Current compressing techniques guidance

[joekkerr]

Hi, im JoeKkerr

I was actively participating in making repacks from 2010-2014.

i'm not completely new to repacking, but i remember my lack of knowledge in my end days where i wasnt able to compress or keep up with others size.

what i did was what others were doing take files > Freearc > batch file unpacking.
or some files needed precomp or a combination of precomp + srep but problem started arising when some files just werent getting reduced, even after using precomp they werent 'precompressing' or as i'd call it deflating. while groups like blackbox and kaos were able to do it. (ik it applies to only some files that can actually be deflated)

i even tried studying thier repacks and their exe's to replicate result and hence i gave up knowing more people were doing better job than me and my internet was 1MbPS with 100kb download and 25 upload.

I'm thinking of getting back into data compression. whats the current method of compressing data ? i know different games , different methods but most of them are same. i assume freearc is still the king, 0.50 version compressed better than 0.666 version back in the day.

Can anyone guide me? i was inspired by skullptura btw