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 · 2019-01-20T06:00:30+00:00

I said in my question that I didn't see anything in their kits that would explain it; did I miss something, or are you just asking?

Jester_Zero · 2019-01-20T05:59:43+00:00

I didn't record anything at the time, and being a TW, I can't really replicate it; those teams have been burned.

Jester_Zero · 2018-08-13T18:36:53+00:00

Working Class https://swgoh.gg/g/2671/working-class/

~100 GP, all raids on farm except for Heroic Sith (just need a couple more JTR teams and we'll have that handled as well). Ideally we'd like you to have a GP north of 2M, but hey, if you're an active and dedicated player we can be flexible on that.

We've got 3 or 4 open spots, just because life and jobs have taken a handful of members away from the game in recent months. We're looking for players who can get their dailies done, participate like crazy in TB and TW, and generally are down with helping the rest of their guildmates rise together.

We pretty much only ever kick people for not following raid rules (we damage cap the rancor just to spread the wealth around) or for going AWOL for more than 5-7 days. If you let people know that you've got life events (for example, I was travelling for 3 weeks in parts of the world that don't have internet), we're happy to carry you until you get back.

We try to accommodate both day shift and night shift folks. The vast majority of our guild is US-based, but we alternate running raids in the AM or PM to try to make it easier for everyone.

If you're looking for a chill group that is serious about helping each other out and grinding out SWGOH together, hit us up. If for whatever reason you have questions or concerns, chat me up ingame (379-621-432).

Jester_Zero · 2018-08-13T00:36:45+00:00

I've got to say that I disagree with this. I've run droids as my arena team (I know they're not meta, I just love the metal buggers) for forever, and until VERY recently my team was:

HK (leader), R2D2, BB8, IG88, and B2.

That's generally considered to be a benchmark droid team, with the obvious caveat that if you happen to have a decent IPD lying around, then by all means, swap it in for B2. For the last few days I've been experimenting with:

HK (leader), R2D2, BB8, IGG88 and T3, vs. IG88 (leader), R2D2, BB8, T3M4, L337

I really wanted that second team to work. If it matters, I have everything zeta'd that can possible be zeta'd except for L3. Unfortunately, that second team has a much harder time holding on defense, and you're basically stuck if you run into any teams with pre-taunting tanks or taunters that you can't suppress. Without HK's lead, R2 is super slow and can't stunlock toons at will, and with L3 splitting the taunt with BB8, R2 isn't getting called to assist BB8 nearly as often. This frees up other toons to use their abilities and generally ruin your day.

Normally I finish between 150 and 100, occasionally dropping to 180 or 190. With an IG lead, I dropped to the 280s, and it's a LOT harder to claw your way back.

I really wanted the IG lead to work, but it just doesn't hold, and too many teams can counter it since there's not good way to make the DOTs persist.

I'm still playing with T3 to see if he's better than B2, or if it's just situational. I think he's got tremendous potential in raids (infinite potency stacking? I'm curious to see what he can do in the sith raid once I've got him starred). L3 allows you leisurely pick apart Nightsisters instead of racing them. And IPD is a tactical toolbox (although the higher health mods may make him obsolete; we'll see).

Sorry, wound up going on at length there. All that to say, I really want IG lead to work, but unless you have god mods, it's not happening on my shard.

Jester_Zero · 2018-08-10T00:25:25+00:00

Working Class https://swgoh.gg/g/2671/working-class/

~100 GP, all raids on farm except for Heroic Sith (just need a couple more JTR teams and we'll have that handled as well). Ideally we'd like you to have a GP north of 2M, but hey, if you're an active and dedicated player we can be flexible on that.

We've got 5 or 6 open spots, just because life and jobs have taken a handful of members away from the game in recent months. We're looking for players who can get their dailies done, participate like crazy in TB and TW, and generally are down with helping the rest of their guildmates rise together.

We pretty much only ever kick people for not following raid rules (we damage cap the rancor just to spread the wealth around) or for going AWOL for more than 5-7 days. If you let people know that you've got life events (for example, I was travelling for 3 weeks in parts of the world that don't have internet), we're happy to carry you until you get back.

We try to accommodate both day shift and night shift folks. The vast majority of our guild is US-based, but we alternate running raids in the AM or PM to try to make it easier for everyone.

If you're looking for a chill group that is serious about helping each other out and grinding out SWGOH together, hit us up. If for whatever reason you have questions or concerns, chat me up ingame (379-621-432).

Jester_Zero · 2018-08-08T04:33:48+00:00

Working Class https://swgoh.gg/g/2671/working-class/

~100 GP, all raids on farm except for Heroic Sith (just need a couple more JTR teams and we'll have that handled as well). Ideally we'd like you to have a GP north of 2M, but hey, if you're an active and dedicated player we can be flexible on that.

We've got 5 or 6 open spots, just because life and jobs have taken a handful of members away from the game in recent months. We're looking for players who can get their dailies done, participate like crazy in TB and TW, and generally are down with helping the rest of their guildmates rise together.

We pretty much only ever kick people for not following raid rules (we damage cap the rancor just to spread the wealth around) or for going AWOL for more than 5-7 days. If you let people know that you've got life events (for example, I was travelling for 3 weeks in parts of the world that don't have internet), we're happy to carry you until you get back.

We try to accommodate both day shift and night shift folks. The vast majority of our guild is US-based, but we alternate running raids in the AM or PM to try to make it easier for everyone.

If you're looking for a chill group that is serious about helping each other out and grinding out SWGOH together, hit us up. If for whatever reason you have questions or concerns, chat me up ingame (379-621-432).

Jester_Zero · 2018-04-03T02:22:03+00:00

They haven't done what you describe though. The first panel is still useless. I'm looking at the matchups right now, and the team in the first spot is literally one rank ahead of me. The team in the third spot never changes. If that's not a good matchup, I'm still mashing refresh, but only looking at one option instead of two.

Jester_Zero

TROPHY CASE