Whitelist advice

[Jackameow]

Heya,

So I've been playing CM for a little over a year off and on (at least I think its a little over a year, if not its at least a year in coming days) and I've had my eye on the Synthetic character role for quite sometime. I'm an avid roleplayer and I like the unique opportunity that CM gives as far as RP scenes go. So a synth seems like the peak of roleplay for the server. No other role gets as much latitude to interact and create interesting relationships with characters. However I do know that comes with a certain level of mechanical responsibility. I can do all the medical procedures as I've played Doctor and Medic for many, many shifts. Staff Officer and Pilot Officer come easy, they are communication based. Requisitions is not a challenge for me either as that is simple supply/demand recognition, and I've played Quartermaster on other SS13 servers as well as CT on CM several times. The only field that I am not confident in myself with is engineering; specifically electrical engineering. Repairs? Easy enough. Base design? Easy with experience. I plan to get more acquainted with engineering before applying for a whitelist.

Just to sum it up I've played Staff Officer, Pilot Officer, Military Police, Cargo Tech (once as an aRO, i did well enough), Doctor, Medic, Engineer, and Medical Researcher. As far as my characters are concerned my training wheels character was Neon Spriski and now that he is "retired" I play Casey Spriski. They're completely different as in Casey is a Medium RP character while Neon was for my learning purposes.

I've read the guide to whitelisting by Mortimer from the CM wiki and I've become well versed in Marine Law. Aside from my general lack of knowledge into more advanced engineering interactions is there anything that stands out as a serious lack of experience or knowledge that may prevent me from having a successful application?

For the Synth themselves a quirk I have planned is to have them rhyme everything. No I don't mean like they'll be an obnoxious cat from Dr. Seuss. I've been learning how to work in sentence keystones for rhymes for a while now. As far as the character story is concerned I haven't put pen to paper so to speak on that front because I think that will be the least of my concerns - backstory is all about balance and not being the chosen one without being a faceless extra. This is my first post on either the Old or New forums. So if my byond tag isn't recognizable that is why although I am fairly vocal in Deadchat, OOC, and In Character so I do hope someone recognizes Casey Spriski.

[Sora9567]

Right, so your proverbial quirk is like Shantotto from Final Fantasy 11 where everything is rhymes on a dime? Sure, that could work, seems like a decent quirk.

Aaaaaanyway, as for Synth stuff, You are the supportest of the support roles: you will be called on to do anything that isn't combat related(Doctoring, engineering, medicing, Req-ing).

Since you mentioned that this is your first post on either old or new server, I'd like to recommend that you maybe hold off on making the Whitelist, and sort of make yourself known on the forums and Discord, so that way the council members will notice you and go "Oh hey, I am aware of this person's existence, and they seem to be a cool dude."

[Jackameow]

Having never played a Final Fantasy game that reference is lost on me but I'm happy that you think the quirk is interesting. It'll definitely take a lot of work to uphold but the result should be entertaining for everyone involved.

As far as making myself known, having read plenty of applications from the old forums, I do know that being known is essential. I get the reasoning behind it and I do intend to wait until I can get more of a feel for people outside of the game. To be honest I know plenty of characters but I don't know the people behind them, perhaps I purposely did this to keep some sort of mystery to it? Not sure although I do need to get my name around there more I suppose.

Thanks for replying and for your advice Sora.

[Lumdor]

Everything thing you said is pretty much essential to being whitelisted. I'm about to make up some numbers but they should fit. 80% for an application is being well known, and the last 20% is putting in effort towards whatever whitelist you're applying for; though you're going for synthetic and I'd say they're one of the hardest to get accepted for.

So, be sure you put a good amount of effort into your application as the synthetic council is ruthless.

[ThesoldierLLJK]

Synth whitelist is hardest to get because it requires the most role playing and trustworthiness out of them all. Synths have the abilities to do every role on the marine side, and they literally have the best skills (5 out of 5 in all skills except leadership) in the game. They run fast, drive power loaders fast, and are unstoppable support machines.

That being said you can always use the whitelist help channel on discord, or message a synth player with a draft of your application as well for them to go over it.

[NescauComToddy]

Lumdor spoke very well about the determining factors in the verdict of an app. Recognition of your competence as a player, and of you as a person is more important than making an extremely detailed and formulated app.

Synth is the second hardest whitelisted role to obtain because it requires others to recognize your competence in not just one skill but several (leadership, doctoring, and engineering). According to what you said, in this matter you are prepared, but I note that your name does not stand out at the moment.

For you to be recognized quickly, I recommend that you play with roles where you easily lose or gain trust from others, such as XO and SL. In less than a week, I think it would be enough for other players to have an idea whether or not you're ready to roll.

Raise your activity in the forum and in-game, and in case you need help, ask for it in the discord channel where whitelisted help other players with their apps. Best of luck to you.

[Jackameow]

Thank you for your insights, all of you, into the process and what I will be needing to look forward to. I will not lie the fact that the synth approval group has a reputation of being ruthless isn't encouraging, I'll take this though as just a reason to try and keep my application orderly. As far as activity in the game I play multiple times a day sometimes nothing but CM so I don't know if it is possible for me to get a higher activity, as for the forums I do plan to use this more frequently. I am in the discord now, hopefully that to will get my name out there. Could also be that I try to be polite to people within the game and that could translate into not sticking to the memory say as much as a person being a troll or getting your arms removed by a ravager. I'll just need to figure it out.

Thanks again for the advice!

[Retrokinesis]

What's been said above is all very good advice.

On top of roles like XO and SL, medical roles tend to be very visible and remembered by players. You're never going to forget the terrible doctor who leaves you in the cryo tubes for half and hour or the medic who ODs you on QC when all you have is a fractured arm. Medical is one of the most common roles synths are assigned to as well, so it's an excellent opportunity to demonstrate mechanical competence, prove you can RP well, and ensure people know who you are. People who can clear medical speedbumps to get you back in the round as quickly as possible are always good to keep note of.

[Ms.Degrasse]

...Could also be that I try to be polite to people within the game and that could translate into not sticking to the memory say as much as a person being a troll ...

Last time I got whitelisted was for predator, long time ago, and I just lost my whitelisted status for inactivity.
But I remember some guys got ditched for being trolls, because they had a lot of registered offenses.
And others because they came really close to being trolls.

Easy way to stick on people 's memories? Is by actually role-playing a lot in game.
No one remembers the random character that talks too little.
Or the character that only says what is expected from the situations, but is characterless otherwise.

But they will remember what caught their attention.

I used to play as 6 distinct human characters, and my forum account isn't related to my BYOND key but still I got remembered when I whitelisted particularly because each of my characters had their own quirks, personalities and even their own fighting styles.

So those things won't make you not to be recognized if you really add a nice flavor and good colors to the game.

Other than that is competence as the others said, an important thing for you to keep up.
Because being remembered as a "do nothing right" player will also affect how your app is received.