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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Just a small correction... in Macross Frontier, having to walk laps of the Macross Quarter's hangar in an unpowered EX-Gear suit wasn't training. It was a punishment. The first time we saw it, it was Alto's punishment for being shot down in the simulator (blissfully unaware that Michael had raised the difficulty), and he had laps added for sass. The second time was Michael AND Alto doing laps for sneaking Sheryl aboard the Macross Quarter, with Cathy Glass adding laps to their punishment for sass. -
Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Well, you'll certainly become well acquainted with the wind afterwards... -
Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
That's a really unbalanced fleet, compared to what we usually see... I wonder if that's because of the combat losses from the last time the Aerial Knights ambushed Al Shahal? Under normal circumstances, in a (New) UN Spacy flotilla there are about twice as many destroyers, frigates, and cruisers as there are carriers. Somehow, I suspect that we're not supposed to empathize with the Windermerean "woe is me" routine. It seems like every time they trot out their white knight schtick (hmm...) about how cruel and exploitative the New UN Government is and how justice demands they liberate the Brisingr cluster, they immediately say or do something to reveal that it's an excuse to cover their real motives. What's more, it doesn't seem like that's much of a secret to the other residents of the Brisingr cluster. The Voldoran head of state called Roid on it a few episodes ago, noting that their Windermerean "liberators" were less knights in shining armor freeing a nation from oppression than they were a band of thugs with a reputation for indiscriminate violence turning Voldor into an occupied territory. He basically pointed out that the Voldorans wouldn't oppose Windermere openly only because they were essentially helpless and held at gunpoint. Windermere's "we are the real victim" line seems to be more an excuse for King Gramia to act on the Aerial Knighthood's apparent belief that they have a manifest destiny as the Protoculture's heirs by a campaign of good ol' fashioned empire-building. I'm left to wonder how quickly their apparently deep-seated racism will turn on the "allies" they claim they're trying to liberate. -
Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
IIRC, [gg]'s rep said they were going to be a day or two late because he's traveling... and they're usually first out. -
Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Maybe that's why the plot is developing so damned slow... maybe it WILL be the first 2x25 show Macross has had since 7. -
We get a good view in the first Macross Frontier movie, when Ranka is doing that toy advertisement.
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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
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This'll probably get merged into the Newbie and Short Questions thread shortly, but anyway... I've seen nothing about it, apart from acknowledgement of its existence, in animation-relevant sources. IINM, the novelisation of Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa identifies it as a VF-1X++ Valkyrie Double Plus... the same (former) Special Forces variant that Macross the Ride protagonist Hakuna Aoba flew a modified version of before his mid-story upgrade. Unfortunately, that is also profoundly unhelpful because no specs exist for the VF-1X++ in its stock format.
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I had a screen capture of it from the last time someone asked about the in-jokes in Ep27... lemme see if I can find it. If not, I'll take another once I get home. 's not so unusual... there are plenty of cafes in Tokyo, and in this day in age it seems oddly prophetic when there's a Starbucks, Biggby, or other coffee house on every street corner in the more cosmopolitan cities and suburbs. (Hell, in the office complex where I work there are two Starbucks and at least one two other independent coffee shops1 inside the building itself, and there are only 14,000 people working here...) In DYRL? the SDF-1 Macross's circumstances are somewhat different. The version in the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series was a battleship that acquired the city section as a hasty addition to accommodate the (initially) 58,000 civilians displaced from South Ataria Island. The alternate version in the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie was a purpose-(re)built emigrant ship that was always meant to have the city section inside it. The use of cars in so small an emigrant ship does seem a bit odd, but that was probably a concession forced by the unusual layout of the ship's interior making installing a subway system somewhat implausible. I'd assume that the military was leaning on the businesses aboard to do everything in their power to help maintain a sense of normalcy, concerts and cafes and car sales and so on, for the sake of maintaining morale among the civilian population who were already having to cope with the reality of being trapped in a large hypercarbon box under relentless attack by aliens (while keeping them ignorant of the fact that Earth was already a total loss). With respect to the actual size of the city, it's worth remembering that the city spread into a number of the Macross's internal spaces, and in a number of places was stacked several layers and tiers deep to make everything fit... plus gravity control let them build on the "walls" and "ceiling" of the habitation blocks, so they weren't limited purely by the available horizontal floorplan. (Mind you, we see this taken up to 11 with Macross Frontier's Island-1, which, in the movies, is shown to have three distinct layers of city, with the two "correctly" oriented ones separated by an upside-down city clinging to the underside of the top layer.) As far as the "destroid/fighter jet" thing, I think they did an OK job justifying that on the grounds that destroids were big, heavy things that were hard to ship anywhere quickly or in numbers, and fighter jets can't hold terrain... so the Variable Fighter became the default currency of war by dint of its ability to act as a fighter and an independent fast-travel mode for a land warfare robot. EDIT: 1. I forgot about the Dunkin' Donuts on 2F in the north wing.
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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
That'd be in the novelization of Macross Frontier, which also ties Manfred Brando and the Critical Path Corporation to the 117th Research Fleet, Macross Galaxy, and Ozma Lee. -
http://www.macross2.net/m3/sdfmacross/vf-orguss-valkyrie.htm Like several other little things in that episode, it's an in-joke reference to other projects Studio Nue was working on. In this case, obviously, it was Super Dimension Century Orguss. Earlier in the episode, one of the Zentradi ships in Vrlitwhai's fleet is shown with a skull and crossbones painted on the prow as a nod to Studio Nue's redesign of the Arcadia for the Space Pirate Captain Harlock prequel Arcadia of my Youth.
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Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 11 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Sitting down to watch this one now... -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
They don't say... but then, the emigrant fleets in Macross aren't launched with a fixed destination in mind. That's why emigrant ships are designed to support and sustain an emigrant population for years or even decades, and basically ended up as space-going municipalities. It's a big galaxy, and worlds that either naturally support humanoid life or can be terraformed to support humanoid life aren't exactly common. -
Well, it certainly seems to be going on... but it's about the only characterization either Makina or Reina has had, bordering on being the only dialogue they've had, so I'm not sure that'd count as being low-key. It's pretty obvious they're doing it for fanservice purposes.
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I have no problem with the idea of Macross having a same-sex couple kicking around the plot... but I'd rather they didn't make a big to-do about it if and when they finally do. There are few things as calculated to cause irritation as a show doing something like that and then crowing "Ooo look how progressive we are!".
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Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Actually, in DYRL?, the SDF-1 Macross was built as an emigrant ship and the city was a pre-existing feature when the ship was launched. That bridge was probably as tough as any other similar bridge in a modern city... which speaks volumes of the Valkyrie's structural strength. If you look at it from the "it's a movie" perspective, that shouldn't affect much... the VF-1's would've been filmed using later block VF-1 Valkyries. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Yeah, a Variable Fighter's energy conversion armor is enabled in an intermediate power level in GERWALK mode... except on fighters that have a fold wave system or fold dimensional resonance system, where it's operating at full power all the time (even in fighter mode). Crashing through a bridge in DYRL? was a milder crash than the one he had in the original SDF Macross TV series... where he plowed a stalled VF-1D through an entire row of concrete buildings and it came out the other side without any noticeable additional damage beyond what had caused the crash. Some of the older technical material like Sky Angels contends that the VF-1's armor material is approximately 100 times stronger (per unit of thickness) than steel. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Sort of... To the best of my knowledge, there's never been anything like a direct-to-visor "clear cockpit" system on a Variable Fighter in Macross. Most VFs have just had a thoroughly traditional "glass" canopy with either a traditional HUD or holographic HUD projected directly onto said canopy, supplemented with rearview mirrors (or monitors doing the same job) just like on a real-world fighter. The few VFs to get wraparound monitors in fighter mode had honest-to-goodness displays built into the sides of the cockpit. The closest you get to a true "clear cockpit" are the fighters with brainwave control systems, where imaging can be projected directly into the pilot's brain like the YF-21, VF-22HG, or VF-27... though it's worth noting the YF-21 appeared to favor a computer-generated third person view of the fighter rather than the ability to see through the body of the aircraft. The Sv-262 seems to be unique in that it doesn't appear to require cybernetic implants, but uses a full wraparound monitor AND in-cockpit holographics... apparently for purely aesthetic reasons. There is no wraparound imaging monitor in the VF-31's fighter mode, though... so there's no compression involved in the pilot's field of view. What they have is the same arrangement found on the VF-25, YF-29, and YF-30, with a traditional canopy supplemented with on-canopy holographic HUD and the ability to display alternate views like zooms or rear angles either on the main display or in holographic windows that pop up on the HUD. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
There's mention in Macross Chronicle of a transparent, glasslike supermaterial called Herculite, which is used to construct exterior-facing windows and such in starships... dollars to donuts VF canopies are made of the same or similar stuff. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
In a word... "Yep". The more detailed technical publications like Master File do indicate that the thermonuclear reaction engines provide their own space-use propellant in the form of plasma bled off the reactor... which is why their space endurance is so much lower than their atmospheric endurance. They're consuming their internally-carried fuel at an astronomically (lol) greater rate to provide enough plasma to produce the thrust they're being asked to produce. It's not a pure fusion rocket (there's an ion engine in there too) but it's monstrously inefficient compared to the way they operate when in atmosphere. I'd assume the FAST packs continue to use chemical rockets for simplicity's sake... meaning that, by using OTMat rocket fuels in conventional rocket designs, they can keep the system mechanically simpler and thus reduce the cost necessary to operate and maintain the packs, as well as minimizing the loss incurred when a pilot has to ditch his packs due to damage or a sudden change of operating regime. A reaction engine is not a cheap thing by any means. Remember, Hikaru's VF-1S was in GERWALK mode at the time... its energy conversion armor would've been operating (albeit not at full power), meaning the armor would've been tougher than the canopy was at that point. Earlier on in the series we're shown exactly how tough the canopy is, when Hikaru powers an unpowered VF-1D through a row of concrete buildings before the armored cover could slide into place. With respect to the YF-19 and many other later designs still having traditional canopy designs instead of a fully holographic cockpit, it's the failsafe approach. The YF-19 was the more traditional of the two Super Nova designs, so I'm sure "it's traditional" plays a slight role in it, but with the clear canopy you can still see where you're going even if you lose the cockpit display electronics or the sensors feeding them. Guld's YF-21 retained a (reduced visibility) clear canopy even though it had the BDI system for similar reasons. The next generation after that sort of found a happy medium, with the clear canopy supplemented with a more advanced wraparound holographic HUD that could project displays for things like zooming in on or outlining hazards for better visibility, displaying alerts, etc. Even the VF-27 retained a clear canopy under that armored cover in the event that the BCS cockpit system failed, and it'd be an awfully stupid design flaw if the Sv-262 didn't. The material the canopy was made from probably improved along with the armor materials used elsewhere in the airframe too, so that the cockpit would be better protected even without going to a hard-armor cover. Ah, so the path of least resistance... since those rounds cut through the fully-energized energy conversion armor of a VF-0 in battroid mode, it's a safe bet they'd go right through the canopy. The full wrap-around monitors are almost omnipresent at least in battroid mode... it doesn't appear that it was enough of an asset on the YF/VF-19's fighter mode to merit inclusion in future models though. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
They have their own engines... the VF-27's wing-mounted engines are the same type as the ones mounted in the legs (FF-3011/C), while the YF-29 uses an improved version of the VF-25 engine in the legs (the FF-3001/FC1) and a new model of engine in the wing pods (FF-3003J/FC1). Based on the official material on the VF-27 and the coverage of the prototype in Macross the Ride, the VF-27 appears to actually need those four engines to do all the things it does... like powering that monster beam rifle, running its energy conversion armor and pin-point barrier in fighter mode, etc. On the YF-29, the four engines appear to be more for agility and speed rather than generator output. They're still chemical rockets... presumably using more advanced overtechnology material fuels. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
In all likelihood it's probably a beam machine gun since it's a fixed cannon... lasers are normally for the more fiddly coaxial mountings on the monitor turret so they can be used to intercept missiles with their wider field of fire. (Plus the Aerial Knights seem to really have a hardon for dimension weapons, so it could even be a converging energy gun...) Nah, energy conversion armor isn't like a force field inside the armor material (ala Star Trek's structural integrity field or Gundam 00's GN armor), it's a layered, laminated, electromagnetically-responsive smart material that becomes significantly more resilient when exposed to certain types of electromagnetic pulses. Damaging the armor on one part of the fighter won't weaken the armor elsewhere on the fighter, unless the damage cuts off power to the EMP generators downstream of the damaged area. By the same token, the damaged area won't be restored to full defensive ability until the physical armor material is repaired or replaced. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
I forget, what was the directionality of the shot in Zero? Did it come up through the bottom of the cockpit or down through the top? Mind you, we're talking a MASSIVE difference in armor quality there. In GERWALK mode the VF-0's armor was roughly as tough as that of a well-armored attack helicopter, and in Battroid it was on par with your modern MBT. To put that in perspective with other VFs, that's about 1/3 the armor strength of a VF-1, 1/8th the armor strength of a VF-17 or VF-171, and I hesitate to even compute the armor strength a VF-31 or YF-29 would have, as the latter is said to have four times the defensive ability of the VF-25 w/ Armored Pack, and the "naked" VF-25 was at least as well-armored as a VF-171. ... aaaaaactually, that may not always be the case. We don't often get power output figures for coaxial or wing glove-mounted dimension, beam, or laser weapons, but from in the VF-1's generation the anti-aircraft laser cannon mounted on the monitor turret was actually slightly more powerful than a gunpod bullet. Bear in mind, when I say that I mean a 1 second discharge imparts more energy to the target than one gunpod bullet, and we all know the virtue of a rotary cannon is that quantity has a certain quality all its own. The difference isn't huge, about 132kJ (~2.7%) in the laser's favor, but it's still pretty damned impressive for such a small weapon. As generator outputs climbed through the generations, it's probable that energy weapons have also increased dramatically in power. Very true... the VF-0 Phoenix and Sv-51 were both rather under-armored compared to later VFs as a result of having to use conventional (overtuned) turbofans for power generation. I did some rough, back of the envelope math with a friend of mine from Boeing a while back and we concluded the VF-0 probably had less than 1/10th the generator output of a VF-1 if its turbofans were doubling as turboshaft generators. Whether the canopy enjoys the same protection as the rest of the aircraft via energy conversion armor is unclear, but my guess would be "no" since they generally slap an armored cover over it instead in battroid mode. It's made of some seriously tough stuff that's similarly durable to the hypercarbon the rest of the airframe is made of, but that'd leave it somewhat weaker than the rest of the armor in battroid mode. Also true, though it's worth noting that we're not 100% sure if the VF-31's used by Kaos's PMC forces have a fold dimension resonance or fold wave system... if they do, that means the VF-31 could potentially have been running its energy conversion armor at full power in all modes using energy drawn from super dimension space. If not, its Stage II thermonuclear reaction engines would've supplied enough power to run light energy conversion armor around vital areas at the very least, as on the VF-25. The cockpit is naturally one of the areas marked out for that extra protection. -
Macross Δ (Delta) - Mission 10 - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Hrm... for the first time, I've had to tender a Neutral vote. This episode was good, but it didn't feel like a cohesive story... I had the same impression here that I had when my girlfriend dragged me to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Namely, that what I was watching was bits and pieces from two different stories inexpertly stitched together with no regard for tone. The first half was so happy-go-lucky that the second half feels jarringly out of place by comparison. On the own, each could've been a 22 minute episode... but made into a single episode, it feels like two plots, neither of which got the attention it deserved. Even Keith hung a lampshade on the distressing lack of transformation in these dogfights... they're beautifully choreographed, but I'd like to see them remember that the V in VF means "Variable".