Commanding Officer Whitelist Application
Personal Information
Byond ID? Taketheshot56
Player Name You Use Most? Patton "Hardtack" Moore
Make a list of links to all of your ban appeals as well as whitelist and staff applications (both accepted and denied) submitted within the past year. For appeals, provide an additional ban reason and the appeal’s verdict next to the link.
Have you received any bans in the last month? No
What is your timezone in UTC? UTC−08:00
What is your discord username and handle? Taketheshot56#2728
Basic Questions & Story
What do you think is the job of a Commander? A commanders job is the job of a director, a stage manager who ensures everything is running like clockwork and the cast is following the script, so to speak. There are several types of commanders, those that rule with an iron fist, those that micro manage through their SOs and those that delegate. A commander that delegates responsibility is one that will be most effective. If everything on the ship is running smoothly, with SLs, SOs and XOs doing their jobs and all other departments running at full capacity. The COs job should be that of running the ship at the higher level, delivering key information to his SOs for them to pass along. But often times this is not the case and that is why the role of commander is so very important.
Many times back during the days of the Sulaco as a boot marine fighting for my life in hydro with the aliens thrashing us from the front and the shipside staff mucking things up from behind. But then, the popup arrives. "Attention all hands, Commander Bloggins on deck!" This bold black text that appears at the side of the screen is one that begins to reassure the PFC. In his head the PFC thinks "Dont worry, the Commander is here, he will begin sorting stuff out." The commander's Job, first and foremost is to ensure the ship is running efficiently and effectively and that all departments are giving it their all to keep the marines on the ground fighting. The commanders job is important and when the commander arrives in a round it allows everyone to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Why do you want to be a Commanding Officer? Since I began playing CM ive played in every single role, but the ones I feel most comfortable in are that of SO and XO. I've put many hours in leading marines effectively to which many COs will agree. I wish to be able to take the next step and lead marines as a commander, striving to provide a good round to all involved. I work hard as XO and do my best to ensure everything runs smoothly and I wish to take up that job, but as a commander. Providing that feeling of relief I once received as a marine in a difficult situation, when I see that a commander has joined the round.
Provide a short story of your Commanding Officer.
Experience
How familiar are you with command positions? Command roles are literally second nature to me at this point. I have absolutely no qualms assuming control of an operation no matter how fucked it might be, Ive grinded out every single role from SL, SO, XO, Captain, Commodore, and I even have a bunch of Admiral rounds under my belt. Theres no way for me to tally my combined hours in command roles, but before I dipped away from the server last year my most played role was Captain and I probably have around a thousand or so hours in that role over the years.
I understand what needs to be done in a command position and that is to be present, be active and be someone who directs the marine force directly onto the objective with as few hiccups as possible.
Approximately how many hours do you have as Executive Officer (XO) at the time of writing this application? Into the numerous hundreds, I've been playing CM since 2017. With no way to accurately track it, I am guesstimating its somewhere in the range of several hundred over the past four years.
How familiar are you with Department Head positions? I am INCREDIBLY familiar, although I don't have all the department head roles unlocked due to returning and dealing with time lock stuff, I have ran through RO, CE, CMP, and CMO quite often and played each role thoroughly before I dipped away from the server
How familiar are you with Marine Law and Standard Operating Procedure? Incredibly familiar, I helped write a bunch of the original ones during my time on staff and the CO council, I have probably 200 hours as MP/CMP. Marine law is nothing new to me and is something I have been dealing with for years.
Scenarios
When do you believe a Battlefield Execution should be used? A battlefield execution is an absolute last resort of a commander to deal with an extreme threat to either himself, or the ship. This tool is one that lies at the bottom of the commanders proverbial toolbox and should only be used in the most dire of circumstances. A good commander must understand that by performing a battlefield execution, he is removing a player directly from the round something that should not be done lightly and only in the most extreme of circumstances. The following situations are just some I have observed over my lengthy experience as XO and SO and my thoughts on them reflect my opinions on how it should be used.
An SO had been extremely confrontational with the CO and other staff throughout the round, they have been spoken to numerous times but the SO in question continues this behavior. Eventually this culminates in the SO withdrawing his sidearm and opening fire at the commander in CIC. At this point the commander in this situation withdrew their sidearm and opened fire on the rouge SO, killing them. In doing this the commander performed a lawful battlefield execution. The situation, was dire. A lethal weapon was being used against the commander and the commander responded with his option of last resort to protect himself and the rest of the CIC staff. The commander was completely in the right and chose the best option.
An SO in the CIC was sitting at her post doing her job. An Admiral had just boarded the ship and was in the CIC with the CO and XO, I was sitting at an overwatch station engaging in conversation with the Admiral and CO. The SO sitting next to me at her station directed an insult toward me. Due to some error of miscommunication the Admiral took it as an insult towards himself and promptly executed the SO who despite insulting her fellow SO, was doing her job. This was during an Admiral round and due to it being chosen by staff was given leeway. But the point remains, this was the epitome of when not to battlefield execute someone. It could've easily been solved with some discussion and perhaps a quick brig time.
Under what circumstances do you believe it is legal to pardon a prisoner? Ultimately a pardon is not something to be given lightly, as a Captain I rarely gave them out unless under the most dire of circumstances, usually they revolved around some medic, specialist or smartgunner finding himself on the wrong side of the law for whatever reason and the Almayer coming under attack. In such dire circumstances where the alternative is having a useless spec/sg/medic cooling his heels in the brig or having one extra gun on the line I've chosen to pardon.
I do believe it has its limits however, the people I've pardoned were almost entirely nonthreats to the operation, people unlikely to reoffend, I used to simply make an active choice that if you were going to be difficult and cause problems, Id just have the MPs escort you off the ship in a pod rather than pardon the person in question and have them decide to reoffend at a terribly inconvenient time.
Confirmations
Have you read the Code of Conduct? Yes
Have you read the application process page? Yes
Do you understand that any player - even donors or staff members - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our Server Rules or Roleplay Guidelines? Yes
Do you understand you cannot advertise or promote this application on any platform, including Discord? Yes
Do you also understand that you may not edit this application 1 hour after it has been posted? Yes