Lukas292001 - Commanding Officer Application

Whitelists Commanding Officer Applications
1

Commanding Officer Application - Lukas292001

What is your BYOND key?

Lukas292001

What is your Discord ID?

Luke2188

What is your timezone in UTC?

UTC-7

Player Name You Use Most?

Lukas Seltz

Ban Appeals, Whitelist and Staff Applications:

Lukas292001 - Commanding Officer Application - #14 - Withdrawn
Lukas292001 - Commanding Officer Application - #21 - Denied
Mentor Application - lukas292001 - #13 - Accepted

Have you been banned in the last 3 months?

No

If so, why?

N/A

Command Knowledge:

How familiar are you with command positions?

I am very familiar with Command positions. I play a lot of command roles I have over 25 hours in every head of a department and 90 hours as CE.

Hours in XO:

174.1

Hours in SL:

72.4

Character Information:

Why did your character decide to become the CO of a ship?

Lukas Seltz decided to become a CO after watching his Commanding Officer Make multiple simple mistakes that cost 75 marines to die. Seltz watched as his friends and marines were slaughtered by the CO’s mistake. Seltz decided that he would never let this happen again and began working on becoming a CO to make sure it does not happen again.

How did your character attain the position of CO?

Major Seltz attained CO after being deployed to the colony of LV654 at the time Captain Seltz held FOB for multiple hours to make sure all civilians that were alive made it off the planet. Before deciding it was time to leave the planet, he talked to the CO to double-check if there were any civilians left on the colony. After getting the confirmation he ordered the immediate Evac of all ground-side marine forces. Once he returned to the ship the CO walked to him and said, “Why did you hold FOB that long to rescue some civilians on a forgotten colony?” Lukas responded with “Because it was the right thing to do and because we are the USCM we fight to protect civilians no matter where we are, who we are fighting, and no matter the cost.” After that, the major recommended him for a promotion for going above and beyond what is required of him.

Provide a short story of your CO.

Command Actions:

When do you believe it’s appropriate to pardon a prisoner?

I believe pardons should only be used if it is someone vital to the operation and depending on what happened and the situation.
One example of when I would use a pardon is when a spec such as Demo gets arrested for something like DTGP. I believe it would have been for the best if he was groundside fighting instead of being shipside in the brig as he could be the reason, we won an operation.

Give some examples of when you would or would not use pardon.

Another example of when I would use a pardon is when the requestions department gets arrested for contraband. Depending on my investigation I would pardon at least the QM or a CT because if no one is running req then the troop’s groundside does not get resupplies of ammo or metal which can determine if we win the OP or lose the OP. Now it does not mean I disagree with the charges, it is my belief if we want to run a proper operation, we need someone manning req. This is one situation where I believe a pardon would be useful. Now I would likely station an MP in req to make sure they do not do black market again.
One Situation where I would not use a pardon is if the person who committed the crime is likely to do it again. Such as an MT that broke into the CL’s office and expressed that they felt no remorse or outright said they would do it again. The reason for this is that if someone commits a crime you just released them from it is no longer on the person who committed the crime it is on you. The only time I would think about pardoning a shipside role was if it was a doctor and it was the only doctor we had OR if it was required to continue the operation.

When do you believe it’s appropriate to use a Battlefield Execution?

I believe personally BEs should be used as a last resort such as when you are groundside with no MPs or if there is a grave and imminent threat from a marine on myself or others around him.
One example of when I would use a BE is if a demo spec ground side blows up the inter marine front because if I let him live I could not in good faith believe he will not do it again BUT if it was an accident, I would give him one last chance if he did it again, I would BE for jeopardizing the operation as he had blown up the marine front twice.

Give some examples of when you would or would not use Battlefield Execution.

Another time I will use a BE if I see a marine arm and throw a live Nade into briefing because he is putting everyone in that room including me and all the SLs in harm’s way. I could not let him be free wandering around the ship knowing that he just blew up all of the briefing.
One time I will not use a BE is if someone ends up punching me, I will only use a BE if it starts to escalate to him knifing me or shooting me but if it has not, I will have the MPs deal with him and arrest him. Note I would only do this after they did this multiple times not just once or twice as accidental clicks happen.
Another time I would not use a BE is when research gets permission from the XO when I am ground side to make Greenos because 1. by going to the ground, I am putting the ships in the XOs hands. Yes, I still have to handle certain matters, but the XO is there to handle most of the problems on the ship when I am ground side. 2. I may not have liked the choice, but they got permission and made them legally. Now I can terminate them which is what I would do but I would not BE the Researchers for getting permission from the XO to make them.

1 Like
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I am going to purely focus on the writing here, because on it alone I think the app is deniable.

Lukas Seltz decided to become a CO after watching his Commanding Officer Make multiple simple mistakes that cost 75 marines to die. Seltz watched as his friends and marines were slaughtered by the CO’s mistake. Seltz decided that he would never let this happen again and began working on becoming a CO to make sure it does not happen again.

This is an extremely good motivation written poorly. Both old and new lore describes political positions available to COs to take if they wish to do so that you can interact with. For Instance, If I would want to rephrase this to be more interactive to the lore, I would say “My character has served under a multitude of COs in their Time within the Herculi (or other Military divisions if you would like your CO having moved around) and realized the Human costs accrued by many upper echelons of the Officer Corp that would describe themselves as “Warhawks” or “Magpies.” Big speeches about glory or progress fell on Seltz’s deaf ears as he watched hundreds of Marines lives’ thrown away through a combination of unskilled command, general dereliction of the value of human life, or irresponsible tactics. My Officer saw the only option forward* to save lives, to make this military the better ideal he believed in when he enlisted, is to seek high allies within the Officer Corp that bare the name of Humanity. Of Civility. Of Sanity. The Doves. This was his future, no, his mandate. He must get his own Command, he concluded.”

Once he returned to the ship the CO walked to him and said, “Why did you hold FOB that long to rescue some civilians on a forgotten colony?” Lukas responded with “Because it was the right thing to do and because we are the USCM we fight to protect civilians no matter where we are, who we are fighting, and no matter the cost.” After that, the major recommended him for a promotion for going above and beyond what is required of him.

This section is generally meant for a particular action or set of actions the individual underwent to attain their position of CO. The CO in question outright holds a completely opposite view - which is itself unjustiable the way that you wrote it. The Hawks and Magpies aren’t antagonists. They have motivations themselves for their behaviors. Why were you evacuating the planet? Were all those civilians backgrounds cleared? Could there be enemies in that crowd of civilians in sheep’s clothing? Ready to strike starbases or stations or more planets because you let them past? Furthering the chaos of the Neroid? Suddenly this makes the perspective of the - let’s say War-hawk - CO more contextualized. It’s fear and paranoia which you can disagree with, but it’s not without reason. It’s not blind. And in either version of this written, why would this CO promote you? Insubordination is an outright crime, and it was done in a way that conflicts with the ideology of the Major in Command of the Operation. He was convinced the error of his ways from that two sentence speech, and gives you a pat on the back for committing a crime in his face? Possibly decades of proof of his ideals found in his work, undone by a criminal XO standing in front of him?

“We must get these marines in top condition for their mission, and we must ensure that they prove themselves worthy of Valhalla!”

Your CO simultaneously wants to avoid Marines dying, but they are a believer in Asatru. In this religion, death in combat is the ultimate form of honor. It guarantees you a place in the Armies of the Gods. It means waiting for RagnarOOk with the either Freya in Fólkvangr, or having beer in Odin’s Valhalla. Your CO shouldn’t want less Marines to die. They should/would likely want more to die if they are really are a hardcore devotee of this religion. Or they at very least should integrate this into the character saying, “I want them to die in combat with honor.” rather than to not die. It’s a small distinction, but meaningful. I think it could be pulled off. They would also - minor point - understand that the dead would go to either Valhalla or Fólkvangr. Your character does not acknowledge the Existence of Fólkvangr, where half of all dead warriors go to eventually go into Battle with Freya rather than Odin, at all.

Captain Smith: “There are survivors on the ground Major. They had an RTO bag and called CIC while you were gearing up.”
Major Seltz: “When did you last act as honor guard?”
Major Seltz: “Captain, Dial OB -534 MARK 644.23”

Referring to in-game game mechanics in the writing itself is bad writing. In Helldivers, John Helldiver doesn’t say “We need to liberate Tien Kwan so we can all unlock the Mechs on the Battlepass”. Master Chief isn’t saying “Hey Arbiter, look at this skull . It’s name is the ‘Black Eye Skull’ and it’s effect is that we will have to melee to regain health” in the writing.

This story also reads a lot like mine. My first one. On my app back in 2021 that I withdrew. It basically was just a retelling of a round. It didn’t have any character, and missed the point of the prompt, for which an admin tore me open for. I’m just gonna say what he said, but nicer. Your character is not on display here. You’re leading an operation, but it’s not showing character in how you are leading it. We learn nothing by you launching an OB or giving orders or charging here or there. This doesn’t show anything about what makes you love Aliens as a property, or it’s potential in your ability to contribute to it as someone applying to be - someday with the Battalion lore being added - a member of it’s lore.

You need to have concrete motivations for your character and show you can interact with the lore as it is established in your story. This is also of minor note, because I believe it needs saying: if you include faith in your CO story, you should show a lot of respect to said faith in the writing. Faith is very important to a lot of people, and I don’t think you should add it for flair without fully understanding it.

-1

2 Likes
3

I’ll start with just pointing out that you’re a super kind person who’s more than enthusiastic about RP and gameplay enjoyment. If that were the requirements for CO alone I’d be slapping an immediate +1.

However I’m chosing to abstain without further information for a number of reasons:

Your BE and Pardon answers feel a little lackluster. While they’re not incorrect and would be an acceptable BE or pardon in the situation you’ve provided, I think you need to work on understanding appeals more:

  • A Pardon for contraband runs the very real risk that you in the future get arrested for contraband. While members of the CO council have confirmed that as a CO you can determine what is and isn’t an illegal use of the black market (within reason) I wouldn’t be risking my ass over a dumb QM I’d just grab a SO to replace them or tell the marines they’ll have slow supply drops for the next 15 mins while the QM eats their punishment.

    • If you have the MPs, why not just put one on Req duty instead of the QM?

  • BE’s groundside is also a super risky endevour, if you’re trying to BE someone on the front, (or trying to BE someone at all) they are by all means allowed to gun you down, without major OOC reprocussions, you become the deadly force.

    • when do you believe it is appropriate to BE someone who is groundside what’s the situation?

And guiding you more in the right place of where BE’s a typically used:

  • when would you BE someone who was repeatedly pushing you down in CIC, or briefing, at what point for you, does goofing effect your ability to command and thus net a BE?

With your BE answers you’ve provided are super simple and cut and dry. If someone grenades breifing that’s a rulebreak, no need to BE just ahelp it and get them banned/everyone ahealed.

The other situations you’ve described are ones where you could reasonably BE, if someone is repeatedly assaulting the CO they can get BE’d freely.

My advice before replying to my questions/comments is to re-read ML and Commander CoC and come up with a legally complex situation where you feel administering the BE is the right thing to do. Show us you know the source material.

I like the CO story, it reads like a screen play. No complaints there other than try to show how your CO would act more. A good story doesn’t always make a good CO app and visa versa, its a space to display the character, think of it like a videogame intro/first level with a game character, really show of your traits, accent, inner thoughts, etc.

1 Like
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Now that is a good question, why would I not put MPs in charge of req mainly because I can’t expect MPs to know how to work req and how do I know they are not going to mess up and buy really bad things. Yes, I am taking a risk with letting the QM go and I would be willing to take that risk as it is for the better of the operation. As the quarter master knows best in requestions

I believe the appropriate time to BE someone groundside is when we are not in Immedient threat from the enemy force. For the situation I would most likely BE someone who has done nothing but nonstop PB marines.

After they contently do it to the effect, I can’t host a briefing or run the op without being shoved down. The point at which it affects my ability to command is after I have told him to stop and sit back down and he does not.

6

Now let me dissect your responses

Now this is completely wrong Pardons are not there to be used for every situation they are only meant to be used if it is absolutely necessary. As stated in the Guidelines " The Commanding Officer may exceptionally pardon criminals by name, and which crimes they are being pardoned for if they believe it is in the best interests of the operation." So that is completely false they are meant to be used only if they are vital of the operation.

7

This is also wrong they have changed the way they work to my knowledge I have seen multiple Granade’s go off on level green from the past 5 weeks. Now it may or may not be a bug but the reason for the Be is sound.

8

If thats the case, then I’ll concede the point

9

This question has been answered already.

10

The reason for that is because an admin turned off IFF inhibitors.
The IFF inhibition on green is NOT a feature that is perpetually on- It’s a toggle for admins to change.
The reason why we saw people blowing themselves up with SADARs and HEDP lately was because an admin flipped the IFF inhibitor switch off, and no one turned it back on for whatever reason.

It wasn’t a TM or feature change that caused the change in IFF restrictions.

1 Like
11

I think you misunderstand what Spypig was trying to say.
It’s true that you should only pardon people if it’s in the best interest of the operation, but you should still be considering the situation on a case-by-case basis. A specialist is usually not vital to the operation, and in most cases you’ll not be able to trust them not to re-offend.

The pardon decision should be made based on the person, not their role. In most cases a marine acting up enough to be arrested once has a very high chance of acting up again, ending up with both you and the marine in brig. Better examples of vital staff is the sole doctor being arrested, in which case the pardon is an actual short-term life or death decision.

Anyways, I mirror much of the above feedback, but I’m going to emphasize grammar.
There’s spelling errors all over the place. The story is chock full of weird sentence structures and odd word Not everyone is perfect, and typos are bound to come up in regular play when things are moving quickly, but that fact that there’s this quantity of typos in an application you have practically unlimited time to proof-read and run through whatever grammar checking tools you want, is very concerning.

Unfortunately I’ll have to give this a -1

2 Likes
12

I’ve now had a round seeing you in command and have given your feedback in DMs.

The answers to these questions as well as your in game conduct is servicable.

The problem I’m having is none of them exceed minimum requirements, I still feel as though your pardon answers are somewhat wrong, you probably should send alternative staff over the QM if the QM has a history of criminality.

That being said, those answers are down to CO preference and not inherently a disqualifying factor.

I will organise another round to play with you and cast my vote after that in reply to this.

13

Also as a secondary note, needing someone from the council to weigh in here.

While I think you can BE someone for PBing people repeatedly on the front since they represent a threat to their surrounding marines, it becomes hard to distinguish accident from purposeful action, it’d be a weak reason to BE for want of a better word.

14

Also if you’re BEing someone near the front or while deployed, you’ve got to be a really good shot or they can and will kill you for trying without any repercussions.

15

Hey Lukas. I’ll give my own piece about your app and story first and then your performance in game to finish with my recommendations.

  • Your story isn’t great. It might go against the feedback I gave you weeks ago (when I wasn’t councillor yet) but I don’t like your story, it’s basically the transcript of a round. Anyone can do that, it’s nothing extraordinary and COs can rarely fully express themselves as characters during rounds. It has not disqualified you from having a shot at getting CO, as I mentioned to you before, but it hasn’t played in your favor either.
  • Your app follows the same trend. It’s average in showing your capability at judging BE/pardon scenarios, you also got got by the classic trap of putting pardon/BE examples outside the dedicated sections. That could’ve been avoided by checking past apps and to me seems like you don’t got much of a personal take on these powers, but still tried to make it lengthy. Speaking of previous apps, some of the stuff you were told to change for reapplication remains, along with some less convincing things that weren’t called out then. Basically, I would’ve liked you to have gone from the ground up for this one, especially since you were already advised that not much improvement had been seen between your first and second apps regarding your answers.
  • Your CO’s personality/background is also basically patriotic and heroic family dude with seven kids or something (if I remember right). I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but the writing to make all this come out is in my opinion poor. I don’t know what to say here aside from get better at writing stories and lore even if I know how little help that is.
  • You don’t show off your roleplaying skills enough. You also have what I can only describe as bruh moments when you break character; I distinctly remember you taking the tablet from my then being revived corpse during a falling Lifeboat hold only to announce something like “ahah how does it feel to suck UPP”. I would also not be capable tell Seltz from another random XO during a conversation.
  • No vouches.
  • Your tactical skills are OK at best. Not going to raise any specific event because none was particularly egregious but I think there’s work to be done here.
  • Your spelling improved compared to before but it’s not enough. You make enough typos in round for someone to question if you’re an ESL, which you’re apparently not.

All of the above lead me to have no confidence you’ll be able to uphold our standards, roleplay-wise or on the battlefied, and make reasonable use of our extended powers. It’s hard for me to notice any significant progress since your last app.

I also learned that you’re young and I think that you need time to mature. We know that you mean well and you seem dedicated but my stance, shared by several other COs and councillors, isn’t changing anytime soon. My advice is; keep having fun playing the game, check in on what our whitelist and community think of you every once in a while, and maybe one day, that’ll do the trick.

4 Likes
16

I never said this, I believe this was the round where my ID was stollen off my corpse after I died but i would never say that.

How, In which way. You guys keep saying not much improvement. How is there not much improvement? What more do I need to work on? In every app I have made you guys either don’t explain what I need to work on or just make so confusing that I do not understand what you are trying to say.

If you did not like it, then why did you not say it? I am sorry but before you were a councilor. I believe in telling the truth the first time around. If you told me before I made the app, I would have been able to fix the mistake you did not like or even remake it again.

While I understand the point you were trying to make here. Then why did you not help point out grammar mistake when reviewing my Backstory when I sent it to you?

Now this I find to be just stupid how does this relate to my in-game actions and upholding of the CO whitelist. I also believe the fact is by this logic a lot of other COs that where accepted should not have been. My out of character age does not matter and I am deeply saddened this was even brought up.

3 Likes
17

Hi, before I say anything im just gonna say I did not track this application or its comments, so what im saying is what I saw only.

I played a round with you, where I served under you as an SO. There were some minor, and some glaring issues.

The most minor of which, were that you were unaware that the DS was prohibited to be a briefing location, which is pretty much known across the board by everyone so I expected you to know that with all your hours.

The biggest issue however was your literacy, not referring to your CO story or app but rather your ingame language you used, which lacked rather basic grammar and spelling. You got the words “are” and “our” mixed up at least twice, as well as mixing up the words; “then” and “than”. Some of your announcements took me more than once to read, since the structure and lack of proper word usage threw me off completely.

I haven’t seen you at all until recently, probably a result of my timezone but my first impression of you in LRC was you being rude to me when I asked you a question, about wether English was your first language or not.
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Im leaving a -1 here

2 Likes
18

One my primary language is none of anyone business. two That was after I watch 10 marines all shoot a rav that was shielded. So, I told them not to shoot them which as XO I can tell them. I don’t see how telling marines to not shoot something that will do more harm to them is LRP.

2 Likes
19

One I am sorry for you to think I was coming off rude I was not.

20

You have way too many hours to be making all the glaring and elementary mistakes you do, especially on app number 3. Either you’re not cut out for it at all, or you’re going to need to wait a couple years minimum.

-1

1 Like
21

I’m afraid after reviewing this application the CO Council agrees with many of the sentiments said on this thread regarding the quality of your application answers and feedback. The big thing you have to look into is determining whether or not certain scenarios deserve usage of a BE/DA/pardon or not. I’ve said this to other people time after time, CO abilities should be used when less drastic alternatives (like arrests/demotions/relief of duty) are infeasible or otherwise impractical given the circumstances. If a BE or similar is not the only answer to a problem within a given timeframe, you generally should not be using it.

Overall, please take the feedback given to you above. Work on revamping your application from the ground up and look into gaining tactical experience and be more involved with actually talking to people.

This application is denied. You may reapply anytime after 30 days starting May 5, 2024.

3 Likes