Mentor Application - StukaNuka
What is your BYOND key:
StukaNuka
What is your Discord ID:
~A Salty Person~#7128
What are your IC names?
Aiden ‘Tired’ Mueller as per marine
AI-DN as per Xeno
Why do you want to become a Community Mentor?
Well, i’ve been in CM for quite a while now, and i’ve been aided by other mentors time and time again, some of which are sadly gone from our community for their own reasons, as such i’d like to give my little part back to the community as well and take on the mantle of teaching the new ones and giving advice when required where required, sometimes it can help avoid conflict and smooth out things too after all, so that’s a plus.
Mechanics and Troubleshooting Questions:
How do I set a key to pump my shotgun and how do I set a key to pick up my shotgun?
You require a macro for such a thing, for pumping you can set up a macro for Unique Action, pumping a shotgun is considered a unique action.
For setting it up, do the following: Right click the white part of your CM window, a menu should appear, hit client, macros and then new macro, in the top space type the key you wish to use for said unique action, example if you typed the letter F said letter would be bound to the action, you can also tick some of the boxes to make it only work while holding alt or control accordingly if you feel like it. The macro for such is as follows: Unique-Action (Unique Action also allows you to cock any gun to chamber the next round manually (or empty said chamber if there is no magazine), switch ammunition types in a smartgun, spin chambers on revolvers and change fuel types on the pyro spec if you happen to have said equipment)
As per the macro you want to set up to pick up the shotgun, it’s pretty much the same procedure, althought you’d have to write it in the following way instead of unique-action: pick-up-M37A2-pump-shotgun
I was told you can cycle where you’re aiming with the numpad but it’s not working. Am I doing it wrong?
A rather rare issue, but you’re not doing anything wrong, sometimes it’s your client being wacky, or basically BYOND being BYOND, do make sure you don’t have your command bar selected however. Do not use the regular numbers in your keyboard however because that’ll change your intent instead.
When I click on a vending machine or computer the window doesn’t pop up, or pops up blank. How do I fix that?
A common issue, should be fixed trough the OOC window, click on the fix interfaces option presented, that should fix the issue.
Sometimes it doesn’t work however, so do keep that in mind, if this doesn’t work you may have to close your client, sometimes this will work by itself, althought sometimes you will have to clear your cache too, to do so such, in the BYOND hub, hit the gear icon presented on the top right, click the preferences area, then the games area and click on the clear cache option.
If this doesn’t work still, you may have to basically snap BYOND’s neck trough the task manager and kill the task itself, then launch the game up again and the problem should be solved
I keep moving in one direction without touching anything. How do I stop?
Common issue, happens a lot, hit the arrow key of the direction (WASD keys won’t fix it) that you are currently going in and it should fix itself.
I’ve reconnected a few times and spawned in but everything is black. Is there something I can do?
Clearing the cache may work, however sometimes you may need to straight up restart your computer.
IN THE WORST CASE SCENARIO HOWEVER, it may mean that your computer’s antivirus itself may have detected one of BYOND’s assets as a malicious program and deleted it, you may need to outright reinstall BYOND alltogheter and restart your computer, if you can delete the previous BYOND files as well to avoid any issues (I speak from experience).
Marine Groundside Questions:
I’m a smartgunner right now. Which ammo type should I use and what do both do?
It depends in the situation.
Armor piercing should be used for highly armored targets such as Ravagers, Queens, Praetorians, Warriors and Crushers and you’ll mostly be using it in closer ranges. As the name implies, AP type ammunition is meant to defeat armor, thus it has a constant amount of damage trough armor, but there’s a compromise you must make, AP ammo is less precise at range and takes 2 rounds per shot instead of 1, which can cut your ammo supply short.
High Precision ammo on the other hand should be used on lighter targets such as runners, boilers, drones, hivelords, spitters, sentinels and burrowers, and preferably at a distance to make the most out of the constant accuracy at range it has.
Switch your ammo depending on the situation you are facing.
How do I rename the APC?
While seeing an APC lately is an astronomically rare event, it’s still bound to happen.
To rename it, go into the vehicles tab after buckling yourself into either the gunner or driver seat and then click on Rename APC, then rename it at your little heart’s content, do however keep the name decent enough, avoid naming the APC things like racial slurs or giga LRP stuff or you’ll likely be having a converstation with staff.
[u]How do I laze stuff for CAS, mortars, OBs, and supply drops?Depends on what you are using, if you have a laser designator you should be able to do both, however you need to change the mode accordingly, alt + click the laser designator to switch between red and green, red is used for CAS and Green for Mortars, OBs and Supply Drops. If you have a rangefinder you can only do things related to mortars, OBs and supply drops however.
As per how to do it, you must first zoom in with the equipment, use Z and look for the tile you wish to lase or mark, then control + click it, keep in mind that your JTAC skill has influence in the time it takes to lase, so the time may vary depending on what role you are taking.
If you are lasing for OB, mortar or supply drop, you’ll be using a green laser, once you are done marking the area you want, a window should pop up with the latitude and longitude or well, coordinates, just copy paste them and then pass them trough radio to the mortar operators, CIC or requisitions accordingly depending on what you need, advice however, ALWAYS check your coordinates two times, this ensures that you won’t be deleting the entire front on accident due to danger close or similar. As per communication, preferably use JTAC for OBs and Mortars and requisitons or squad comms for supply.
For CAS it’s simpler, you won’t get coordinates, instead you’ll get a unique marker depending on the rangefinder and squad, example if you are charlie it’ll be something like Charlie-15 or similar, communicate with the PO and tell them which marker needs targetting and they’ll handle the rest.[/u]
How can I tell if CAS or an OB will be able to hit where I’m lazing?
It depends on what the tile is covered with, to determine what is above the tile shift click it and it should say something along the lines of: “It’s in the open” or “The ceiling above is made of (INSERT MATERIAL)”, along with “Doesn’t look like it’s going to stop much” (which means that CAS won’t have visual and thus red lasers won’t have effect, but mortars and OBs should go trough just fine) or “Can probably stop most ordnance” (which means that mortars won’t go trough and CAS will likely be unable to engage, but OBs should be able to still punch trough just fine), OBs will punch trough most ceilings, however there are exceptions, such as areas close to a hive core which posses thick resin roofs and some ceilings in certain maps.
How do I fix power?
If you are talking about a generator, the steps are as follows:
Use a blowtorch on the generator, followed by wirecutters and a wrench.
Depending on the status of the APC you may have to also repair it and ensure that it’s getting power, if the main breaker is off, use a screwdriver on it then mend the main power wire with wirecutters. Once that’s done, cut the ID wire and close it again, turn on the main breaker and then the remaining power channels.
If the APC is basically damaged beyond repair or outright gone, you’ll have to remove the tile under it with a crowbar, cut the the terminal with wirecutters, bash open the cover with either a bayonet, machete or any blunt weapon nearby, remove the cell afterwards. Once this is done, use a screwdriver followed by a crowbar to remove the electronics. Use 2 metal sheets to make a new APC frame and then hit the damaged one with it or the wall with it, depending on what is available, after which you should insert an APC board into the new frame, screwdriver it in and add some wires to make the terminal, insert a new cell inside and then close it back up with a crowbar. Keep the APC unlocked preferably and make sure that the main wire isn’t cut.
Xenomorph Questions:
I keep lunging as warrior, but I don’t grab the guy. Is it bugged?
It is not, lunging is affected by range, and sometimes you may be too far for lunging to work, your connection may also be affecting your lunges due to you lunging on a target that has moved already but is still in the same position in your screen.
Be aware when lunging however, it is not optimal to lunge groups unless you are supported by other xenos in the case that you’ll get turn into cheese by a smartgun, slugged back into being a defender, obliterated by an armor piercing rocket or anything similar.
I’m playing Warden right now, what do the Protect options actually do?
Depends on which one you’re using.
Rejuvenate will make a stunned xeno get up inmediatly, which can be helpful in the case that the queen or a T3 gets hit by an AP rocket or an ally is getting chainslugged.
Heal will heal both you and the xeno you are using it on, do keep in mind that Heal only works at point blank range and that it’s the most taxing of all protect skills in energy reserve costs, however it’s a valuable tool to keep everyone in the fight.
Regular Protect has been removed as far as i know, but it used to provide a shield to the ally it was used on, making them able to ignore an extent of damage before it started affecting their health directly, it can be used at range and even trough xeno observe however the latter has less effect.
Remember that as a warden you don’t need to get upclose and slash to get reserves, spitting works too.
What are all the resin fruits and how do I get them?
Only gardener and healer strain drones can plant resin fruits, with gardener drone fruits being stronger, and their effects are as follows:
Greater Fruits (Green) give a boost to regeneration both on and off weeds and heal part of your health after consuming them.
Unstable Fruits (Blue? Cyan? Teal?) provide you with some shield after consuming them, which allows you to tank some damage before it starts actually damaging your health.
Spore Fruits (Orange) reduce your cooldown and makes you emit some weak recovery pheromones if consumed while mature.
Alacrit Fruits (Purple) they increase your speed after being consumed.
I’m new to xeno, what do all these castes do and which one should I play?
It depends on your playstyle really, but i advice sticking with Defender or Sentinel when you first start, Defender will prepare you to learn the basics of a brawler caste and the risks involved with it, while Sentinel should prepare you for managing spitter in the future while also being less squishy and punishing when you make mistakes.
Defenders for example start relatively strong for a T1 and can easily dominate lone targets and even groups in skilled hands, they are however not invulnerable and you should not get too cocky when engaging, don’t forget to use your crest too, it can save you from shotgun stuns. They then evolve into warriors, which are extremely efficient when it comes to engaging lone targets, a single lunge will likely allow you to criple your target severely or outright kill them if required, you can even engage groups of people if you feel ready and have support, you are very strong but also less tanky than a defender, so do keep that in mind while engaging. After which you’ll get access to the Praetorian and Crusher castes, both are strong in frontline roles, with crushers being more suited to crowd control and defense breaching, while Praetorians are a good allrounder over all while also being able to specialize into a strain with different roles accordingly.
If you want to go for hit and run tactics, runner will be your best friend, extremely fast and able to stun people with pounce, but extremely fragile at the same time, you’ll likely want to ambush lone people and either capture or kill them. You can then evolve into a lurker, which as the name implies is specialized in stealth, you can cloak to become extremely hard to see along with pouncing while cloaked to induce a much longer stun on people, during which time you can get some good slashes in, capable of breaking bones or outright killing your target, do be aware that you are mostly meant to engage lone people or small groups, as your crowd control abilities are lacking. Lastly there’s the Ravager, at this point you completely stray away from stealth and ambushes and become a frontline fighter, every strain is specialized in crowd control and dealing large amounts of damage along with being able to take a lot of punishment.
As for ranged castes, you start with the sentinel, as the name implies it’s mostly meant as a guard to either the hive or other xenos, being able to wield neurotoxin spits that will slow down, confuse or outright knock out and stun people if used enough, along with neurotoxic slashes to stun people further, either to go in for a kill or capture, advice working with brawler castes to maximize your benefits. Next up is the spitter, less based on stuns and more directed to outright dealing ranged damage, your acid spits can damage both people and fortifications alike, you can also work as minor crowd control with your acid spray or a reserve breacher with your acid, you are fragile however so don’t get too cocky. Lastly is the boiler, meant as a long range support caste, close range combat is mostly out of the question now, since you lack armor and have relatively low health for a T3, your task is to support your allies at long range either trough area denial with acid cloud spits or with fortification breaching trough acid mines depending on the strain you pick.
For something mostly meant as a support and building caste, drones and hivelords are available, meant to place weeds, provide pheromones, heals and fruits, along with other tasks, your main purpose will be building fortifications or closing off areas with your walls from the backline, you aren’t suited for direct engagements so it’s advice that you stay in the rear.
This is my first time playing queen. What should I do?
First of all, don’t panick, take your time and learn the basics, you are both a strong support caste and a strong combat caste, you can provide extremely useful pheromones that can aid your fellow xenos while on ovi and be extremely effective crowd control while off-ovi and while engaging in combat. Preferably however try avoiding putting yourself in danger if it’s not required as your death is extremely detrimental to the hive. First off, you’ll want to put a hive core down trough the construction menu on the top left, cycle trough structures until you find it, then set it down on the place you wish to set up the hive on. After that you should probably set up a hive pool to get more larva and also to later on process recently bursted corpses into more larva. You should also set up some evo pods to allow your xenos to evolve faster in order to provide a steady supply of fighters. Don’t forget to find a good spot to ovi within the hive, you’ll spend most of your time ovied after all, watching over xenos and keeping them informed of the situation, your queen eye is an extremely valuable tool to keep yourself informed after all.
Once you are set up, you’ll want to set up some leaders as well, preferably start up with builder castes so they can’t set up pylons and special structures where required, once the game moves to the combat phase, you’ll want to rotate the leadership towards combat castes and cycle trough pheromones depending on what they require, leaders will be your best tool to keep in touch with the situation, you should however also try keeping them informed of any flanks or similar events trough your queen eye.
As per combat do keep in mind that while you are extremely strong and posses some abilities that can easily keep crowds controlled, you aren’t inmortal and getting overconfident will result in your death. Preferably try using your screech to mark pushes and only push when aided by your hive, pushing alone as a queen is likely to lead towards a quick and painful death as you are always a priority target and command will likely want your head the moment they spot you, thus ordering all of the marines to focus fire on you. Keep communicated with your hive and pull back if required, know when to push and when to remain still, time your screeches and spits properly and you’ll be a-ok. Also if you feel like it you can gib those that you find specially unpleasant, you’ll mostly be using this skill to permanently remove specialists, squad leaders ,medics or other high value targets from the round, denying any chance of revival, do be aware that this skill has a long cooldown and can’t be spammed and that it also takes a while to finish, so you can be interrupted.
Medical Questions:
I just Bicard ODed a guy and his IB isn’t healing. Was that removed?
It should still work, do however make sure that they aren’t brute damaged, since otherwise the bicard will prioritize treating their brute damage, bicard ODs will only heal IB if there is no brute damage on the patient.
What’s the difference between the lifesaver belt and the medical belt. It looks like the lifesaver one is just better.:
The lifesaver rig is more combat oriented, since it can carry shotgun shells and defibs, but it has less storage and thus less quantity of medical supplies can be carried. The medical belt on the other hand, carries more supplies but cannot carry ammunition, depending on what your playstyle is, pick accordingly, if you wanna be a frontline medic, pick the lifesaver, if you want to stand back pick the medical belt.
This guy is taking toxin damage and he’s not ODed how do I fix it? I think I need to do surgery but I’m not sure where at.
This likely means that their liver or kidneys are damaged or that they’ve been poisoned with a specific thing, certain chemical don’t show up normally on a regular scanner.
Depending on what it is, you’ll either make a dyalisis or have to do surgery on them to fix up their liver or kidneys accordingly, the liver is located in the chest and the kidneys are located on the groin.
Hey I just found the synth dead. How do I fix it?
Depends on your role, if you have the tools, get a welder, some cables and a defib. Use the welder to treat the brute damage, cables for burn damage, once you get them below 200 damage you should be able to defib them back to life. If you don’t have the equipment just ask an engineer to aid you.
Also don’t abandon them if they are decapitated, unlike regular humans synths can be revived even if decapitated, you must attach the head surgically and then follow the same steps as above.
This is my first time doing chem. What chemicals should I make for the medics?
You’ll preferably want to make something like MeraBica, ImiAlky, KeloDerm or TriBica, no need to make all of them however, remember that your dispensers have limited energy, so only make and use what you need.
If you want to know how to make the mixtures use the following link, which is the guide to chemistry: Chemistry - CM-SS13
Shipside & CAS Questions:
Hey, I’m trying to set up a fire mission. How do I actually set it up to land like how I want it? For example left to right.:
Depends on what you want, you can for example use the CAS Computer and hit the Firemission Direct option if you posses a lase, then direct it towards the east, which will cause the firemission to start up from the last and towards as the option implies the east of the lase.
As for more detailed missions, you’ll have to use the Edit Firemission option, then change the values accordingly, i would explain it in further detail, but my time as CIC roles has frankly caused me too much brain damage to properly understand how they work, so i advice you consult this guide: Pilot Officer - CM-SS13
I was told to load the OB and fire it. How do I actually do that? How can I send supplies down too?
To load the OB, you’ll need powerloader training and patience. Head towards the OB Bay, you’ll find the cannon there, first interact with the console and see how many fuel cells are required per shell, add EXACT AMOUNT stated by the console, more or less will cause the shell to miss when fired, which can lead to friendly fire incidents. Once the proper amount of fuel is loaded, you are to load the proper shell into it, interact with the console again and load the tray then chamber the round, be aware however that chambering is the point of no return, you can’t change the shell once it’s chambered.
As for firing, head to CIC and use an overwatch console, then click on the Orbital Bombardment option, you’ll be provided with a screen that lists both X and Y coordinates, insert the coordinates provided by your spotter, preferably wait for authorization and signal to fire from either the XO or CO, after which just hit the HOLY BUTTON OF OB FIRE also known as Fire OB button and just let the OB Battery do the rest.
Supply drops are also done on an OW console, instead choosing the supply drop option, insert the provided coordinates once reqs confirms that the box is loaded then hit the launch button.
How do I get into the secure armories?
You require proper access first, armory access to be precise, there’s a button in the command bubble located inside the CIC, hit the bottom one and it should open.
Do keep in mind however that to open the lockers outside of red alert you’ll require the aid of the XO or CO.
How do I get blackmarket crates?
Deconstruct the ASRS console, use a multitool on the board and then reconstruct it, after which the option should be available.
How do I cook a pepperoni pizza?
I am now well versed in the cooking department of CM, but it should go as follows for the pizza dough:
Use an egg on a bag of flour, followed by a rolling pin.
For the cheese, add 5u of universal enzyme to 40u of milk.
Do keep in mind however, that pepperoni pizza isn’t a thing in CM, however the closest you can get is meatpizza, which if you want to make just add the following:
1 Flat Dough
1 Cheese Wedge
1 Meat
And then microwave it.
Research and OT Questions:
How do I make a xeno from a different hive than the normal one?
You can only get a corrupted hive trough using some eggs, royal plasma and some other asorted chemicals in research, it’ll take some time and research however so do keep that in mind.
Aside from that however, you can’t do much, the only other hive you can get is the Forsaken Hive and that is only obtained from xenos that are left behind during hijack, otherwise only admins and similar can spawn different hives.
I have a recipe for a chem, but one of the chems I need to mix to make it isn’t on the wiki how do I get it?
If such chemical isn’t on the wiki, it likely means it’s an adminspawn chemical , or you need another document from the colony to synthetize it, likely meaning that the recipe in question also needs another chemical that comes from colony documents, you’ll have to wait until an IO brings up some vials and research reports to synthetize the required chemical.
How do I make formaldehyde? It keeps turning into something else, I’m not really sure how I’m meant to make it into paraformaldehyde too.:
You need to add Methane, Phoron and Oxygen, HOWEVER the oxygen should be added last, also you can’t make Formaldehyde in a normal beaker normally, you need either a silver beaker or to add 5u of Silver as a catalyst first.
As per paraformaldehyde, you need to add some water and then put it inside the industrial freezer and then it’ll start forming over time, slowly but surely, you can also add some Frost Oil if you wanna speed up the process.
How do falloff and power work for OT explosives?
Basically, falloff works in a way that the power of the explosive will slowly start to decay the further the explosion travels from the center, either intentionally or by mere accident, this isn’t always a bad thing however, since sometimes you’ll want to dampen the explosion to avoid it hurting the user, different explosives have a different falloff too, due to their inbuilt dampening accordingly.
How do fire stats for explosives work?
Fire works in stacks in a way, different explosives and chemicals mean different fires, commonly you must make a compromise between damage and duration, which shorter duration flames often doing less damage while those with less damage last longer, adding different stacks. Some can be made specially to clear weeds and other specially to be used against enemy personnel.
Moderation Questions:
I was just shot and killed by a guy. Can you do something?
If you were murdered without an apparent reason and provocation to begin with, you’ll want to contact staff trough the Adminhelp option in the Admin tab, explain your situation to them and they’ll aid you to handle it accordingly.
There’s an MP breaking the law. What should I do?
You’ll want to likely fax the provost if it’s a mostly IC issue, you can do this via getting a format from the Paperwork area in the Wiki, getting the corresponding format and then typing your fax, after which you are to forward it to USCM High Command, if you are an MP however yourself, you can detain them for Neglect of Duty and Failure to Follow Procedure depending on what happened.
I want to do a mutiny against the CO. Can I?
You can BUT, there are certain requirements first, you first need to ahelp with a valid reason, as otherwise staff will not authorize your decision and thus your mutiny will be denied, otherwise you can proceed as you wish if such is accepted.
The Captain is griefing right now. Can you do something?
As a Mentor i can’t do much, i could ahelp the situation and ask for assistance, along with generating a player report if anything, however after that all i can do is wait since CO related affairs are handled by the CO Council accordingly.
Additional Questions:
Custom 1:
If a PFC fires their weapon during a struggle and ends up murdering someone on accident, would that warrant them being landed the murder charge?
No, that would give them the charge of manslaughter if anything, perhaps FFP. But the intent wasn’t to outright murder the other person, what happened was an accident.
Custom 2:
If an SL disobeys CIC orders is it an IC or OOC issue?
As per new rulings, it would be considered an OOC issue, since SLs unlike marines are now held to a standard of following the orders given by either XO or CO, Marines however have more freeway regarding this issue.
Custom 3:
My client windows appear completely white at any moment, what do i do?
This has happened to me, so i can tell you what to do that worked for me, you’d have to delete all your BYOND files, restart your computer and then reinstall it, while also checking your firewall, sometimes your antivirus may delete certain files BYOND needs to work due to wrongully detecting them as a malicious program.
Final Declaration:
Anything to add:
Nothing for now, i wish you a good day/afternoon/night or whatever time it is in your current country of residence.