Build_R_ - Synthetic Application

[Build_R_]

Synthetic Whitelist Application

Personal Information

Byond ID?

Build_R_

Marine Name

Jim Antoni

Other Whitelist Applications

None

Character Information

Name of the Synth Character you wish to play

Duncan

What is your Synth�s quirk and personality?

A father-figure or caring uncle best describes Duncan's quirk. He often offers marines advice or encouragement in trying times and tends to refer to them as "sport", "champ" or similar names. Obviously he doesn't do this with higher ranking personnel or people with greater authority.

Why do you want to be a synthetic/why should we whitelist you?

I enjoy playing the support roles in CM because it gives an interesting view on the war machine every round. Playing as a support role also offers more chances for decent RP as you have to interact with other people.

I'm interested in the synth whitelist because it would intensify the experience of being a support role with more responsibility as well as offering more RP opportunities. I think roleplaying a character that is not capable of emotion but can react to other people's actions or words appropriately will be an interesting challenge.

From my time as engineer, doctor, medic and other roles I believe I have shown I am competent enough to perform this role as well as uphold the RP standard.

Synthetic Character Story

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Duncan comforts a lovestruck marine in the tank bay.

Experience

How familiar are you with Engineering?

I'm very familiar with the concepts of engineering. I find it an interesting role because I believe it has a high skill ceiling. I have memorised the basics to Cade-building, FOB construction, APC repair (both vehicle and power kind), door hacking, Tcomms repair and so on.

How familiar are you with Command?

Not a role I particularly like but I understand how it functions. I'm well able to operate the overwatch and dropship consoles as well as the other equipment. I also understand the importance of properly relaying orders and important information such as the location of incoming OBs.

How familiar are you with Medical?

Absolutely familiar as medic is my most played role. It's most synths' favourite role from what I can tell and I can see why. I'm capable of basic medic gameplay, performing triage so you can prioritise certain injured or dead marines, asking for help with CPR, filling up a marine with chems, patching them and splinting etc. I also fully understand advanced medical operations, performing heart, bone, lung repair and so on as well as replacing lost limbs or removing larva.

Manning the chem station or performing research tasks is also not a problem.

How familiar are you with Requisitions?

Req is a role I really enjoy because it involves more resource management than other roles. I know which vendor to look in for all the attachments and usual gear and I am aware of what to drop in the supply crate at the start of the op and how to keep in contact with marines to figure out what supplies are running low. I understand the importance of metal and ammo resupplies in the current meta, especially the supply at the start.

I can also effectively use the budget on supplies that are necessary to the success of the op.

What are some scenarios that you can perform combat in? Give us a brief example.

If a runner was harassing me while I was setting up power in an area I would give it a few hits until it backed off. However I would not chase it down.

In another scenario, if I was in an area full of injured marines and a lurker was picking away at them I would attack the lurker until it backs off then move the injured to a safer area.

As a synth I would use combat in self-defence or defending someone else but I would not go looking for a fight and I wouldn't chase down any enemies.

Confirmations

Are you familiar with the Synthetic Programming and Guidelines?

Yes

Have you read the application process page?

Yes

Do you understand that any player - donor or otherwise - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our rules or the Synthetic Programming Guideline?

Yes

Do you understand that you cannot advertise your application on any platform for votes. Do you also understand you may not edit this application 1 hour after it has been posted?

Yes

Have you been banned from CM in the last month for any reason? Do you have any active jobbans?

No

Are you currently banned from our Discord, and if so, why?

No

Other Information

Do you have anything else you would like to include about your application?

My timezone is GMT+1 so some Americans may not have seen me online, that is unless your sleep schedule is wonky.

[c4xmaniac]

As an American, I have indeed not seen you around, and I used to be up during EU peak time. The quirk seems fine to me and the backstory is good. But like I said, I’ve never seen you before and so I can’t tell if you actually can perform things like surgery extremely well. Trust me, you will get completely swamped with wounded and dead marines that you - and only you - will have to fix. I’ve had lines of 20+ marines waiting for surgery before, and I am far from the only synth to see this as it’s fairly common. You have to know how to do the steps to each surgery like the back of your hand. It’s not a perfect tell, but how many hours do you have on Doc/CMO/Medic, CE/MT/Squad Engie, RO/CT, or SL/SO/XO? There is no required playtime, but they give a general ballpark of how proficient you are in each role.

[Build_R_]

As an American, I have indeed not seen you around, and I used to be up during EU peak time. The quirk seems fine to me and the backstory is good. But like I said, I’ve never seen you before and so I can’t tell if you actually can perform things like surgery extremely well. Trust me, you will get completely swamped with wounded and dead marines that you - and only you - will have to fix. I’ve had lines of 20+ marines waiting for surgery before, and I am far from the only synth to see this as it’s fairly common. You have to know how to do the steps to each surgery like the back of your hand. It’s not a perfect tell, but how many hours do you have on Doc/CMO/Medic, CE/MT/Squad Engie, RO/CT, or SL/SO/XO? There is no required playtime, but they give a general ballpark of how proficient you are in each role.

Thanks for having a look at the app. I understand the importance of knowing both how to prioritise which marine to perform surgery on and knowing the steps to the surgery off by heart. I have had some occasions after bad pushes where the wounded piled up and they had to be rapidly treated before going perma.

In terms of hours they are an awkward matter as I've been playing since before it was recorded with occasional breaks, but here is a list of my hours as of the time of writing this:

Squad Medic/Doctor/Researcher: 43.7 hr/ 7 hr/ 10.6 hr

I'm well versed in the treatment of injured or dying marines from my time in medic and know how to get them up quickly. In regards to doctoring, I have the steps for each surgery memorised and have spent time as both a field surgeon at the FOB and on the APC. I've had plenty of time to learn how to grow the right plants for research, splicing in production time and finding new chems, as well as the production of chems for medics.

Squad Engie/MT: 31.7 hr/ 2.9 hr

I've spent many rounds as a bravo engie as well as a frontline engie. I've got the steps for setting up power and tcomms down and know the typical FOB formations on each map. As an MT I've got some experience with the slightly more advanced techniques, like APC construction or airlock construction.

CT/RO: 14.8 hr/ 1.4 hr

The locations of all the unusual req items that people might ask for like different squad comms, black gloves, or tools and the like are memorised. I've had experience with budgetting and understand how to make ammo boxes and scavenge metal.

SO/SL: 5.6 hr/ 3.2 hr

As I mentioned before I dislike command roles, so those tend to be lower than the rest. However I've had more than enough time to learn the ins and outs of the CIC and communication. With both SL and SO I see that the relaying of important information in a timely manner is essential to the success of an op. I've had more experience with this in the past.

Some of the command roles are missing; CMO, CE and XO. That is because I do not have any recorded playtime on them as I am not interested in giving orders. Instead, I have hours put into the roles beneath these command roles, enough to learn the mechanics of the department fully.

[Yukonsnow]

Hey, sorry for the delay.

You mention FOB construction. In your opinion, what do you think is the #1 mistake engineers make when constructing FOB? Alternatively, what key elements separate a good FOB from a bad FOB?

Your quirk refers to people as "Sport" and "Champ" but you don't do so when referring to people of higher authority. How would you still demonstrate your quirk if you were interacting with CIC staff?

As a reminder you cannot engage in combat near the frontlines or in areas with a heavy marine presence. The combat answers weren't incorrect, but it lacked that specific example.

[Build_R_]

Hey, sorry for the delay.

You mention FOB construction. In your opinion, what do you think is the #1 mistake engineers make when constructing FOB? Alternatively, what key elements separate a good FOB from a bad FOB?

Your quirk refers to people as "Sport" and "Champ" but you don't do so when referring to people of higher authority. How would you still demonstrate your quirk if you were interacting with CIC staff?

As a reminder you cannot engage in combat near the frontlines or in areas with a heavy marine presence. The combat answers weren't incorrect, but it lacked that specific example.

Thanks for having a look at the app.

When constructing the FOB I think the #1 mistake that engineers tend to make is poorly covering flanks in favour of protecting the main opening. I know that a lot of the time xenos break into the LZ from areas such as Tcomms on Big Red or (less often) the East of LZ1 on LV-624, and once these are broken into the rest of the FOB is rendered useless. The FOB is only as strong as its weakest link, so putting at the very least a couple layers of cades and a sentry on flanks is important.

As for the quirk, Duncan would still act as a father-figure role towards people of higher ranking but without the "Sport" or "Champ" sort of nicknames in order to respect their authority. By father-figure role I do not mean he would act superior to them at all, I mean offering words of support or providing guidance if needed. For example, he could say "XO, I'm here if you need any advice on picking an LZ" to a struggling XO or "That was a well-organised evacuation, SO. Very well done" after an operation finishes up.

[QuickLoad]

While creating chemicals in the medical bay, a marine medic says "make me IA you dumb robot.", how do you react to that with your quirk?

As you are standing by the landing zone pad waiting for the dropship, a nearby marine starts punching you. What do you do?

[Build_R_]

While creating chemicals in the medical bay, a marine medic says "make me IA you dumb robot.", how do you react to that with your quirk?

As you are standing by the landing zone pad waiting for the dropship, a nearby marine starts punching you. What do you do?

For the first situation, Duncan would react by providing some advice on the medic's tone with either "Coming right up sport, remember patience is a virtue!" or "No dumb robots making IA here sport, just me."

In the second case my reaction would depend on how insistent the marine is on beating me up. The first step would be to de-escalate the situation by asking the marine punching me to stop and trying to figure out what their issue was. If that doesn't work I'd try moving away to another room until the dropship arrived and staying in the cockpit when it does arrive. I would also call the MPs for help if it seemed like the issue was going to persist. I understand that I am able to non-lethally subdue the marine if they're a threat to me within the bounds of marine law but I would hope to only do that as a last resort if the marine escalated the situation.

[Stan_albatross]

I like the quirk, your story and answers to yukonsnow's and quickload's questions on it were very good.

I additionally have some competency-related questions that I'll ask before giving a verdict. I haven't seen you a lot on the server (admittedly I don't nolife it anymore).

1. THE ABSOLUTE FUCKING STATE OF BRAVO.jpg What are the mistakes in this fob? why are they bad? how would you fix them? Additionally, how would you stop other engineers from making these mistakes again (as synth)?

2. You're a deployed doctor, a patient comes up to you with a broken chest and left hand, 20 oxygen damage, 10 brute damage, and is also bleeding from his left hand and arm. Describe in complete detail how you would treat this person.

3. You're a doctor working in chemistry, a new-looking medic comes up to you, asks "is this where we get our special pills? what ones should I take?". What do you tell him? (presume he knows the damage system but not what these other chems do)

4. You're an RO making a supply crate for hydro, it's the first one going there, what do you put in there? what do you direct your cts to do?

edit : imgur link for the pic if you can't see it properly https://imgur.com/EnmzynB

[Build_R_]

I like the quirk, your story and answers to yukonsnow's and quickload's questions on it were very good.

I additionally have some competency-related questions that I'll ask before giving a verdict. I haven't seen you a lot on the server (admittedly I don't nolife it anymore).

1. THE ABSOLUTE FUCKING STATE OF BRAVO.jpg What are the mistakes in this fob? why are they bad? how would you fix them? Additionally, how would you stop other engineers from making these mistakes again (as synth)?

2. You're a deployed doctor, a patient comes up to you with a broken chest and left hand, 20 oxygen damage, 10 brute damage, and is also bleeding from his left hand and arm. Describe in complete detail how you would treat this person.

3. You're a doctor working in chemistry, a new-looking medic comes up to you, asks "is this where we get our special pills? what ones should I take?". What do you tell him? (presume he knows the damage system but not what these other chems do)

4. You're an RO making a supply crate for hydro, it's the first one going there, what do you put in there? what do you direct your cts to do?

edit : imgur link for the pic if you can't see it properly https://imgur.com/EnmzynB

Thanks for having a look over everything, I hope you're prepared for a wall of text

1. I see quite a few issues with this setup, but it has some solid foundations.
One: There are metal barricades scattered about near the bottom for some reason, they are bad because they don't do anything to stop anyone, maybe use one of them to plug the weird hole near the top.
Two: As it is a larger FOB, the lines of defence desperately need to be split into sections, if a xeno breaks through a line they gain a large part of the FOB as ground.
Also a massive oversight if they break through the top right of the FOB they can skip a line of cades.
Three: The bottom right of the FOB has an awkward two corners. I'd move it out so theres a continuous line at the east of the FOB. This would also involve turning
those two wonky facing cades around. This lets more marines shoot at whatever's coming from the east.
Four: Move the sandbags and M56D to the outer edge, no reason to reinforce the very middle of the FOB instead of the outer edges of it.
Five: Swap the deployable barricade for a real one for obvious reasons.

From my experience as an engi I can say that being told "No" and then nothing else as someone moves your cades around is frustrating. I'd try
to briefly explain some issues with the FOB to the engies and attempt to get them to help me fix it so they learn for the future.

2. I'm going to assume I'm a field surgery doc not in a med APC and that this marine is competent enough to evac or let me know
if he was hugged. Firstly I would bandage the left hand and arm with brute kits, then give him some dexalin for the oxygen damage.
I would check him on the health scanner to get a rough idea if the oxygen damage is coming from low blood or organ damage. If low blood,
I'd hook him up to the IV before laying him on the surgery bed and giving him a shot of oxycodone (give a shot of peridaxon as well if it looks like organ damage). On the bed I would open his chest up and fix any organ damage he might have, then mend and set his ribs before cauterising the incision (I'm guessing I don't have to run through
the surgery steps here). Another health scan to see if there's still brute damage as the brute kits might have healed it and if there is
I pop him a bica pill.

3. I'd let them know that the top 3 chems to take in my opinion would be Iron-Sugar, Kelo-Derma and Imi-Alky. IS will help the marines recover
blood as fast as possible without an IV or food. KD will help in those situations where you have a 400 burn damage unga who stepped into
the incendiary OB. Finally IA will fix up the marines with more brain damage than usual or with eye damage.

4. Since it's the first drop going to hydro I would pack some materials to allow them to set up defences. Also included in the crate would be
some ammo for the basic weapons (or AP if there is any available), a couple smartgun drums, flares, food and a JTAC kit or two if there's any to spare.
If we have not dropped any spec ammo to the ground yet I would drop some SADAR rockets and any other spec ammo if they made a request.
I would direct my CTs by first telling them all of these things that need to be put in the crate. Then I would ask one to make and fill magazine
boxes from squad prep and I'd ask the other to stay at req to help fill the crate.

[Katskan]

So here's the things I think you could improve on:

Quirk- I know for me I shifted my framework to not just thinking of the quirk as a particular behavior or wordplay but as the full personality. If Duncan is dadbot, take it past speech and a generically kind attitude and give it some expansion into rhythms and improvements like if your blood pills always contained sugar and chocolate as a treat for marines, or if you paid extra attention to the mess sergeant's grilling, perhaps. Almost every artificial person is expected to behave kindly and provide instruction and mentorship as needed. There are a few exceptions to that, but generally the unique differences occur in how you support troops, and a speech quirk that can't be used on officers doesn't really hold up in my opinion.

Medical- Since I saw this app I've had an eye out because I am awful with names and didn't recognize you, then I saw that hour count and realized why. I definitely am convinced you could use some extra seasoning there, I know text is hard to convey exactly how you're thinking about processes but if I were grading the above answers, I'd say maybe a C on Q2 and a D on Q3, here's why:
For 2, detail is the big problem. As we say, 5R's of medication administration. Right med, right patient, right dose, right route, right time. There's also some super great convenient meds that you didn't elect to describe, which also leans me toward not giving any bonus points there (required if I was gonna assign an A). The other big thing is H's and T's, i.e. underlying causes of damage and eventually arrest that can be identified and addressed. It's less about the specific spread of possibilities, more about the thought process: if your patient has 20 oxygen damage, they have either: minor heart damage, minor bloodloss, or both. You know this, because of the way the systems work, and a quick HF2 scan will tell you if they have bloodloss. You don't have to fiddle with "if it looks like organ damage", if that HF2 says yes on low blood, take a look inside, explain step by step. If not, you know it's heart damage. You know it's not lungs because lungs cause a different escalation of damage. If you track where this is going, basically ID the potential underlying causes, and attack those with confidence and sepcificity based on solid familiarity with systems. You seem to have the general idea down, but I can't be certain you're totally fluent with it (more on that later).
For 3, There's a big failure in mechanical understanding there. If you've ever noticed, meds don't metabolize in the dead. KD doesn't help the 400dmg patient, it helps the 199 and below, cause after you shock em you've got to get that burn down. Why IS instead of just iron? They both regenerate blood, but it's worth explaining. Personally I'd re-administer the question: Barring Iron/IS, TB, KD, and IA, what might you recommend as useful meds? Again, 5R's. (not saying you should bother carrying or distributing, just think of what tools might potentially be helpful to have in your box, and why)

My final addendum on this is that I've observed some of you on doctor, and had to step in when I shouldn't have to affect a positive outcome. At the end of the day, if I'm playing marine and see a synthetic working on me, I want to have 100% confidence in them. With what I'd observed, I would not have that confidence in you right now. Not to say you can't achieve it later, but it's going to take time and effort.