mikeszekely

That's actually very likely, since we know that some of the ideas that didn't make it into SDF Macross were used in Macross 7. In Macross 7, the Varauta Fleet was made up of the Megaroad-13 fleet, but since the colonization had yet to begin in SDF Macross, they probably would have been Supervision Army.

See, now we're thinking about possibilities. I like that. But consider this... Zentradi seem to have been modeled after the Protoculture themselves. Likewise, Humans and Zolans were genetically engineered to be a sub-Protoculture species. 3 species, Humans, Zentradi, and Zolans, based on Protoculture, have finite life spans, and to me that would indicate that they themselves do too. Now, are the EVILs actually immortal? It was only 9 months after the emergence of the Protodeviln that they were sealed away on Varauta. Is it not possible that the their bodies, if not the extradimensional energy beings inside them, were in a kind of stasis, and that had they been left loose, they might have aged and died? Also, we don't know how being possessed affected them. Perhaps the EVILs would have aged and died, but the Protoculture's feeding on spiritia would artificially increased their life span. Likewise, energy from the sub universe coming in through their superdimensional organs might be sustaining them, and it's a fair bet that Humans, Zolans, Zentradi, and Protoculutre don't have superdimensional organs. AFOS is another case altogether. I do not believe that AFOS counts as a species, or even a truly living thing. AFOS seems to be, for all intents and purposes, a mecha, one that even requires a pilot to operate fully. Yes, it has blood and biological components... but that might just be to facilitate the interface between the pilot and AFOS. Can AFOS think for itself? I doubt it; AFOS seemed to be operating on pre-programmed contingencies, that is, if humanity could travel space but hadn't given up war, it should be eliminated. Finally, I don't really see any reason to think that the Galactic Whales were any creation of the Protoculture. The Protoculture's main goal seemed to be colonization and expansion, which began before they'd even developed FTL transportation. Likewise, the Zentradi were created before FTL transportation, and the Zentradi served a purpose. What purpose would the Whales have served? If the Protoculture created them, they would have to have come after they'd developed FTL transportation, since the Whales themselves seemed to be able to utilize some method of FTL travel themselves. It seems like a waste of resources to create the whales. Actually, thinking about the fact that the Zentradi were created and Protoculture colonization began before they'd developed FTL technology makes another argument for why the Protoculture probably came from closer to the galactic core; there are more star systems packed closer together there, making sublight colonization more feasible there than it would be farther out. Now, you could take colonization to mean other planets in their home system or Gundam-style orbital colonies (which, indeed, the chronology does say they had), but we have to take the Zentradi into account. The split in the Stellar Republic hadn't occurred yet (the Stellar Republic wasn't formed until later, in fact), and the Supervision Army hadn't been formed. Who were the Zentradi supposed to fight? The chronology only says that "they greatly expanded the Protoculture sphere of influence." That would seem to indicate that they were conquering other inhabited planets (since the Compendium only says that the Protoculture were the first sentient life, not the only), and they were using the Zentradi to subdue the natives. Which raises another possibility about the Supervision Army. It could be possible that non-Protoculture species, resentful of the Stellar Republic, may have willingly joined, or would continue to join and fight after the Protodeviln were defeated.

I gave up on X-Men, or any of the X books. They've pretty much sucked since Age of Apocalypse. I was really digging the Avengers, especially Disassembled. But I quit when Civil War hit, since I didn't feel like jerking around with all the other books. I was also kinda digging Thunderbolts, but I don't care what anyone else says, they've gone downhill since Civil War. The new Ghost Rider series has been pretty good, but its tie-in to World War Hulk was pretty lame. I haven't missed an issue yet of Ultimate Spider-Man, and I decided to try the regular 616 Spider-Man books again (I used to read a lot of Spidey, but quit after the whole Clone saga), which basically meant all the Back In Black stuff. Most of the books have been generic Spider-Man stories, but I've actually really enjoyed Amazing. Smilely424, he didn't kill the Kingpin because he felt that killing him then wouldn't be enough suffering for him. He wanted the Kingpin to know that he could kill him, and that he eventually would so that once the Kingpin got out of prison, he'd be constantly looking over his shoulder. I tried reading some of the Wildstorm relaunch books, but they all sucked. Selling Wildstorm to D.C. was the end of it, for me. WildC.A.Ts, which never really recovered from the goofy direction Alan Moore took it in, just got progressively worse and worse. And sadly, WildCats #1 was the only relaunch book that did catch my interest, but while D.C. and Wildstorm have been cranking out Gen13 after Gen13, I've yet to see a WildCats #2. But probably my favorite comic books going around right now are the Transformers stuff from IDW. I've read it all. The movie stuff was just so-so, and Hearts of Steel was kind of boring, but the Spotlights have been great, and they've been integrating nicely with the main ongoing miniseries.

Well, the Chronology at the Macross Compendium, the Atlas at the same site, plus the events of SDF Macross, Macross Plus, Macross 7 (especially the Encore Episode "Fleet of the Strongest Women"), and the canon video game Macross VF-X2 are mostly what I'm pulling my info from. Most of the more heated discussion (I'm loathe to call it arguing, as I really do respect everyone who's participated in the discussion) has been, as I see it, is that a lot of people have their own ideas of just what's been going on behind the scenes in the Macross universe, and they don't want to discuss any others. Basically, my points are this: -According to the Chronology, the Protoculture were all but extinct a long time ago, and the Protodeviln sealed away on Varauta, but the Supervision Army have continued fighting. Therefore, the bulk of the Supervision Army at present would be Zentradi. -From conversations in SDF Macross, the Zentradi were still fighting the Supervision Army as of 2010. Also, Global considered the Supervision Army to be a real threat on par with other Zentradi fleets. Therefore, there are an unknown number of Supervision Army ships/fleets still out there. -From the Atlas, the Chronology, and Macross 7, we know that Varauta was part of the Stellar Republic, and that Rax held at least a Protoculture temple. We also know that Varauta is closer to the center of the galaxy than Earth, and that Rax is closer to the center than Varauta. From that, I've speculated that the Stellar Republic began near the center of the galaxy and expanded outward. We also know that only one Protoculture ship made it to Earth, and shortly thereafter war and the decimation of the Stellar Republic would have prevented further expansion. Therefore, I've also surmised that Earth would have been frontier to the Protoculture, that Earth has been relatively unmolested by the Supervision Army/Zentradi war because of that, but that the chances of encountering a Zentradi or Supervision Army fleet/ship would increase the closer one gets to the heart of the former Stellar Republic. -From Macross 7, we know that by 2038 37 long-range emigration fleets had been lauched toward the galactic center. And, the Macross 7 fleet did encounter another Zentradi fleet (the Chloe Fleet). This encounter supports my theories, although admittedly does not prove them. Therefore, although the mathematical probability of randomly encountering a fleet or ship would be likely be low (although we have no way of knowing, since we have nothing but speculation on the actual numbers of the Supervision Army), a UN fleet COULD encounter a Supervision Army fleet. -What's more, although this part is where I'm getting the most speculative, it is possible that between 2012 and 2040, where there is very little canon information to go on, the UN might have already encountered the Supervision Army. For starters, we know nothing about the unusual Zentradi power suits Isamu and company were fighting at the beginning of Macross Plus. Although unlikely compared to other explanations, there exists the possibility that they were Supervision Army Zentradi. Also, and things get a little trickier here, prior to the filming of DYRL, all the Zentradi ships encountered were of the same design/technological style, including the Lap'Lamis fleet. The Meltrandi-style ships in DYRL could have been written off as a movie prop design to make the Meltrandi ships stand out from the Zentradi ships, except that in Macross 7, the Chloe fleet is using the Meltrandi-style ships, which means that both styles really were in use, and that the UN had encountered them prior to the filming of DYRL. If you think about it, although DYRL separated the factions by male and female, the bottom line is that it's Zentradi fighting Zentradi, which would be true of the conflict between the Zentradi Army and the Supervision Army, as well as the Protoculture civil war before the Supervision Army. So, the differences in technology could be because different Zentradi fleets have different tech, that Zentradi fleets fighting on one side of the civil war had one type and the ones fighting on the other side had the second type, or that the Zentradi Army used one type, and the (likely mostly) Zentradi remnants of the used the Meltrandi type. If the latter is true (of which we have no way of knowing), then the UN would have encountered the Supervision Army prior to DYRL to use their ship designs for the Meltrandi in the movie. Although the competing theories are just as possible, if not more so, I personally and attracted to the last one because it reconciles the SDF Macross notion that the SDF-1 was a Supervision Army ship with the DYRL notion that it was a Meltrandi ship.

I know by now that I'm just coming across as argumentative, but that's really not my intention. I know you didn't say the Stellar Republic was more dense at the center of the Galaxy... I'm not either. I agree, we don't know. What I am saying though is that it's a likely possibility, and that as humanity heads in that direction, they'd be more likely to encounter the Supervision Army. I'm also saying that if that's the case, and Earth would be the galactic version of the boonies, that would also explain why Earth had gone relatively unmolested. What's more, I'm NOT saying that they SHOULD have encountered the Supervision Army, I'm saying that they COULD But rather than consider the possibility, you want to argue that it's mathematically unlikely, if not impossible. (And you could come up with an even lower statistical percentage if you take sketchley's assumption that their FTL sensors have a 10 light year range, and spread the ships evenly throughout the galaxy... I'm not good with circles, so I'll pretend that it's a square, 100,000 ly on each side, and 10,000 ly thick on average... you'd have a 0.19% chance of finding a ship.) But let's use a smaller-scale example again. Let's say you have a friend that lives in an apartment building with 100 apartments inside, 10 on each of the 10 floors. Opening doors at random, you'd only have a 1% chance of finding your friend's apartment, right? But let's say you know that he lives on the 9th floor, even if you don't know exactly which apartment. Suddenly, your chances have skyrocketed to a 10% chance of finding the right door. And maybe you can open more than one door, further increasing your chances. Again, I'm NOT saying that the Supervision Army is more abundant closer to the galactic core, and I'm NOT saying that we SHOULD have encountered the Supervision Army. I AM saying that it's not necessarily as unlikely as you think. And I AM curious why such a big deal was made about the Supervision Army in SDF Macross, only for the subject to have never been brought up again.

I did indeed enjoy the faster gameplay of the Alliance vs. ZAFT, but Gundam vs. Z Gundam had the best non-arcade mode. But whatever. I'll be happy if they just do UC up to Char's Counterattack instead of Z Gundam (and no, tacking ZZ and a Qubeley MK II don't coun't as covering ZZ Gundam... it's gotta have a Zaku III).

You can do 1080i over component. You really have no need at all to upgrade to the Elite.

Not a bad idea... although it implies that the UN has encountered more than the Boddole and Chloe fleets. If not more Zentradi, why not an eventual encounter with the Supervision Army? I have to admit, I'd really like to see it in Frontier.

Still assumption. Undoubtedly, the FTL sensors of the Zentradi, the Supervision Army, the UN Spacy of 2009, and the UN Spacy of 2045 have a finite range. But the specifics of that range are not given. There is a logic to your reasoning, but only if we accept your initial assumption that it took the Vrlitlwhai fleet 10 years to detect the ASS-1's defold as a fact. We can just as easily assume that their range was greater than 10 light years, and that they couldn't pursue for another 10 years. We could also assume that the Vrlitlwhai fleet was within 10 light years, your limit is fact, and it still took them 10 years after detecting the ASS-1's defold to pursue it. Fact is, we don't know. I'm merely curious about the possibilities. I'm not claiming that's it's not an assumption. But it's sound reasoning. Looking at the timeline on the Compendium, it's nearly 200 years after the Protoculture began using FTL tech to colonize the galaxy, and nearly 100 years after the formation of the Stellar Republic, before a lone survey ship even stops by Earth. This implies that it's somewhat out of the way, and since the war with the Supervision Army and the Protodeviln began a year or two after the survey ship arrived, further expansion probably wasn't a priority, especially since 85% of the Protoculture were killed. What's more, the atlas provided at the Compendium seems to list locations starting at the galactic center and working out to Earth. That would mean that Varauta is coreward of Earth, and Rax is coreward of Varauta. We know that the Protoculture presence was stronger on both of those worlds. Granted, but we know that it included Varauta, and that they at minimum built a temple on Rax. And I know it's an assumption on my part, but I always figured that the reason the emigration fleets were headed toward the galactic core was because they wanted to learn more about the Protoculture, and were actively seeking planets that may have been part of the Stellar Republic. Great, except for a couple of things. For starters, guessing that the Supervision Army has a number of ships equal to the Zentradi army is still just that, a guess. Yes, it absolutely could be a smaller number, but it could also be a larger number. We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever about the military strength of the Supervision Army. And, although we previously admitted we don't know how diverse/localized the Stellar Republic was, you're still assuming that the heaviest concentration of Zentradi and Supervision Army wouldn't be closer to wherever the core of the old Stellar Republic was, or wherever their bases of power might be. Your percentage of a chance of finding a Supervision Army ship or a Zentradi ship only stands if they really are in those numbers, they really are only one ship to a star, and they remain stationary. The fact is, the percentage would fluctuate as the UN ships would move away or toward a concentration of ships, or as Zentradi/Supervision Army ships moved toward or away from them. EDIT: I noticed a math error in your calculations... 19/400=0.0475, but you have to move the decimal to show a percent (ex 1/10=0.1=10%), so your calculation would actually yield a 4.75% chance that a particular star would have a ship. When you figure that 37 fleets were launched by 2038, and that each fleet likely visited more than one star, well, let's round down to 4%, and say that between the 37 fleets they've explored 300 stars... that'd be about 12 encounters with either a Zentradi or a Supervision Army ship.

Which is why I assumed the Zentradi detected the defold when it happened in 1999, which would mean that it took them 10 years to getting around to investigating. The idea that the defold happened and that it took the Zentradi 10 years to detect it never crossed my mind. Not necessarily. Macross 7 tells us that the emigration fleets were heading toward the galactic core, and that seems to be the direction that the Macross 5 and 7 fleets came to Rax, where the Protoculture temple was, and where the Megaroad 13 and Macross 7 fleets found Varauta, where the Protodeviln were sealed. The Protoculture seem to have started at the center of the galaxy and spread out, and Earth seemed to be distant frontier for them, as only one survey ship happened upon it and even then the records of it were lost. If the Supervision Army was fighting the Stellar Republic, it'd be closer to home. And if the Zentradi Army was fighting the Supervision Army, they'd also be more abundant coreward simply to be where the Supervision Army was. Earth might not have been bothered by either faction because it's too out of the way. To use an smaller-scale example, if America was fighting a war in Europe, you're unlikely to find either the American Army or a European Army in Australia. However, if the emigration fleets are headed coreward, then they would be more likely to run into Zentradi or Supervision Army forces simply because they'd be heading into the heart of their territory. With Superdimensional Radar to expand the range of their sensors, I find it hard to believe that none of the 37 long-range fleets wouldn't have found some sign of the Supervision Army.

The main problem I'm having with the game is that you have to use a unit and gain experience with it before you can upgrade it fully. So, by the time I got the Nu Gundam, it's pretty much worthless. It takes too long to kill things in a mission (I failed the first one I tried with it because some enemy units escaped) to actually use it in any missions to get any experience... especially when I have a fully upgraded YF-19 that decimates all comers.

I don't think continuity was retconned to say that AFOS was all that came to Earth. AFOS was simply what was left behind when the Protoculture left. We could start another thread to discuss the finer points of Macross Zero, but we know that the Protoculture had very advanced genetic technology, and they were as likely to grow a weapon a build one. AFOS was a tool used by the Protoculture to facilitate the genetic engineering of humanity's ancestors to make them more like Protoculture, and then was left to monitor humanity's development and serve as a failsafe to destroy the experiment if humanity got to a point where they could travel the stars but hadn't stopped fighting. In fact, I don't think AFOS could have acted alone. While it does seem to possess some intelligence, it actually seems to require a pilot. They make it painfully obvious that even if the head was reconnected to the body, AFOS needed Sara to really take any kind of action. It had to be Sara because only the line of priestesses had the Alpha Bombay blood type, the same type that was in AFOS. I'd speculate (speculation only, mind you) that while humanity as a whole had been engineered to be Protoculture compatible, that the priestesses are directly descended from Protoculture. And perhaps no one bothered Earth because Earth was on the fringe of Protoculture space? The Protoculture seemed to start from the middle and work their way out, while humanity is starting on the edge, and working its way toward the center of the galaxy. Again, the Stellar Republic was huge... I don't think you can simply say that because the galaxy is big, the UNG wouldn't run into other Zentradi or the Supervision Army. The deeper into former Protoculture space the colony fleets go, the more likely they are to run into Zentradi or Supervision Army forces, as well as find relics of Protoculture civilization like the temple on Rax. You're still reading into it. The Compendium doesn't say what Supervision Army survivors Vrlitlwhai was hunting. You admit that you read it as the survivors of a grand, final battle, but it could have been the survivors of a skirmish, or the Boddole fleet might have come across the remnants of a Supervision Army fleet that was dramatically weakened from wiping out different Zentradi main fleet. We have no way of knowing what the true strength of the Supervision Army forces are. What's more, we know the Zentradi ships can fold. They folded to the moon at the beginning of SDF Macross, they folded to the Main fleet, they folded back to the Sol system, the Main fleet folded to Earth, etc. It's illogical to think that the Vrlitlwhai fleet detected the defold from 10 light years out, and then took 10 years to track it down because they were traveling at sublight speeds when we saw them fold to the moon in the first place. I would say, rather, that it took them 10 years to track that Supervision Army ship down because they were busy doing something else... like fighting the Supervision Army. That's the simplest explanation. It's also probably correct, and I'd agree with it. But just to play devil's advocate, that's not clear, and we really don't know that for sure. As far as actual Zentradi go, every Zentradi ship encountered (that we know of) had been the style of the Boddole fleet, until the Chloe fleet, which happened to use Meltrandi ships like the ones in DYRL (which tells us that even if some of the ships in DYRL were commercial Earth ships using holography to look alien, the UNG must have encountered at least some Meltrandi ships before). Again, I agree that it's most likely that different Zentradi fleets supplied by different factory satellites may have ships using different technologies, but it is at least a possibility that the disparity between the two styles is the disparity between Zentradi Army and Supervision Army ships. As for why they'd turn up in VF-X2, we know that even as the Supervision Army has still been fighting, that the Protoculture themselves are all but extinct. It's possible that a Supervision Army fleet, crewed by Zentradi, would behave similarly to a Zentradi fleet, and culture shock would affect them the way it affected Vrlitlwhai's fleet. Supervision Army Zentradi may have defected to the UN Spacy, and the UN may have captured Supervision Army ships, which may have fallen into Anti-UN hands. This explanation would also apply if the Meltrandi ships were just different Zentradi army ships.

If you're into games like Ikaruga, there's another 2D shooter coming out on Live called Omega Five that looks pretty good.

Everyone's making valid points. But like I already mentioned, Global was obviously very worried about the Supervision Army, and it wasn't a concern that Exsedol was ready to dismiss. I guess what I'm getting at is, even if the UN or a colony fleet hasn't run across them yet, the Supervision Army is most likely still out there. I'm pretty sure that the episode is "Satan's Dolls," and yeah, that's one of my favorite episodes too. This is an assumption. For all we know, the Supervision Army is actually winning. The Protoculture had incredible technology and a Republic that spanned the galaxy. Even if the Supervision Army was just a fraction of the Stellar Republic, they likely had access to tremendous resources. We know that after over 400,000 years of fighting, that the Supervision Army hasn't destroyed all of the Zentradi factory satellites. It's likely that the Zentradi haven't destroyed all the Supervision Army's either, and with actual Protoculture in their forces (at least for a time), they might have even had the technology to build more. We haven't seen those tactics. Your interpretation is valid, but it's just as likely that the Boddole Main Fleet was fighting a group of Supervision Army ships, and one badly damaged gunboat tried to fold away. The survivors may have abandoned ship before it crashed on earth, or were killed for any number of reasons. The "booby trap" might have been programmed before abandoning ship, or the crew might have known they were going to die. The UN knew that their were giants aboard the ASS-1... it might have been from that big airlock that Hikaru snuck out of to get the tuna, but it's also possible that bodies were found aboard the ship. We're never told either way. As for taking 10 years for Vrlitlwhai's fleet to track the ASS-1 down, perhaps the battle was so epic that it took ten years to finish before Vrlitlwhai (or anyone else) could be spared to go after any stragglers. Actually, we don't have much canon material to fill the gap between 2012 and 2040. It's possible that the UN did encounter the Supervision Army, and that those Zentradi were Supervision Army forces. Indeed, perhaps humanity had encountered some Supervision Army fleet prior to filming DYRL. That would explain why the Meltrandi ships look so different from the Boddole Fleet's ships. (Remember, in SDF Macross, Lap'lamis' fleet is made up of the more traditional Zentradi ships.) And we know that it wasn't just a creative license for the movie, since the Chloe fleet used the DYRL Meltrandi style. This would also reconcile the idea that the Macross was a Supervision army ship and a Meltrandi ship (although the existence of Protoculture might still be a government secret, so telling the public that the Macross was a Meltrandi ship might just be government spin). The bottom line is, we don't know. I just kinda Kawamori and co would give us another piece of that puzzle.

So, I just finished watching the Animeigo Macross DVDs, and one thing was kinda bugging me. The Zentradi didn't just live to fight, they were obviously still fighting. When Hikaru, Max, Misa, and Kakizaki were taken to the Main Fleet, they even saw a battle that was big enough to destroy a planet. The only enemy they mentioned, though, were the Supervision Army, and even then, it was implied that they were still fighting them, even if it wasn't at that particular battle. At the end of the series, Global is concerned about running into other Zentradi fleets, but also the Supervision Army. And when they find another derelict Supervision Army gunboat on the way to capture the factory satellite, Vrlitlwhai and Exsedol think that it was recently destroyed. The conclusion, then, is that the Supervision Army is still around, fighting the Zentradi. However, by 2050, we've still yet to see them. The closest we get is the Varauta, in that they're mind-controlled members of an old Earth Megaroad fleet lead by the Protodeviln, and the Supervision Army were mind-controlled breakaways from the Stellar Republic led by the Protodeviln. But we also learned that the Stellar Republic (or what was left of it) defeated the Protodeviln with Anima Spiritia and sealed them on Varauta 4. According to the timeline at the Macross Compendium, this was something like 497,000 years prior to SDF Macross. The only other information the Compendium gives is that the Zentradi were fighting the Supervision Army after the Protodeviln were defeated, so the Supervision Army was obviously active without their Protodeviln masters. It also tells us that while the Protoculture were all but extinct some 20,000 years after the fall of the Stellar Republic, and that the Zentradi were still fighting the Supervision Army after that, since they took out an automated reaction weapon facility (hence why the Zentradi lack reaction weapons and were so impressed to see that humankind had them), and 100,000 years after that they took out a Glaug factory (hence why Regulds and Gnerls were everywhere, but only aces got Glaugs). If the Protoculture as a people were nearly extinct and the Protodeviln sealed away, who exactly comprised the Supervision Army forces? And if the Zentradi were still fighting them during the events of SDF Macross, where are they? We've seen in Macross 7 (and possibly Plus, although that could have just been a smaller band of renegades) that Spacy forces had run into other Zentradi fleets, as feared, but the Supervision Army seems largely forgotten by the 2040's.

That'd kick ass. In fact, someone should make Exo-Squad: The Movie.

Really? Looks like an alien robot Hummer to me.

I can't speak for the game, but the way I remember the Shanter books was that V'Ger didn't become all god-like until after it had encountered the Borg. The movie really only says that V'Ger wound up on the far side of the galaxy, and that a mechanical race improved/rebuilt V'Ger so it could continue its mission to "learn all that is learnable." As it explored the galaxy, V'Ger continued to evolve and gain sentience. And while Shatner expounded on the idea of V'Ger having wound up on the Borg homeworld, it was actually Roddenberry himself who suggested it in an interview, according to Memory Alpha.

I think it's like this. Main menu -New Game -Continue -Multiplayer co-op -Free Mission -2player versus -Load save Continuing brings you to the Intermission screen -Briefing -Units for sale -News -Unit Viewer -Battle Records -Movie viewer -Options -Back to Main menu After the briefing, you're on the unit selection screen. That's -Launch -Player setup -Wingman 1 -Wingman 2 -Back to Intermission screen If you pick player setup, you'll get -Unit select -Upgrade current unit (switch units to upgrade a different one) -Repair armor -Test area: ground -Test area: space -Test area: tutorial If you pick one of the Wingman, I think you got everything but the test areas. If you pick upgrade, I think the stats are -Armor -Dash -Vernier -Turning -Attack If you need to tweak the options, they should be -Save -Load -Game Settings -Controller Settings -Sound Settings -Screen Settings The Game Settings are -Difficulty -not sure, something like Lock Info -Target (sets the priority for targets when you hit the target button... it's camera, direction, distance, or damage) -Quick Turn -Auto Height adjustment -Attack demo -text -Operation Navi (you'll want to remember that, as you'll want to quickly turn her off when you realize she's going to ask "are you sure...?" more than Windows Vista) -Reset everything to default. Controller Settings are -Type (shift or select) -Flight Type (easy, flight, easy reverse, flight reverse) -Radar -Camera -Vibration -Assign buttons -Default. I didn't really mess with sound or screen. Sound looks mostly for setting different volume, and screen is for adjusting brightness and contrast.

It definitely won't if we don't ask. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Z Gundam. And you still got ripped off. I seriously can't believe Bandai picks that steaming pile of dookie to bring over to America, but the awesome Gundam Battle series for PSP never made it. It's like Bandai wants Americans to hate Gundam...

Don't look at me. I'm one Macross purist who hasn't bought anything with the Robotech label on it since that coloring book I had when I was a little kid.

You could use the Shift style in ACE 2. Yeah, the YF-19's money, once you get the hang of it. It's got a perfect loadout... micro missiles, gunpod, and (I'm assuming) reaction missiles... oh, yeah, and chaff. Too bad the YF-21's loadout isn't as good. You get the wrist guns for default, the gunpod, micro missiles, and you can go limiter off. Just after you get the 21, you get the Focker's VF-1S, Hikaru and Max's VF-1As, and Milia's Quedlunn-rau. I immediately starting dumping ACE points into Focker's VF-1S (loadout's similar to the YF-19, except you get head lasers instead of chaff). My question is, are Hikaru and Max's Valkyrie's any different than Focker's? If not, I'll focus on Focker's Valkyrie, the Q-rau, and the 21 (19's already maxed). If they are different, though, I might prioritize them instead. EDIT: One mission after you get some VF-1s, you get Hikaru's VF-1J, plus the Armored VF-1J, Max's VF-1S, and Hikaru's VF-1S become buyable. I should be able to play the rest of the game without using anything but variable fighters... but I might not, because also buyable is the Nu Gundam, and right after that, Turn A Gundam.

I'm glad to hear things are simplified a bit. I actually have a notebook with menu translations for A.C.E 2.

I suppose that's what I get for disappearing from the boards for awhile.