initiative and see what you would do but that didn't happen. During an interrogation, it is the officer that is setting the tone and pace of the next 2-3 minutes of RP and to me it just didn't feel like you were quite there.

Once again I'd like to reiterate that you are a good security officer who I thoroughly enjoy working with, I just think you need some more time and experience under your belt to work on those skills that will one day make you a great leader and Head of Security.

Hi!
I wanna thank you for the thorough and helpful feedback you gave! Initiative and general leaderership abilities is something I've been actively working on, such as advising the team what to do when no Head of Security is present or the entire team is utterly confused.
And yes, the "security tunnel vision" you mentioned is definitively a big hurdle I need to overcome, sometimes when things get chaotic and few people are reporting what's going on, I tend to look into the situation myself and report it to the team, a bit redundant but I'd like to think it still helps.

Now about that round where you were arrested by me, which was already a pretty out-of-hand shift since we had a corrupt captain and an active court-case to handle.
HoS Wu had ordered me to put you in interrogation and wait for them there, during that wait I recapped things to myself which probably seemed like a very long silence. But I do admit not properly searching you, or rather processing you was a mistake on my end!

[LeahTheTech]

We appreciate the time and effort you put into this application, but have decided to deny it due to mixed community response. You're welcome to reapply in 60 days, which would be September 5th, 2025. In the meantime, I'd encourage you to continue to gain experience in security and enjoy the game!