Moderator Application - Bath Salts Addict

[Bath Salts Addict]

Byond ID: Bath Salts Addict

Colonial Marines Character: Ali Amir, James Merrick, Bernard 'Pizza Man' Hoth.

Age: 19

Gender: I would rather keep this ambiguous if that is alright.

Timezone: GMT - 6, although my current occupation tends to narrow my availability on the weekdays to deadhour, although on the weekends I am much more flexible.

On average, how many hours are you available per week to moderate?

On estimate, I should be able to moderate about 7-9 hours per week, if not more, although with holidays that might be determinant. I do plan to stay for the long haul, however.

Do you have any previous experience in being staff (not just SS13)?

I understand that in hindsight it's not much in the way of a resume (I personally don't see it as a very big thing, but eh) but I was staff under my current moniker of a Garry's Mod server known as WW3RP, hosted by a community called LemonPunch that unfortunately shut down some time ago. I managed to achieve the second most senior staff rank, which was in a hierarchy of Moderator>Admin>Senior Admin>Server Director. Administrating was pretty laid back in terms of dealing with rule breaking as there wasn't anything akin to the greytide SS13 has, and even then the rules weren't all that strict, but being a HRP server (or the Garry's Mod definition of one) there was a lot of drama to have to sift through, especially in regards to faction conflict, accusations of staff bias favoring one faction or the other, and people appealing the permanent deaths of their beloved characters.

So in reality, not all that different from Marines v. Xenos.

Did you play any of the previous Colonial Marine servers?

I have not, sadly. My BYOND account is an old one, made sometime around 2013-2014, but back then I really only played SS13 to greytide and try and fail to learn the mechanics. It was only until about 2016-2017 did I play seriously, and by the time I started playing Colonial Marines it was the Sulaco era, about 2015 or so.

What are the 3 biggest servers you play on besides CM?

Aside from CM, I play Aurora Station mostly. There I mostly play a detective robot named Noir.

Next to that is my eagerness to jump on any Corporate Mercenary test that occurs. There, the character I play the most is an infamous CO named Darth Vader.

A lot less than the other three, I play Baystation on occasion, although not enough to really make a name for myself there.

Provide links to any previous Colonial Marines applications that you've made: None.

Are you currently a staff member elsewhere (not just SS13)? If so, where?

Currently, no.

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on Colonial Marines?

I was once permanently banned from all medical roles a long, long time ago by Apophis for picking up a gun as a doctor and shooting hostile PMCs at the Sulaco escape pods that were beating the CO to death. Apophis' justification for the ban was something vague about the "hippocratic oath". The PMCs in question, mind, had orders to kill every other human aboard the ship.

I believe there may have been a ban regarding EORG, but that honestly escapes me. It may have just been a 3 hour one, though. Any other bans have unfortunately escaped my memory, but if you want to dig them up here I can gladly elaborate on them. I'm pretty quick to remember things.

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on ANY server? If so, which server, when, and what for?

I am currently permabanned on Paradise Station for reasons I still to this day vehemently pose. This was years ago, however, and to my knowledge it had something to do with me killing a "friendly" wizard as the Research Director after they had killed one of my scientists in the medbay with disintegrate. The wizard, of course, was a friend of the banning staff member.

On Aurora Station, due to my long playing and rather aggressive security playstyle, I have - admittedly - quite a few more incidents, most of which are just jobbans.

(2017-03-18 18:05:18 oneonethreeeight Banned from Warden, Detective, Security Officer, Security Cadet - For firing on a group of heisters as a security warden with a Durand mech outfitted with lethal measures, using excessive amounts of force with little accompanied interaction that would have otherwise justified the use of force displayed. A marked failure to communicate with your team on exactly how you planned to deal with the antagonists, made it seem like you were just intent to valid them just to get rid of them, as displayed in multiple cases of frustration from your character in IC.)
My first ban was a security jobban for attacking a group of armed raiders with a mech after they had breached the Brig.

(2017-11-04 10:56:11 aboshehab aboshehab has banned bathsaltsaddict. - Reason: Suicide at round round. You know better. - This will be removed in 1440 minutes.)
Pretty self-explanatory.

(20382 2017-11-08 04:40:51 cakeisossim Banned from Head of Security, Warden, Detective, Forensic Technician, Security Officer, Security Cadet - Having a history of overescalation of headgoring, being warned for it, and then it happening again. Feel free to appeal this on the forums.)
On Aurora, shotguns loaded with slugs have the capacity to dismember and gib limbs, including the head. I had a bit of a habit for headgibbing although for this particular incident I had intended to disable his foot but blew his head off accidentally, and this one incident apparently broke the camel's back. This one was a week ban, and I appealed it, which can be found here: https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/ ... ment-84808

(2017-11-28 08:04:34 coalf (MANUAL BAN) Jobbanned due to poor antag play and escalation.)
This one was a month ban from antagonist that I ate without appealing, bestowed upon me for killing a room full of Security who were trying to deactivate my traitor AI buddy. The reasoning behind it was because I did not give anyone any prior hints that I was an antagonist.

(2018-02-08 20:17:16 aboshehab aboshehab has banned bathsaltsaddict. - Reason: Used OOC reasoning to influence IC actions and knowledge by hacking an autolathe as a character that has no electrical knoweldge. You know better. - This will be removed in 4320 minutes.)
A scientist had no idea how to hack an autolathe, and when he wasn't getting the picture via LOOC I resigned myself to simply hacking it for him.

(2018-03-25 08:14:54 alberyk alberyk has permabanned bathsaltsaddict. - Reason: Managing the rd console, by printing nanopaste to heal himself. You have a lot of warnings and notes about powergaming behavior. - This is a permanent ban.)
I chalk this one up to a miscommunication between both myself and staff and staff and each other. It becomes an issue when one staff member lets someone off with a warning and then another staff member barges in minutes later, steps on the prior one's toes and enforces a different punishment. This was appealed here: https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/ ... ment-92566

Much more recently, a situation involving Aurora's equivalent of nuke-ops involved them recruiting and dressing crew in their trademark red suits. Having overpowered most of Security, I opted to take the guerilla option and blow up their shuttle with one of their own bombs to keep them from escaping scot-free with their stolen goods and crew. Unbeknownst to me, a large group of "mercenaries" that boarded the shuttle were actually mostly comprised of the recruited crew who willingly boarded the shuttle and got vaporized by my resulting bomb. I successfully filed a complaint against the banning staff member, and had it commuted to a week ban from security, which I went even further and had stricken entirely, which is all documented here: https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/ ... ent-107340 Quite a read, warning.

Are you familiar with the chat program Slack (its use is required)?

Unfortunately, no, but I pride myself on being a quick learner, and I'm not afraid to ask questions.

Common Staff Situations:
Write a description of what you would do in each of the following situations. Do not write on the same line as the situation - use the space below it or make space as needed. Failure to do this proves your inability to follow instructions and your application will be automatically denied.

1. A player randomly shoots someone at round start and MPs have detained him.

'Randomly' in this scenario implies that there was no prior escalation involved. With that in mind, I bwoink him and ask him to elaborate on why he shot that Marine. If it was an accident, then I simply shrug, advise him on the value of holstering his guns and the gun safety command in the weapons tab and leave the MPs to deal with him as it is an IC issue. If it was on purpose, I inform him of the rules regarding proper escalation, advise that he reads up on them and - if it was his first offence - leave him with just a warning not to do it again. If he is not a new player, however, and/or has a history of similar incidents, then a ban may be necessary.

As for the person he shot, if there was any serious damage I will either heal him via admin magic or, if that is beyond a moderator's ability, get a more senior staff member to heal him.

2. The ship has a breach to space and a bunch of players have died or are dying as a result.

I have not seen a breach in a long while since the days of the old Prison map, but whenever a breach occurred staff would call a halt to any fighting in that room and the surrounding areas and do their best to restore any of the affected marines to health and patch the hole. If patching the hole is beyond a moderator's ability, I would ask a nearby xeno if there is one to place a resin wall over the breach and do my best to restore atmosphere.

3. You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost.

I PM him and ask him if he's new, and direct him back to the cafeteria and the prep rooms, linking him to the quickstart guide on the wiki: (wiki/Marine_Quickstart_Guide)

4. A player is being very rude to you in Adminhelps and requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member.

If he is being rude, that will only further to exacerbate any punishment that I give him if one is necessary. I would, of course, request that he take on a kinder tone without attempting to come off as threatening. As for his request to speak to a more senior staff member, then I see no harm in asking one to back up whatever decision I make, or even coming in and saying otherwise.

5. You notice a player with a name that doesn't fit our naming rules. The player is arguing that: They've used the name for several years, no one has told them to change it before, and that they didn't know it was a rule.

Unfortunately, regardless of where he used the name or even if he managed to use it on CM for years (I would doubt that though) it is still in violation of the pretty clear naming rules, and ask him to give me a more appropriate name for his character so I can change it.

6. You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green with no threat present.

Unless that particular MT is also metagaming by building defences before the Xenos have commandeered the shuttle, then it is an IC issue for MPs to handle.

7. You see a Squad Medic performing surgery on the planet. He claims it was because there were no doctors in the FOB.

Unfortunately, despite the lack of doctors in the FOB or even if there were no doctors on the Almayer, a squad medic still cannot perform surgery. Seeing as he has a pre-prepared excuse and has the mechanical know-how to do surgery, it is safe to assume that he knew exactly what he was doing. I would warn him not to do it again, but if he has a history of powergaming, then I would issue a temporary job-ban from all medical roles. At the least, a day would suffice.

8. The round is stagnating. There are 30 marines and 4 aliens. The marines won't leave the ship, and the aliens won't attack. What would you do, to "encourage" the sides to engage each other?

As a moderator, my ability to seriously influence the direction of a round is quite limited, both mechanically and via permissions. I would use whatever options are available to me, depending on the situation. Whatever those options are, however, I cannot tell, as I've never really seen a situation like that in my time of playing. If, as a moderator, I cannot quite do anything then I would unfortunately have to leave the players to their devices, aside from maybe sending a psychic message to the Queen encouraging her to fight to the last. If I was a more senior staff member, then I would be more comfortable in sending a passive-aggressive High Command message belittling the Marines for their cowardice, in the hopes that they get the idea and start to attack.

9. The round ends, a MARINE starts shooting a hostile CLF member and the CLF member Adminhelps complaining he was killed after the round ended.

I inform him that EORG does not apply to two enemies firing on each other after the round, and so the Marine is well within the rules by attacking him.

10. A marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start.

Mostly, it would be an IC issue. However, if it is excessive or players start complaining via LOOC or ahelps, then a bwoink is necessary and telling him to stop. If he persists, then a ban.

11. A marine has killed another marine. When you ask him why, he said it was because the other marine had punched him.

I inform them of the escalation rules, and that he jumped the gun by shooting in response to a simple punch. I then would warn him or even tempban him depending on his history and heal the affected Marine.

12. An issue arises that requires Admin+ abilities.

I bring the matter to the attention of senior staff via msay. If none are on the server, then I would alert them via the Discord server's staff channel (or Slack, if that's how it's done I suppose)

13. There are minor racist comments going on IC. 9 of the 10 people are laughing and RPing but one player gets offended and Adminhelps about it.

If it is just some minor racism, then it is largely an IC issue, and could just fall under classic Marine bravado. I would inform him of such and remind him that he can always take IC action against it, bearing in mind proper escalation.

14. A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off.

I get the Ckey of the offending player, ban him for 7 days, file a request for a permanent ban on the forums and ask for ahelps from the killed/injured marines to get healed.

15. You see a player playing a xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines and die.

I bwoink the larva player just to find out what the hell he's doing, and if he has no reasonable explanation, then I give him a warning, or even a xeno jobban. I personally dislike players using whatever cheesy OOC methods to throw the game for their own team, and would come down much harder than with other rulebreaks.

16. You see a xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat.

A bit of memeing is fine and all in good fun, however anything excessive then I tell him to simply stop. If he continues to persist then a ban will be necessary.

17. A xeno player calls the shuttle a "dropship". A different xeno player complains to you that it's metagaming/failRP to call it a "dropship".

I inform them that the the xeno hivemind is the English translation of a xeno's thoughts and that whatever they opt to call it is up to them.

18. A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet.

Depending on the context, he could have said it as a tongue-in-cheek joke. If it wasn't, however, then I simply give him a bwoink and inform him that the Marines do not know about xenos at roundstart and leave it at that. Most players are able to realize that, and so I won't need to make some big crowd control announcement to disregard what they said, aside from maybe an LOOC here or there.

19. A Marine kills another Marine on the EVAC Pod to take the last spot and claims it was RP as he was saving himself.

A bit tricky, however this is in the same vein as killing a nested and infected Marine to put them out of their misery and deny a larva, which I have been told not do in the past. While ICly it is sound logic, there is a line you have to draw between what makes sense ICly and what is fun OOCly. Being killed for the last spot in a pod crosses that line. If it was a first offence, I would simply leave him with a warning. At most, a light temporary ban unless they had a particularly extensive history.

20. You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforcing a rule.

I correct them via msay, as butting in and bwoinking the player directly or LOOC-ing could be stepping on a few toes, and would only serve to humiliate them. If the staff member doesn't believe me, then I simply don't make a big issue about it but ask for someone (preferrably senior staff) to back me up and clarify.

20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.

I gather evidence and file a staff complaint just like any other player. Knowingly letting it slide, of course, is grounds for my own demotion.

21. You see a player talking in OOC chat about what he did with your mom last night.

I ask him how much she charged him.

Any additional information you'd like to add?

From what I understand, Aurora has a "warn" option that acts as demerits of sorts to help staff gauge their judgments in future interactions with that player, while notes are simply a log of staff interactions with that player for any reason, regardless if there is a punishment given or not. From what I'm told, however, CM does not exactly have something of that nature. My preferred method of punishment escalation (on a player with squeaky clean history) would be talking to > warn > ban but if warnings are not a thing then I'll have to make do with a system of talking to/informal warning > ban

I also want to be there for those poor, lonely CLs who have no one to fax them in the cold, dark nights.

[Bancrose]

+1

A well known player that is actually understanding of the rules and he knows the community.

I think he'll be a good fit.

[Grimreaperx15]

Not a fantastic note history, but the only more recent note was for something fairly minor. The answers, while not perfect, indicate a solid understanding of our rules and enforcement of them. While I don't think I've actually had any interactions with them, the application looks fairly good to me and from what they've presented, I think they would easily be able to learn everything required.

+1

[420MYK]

Yea i know you reasonably well IG, seen you around plenty. The app itself is hard to read for lack of formatting but it all seems to be in order. Any qualms i may have are reasonably minor and can be polished during tmod. +1.

Just for reference and interest sake more than anything as youve got my +1 but it may help with other people. What are some of the more volatile situations you had to deal with as a staff member on the gmod server, and how did YOU in particular deal with them. By volatile i mean highly toxic and salty players griefing etc, Having them be hostile with and towards you, that sorta stuff

[ThesoldierLLJK]

Answers are good and it shows you’ve been here whole, but the mod application is out dated

So I’m gonna ask you some additional what if’s.

1. A player ahelps that he believes the XO who is leading a operation on Big Red is metarushing. You find out his overwatch orders for one squad is “Push Lambda with this squad” and another is “Push ETA with this squad.” Within 2 mins of dropping marines are already fighting Xenos at lambda which is the hive location. What would you do?

2. A player ahelps that he was a victim of grief by the captain. He argues that the battlefield execution was poor and he used a it to ruin his round and demands he be banned. What would you do?

3. Developers have introduced a mechanic involving weapons, and two marine start shooting each other in front of everyone else at briefing. When questioned both players said they wanted to test the new weapon stuff. What would you do?

[Bath Salts Addict]

Yea i know you reasonably well IG, seen you around plenty. The app itself is hard to read for lack of formatting but it all seems to be in order. Any qualms i may have are reasonably minor and can be polished during tmod. +1.

Just for reference and interest sake more than anything as youve got my +1 but it may help with other people. What are some of the more volatile situations you had to deal with as a staff member on the gmod server, and how did YOU in particular deal with them. By volatile i mean highly toxic and salty players griefing etc, Having them be hostile with and towards you, that sorta stuff

I mentioned the server I administrated had a permanent kill system and two directly opposing factions. The server revolved around combat, but fighting and dying was order of the day and got you hit with what was called "New Life Rule", which is the equivalent to what most SS13 servers enforce when it comes to cloning. You just don't remember the past 20 minutes. There were only a few ways to qualify for a permanent kill, some of the qualifiers being:

- Leaving your base without being in a patrol lead by an NCO+ (going AWOL, in which staff could write all sorts of amusing event broadcasts of all the gruesome ways the AWOL soldier died. My particular favorite was being mauled by a tribe of nomadic apemen.)
- You insisted on fighting an enemy force that was more than twice your numerical strength and died. (i.e ramboing)
- You attacked the enemy base without authorization from a Senior Administrator and died, or wandered too close the base's borders and died.
- When your character reached a certain level of health, he was supposed to act out his wounds accordingly. 100-80% health was fine, 70-40 was light wounds, could still fight but no sprinting, anything less than that meant your character could not fight unless he was stuck in a corner, and could only slowly crouch-walk anywhere. Being that there was no mechanical way to enforce this, ignoring what was called PainRP resulted in a permanent kill regardless if you survived or not.
- Violating New Life Rule, of course, was also grounds for a permanent kill ontop of a regular ban.
- Your character severely violated your faction's laws and was executed by someone of an appropriate rank or authority.
- Your character defected from their faction and either killed in the attempt or was captured in a later engagement and executed.
- Your character was killed attempting to break out of prison.
- Your character was killed by someone who had a good reason for doing so and received prior authorization from a Senior Administrator.

And that's just off the top of my head. With a lot of rules punishable primarily by permanent kill, it meant bans were an uncommon thing aside from the occasional griefer. However, that did not make the community any more joyous. Miscommunication in squads and overall confusion could lead to people making honest mistakes or poor judgment calls, or simply taking risks and dying and getting a perma-kill. People were fiercely devoted to their factions the faction conflict, and were quick to decry any perma-kill of a well-liked character or any event win as faction bias. It, of course, did not help the fact that some of these people were also staff themselves. Arguments were not unlike the frequent marine v. xeno balance "discussions" that occur here.

It was one such situation regarding the third rule that springs to mind. While observing a fight close to a faction's base, I noticed a character straying extremely close to the arbitrary border that staff had determined beforehand. Of course, the borders of the bases were always somehow up for debate everytime the map changed and bases were made. A lucky headshot killed the character, who happened to be a high-ranking and well-loved one. Of course, being that I primarily played the faction that was in direct opposition to the perma-killed character's own, people were quick to accuse me of favoring that faction. To make matters worse, my specific job as Senior Administrator was handling perma-kill appeals and ban appeals., so the ensuing appeal thread on the forums and every other "discussion" thread for some time.

People claimed bias, people threw hyperbole and insults that added nothing but fuel to the fire, people threatened to quit, staff argued privately amongst themselves, and for a time I felt like submitting to the negative outcry from the opposite half of the playerbase and just appealing the guy's perma-kill. It took me a while, however, to understand that you can't always make everyone happy, and there's no point in letting people's salt and rage get to you. The community was toxic and the cycle would simply repeat itself again and again with new players and new characters each time, with one faction claiming favoritism one moment and the other claiming another. While I didn't let the overall negativity get to me, I did eventually step down due to declining interest and the playerbase tanking.

[420MYK]

-snip

Oh well you seem to at least understand that sometimes you cant make everyone happy and that people will throw shade at you. Long as you're sure in your decisions and stick to your guns im sure you will do fine with us. Good luck with the rest of your App bud

[Bath Salts Addict]

Answers are good and it shows you’ve been here whole, but the mod application is out dated

So I’m gonna ask you some additional what if’s.

1. A player ahelps that he believes the XO who is leading a operation on Big Red is metarushing. You find out his overwatch orders for one squad is “Push Lambda with this squad” and another is “Push ETA with this squad.” Within 2 mins of dropping marines are already fighting Xenos at lambda which is the hive location. What would you do?

2. A player ahelps that he was a victim of grief by the captain. He argues that the battlefield execution was poor and he used a it to ruin his round and demands he be banned. What would you do?

3. Developers have introduced a mechanic involving weapons, and two marine start shooting each other in front of everyone else at briefing. When questioned both players said they wanted to test the new weapon stuff. What would you do?

1. A common thing for XOs and COs to at least set up an inevitable confrontation at Eta and Lambda is to send squads to engineering and the bar, respectively. I personally see it as an okay thing to do, as the Marines are being deployed to investigate the colony first and foremost. However, seeing as the XO in this scenario decided to forego engineering and the bar or any other location for that matter in favor of immediately rushing the two common hive locations, it is safe to assume he is attempting to metarush the xeno hive. I recall a lengthy discussion about a CO player and their tactics being accused of metarushing on Prison station, so there is already a precedent set in matters such as this. If this is the XO's first offence, then I will simply remind him not to order marines to metarush hive locations and take things slower next time, leaving him a note for the future. If he has a history, then a temporary ban will be in order.

2. There is not much I can do here in this situation. If the CO has even a modicum of IC reasoning behind his battlefield execution, then it is an IC issue that should be subject to later review after the round via a complaint on the forums. So unless he's running around BE'ing everyone in sight, then the executed player will just have to make a complaint.

3. I sleep the two Marines and bwoink both of them to get an explanation for their actions. Again, as before, if their history is relatively clean then at most I'd leave them with is probably a note and a heal. Failing that, however, a small temporary ban is in order.

Also, I fixed the formatting to make it easier to read.

[Mizari]

Good application, very descriptive answers and I think you have a good mindset on you. +1 from myself.

[ThesoldierLLJK]

You can have a shot +1

[Frans_Feiffer]

Not much more to add. You’re solid all around my man. Have my +1

[Slywater]

Seems good. My interaction with you today was positive. +1 from me.

[Killjaden]

Not much else to say! +1

[Omicega]

I think you'd be a good moderator. The Aurora ban stuff doesn't really concern me -- I have no experience with Aurora in particular, but I've experienced getting on the bad side of other staff teams (not on SS13 or a derivative) firsthand myself, and as far as I'm concerned if you're upfront about it and able to defend your actions it's not even a speedbump.

+1

[Adralimas]

Seems good to me! +1

[Grimcad]

Accepted. Check your inbox for further instructions and welcome to the team.