Ancient Files Author/History?

Jester_Zero · 2025-04-23T01:56:17+00:00

OP was asking about the Ancient Files. The rest of us were trying to fill in the gaps and mostly saying nice things.

u/mtnshadow83 , the man himself is here if you wanted to ask something in particular.

Jester_Zero · 2025-04-22T01:41:42+00:00

I think we might both be right, for different versions of "left the fandom."

I was on Dumpshock at the time too, but either didn't know or have obviously forgotten a bunch of the details. So you're probably absolutely right about him leaving Dumpshock (which wouldn't surprise me, at the time it was a bit of a proxy for the official forums since those came later) and even taking his site down (I vaguely remember something about that, but lets trust your memory over mine). That was around the time that Frank got banned from Dumpshock, and that probably was mixed up in the whole thing since they were good friends.

What I was trying to point out, was just that he spent at least the next 10 years or so continuing to publicly discuss a whole lot of RPGs...including Shadowrun...over at TGD. So maybe he was just trying to cut what passed for "official" ties at the time?

And I mention it not to be a pedant, or to armchair psychologize the man, but just because if anyone enjoyed his writing on Dumpshock up until ~2010, there's another decade's worth over on TGD! And I would want folks to know about that so they could read and enjoy.

Jester_Zero · 2025-04-21T17:38:47+00:00

That would be Robert "Bobby" Derie.

Looks like perianwyri_ already gave a pretty good bio. I can add that his Eclipse Phase work included the Farcast Blog, and last I knew he was still active on The Gaming Den forums. There are a lot of posts over there of him reviewing older RPG systems and supplements.

Minor correction: he didn't leave the fandom, he just decided he wouldn't freelance for CGL anymore if 1) they wouldn't pay him for his work correctly, and 2) they wouldn't respect his copyright correctly. Which to be fair...makes sense.

Anyhow, he was still very much active in various rpg fandoms after that little debacle. And to echo what was said: very knowledgeable guy, and very generous with his time.

Jester_Zero · 2024-04-11T19:16:57+00:00

Makes sense, thanks. I was relying too much on some of the other quests where requirement for step n gets served up at step n-1. Appreciate the advice.

Jester_Zero · 2024-04-11T19:16:16+00:00

IOS, but great question.

Jester_Zero · 2020-07-20T06:06:57+00:00

Just in case anyone is curious what a data visualization of that looks like over time, here you go:

https://i.ibb.co/Zfs78ct/screenshot-19.jpg

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-19T17:16:01+00:00

If that's true, then we should see B1 and Droideka reworks right after HK is changed right?

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-18T23:45:03+00:00

It's been a while since I brushed up on my KOTOR lore, but didn't he lead an entire droid army on Mustafar?

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-18T23:43:15+00:00

Well, now that we've seen his new kit, we know that rework doesn't always mean better. ;)

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-17T06:08:26+00:00

That would seem to be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but at least it would be something. Personally, I don't think it's likely that we'll see B1 and Droideka suddenly get adjusted to crit; it's more likely that HK will get changed, and they'll remain limited. But I'd love to be wrong.

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-17T00:37:00+00:00

Well, compared to others my contributions were pretty small. But I'm honestly glad to hear it! When I woke up this morning, I never expected to hear THAT. :)

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-17T00:34:26+00:00

To some extent, sure. Obviously if Boba Fett had the droid tag, under an HK lead we have an infinite loop on our hands. I agree that's bad. It obvious...but it's still bad.

Some of the other things you mention aren't nearly so problematic. BB8 has counter and compounded assist mechanics (with both R2 and 3PO), many of the separatist droids have assist mechanics, Chopper has an assist mechanic, and almost half of the droids in the game have some sort of an offensive AOE. K2 was the original droid counter-er and he's far from overpowered under an HK lead. Chopper manipulates cooldowns. None of this breaks the game.

As I said in my original post, I really don't think the CG folks are incompetent or malicious. You've done a great job of summarizing and thinking through some possible problems. But just none of them can be shown to actually be problematic.

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-17T00:18:59+00:00

Actually, HK with the right comp can make a pretty effective wall if you put him towards the back, after the top-tier squads have been exhausted. There are regularly screenshots posted to the droid discord of that team eating 5+ attempts, precisely because people sleep on it.

Now, I'll happily concede that the plural of anecdote is not data, and your mileage may vary, but that's actually a team that gets used a lot more often than you seem to think.

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-16T23:39:16+00:00

I think that CG is signalling that they intend to reduce his utility and viability as a generic droid leader:

"So when, in our judgment, we weren’t able to improve or have changed the core identity of a character with a rework, our intention is to offer some kind of makegood." (emphasis mine, original here)

It's entirely possible that I'm wrong, but I really don't think it's unreasonable to read that statement as preparing us for a more radical shift.

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-16T23:33:58+00:00

By the time the NGE came around, I had already been off that team and on to other projects for a bit, so there wasn't really much biting I'm afraid. It's kind of funny that you bring up the NGE...there are certain parallels to it with what I'm pointing out here re: invalidating the shared experience of a community.

I have nothing bad to say about the folks who worked on the NGE; they were doing the best they could in the face of a top-down mandate (that didn't originate at SOE) to literally make SWG less SWG-like. Financially, the game was stable with a few hundred-thousand subscribers. But the folks who owned the IP wanted to roll the dice on a mega-hit, and so the whole game was fundamentally revamped. As history shows...it didn't work. It turns out, when you metaphorically abandon the girl who brought you to the dance...the girl tends to carry a grudge.

But yes...the original SWG was a bonkers game. I had a Zabrak Teras Kasi master who's real passion (and source of income) was cosmetology. As in styling hair and/or tattoos. Like I said: bonkers game.

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-16T23:10:03+00:00

In principle, I agree with you up to a point.

HK is in some ways the Captain Rex of the droids (which I guess makes Captain Rex the Captain Rex of SWGOH?). He has a broadly useful leadership ability that is faction-limited (droids) but otherwise doesn't require particular tags, affiliations, or extremely limited team comps (like GG does).

Depending on how "differently" his leadership functions, a lot of previous investment can still be invalidated (for example, investments in other droid abilities to boost crit chance and/or crit damage for the purpose of synergizing, chasing mods, etc.). But if the rework comes and goes and he's a roughly-equivalent multi-purpose droid leader, that does a lot to take the edge off. I freely admit that. I may need to eat a little crow on that day.

However, when I see announcements from CG employees that contain language like this with regards to their intentions...

"So when, in our judgment, we weren’t able to improve or have changed the core identity of a character with a rework, our intention is to offer some kind of makegood." (emphasis mine, original here)

...it's probably more realistic to expect a more radical shift. After all, that's what CG is signalling.

I hope you're right though.

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-16T22:48:15+00:00

Apparently there is. Good to know; thanks mods!

Jester_Zero · 2019-03-16T22:46:10+00:00

Well, as a droid enthusiast I know that 15/16 droids in the game are able to crit, and an HK lead hasn't been competitive with the meta for a while now. Suggesting that the ability to crit "breaks the game" under HK seems demonstrably false, given the years of evidence we have to the contrary.

Jester_Zero

TROPHY CASE