Master Havoc - Synthetic Application

Whitelists Synthetic Applications
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Synthetic Application - Master Havoc

What is your BYOND key?

Master Havoc

What is your Discord ID?

masterhavoc#6179

Do you usually play a specific character? If so, who?

Vincent ‘PeriKing’ Frontiers, MHVO

What whitelist applications have you previously completed?

None

Synthetic Info:

Name of the Synth Character you wish to play:

Vince

Provide a short description of your synthetic’s backstory

The Vince line was created as W-Y’s attempt to extract more cash out of the more troubled edge colonies. Colonies with less control were weary of W-Y robotics suppressing them if they ever stepped too far out of line. To make a more appealing synth to the wayward colonies, W-Y constructed and advertised a synth with programming to make it incapable of ever harming anything sentient. It performs the basic civilian job assigned with a caring personality to all, and that’s it. W-Y commercials showed different scenarios of the synths being attacked and abused with no retaliation. Vince was able to get some sales, but most of the public still didn’t it based on some advertisements.

The real breakthrough in sales came from a battle between the CLF and USCM in one of those fringe colonies. According to the stories, one CLF member and one USCM member were fighting in a bar, both wounded, when they ran out of ammo. They both wound up exhausted, too tiered to get up and properly attack the other with a knife. Their heavy armors weighing them down. Then the USCM member saw the bartender synth of the Vince series just cleaning glasses. He called for the synth to attack or arrest the CLF member, but Vince refused and asked if the USCM member needed treatment. Then the CLF member, thinking it was a hacked synth, made the same request, only to be denied the same way. This continued for a bit, which later turned to conversation as Vince patched them both up and handed them a drink. Another USCM member came in confused, seeing the other 2 men chatting, and joined them. Then a CLF member, then another USCM member. Soon the bar turned into a very awkward neutral zone, with some of the members playing games trying to get Vince to choose a side. The combat in the colony grinded to a halt, and the leaders of both factions wound up signing a peace treaty in that bar. Sales for Vince skyrocketed after the news got out from the event.

Since most of the sales were from wayward colonies, the actual supply and demand of Vince would waver by a large margin. When the prices of Vince were relatively cheap compared to other models, the USCM would wind up buying a few off of W-Y. Then the USCM did a bit of trickery to take typically a bartending setting Vince and have him think the FOB is his ‘saloon’ that he gets to help make with the engineers, and the marines are patrons who need to be in tip top healthy condition, else his bar will get bad ratings, and other side effects like blood in his stand up bar. After some trial and error, they got Vince to an agreeable state for deployment.

Describe your synth’s personality without mentioning their skills or previous professions

Vince aims for a laid back and yet helpful style. He treats all sentient life the same, no matter what walk of life they come from. Dedicated to his given ‘job assignment’ like bartender, janitor, nurse, etc, he aims to be a perfectionist in his field as long as it means not interfering with others. While he may make suggestions and offers, he will not force anyone into participation. He tries his best to avoid arguments and would rather deflect unless it is under his responsibility to take care of a situation. If his actions are considered being in the way, he would rather stop his actions than argue over their merits.

How would your synthetic interact with enlisted personnel, officers and civilians? How could you involve your personality into these interactions?

I would be treating most characters the same, with those as officers and above with more honorifics. For USCM starts I would probably RP as my ‘main’ role of bartender, janitor, or nurse, and base my personality and hospitality around that role. For instance, treating people as potential customers or patrons to my bar trying to get them to come later, or as janitor asking others for trash and making speeches on the benefits of not littering. I think it would be fun acting as a nurse, trying to get the marines to eat healthy and exercise. Of course I will follow through with any minor requests from marines. Unfortunately, as per the rules, I have to obey all lawful orders from CMO and above, meaning I would have to break my own RP to arrest someone, unless the synth council allows me to maintain my RP.

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

In the past months, there really is no RP between a surv synth and xenos, which makes me sad since they were some of my favorite interactions. Also it can get the xenos to do something other than afking before the battle starts. Then recently Willard tried and failed to be a neutral synth thanks to a runner, and while I was talking to him on how to be a neutral synth, I realized my words are just empty words. The only way to show how to do proper neutral RP is to lead by example, or be proven wrong by failing.

I am, or should be, well known for hating and reporting combat synths. I believe CO and Synth to be specs on their own, and unfair when used in their full capacity. I even have an ingame note for saying as a xeno ‘back off combat synth’. As such, my synth character would be incapable of harming or arresting any player, be it marine, xeno, pred, or CLF. Even a single accidental punch and I would be RPing on repenting for my sins.

I have tried XO once, aCO a few times (SO or CMO), and been SO many times. I have been SL a few times. I have knowledge of all of engineering, but a bit slow still at repairing APCs. I have been CT a few times and know all of req. I also helped out req as CL before. I have been MP once, but know the procedure for arresting, when to use what tools, and read all the rules since I am stickler when it comes to people overstepping the lines. I have 1425 hours in marine, and 1582 hours in xeno. Most of my marine hours are in the medical side. I have done proper psych exams. I have extensive knowledge in game mechanics, especially in research. I was the one who saw how strong Doctor’s Delight was, wound up making tanks of it before marine drops, and sadly did it too much so it got nerfed. I am also the one who first found the whistle exploit, and also the medic tutorial problems. I am one of the fastest and complete at surgery. I have a medal for soloing a crap ton of larva removals in a short time as CMO. I understand theories on proper barricade setup, and built fob a few times.

I would like to believe I am one of the most helpful players on the server to others. Some of my notes are from helping others, but not doing it in LOOC like when I was explaining to a doctor how to make MB as a medic. Most of my helpful times were explaining to others the medical or research systems, but at some point or another I have helped others in the other fields. Often times for new players though reaching out to get them a SEA or equivilent. Of course as xeno I have taught others how to use their classes many times.

I usually stay out of trouble. The only serious arrest I ever had was long long ago when I inapp’d and cryotubed a disruptive IO in the medbay when MPs didn’t show up, letting them out 5 minutes later so they could still properly finish what they wanted and deploy. Otherwise I was arrested for wearing a paper hat, trespassing on CL’s room when I heard breaking bones in his office, and one training a MP on how to use MP tools and arrest someone. As I am a stickler for the rules, I usually report rulebreaks when I can. If I ever get noted for something, I make sure to learn from my mistakes and never get noted from it again.

I am the CMO/doc/nurse who sometimes wears a paper hat and gets marines to play DnD Bob Cross edition in medbay lobby. I am the owner of the chemline and surgery speedrun trials. I have gone CL whenever I have fun RP ideas, like harvesting snow that never melts from shivia’s fob and condensing as much as I can onto a souto can, or printing sake to make into molotovs for req, or putting all the souto machines I can into medbay to get them all to advertise spam in the lobby. I have as researcher assembled many noodle items and summoned worm god. I have gone chef and fed everyone my finest dish: wish soup, straight from the taps, with crunchy texture. I have RP’d CC as a watcher of sadar and his debts to WY, keeping track of his battlefield achievements and giving him points for getting kills, and minus points for FF/structural damage. In all of my RP, I aim to never cause others trouble.

I have been hesitant to apply as synth since as a neutral RP focused synth I would be taking a surv slot yet not helping, or for instance in chance, helping but not fighting or blocking xenos in any way. It would be the same for shipside synth, only in that case I can just take over doctor/fob engineer while doing my RP bits, even if I don’t attack/block. Likewise I cannot attack or arrest CLF, only do bits that notify command if I spot them. If for some reason I was on the frontlines, I would help those nearby, but I wouldn’t risk going into enemy lines like others to save downed marines/spec weapons, and I doubt I would be traveling with a detached group. So, I understand if I am rejected just because I wouldn’t help out the survs/marines enough.

If I was a part of the synth council or have a say as a synth player, I would make sure my opinions on rule setting and other player reports would be at a minimal or none. I have my own opinions on what synths should ideally be, which is greatly different than what the rules say and the current state of the spirit of the WL. Pointing out potential violations is one thing, but being a part of the sentencing when I disagree this much would be judging in bad faith.

What is your most memorable interaction with a synthetic?

edit: sorry, forgot this section, adding it in.
As xeno, we had a synth that was neutral to us, but kinda ‘captured’ by us. We used its ability to do infinite pushups to show off how talls could never be as strong as us or their machines.

Synthetic Character Story:

Mission start, I wake up and greet those with a short message to not distract them “Morning command, Vince is online”. I get my standard gear and, some medical and engineering supplies. I make my way to research and go “mornin research! mind if I make some chems? Don’t want my patrons to be fainting on me later of course”. Research asks who the patrons are, and I go “The marines silly! they always be exhausted in between trips to my bar”. research lets me make my chems. I then call command “command, you mind if I take the staff room’s soda fountain for my groundside bar? Them patrons gonna be thirsty!” Command denies my request. “would a snack machine and souto machine be fine?” Command allows this, so I take a backroom souto machine and one of the hallway snack machine to the middle of alamo. I add 3 table parts from the maint area, 3 metal chairs that were in a stack. there is still time before briefing, so I wander around near the front of req. I go from alpha-bravo prep to delta-charlie prep in case there is a lost marine. One marine without armor or a medal comes out of alpha prep so I go to him “Howdy partner! you seem lost, ya need some help?” meanwhile mentor helping with the marine’s name so a SEA can help him. “well ya marines seem to be getting your gear from where ya came from, cmon let’s head over there” After arriving at the equipment I LOOC some specifics til a SEA arrives and leave to go back to req’s front area. back in req area I am trying to advertise my bar area til briefing “you marines gonna be hungry and thirsty doing…those things you will be doing down there, I’m makin a bar area in the fob for ya recoopin”. brief comes, I stay silent til deployment, then deploy to fob with the marines. I help set up the initial shell of fob, and when most of it is built, put down the snack machines, 3 tables, 3 chairs in a corner. I take a sweep around the fob and see some CLF in the darkness. Comms are up so I say to command “I see some CLF folk south of FOB, do ya think they would want drinks at my bar?” and go down to greet “Howdy! I have a miniature bar setup north west if ye want to come by - the turrets might be gunnin ya down though.” The CLF retreat. I go back to manning my bar area, periodically checking the perimeter, and organizing supply drops. Sometimes adding random tidbits for the bravos. “Ahh the mess you guys create! Like a sandstorm all over!” “How am I to attract customers with this mess!”. First injured marine arrives back. High brute to the head, small damage all over. Immediately pill and brute patch head, only then add lines “See ya takin a smack to the noggin! Got into a tussle with the other patrons huh? Ive seen a glass smacked over the head once or twice in my days” “Unless ye got to be goin back to the fight, my bar-snackshop-thing is to the west” He winds up heading back out after the fob doc fixes his fracs. Heartbreak marine comes in with a medic. I call for fob doc and take to his tent but he’s not around it. I surg and fix his heart, revive, fully heal, only then talk “almost lost ye. Heart that broken musta been from a big burger!” Things quiet down, I go back to my bar. A bravo sits down at it. “Welcome! we have the finest…” stares “Souto! yes finest souto, and snack too! the hotdog might have heartbroken the other guy though. Although unlikely. Yea its fine.”. He asks about alcohol. “on yer job? Finish what ye guys came here for, then we talkin about the hard stuff! also you probably will have to find it.”. I break into story “Now, back many reboots ago, I have seen some reall customers. REAL customers. I know you won’t believe me though. They were aliens, XENOMORPHS I tell ya! they also didn’t drink for some reason. Some of them were BIG! We called the big ones Crushers!” “Oh, you might believe me, it looked like that dead crusher over there.” I pull out a deck of cards. “Up for some blackjack?” Command calls out for all clear “The all clears been called! You know what that means? Hard stuffs on the menu! Let’s go see what this colony has!”

Skills:

How familiar are you in CMs support roles such as medical/engineering/requisitions/command and which of them are you more and less proficient in?

Medical: one of the best. Engineering: Can do it all but average speed, slower on APCs. Req: I hesitate on using points, otherwise great. Command: solid 7/10, can call out dead and flanks, can see the writing on the wall, although if I had to XO alone lowpop I would be a bit overwhelmed. Also am slow to see the big picture from helmets: I just cannot find that exact guy I want!

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

My character is combat locked by my own RP. Even blocking is frowned upon. Best I can do is clear weeds and walls behind the frontline, and kill what I think is non-sentient bugs (escaped larva, huggies on marines). Officers can essentially deny my RP and force me to arrest/combat other marines, unless the synth council says I can deny officers forcing me to combat/arrest.

Final Info:

Have you been banned in the last month?

no

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

I know I am applying for all 3 roles at once. If I am a WJ, I have to follow the WJ rules and blend myself in with the other WJs. If I start on the ship, despite my RP, I have to follow lawful officer orders unless synth council allows me to keep up my RP. As a surv if I am CLF or forecon I cannot just abandon them and do my own thing. Guidelines and rules trump over RP.

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i am going to suggest you withdraw

you did not reach out to any councillors, your combat examples do not demonstrate an understanding of synthetic combat guidelines

application review

they’re a synthetic, they don’t need to be tricked. you program them to do it and they do it, they may refer to marines as that and the FOB as that and to an extent think it is but they are not something that has to be ‘fooled’ into doing an act because they view it as unsavoury because they are inherently a machine that does not experience emotion.

you are not required to arrest people if ordered unless it is the CO as they are the only one who can deputize you. i suggest you read guidelines and marine law, and understand them before making an application or ask for clarification on things like this to the council.

this sounds lrp from what i can tell and is really not what we want synthetics to be doing.

your story is not an actual story and just a play-by-play of what you would do in a round, your story should not include how you are going to LOOC at new players to teach them as an example.

it features very little actual dialogue that i can look at and say ‘this is how they’ll act in a round’ because it’s just an accent and offering people drinks. how is your synthetic going to react to someone insulting them? what will they do besides just being ‘the friendly bartender synthetic who HATES violence’? what will they say when they talk to a marine and cannot just fall back on offering them to come to their bar?

this is LRP for the almayer synthetic to have in their story. they are not customers or your friends.

i am not going to lie to you, the majority of your application and story comes off as incredibly lrp and misses the point of what a whitelist is supposed to be. not understanding combat restrictions and defaulting to ‘i’ll never do it ever in any situation’ is not an acceptable answer. you are more than welcome to NOT do combat in situations where you are allowed too; personally i try to be more restrained than i have too, but that does not mean that you should not understand WHEN you can do it.

personally i also do not trust you to uphold the standards of the whitelist or to not antagonize other whitelist holders as it is right now. you consistently call people combat synthetics for not rolling over and dying, your first post on the discord was to ping the entire council in the whitelist app help channel and complain about a player combat synthing while you admitted that what they said was permissible under guidelines, not to mention your opinions on CO.

if you earnestly want the whitelist, i suggest reaching out to the council and discussing with them on how to make one, and reading over prior accepted and denied applications. your general attitude and application itself, in my mind, show that you do not adequately understand nor interpret the guidelines as they are to play a character within them.

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I am RPing as a synth given from W-Y. Its internal version of this future’s LLM is already set up inside the machine, programmed to be in a typical Vince as per background. Imagine downloading a chatGPT model to play with. Then, without any prompting, get it to say the opposite of what it normally would. It would be nearly impossible to ‘go in and reprogram’ because the models are based off of gigabites of training data from the real world. ‘Swapping the chips’ or any other hardware shenanigan would be like swapping a hard disk drive: it would have none of the synth’s software.

SO orders me to arrest someone. The rules state:

You are unable to break Marine Law. A synthetic must follow orders from the USCM Command personnel provided it does not break Marine Law. As a Synthetic, you would not second guess a lawful order from a commissioned command personnel. For all intents and purposes regarding orders, the Chief Medical Officer counts as the lowest commissioned command personnel. Unless the order is unlawful, negligent, nonsensical or interferes with their programming, the Synthetic unit should carry it out without question.

Does arresting someone break Marine Law? Is it unlawful, or negligent, or nonsensical that a criminal be detained? If not, tell me how I am not required to arrest people under this rule.

the report states: An ADEQUATE description and story of your Synthetic’s actions and involvement in a previous mission onboard the Almayer

I gave a previous mission onboard the Almayer, which doesn’t seem to be what you want though. If I redid the application in the future I would instead mimic other applicants.

Why? Those restrictions are permanent and non-negotiable on my character. If I broke them I would welcome a WL report for lying on my application.

Nonetheless of course I am aware of the spirit of the WL limitations on combat. I am painfully aware of it, made aware through interactions of passing and failing synth reports. I learn, study, and do not repeat failed reports. After the restrictions tightened, I even made a post and got further clarifications.

Questions on whats allowed for synths currently - General / Policy Feedback - CM-SS13 - Forums

Surv/delta synths can shock and open/close doors near the point of their holdout. They can bash xenos off of cadelines. They can chase down a harassing dangerous xeno for about 10ish tiles from the group to ward them away, depending on circumstance. They can kill a crit xeno near the group. On running away, they are allowed to bash off targets and shift to chase, for instance a spitter, to get it to run. They can block a crusher going into a surv hold to convince the crusher to not do that the next time. As long as the surv hold is up, you should focus on healing/repairs and bash xenos when they overstay their welcome on the cadeline. In a traveling group you can attack xenos near the survivors. You should prioritize getting crit people out over chasing down xenos. You should prioritize your life over chasing down xenos.

Synths in normal groundside with marines can still fend off xenos if you are in a small group retreating from xenos, like xenos entering melee range as you carry a marine. Even if in a small group, if you are assulting the xenos, you are to not fight them. It is only on defense and retreat do you have the option. You can cut weeds and destroy resin on the front, and stand as far as the farthest forward marine in the front. You can make short dives for dead marines or weapons as long as they are sure they wont die in the process. You can call in OB and CAS as long as they are 100% sure no humans will be harmed. You can bash xenos off of the FOB cade if there are no other marines around dealing with the threat to the fob cade. You are to not fight in the frontlines though, nor wonder off on their own. The goal of any combat is to threaten xenos praying on vulnerable marines, defenses, or preserving your own life.

A good example of me knowing what the combat rules are for synth and knowing they were in their rights to do that action under the rules.

I felt the player didn’t uphold what they said they would do based on their own synth application. I didn’t know how binding the application’s own words were, so I asked a mentor on who to get an answer for on this question. I got pointed posting it to the whitelist-app-help and so I did. I did not mention the player or the incident, just a generic question on how binding the synth applications are. I got invited to DM about a particular incident, so I DM’d in private to that person, and only that person. I would hope you would see how this is a mature and responsible method to handle the matter.

Now, onto the real deal breakers:

True, I see a CLF surv synth, after all his friends die, kill 3 drones out of a 12-ish hive. I do not believe the synth should do this. I would rather them die if they are going to disrupt the round like that, and it feels bad that there even is a class that is capable of doing it in the first place. If having a synth WL means I cannot call out that behavior as combat synthing well within the rules, then I would probably not have WL if just to point out these cases and one day get the rules changed or synth strength changed via public opinion. And I do believe by highlighting some of these cases, some of the extremes of combat synthing have been removed. My complaints over synths soloing pylons and fortifications was resolved. My complaints over CLF3 spray have been resolved. Little by little, synths are moving to a more acceptable position by all.

The backstory has Vince models treat all forms of sentient life equally. Xenos, CLF, marines, they are all friends. The synths arn’t dumb though. They know by running a bar, or doing tasks for the marines, means they are aligned with the marines and the other factions will try to kill the synth. They still have self preservation in the forms of fleeing, and so they flee with the faction they aligned with, which winds up keeping them always with that faction. The friendliness would eventually lead some models to wind up in crazy situations, like a temporarily abandoned model having a short conversation and then being ignored by xenos who wouldnt care for a metal creation. If being friendly to all is LRP, it might be a deal breaker for being a synth.

Likewise if I am not able to ‘assume’ a role, then I probably wouldn’t play synth anyway. If I wanted to surg, build cades, and say quirky lines I would just be a field doc or bravo CT.

Edit: I will hold just a bit to hear other’s opinions before deciding to withdraw. I am not sure if I should try again later, or give up completely on being a neutral RP synth.

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You won’t find other opinions meaningfully different, to go through the entire thing and highlight what I find to be issues would be a waste of your time as well as mine when the things lago highlighted are already roadblocks you will need to overcome.

Making lots of reports isn’t a disqualifier (and in fact most of the actual useful reports come from WL holders who have a strong foundation of what is actually against the guidelines)

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i am telling you this is not acceptable point-blank. why would the uscmc buy a synthetic that is not going to function without having to be tricked and coaxed into doing its job.

a lawful arrest can only be performed by a member of the military police; those rights are not transferable. please read marine law. if you are not deputized you are not to arrest people.

it’s a play-by-play of a round not a story. i would suggest you write something like what other applicants have done, yes.

you are more than allowed and i have been extremely vocal about my reports and i have pressured people regarding what i view as wrong both when i was not a councillor and when i was. the issue is the way you go about it. i do not trust you to not make the environment of the whitelist less welcoming than what it should be.

i do not trust you with the whitelist and that is the most plain way i can word it, alongside the other things i have said. another example of you misunderstanding guidelines is, again, this -

Why? Those restrictions are permanent and non-negotiable on my character. If I broke them I would welcome a WL report for lying on my application.

it is not lying on your application and you will not be WL reported for performing combat in areas outside of it. framing it like that is not something you should be doing.

you are welcome to wait for other opinions, however i’m not going to continue posting and i’m going to leave you with that.

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(first message on the discord btw)

Incredibly bad faith to then say this:

I put a chip into my Andy model from Romulus and now he has a scientific skillset and new directives. Romulus is canon and reprogramming is that easy, a synth is not chatGPT and is capable of reasoning and reprogramming

–

Regardless, this app is immensely bad faith and I cannot believe is a real application, this is pretty much “I hate synths that do combat” but expanded into a character. You have made it clear on dozens of occasions in dchat how much you hate synthetics, how much you hate synths that do combat and so on. Synths in the movies are capable of harming things, and your own being made to ‘not harm sentient life’ is really strange and specifically oriented around not hurting xenomorphs specifically.

Surely W-Y would say “Not harming Human Life” in that circumstance, but synthetics already are way more reliable than a human? Plus the desires of the colonists of W-Y colonies don’t matter, they all get hilarious debts, the synthetics are assigned there to work not purchased by the colony with their wey-coins and sent via amazon

(An example of this is the countless examples of how W-Y likes their synthetics capable of putting The Company ahead of the value of lives, or in the most recent canon example how synthetics such as andy are capable of allowing one person to die (without directly killing them) in order to preserve himself and others. Synthetics already can’t really directly murder/hurt people outside of extreme circumstances or a malfunctioning one like David)

Regardless, I really feel like I’ve put more work in thinking about the narrative connotations than you did with this clearly spiteful application. If you make a synthetic, and it gets accepted you will comply with the synthetic guidelines not your own made up internal rules.

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I’m not a synth nor a councillor. I’ve held WLs before but not here (to be clear, not a mentor). I’m a professional mentor, though.

Havoc, I can’t gauge your actual good faith interest that might lay here because it’s so squandered by bad faith interest. But being that you play Vincent, I assume somewhere deep under this there is a genuine kernel of “maybe I’d like being a synth”; so I say this in the event that exists. Somewhere.

Very little good and absolutely nothing of substance comes from acheivement out of spite.

Substance here is two things: it is the weight or merit of the thing; and it is the sustainability of the thing. You could make the merits of being a synth but with this approach, you wouldn’t be a synth for very long (whether you get fed up or others get fed up with you).

You can want to be a good model. And that’s okay. But that has to be an intrinsic move to be of substance. It can’t come from the need to externally validate yourself by demonstrating that YOU are so much better of a synth than THEM. Pivot your attitudw with that in mind if you do have, somewhere in that all, the quiet whisper of “oh, that might be very fun,” being drowned out by other dronings worrying about other people. In the end, the only person you can control is you.

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I find a pacifist synth interesting, but not practical in any military unit. Even the Joes are not pacifists.

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I am aware, but if the style of synth I would be playing isn’t plausible then there isn’t a reason to provide enough effort to construct a profile that is acceptable by all parties. If my RP is limited to a medic/engineer with some dialog on… archeology, then why am I playing it? I am a bit disappointed I wasn’t able to get your understanding of what is acceptable.

I re-read over the relevant parts of the rules. I assumed the synth had a more broad spectrum, kinda like an arm of ARES, but I get what the ML rules are alluding to a bit more now. I am sure other confusion will pop up and will be solved as I interact with others over time.

I don’t blame you. The methods I use to convince others for change are harsh and can be hurtful to individuals. It often tip-toes breaking the lines of rules for disrespect. Still, as an example, even if I call out Finn for CLF3 spraying me and staring up a ghost discussion, I still consider him as a friend. There were some good times when it was me as crusher and him as Queen as we worked together. Too bad I never got to RP with his Finn character as a marine.

It is why I waved away participation in the synth council. I still disagree with the freedom/strength synths have and I cannot be both the prosecutor and executioner.

No problem, you did more than a fair share of the job, good work.

I need a strong background towards love of all sentient kind, otherwise the neutral RP with xenos wouldn’t work. If I die in the bar from not fighting back xenos and doing all I could to reach the LZ and die there, it would be considered LRP without it. It is only when players say “his character literally cannot fight us” do I have a good chance at meaningful neutral RP.

But you do realize that someone has to pay for that synth to be at that colony? There will be some colony manager who oversees the production and expenses of the colony and purposely sent the synth for the workforce. If you saw reports of all your synths getting smashed up by random debters, would you go “send in more synths” or would you try propaganda and ways to get the colonists to stop smashing the synths you send in? Ideally you just crush all who step out of line, but the fact that there are unruly colonies means they either can’t crush them all, or don’t want to for something like cost/benefit.

I appreciate the time you put in to read my application and apply your reasoning, even giving me some lore since I don’t watch the movies or read the books, but Jesus Christ aren’t you the friendly one.

That is why the made up rules are stricter than the guidelines: I can follow both.

I do not lie, although putting all my thoughts down in a raw form can make me seem a bit jagged. Perhaps a bit too jagged based on this replay.

My motivation for being a synth isn’t something as shallow as spite, jealousy, or narcissism. It is because in over a year, maybe 2 years, there hasn’t been any meaningful neutral RP with xenos. It has been so dead that there aren’t even the occasional conversations between defending synths with survs like there was long ago. I want to bring that RP back. The best way for me to make progress in that, that I know of, is for me to do it myself and show others how awesome those RP interactions are. That way others imitate, and we can have a friendlier overall community.

Now what about other methods to accomplish this, like talking to the current synth players? And why apply after all this time?

This next part will sound sharp, but I have no other means of clearly getting my point across. I just suck at expressing criticism without it sounding like I am driving a knife into something. I need to learn to complement sandwich or equivalent techniques.

As a blanket statement, the reason something isn’t done by a person is either they do not want to, they are too lazy, or they cannot do it. For instance, for me obtaining a billion dollars. Do I want to? yes. The reason I don’t is a mix of too lazy and cannot do it. I have no realistic means to get even close to a billion dollars like most folk. I could however at least do some attempts which have a theoretical chance of success. I could try meeting billionaire women to one day be their husband. Or I could spend every waking moment working to attempt to collect as much cash as possible, and be a master at the stock market. I am too lazy to try either attempt. Note that the interpretation of lazy is a bit liberal, for instance I value my time more than the money, despite wanting a billion dollars.

Applying the above to the current synths that could have done meaningful neutral RPed. Why didn’t they? They either have no interest in doing so, are incapable of doing so, or could but don’t want to put in the effort required to do so. They all have the capability to. Just go to the bar and start RPing. Instead nearly every round when synths have the chance to, they stick to the survivors and follow the same meta, over and over. Even the recently joined synths make no attempt. I don’t even get synth warnings to get away from their cades: just a bop to the head. I am convinced most have no interest whatsoever in xeno RP. That is why for the longest time I just ignored the idea altogether. Sure I could post topics “why don’t synths interact with xenos anymore?” but if the players themselves don’t want to then there is nothing I can say that would have a true impact on the situation. We play this game for fun (or addiction) so if they don’t want to, they just won’t. Others can go “yea, we should have xeno RP!” but who cares. They aren’t synths, and this isn’t a rule change.

Recently though, some synths have made a genuine effort for xeno RP. Some in recent times actually tried manning the bar. Yay, some got past the not wanting to phase! The xenos essentially shot them down though. Xenos attacked and the synth went back to the regular routine. Still, it means we are onto the too lazy/cannot portion. Keep in mind lazy in this context is akin to not doing anything and everything to make it work, not lazy as you may think of it.

This means my words actually have worth to them though. My thoughts on how to get this to work can be reached, and I can generate meaningful hype to get people past their laziness… well almost. My perceived hostile nature towards synths and synth holders diminishes the value of anything I say. It is like receiving advice from your worst enemy. Also, it must be a troll: that guy hates synths. Hell, if that guy made a synth application, I wouldn’t believe it is a real application. I would consider his thoughts to be immensely in bad faith. I wouldn’t trust him with anything synth related.

Not only that, but I don’t know what it’s like being a synth. How would I know how to best deal with xeno relations when I don’t even know the limitations of a synth, or what it’s like to interact with the xenos? I haven’t been on the receiving end of the ways xenos treat synths, the shady shit they pull like bringing a synth to the hive just to kill it. It is like telling an artist what good art is as an inexperienced artist or telling others how to do their own jobs. Once again, my words are diminished.

So why now, and why choose the method as being a synth? Because people currently once again show interest in neutral RP, and my words don’t mean shit, so I have to show my sincerity through actions, not words. And no, I am not narcissistic enough to think I have the ability solve all the problems. I can at least try though.

A synthetic’s limbs are able to be printed for the cost of 2.5 metal sheets. The expensive portions of the synthetic are the sensors and the software. Unless the USCM with W-Y crew aboard are allowing for black market chips, that simple swap is expensive. The only difference between Malcolm and Finn is that one chip. As for intellect, chatGPT would not be able to come close to what would be needed for a real life W-Y android to have the capabilities one has. The androids are not inferior to our modern technology. We have the sensors and mechanical bodies like the robot dogs and yet we won’t approach android technology for years to come. The amount of money to construct W-Y’s software would have been monstrous, and I guarantee they would strive to get their money’s worth out of it.

The above is all a means to play a synth who has a concrete service-oriented role to RP around. Without that, I am just another player with surgery and engineering skills, and extra responsibilities. I cannot tell if the problem is the background, or having a role to base the RP around.

In the end, my RP would be the same RP as vincent. My little synth story isn’t too far off from vincent as a chef, who happens to also have engineering and medical skills. My characters would still laugh and the same jokes I laugh at and treat others as the same way I would treat them. I cannot RP too far away from myself, at least not for 1000 rounds. Do you like my quirky CMO who plays DnD in medbay lobby? What about my story: would you like the synth who has similar stories in an average round? Most rounds would be just that, xenomorph or not. I wonder if I could do a primitive dungeon crawl dnd with a lesser…

Still, based on reaction, it seems my synth character would be too LRP. If those lines in that story are too LRP, then as a synth I would probably have hundreds of rounds of lines that would be too LRP. If I couldn’t have a dedicated service role to RP towards, then I would be too bored to ever USCM synth. For anyone who reached this far, if this app has shown you interest and you want to give guidance or help out the problematic area with my character feel free to reach out to me. Otherwise, if my character’s average day is too LRP then I wouldn’t see myself reapplying anytime soon.

I said what I wanted to, and I got some meaningful replies. You can let the application be open for another day and then move it to withdrawn, unless people can still replay after its withdrawn. That way anyone else with meaningful opinions can some comments for this character for future reference. I most likely won’t reply again though.

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We made the rules for constancy. Having synths follow their own rules applies more workload than what is it worth. Since now we’ve got to also keep track of your own internal esoteric rules.

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In the event you do want to revise and reapply later, two things I’d use to frame your interest:

  1. Basically don’t mention anyone else in your application at all (favorite synth experience aside). Make it all you, that keeps you on track on “what you can bring to the group” versus “what you can bring to the group compared to others in it”. Subtle but I think giving things some time and then working with someone in the WL help channel to squash anything like the latter of those two will get you substantially far
  2. Why do you host DnD in medbay? What is the point? I think your answers to that question would be good motivators as to why you would enjoy being a synth, and you can build out from there while still keeping the gist of “I’d like to be very reserved and pacifist where possible, and if I displayed any violence, I would want to RP deeply regretting it”. Not because anyone else isn’t doing that and should be, but because you find it interesting and something you’d like to explore.

But as a practical, what I’m saying is basically this:

Should just be:

And then to flesh it out a little more, make a “why” that’s based on a backstory. Because he’s a chaplain model, because was made as an academic philosopher and has a strong grounding in virtue ethics, because he thinks all life could be useful forms for observational research and harming or killing would be to interfere with such a science.

Take everything else the synth ppls have said to heart; technicals are whatever, you can write a short story and get in the flow and polish it; it’s the framing that needs the extra effort imo. Also I’d change the name to not be a direct derivative of your hooman. Usually in such cases where I want to keep a name/meaning, I like to look at the name root and other languages for ideas, if you think that’s useful.

I know you have some takes, sharpness, and bad faith with stuff before. I don’t believe this is beyond you if you sincerely want it, though. If you do decide to revisit this with sincerity, I hope you do get to develop your synth to feel fuller, because that is an application I’d look forward to. And I know you can do it, too; otherwise you wouldn’t be hosting an RPG within an RPG every round you were human.

Take care.

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Withdrawn at the posters request. You may re-apply in thirty days, but I strongly suggest contacting councillors if you intend to re-apply.

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