I still enjoy helping people who are unfamiliar with various aspects of the game.
What gameplay areas do you know and which areas are you strong and weak in?:
I am particularly fond of the medical knowledge I’ve amassed after a failed synthetic application. My most played role is the Ordnance Technician. I enjoy playing Command, and have a good understanding of Engineering. I am weakest with Military Law and Military Policing.
How often are to able to play CM?:
I’ve taken a bit of a break from CM to focus on RL, but am enjoying some off-time with weekly play.
A screenshot or transcript of your human and xeno playtimes:
This is a reapplication: Mentor Application - MarpleJones @HungerJames Community Mentor:
Q: “As a SEA, you are alerted of a brand new player who late-joined as an Alpha Rifleman, how would you approach them? What would you teach them?”
A: Tell them everything important to the role and send them to the dropship to deploy. That includes telling them to eat something, showing them the way to Squad Preperation, giving pointers about loadout choice and general pointers as to how not to die in their first drop.
Q: “As a SEA, how would you handle a CLF survivor being brought on the Almayer with no MPs or CO awake? The XO has just ordered the CLF to be arrested over MP comms as the Alamo with the CLF arrives.”
A: SEAs can only deputize in emergency situation, when there’s absolutely no MPs on the server. However, there’s no CO to deputize me, and the XO doesn’t have that right in Military Law. So it all boils down whether or not they really mean to really “arrest” the survivor, or simply secure them if they’re hostile so that they don’t break their cable cuffs and do anything stupid on the ship.
Q: “The GP Mhelps that the new UI is confusing to them. How would you help them?”
A: There’s a really fancy guide on the wiki that goes over the UI in detail (CAS, what's good? what's bad? I don't know but here's a arbitrary opinionated guide on it.). Other than that, I’d just give them a basic rundown of the functions and where to set up a firemission/how to fire the guns.
Q: “Someone Mhelps that they are a new queen; how would you respond to this?”
A: Paint them a really general idea on what to do. Find a save spot. Build a hive core. Grow an ovipositor. And beyond that, try and give xenomorph some orders. Remind them that they’ve got two really good abilities for combat, being the screech and neurotoxin spit. Tell them that if they got any more questions, they’re free to ask.
Q: “You become a helpful drone for a young runner and they appear to be brand new to xeno. What are the first things that you teach them?”
A: Directional slashing, lighting, and weed healing. There’s also the nifty thing of hiding as a runner under tables, and that they should try to really lean in on hit-and-run tactics. Everything else should come with experience, really.
From your answers, you seem to have an understanding of the game’s mechanics, but I am a little worried about how well you would teach these mechanics, particularity to new players
For example, during a first interaction as SEA pointing a zero-hour-player towards simple loadouts can be helpful, but it is important to first ensure the player can do “basic tasks” like using their hands, radio, and accessing the tacmap. Likewise with xeno, teaching a young runner how to hide under tables, while some great tech, can often be confusing or worse get them needlessly killed trying to pull it off in combat
Of course IRL things always come first, but I am concerned that your playtimes show that you have not played any since your last mentor app three months ago. Updates to CM happen often, and they can quickly pile up. It is important for a mentor to be generally up-to-date on the game’s mechanics
I hope to see more playtime in marine and xeno, but for now I am leaving a -1
From my perspective, the game really hasn’t changed in the past years, given the “stick to what works” roadmap policy the developers have been deploying since I’ve first started playing in 2020 (?), well before the handful of fabled playtime resets. I know a lot of things about the game beyond what can be found on the surface level, and to add some help whenever something comes up in discussions or in-game MHelp is… well, why not?
Whether I’d be good at helping new players? I don’t know. I think that the game is more fun if you learn some things yourself. When the new mentor/SEA system came out, I’ve seen new players being taught through LOOC walls of text. I don’t really find that in spirit of the game, or the role, so I’d like to avoid that. And if I were to teach a player about every small thing they can stumble upon by randomly clicking on their UI, then the round would already be in hijack stage or they’d bore themselves into SSD.
Here are my current playtimes. (Why I’ve lost 2 hours in the Xeno playtimes compared to three months ago confuses even me). I’m afraid that there won’t be some noticable increase since I’m not keen on turning this into a job. This application is just a passion thing for me. Part of that passion was the guide I wrote this year for a role barely seen in normal play, Tank Crewman, or rather, "GO BACK! DRIVER! BACK! BACK!!! *PAIN". And however this application turns out won’t change much about why I play this game, or how often I play it. I would just like to add to the community whenever I’d do.
