Episode VI – Return of the Ghost
HEX SQUAD CAPTAIN
Ghost: Hello Kuki! How are you doing! It's been a while!
Kuki: Hey Ghost! All good here! How are you doing?
Ghost: I'm doing great!
Kuki: Congratulations on winning the best event of the year: HEX 4*! That's your second HEX victory, making it 2 out of 3 for you?
*[ed. HEX is a RISK inspired website based strategy game created by TRA’s Fleet Admiral Scorer where the battles are fought out in Star Wars Squadrons (SWS), X-wing vs. TIE Fighter (XvT) and X-wing Alliance (XWA)]
Ghost: Actually, I think it's 3 out of 3! I won my first one [ed. HEX 2] where you and I were on the same team and then I also won the last one and now that makes 3! I just missed out on the first one, I think. I had just joined TRA with Spicy Squadron, or Zesty, which I was flying in.
Kuki: My goodness! That's right! 3 out of 3! That's quite a record you're setting! I also missed the first HEX, which I think was played by squadron, so Blue against Grey against Green and then I think Remnant swept everything away in the PVP-phase.
Ghost: Yeah that sounds about right.
Kuki: So what do you think was done better in this edition than in previous Hexes?
Ghost: I think it's really cool that we got a lot more XvT going. There were moments were we actually preferred to do the PVP in XvT just because it was more fun! You know, getting the Dogfight challenges done in Star Wars Squadrons often turns out to be a 1v1 and yeah ... let's just say I don't think that's very much fun. I think there was a lot more openness from participants to install the older games and be ready to play them [ed. At the start of HEX]. We also had a lot of fun with the XvT Fleet Battle Scorer made. Did you get to play that at all?
Kuki: I tried it before this HEX with Sharper and I think Nejaa? But I didn't get to play it during HEX. It was really impressive though to see that. The first time we played it and we saw that SWS layout of the ships in XvT, it was a very weird but beautiful feeling. Like stepping in a time capsule.
Ghost: Exactly, seeing that raider coming in and then the AI ... It's really well done! Obviously, there are some things that need to be looked into and can be done better, but we wouldn't have found those out if we hadn't played it a couple of times.
Kuki: And what do you think could be improved towards the future?
Ghost: Well we've been discussing it before, but one of the key things that I think everybody noticed is that after about one week we had way too many CAPS*. I think all 3 teams were soon at the maximum limit of CAPS income per cycle, which made the strategic decisions of what hexes we were going to attack, in what order, and at what precise time much less meaningful.
*[CAPS = Armies in RISK]
Kuki: Definitely, agreed. How was it being a team captain?
Ghost: Uh, fine... I'm not sure I was necessarily very successful at it. My main focus was on getting as many people as possible to play - I sent a lot of DM's - and keep it as fun as possible. I also had some experienced guys like Sharper and Lando [ed. Lando Rasputin] on my team who are also very good players, and we had a very active team, so it's not like I singlehandedly made the decisions.
Kuki: What you mention about getting people in on games and keeping it fun, those are the reasons I voted for you as a team Captain.
Ghost: Oh, Well thank you, I guess! I'll guess I'll have to vote you into leading a team then one day!
Kuki: Haha! As your revenge! I have to be honest, I first voted for Sharper, but when he backed out I switched my vote to you.
Ghost: [Laughs] I wasn't looking to be a team captain, but when I heard it was Cosmic [ed. Cosmic Debris], Billy [ed. Billy Keystrokes] and me I thought: "Oh, well, OK".
Kuki: Were you surprised to be elected?
Ghost: Yeah I was surprised actually. I wasn't expecting it, I had lots of stuff going on. So I was like "Ah crap! More stuff to do". But it all went well and it was fun, which is what matters most.
SMUGGLING SOME SPICE INTO THE REBEL ALLIANCE
Kuki: You joined TRA on May 27 2021, but if I understand well you were already in Spicy at that time?
Ghost: I picked up the game [ed. SWS] around uh ... the December after its release? I played a bit of solo queue and I think it was T|rash who sent me a message during solo queue to ask if I wanted to play with a team and that's how I ended up with Spicy and more specifically Zesty, which was like their second team. I played with Stardust, Antistellar, Frosty, Banhammer, Alan Tracy, Medik, Adalla, and others
Kuki: That's the legendary @Adalla, right? I'll write it like that in the interview so people can be reminded to ping him on Discord.
Ghost: [laughs] Yup, that's the one!
Kuki: What type of competitions did you play?
Ghost: It was mostly the weekend ones. Calrissian Cup? I think those were the only ones we did. We lost all our matches except for two I think. Stardust and me were bouncing back and forward between support and flex. We just got obliterated at times.
Then at some point Esoda left, Jish [ed. Jishiiqua] left and that was the end of Spicy and Zesty. Then I got into TRA proper and that's around the time of the second HEX.
Kuki: Have you been in other gaming clubs before?
Ghost: I briefly played City of Heroes and Villains with the guys from Penny Arcade. We're still friends but we don't play much together anymore. They went on to other games and I like Squadrons so ...
Kuki: I remember that game, I had a friend who was into it, but I didn't have a stable connection at the time.
Ghost: It was OK for an MMO at that time! I like superheroes and stuff, just like my kids now. I'm happy I can enjoy that together with them.
A MORE CIVILIZED AGE OF RTS & SPACE SIMS
Kuki: What’s your main hobby/interest outside of TRA?
Ghost: When I'm "free", I enjoy reading a book or playing video games. I basically really enjoy video games, so that's what I do. I play them with my kids or on my own during moments of peace and quiet.
Kuki: What’s your favorite non- Star Wars video game?
Ghost: I probably enjoyed Outer Wilds the most in the last 5 - 10 years. If I could forget everything about that game and play it again I would!
I played a lot of [ed. Command & Conquer] Red Alert, that's what got me into gaming, which is sad because just like space sims, they don't make any RTS anymore!
I liked Mass Effect a lot too.
Kuki: The whole trilogy? Personally, I liked the first one best because it's a little more RPG-ish...
Ghost: No definitely, agreed. When the second one came out and everyone was ecstatic I was like "Why can I not change my armor? Why are the skill points simplified?". Don't get me wrong, it was still a great game! I liked all Mass Effect games, I even played Andromeda and thought it was OK, not great.
I liked Fallout New Vegas, although it had so many bugs, but at least the writing was not bad like in Fallout 76 (which I didn't play) or Fallout 4. I thought the whole Minute Men thing was very very annoying and I also wasn't really keen on the base building part either, which some people did seem to like.
Kuki: Yeah that was horrible. They really went in the wrong direction with FO4. All they had to do is make a second New Vegas with use of the new technology. My biggest issue with FO4 is how your child is missing and you’re forced into spending all your time upgrading settlements forever. Who would bother doing that? It's also not very original if you know you had to find your dad in FO3, same/same but now it’s your son.
Ghost: Yeah totally. Probably Skyrim did the whole open world thing a little bit better without this time pressure hanging over your head, urging you on.
Kuki: The original Fallout also had a time pressure mechanic because you had to find ...
Ghost: A waterchip!
Kuki: Correct! But at least you know how many days you had before people would run out of water. It interfered less with the story.
Ghost: True. I also liked Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Inquisition, which was much better than DA2. I play a lot of games. I don't know about you, but I have you also got 273 games in my Steam library.
Kuki: I'm at 226 [laughs]!
Ghost: And that's without counting my Switch account because I grew up on Nintendo, so ...
What else do I see here in my list, Spiderman, all the Batman games (which I haven't played), Bioshock - that was good, Civilization - which I have played a lot, Hades, Halo, Homeworld - that's also good - , Metro 2033 - also good - , Space Marine, ...
But nothing comes close to games like TIE Fighter and Red Alert ...
Kuki: Did you try Dark Souls?
Ghost: No, not yet. I finished Jedi: Fallen Order because it had a good story, but I didn't really enjoy how that played.
Kuki: Yeah me neither, but that plays more like a worse version of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I really recommend trying Dark Souls and Dark Souls III though, in my opinion much better than Elden Ring too!
Ghost: Oh really? Maybe I'll try that someday.
Kuki: And did you pick up Baldur's Gate III yet?
Ghost: I did! But I didn't have time for it yet. Did you pick it up?
Kuki: Yep, but same. Didn’t get to play it yet! [Ed. Meanwhile I did and it’s really good! Go try it!]
LIFE AT THE POOL
Kuki: Where are you from?
Ghost: I was born in Chicago, but grew up in Southern California. Now I'm living around D.C. area. I lived in several places around the US. If the decision was mine, I'd like to go back to California.
Kuki: What’s your favorite thing about your area?
Ghost: That's a good question because there definitely are a lot of things I hate about it! It's definitely not the weather, not the food, ... maybe the museums? The Smithsonians. My kids also enjoy those a lot.
Kuki: Those are great museums and most of them are for free, right? When I went to D.C. with two friends, it was like visiting all the locations of Fallout 3. It was as if we knew exactly where to go, haha!
Ghost: You know, that's funny because when we just moved there, I remember going around the area and seeing "Hey! There’s Bethesda here!". But other than that D.C. is pretty boring.
Kuki: What do you do in daily life when you're not hanging around the pool?
Ghost: Oh God, the pool! That's all I have been doing this summer! Other than that I'm busy being a dad, we have 2 dogs, a cat, 2 children. So all that takes a lot of my time I guess!
Kuki: What's your favorite food... at the pool?
Ghost: [Laughs] They only have bad food there. Popsicles, not even good ones! SpongeBob popsicles with gumball eyes, etc. My kids want that garbage but it's not for me.
Kuki: What about when you can escape the pool?
Ghost: We don't eat out a lot, we try to eat healthy, we only go out on Fridays. There isn't much around here either, which is one of the reasons I'd like to move. But if I could choose, I would probably go for Italian or Cajun.
Kuki: What's your favorite drink?
Ghost: For me, I would just go for a freaking ice-cold Coke. I really like how that tastes. I try to drink one every day. Sometimes I have it in zero because of the sugar but ... it's so good. For alcohol I would go for Mojito. I seem to really like that lemon flavor in a drink.
Kuki: What music do you like to listen to while floating around?
Ghost: I've been enjoying Gorillaz, ... Daft Punk (but they broke up)... one of the lifeguards at the local pool also seems to be a fan of Gorillaz and Daft Punk, so I've been listening to that.
GHOSTING MEETINGS AND SNEAKING IN A FEW GAMES
Kuki: What do you do to pay the bills?
For a living, I'm a manager of technical project management. I'm in a lot of meetings. I already did five before having this call with you - which I do not consider a meeting [laughs]. Sometimes I really wonder why I have to be in meetings about the fire extinguishers in the building when I work remotely all of the time ...
Kuki: But during those boring meetings, you can sneak a game in or read a book!
Ghost: Yeah sometimes I can! Some meetings are really unnecessary. We have meetings about everything, even about meetings.
Kuki: Do you have preparatory meetings for other meetings too?
Ghost: We do! And we have meetings to discuss how they went and what the meaning of the meeting is and ...
Kuki: Yes of course, a short “debrief” after the meeting!
Ghost: Any excuse for a meeting is good! But sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be there!
Kuki: It's good you manage to be a little "flexible" in those situations. What do you currently enjoy most about TRA?
Ghost: That you guys are fun to play with!
Kuki: What’s your favorite TRA Memory?
Ghost: Probably that match where you and me beat Sharper and Twigs in HEX 2!
Kuki: That was indeed a great match! I remember that. We should definitely put this in the interview.
Ghost: Yeah you should write about how we beat them like a drum! I'll have a look if I recorded that match somewhere!
Kuki: I'll also have a look. I remember I said to you it was gonna be almost impossible to win that match because they were playing competition with Remnant. I remember you replying "Well, we'll just have to beat them then, won't we?".
Ghost: Yes well and we did [laughs]!
Kuki: Yeah we did [laughs]. To my surprise it went pretty well. We were on Empire, right?
Ghost: We were two bombers and Twigs went in X and Sharper Y. If I remember correctly we completely out-farmed them. It was on ... Fostar Haven I think!
Kuki: Yeah Fostar. Then we got the shield gens down and from there it went pretty fast!
Ghost: I also liked last SCL season, getting promoted to group B felt good. We swept all group C winning everything and moved to up B.
Also our 3PO team With Mith, EG, and Leaph has been promoted every season. You also reached the top division once with your team with Twigs and Sharper before you folded, right?
Kuki: Yeah, but I have to add for honesty, we got promoted because we won two matches by forfeit, one from a TFA team. I had been trying to organize it for a really long period with a lot of effort and the match just didn't manage to be played and then Wookie [ed. The 3PO league Admin] ruled that we got the points, which had us jump over the second TFA team [ed. Vader’s Wrist] to promotion.
Ghost: Yeah scheduling is always the hard part! One good thing about living on the East Coast is it's still doable to play with the Euro people. If I moved it would get a whole lot harder.
Kuki: If I ever move, one thing I would get is a soundproofed room dedicated to PC gaming! [Both laugh].
WATCHING SPACE BATTLES WITH THE KIDS
Kuki: At what age did you get to see your first Star Wars movie and which one was it?
Ghost: I don’t remember. I know it was probably A New Hope first, probably on TV on a Saturday afternoon. So I must have seen it pretty early. My daughter's 9 and doesn't care for it much, I'm not gonna push her, but my son saw it when he was 4. He didn't exactly sit through it but he understood what was going on. He knew who the good guys and the bad guys were while wandering around.
Kuki: And what’s your favorite Star Wars movie?
Ghost: Return of the Jedi. Mostly for the awesome space battle at the end. The Death Star II battle is really my favorite. That's also why I love Rogue One too. It also has a great space battle like that.
Kuki: Well you're in luck because this is gonna be "Episode VI - Return of the Ghost"! By the way, why did you move from Ghostalker to Ghost?
Ghost: Ghostalker was my character name when I played City of Heroes and Villains. I started using Discord at that time so I used that name. But no one says the full thing, so I went along with that. By now all my accounts have different names.
Kuki: Favorite Star Wars character (EU included)?
Ghost: Wedge, he's an incredible pilot and doesn't have to rely on space magic.
Kuki: What is your favorite Star Wars movie moment? The Death Star II battle?
Ghost: That A-Wing crashing into the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer. Also in Rogue One, when Vader appears on the bridge of the ship at the end, and shows what Vader can really do, that's really awesome!
Kuki: What is your favorite Star Wars head canon moment?
Ghost: I really like the X-wing book series. My favorite is probably the part with Wraith Squadron. There's one book where after one of the battles, another bunch of pilots dies, which made it that much more believable how the remaining pilots are beaten up over it. I like the realistic part of Star Wars. Specifically it's ... wait, aren't you reading those books?
Kuki: Yeah maybe we don't have to spoil the names of the ones who die!
What’s your favorite real-life Star Wars memory?
Ghost: Watching my son who was 4 at the time, we were watching The Mandalorian together with Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, and she shoots people with a backwards jump. He would get on the couch and pretend to do that. It's not my favorite thing about Star Wars, but he really enjoys it and I like seeing that!
When we were at Disney Land, my son met Mando and Boba, but he wasn't all that into it probably because he was jet lagged.
Also how happy he is with the Sith Trooper helmet I made for him.
He says he wants a full suit, but I've already been working so much on the helmet and he'll be growing out of it in no time! But we're gonna decorate up for Halloween with the Commando Droid! I'm almost done now, it just needs to be sanded and painted!
“I’m just a simple TIE Fighter wholesale dealer trying to make my way in the universe”
Kuki: What’s your first Star Wars sim?
Ghost: I think I played X-wing first, but not that much. TIE Fighter I played much more.
Kuki: What’s your top 3 Star Wars video games?
Ghost: 1. Knights of the Old Republic. I really liked that plot twist, which even though it's obvious, I thought it quite well done. And despite it being obvious I was surprised when it happened. I thought KOTOR was much better than the second one.
Kuki: I remember playing those games on a pc that would completely shut down at random intervals while playing, but I restarted every time and managed to beat both games like 5 or 6 times! [ed. Seriously people, that’s how good they are!]
Ghost: 2. Republic Commando. Again, I like that grounded realism. I like being the guy who has to do the hard work. My son tried playing it, but he isn’t finding it easy, it's a hard and tactical game! I also enjoy that wrist blade melee attack. Very satisfying!
3. TIE Fighter. I picked it up way after release since I had to beg my parents for the money. I was very young. I didn't get all of the Emperor's Hand stuff, but I got pretty far up! I did manage to finish the game, even though the last mission of TIE Fighter was very difficult. I spent a whole lot of time on that!
Kuki: Going on from that queue - what’s your favorite imperial ship and why do you have 108 of them in your ToQuest Hangar?
Ghost: [laughs] TIE Interceptor ...
Kuki: Hahaa! That's not the one!
Ghost: No it's true. The reason I have so many TIE Fighters in my hangar is the Super Star Destroyer can have 144 TIEs in it. Originally, I was just buying a lot of TIE's, and then it got me thinking how many TIE Fighter and Interceptor Squadrons I would need to outfit a Super Star Destroyer.
Now I also have 4 Raiders and a Star Destroyer, so I can almost field the full imperial side for a Fleet Battle. Now that I'm that close I have to get there! After that, I'll probably save up for the SSD.
I like the Interceptor because of the extra firepower and also the extra damage it can take. It doesn't fall apart like the TIE fighter. At least not in the TIE Fighter game.
[Ed. He got 108 of them but not this one!]
Kuki: What’s your favorite Rebel ship? You have one meagre X-wing with Dagobah outfit and a few ships Scorer gifted you for winning HEX and other events ...
Ghost: Yeah I know... I invested all the money into TIE's, so now I gotta finish it! [laughs].
But I'd go for X-Wing because it's awesome!
Kuki: What about your most hated ship in SWS?
Ghost: The B-wing. The way it is in the game is bad. I also hate flying against it when someone is good in it! Because that shows they can do it! I do like the ship itself and how it flies for example in X-Wing [ed. the game].
A SELFLESS THOUGH FORGETFUL JEDI
Kuki: Do you have any Star Wars collection items?
Ghost: I have some Lego's that I share with the kids. Once in a while the Razor Crest - not the UCS one! -takes a dive to the floor ... But they're toys, so they're meant to have fun with! My son also loves playing with the AT-AT you also have. That thing is not stable! Those legs ... He enjoys re-enacting the scene from Empire where it collapses and the head hits the snow ... that [Lego] AT-AT does not handle that well! We're missing 3 pieces already. You don't see it from far away but oh well. Like I said, they’re toys and meant to be played with.
My mom threw all my old Star Wars toys when I moved out. But I'm not too sentimental about that so it’s mostly new stuff now.
Kuki: Detachment is a good attitude, especially since you've recently been inducted to the Jedi Elite! What color is your lightsaber?
Ghost: Uh ... green-ish? Don't quote me on that! No it wasn't green... I forgot. I also forgot what the JE website looks like too since it broke down so I can’t look it up.
Kuki: If you had a real-life lightsaber and you could choose the color, what would it be?
Ghost: Green.
Kuki: Is there anything from the Expanded Universe you’d like to recommend to your fellow TRA members?
Ghost: Probably it would be those books about Wraith Squadron. There's also a recent series of Darth Vader comics that's really good.
Kuki: Do you have anything left to say to TRA?
Ghost: No. The guys are great and I enjoy playing with all of you!
Kuki: Ok, then I'll write this out and send you a proofread so we can take out whatever is necessary and you can correct my mistakes!
Ghost: Like how I forgot about my lightsaber color and what the JE website looked like?
Kuki: No, that stays in! [Both laugh].
Well that's it for me! Thanks a lot for your time and the enjoyable chat. And I hope we get to play together again soon, it's always fun!
Ghost: Thanks! See you later Kuki! Looking forward to play again with you and everybody!