sketchley

Looking just at the languages that survived SWI: SDF-1 (military plus civilian): I'd have to say English. Many militaries use it to communicate, and the majority of civilians on South Ataria Island would've been doing so (after all, it's the lingua franca of East Asia and South East Asia - the most likely source for the majority of the residents on South Ataria Island) Grand Cannons: again English, with a healthy dose of Japanese (Japanese appears to be one of the prime technology centers/movers and shakers in the pre-SWI era. Case in point: the VF-1J; J for Japan.) Apollo Moon Base: English and Japanese (same reasons as above) Colony Clusters: nothing is known about these. Given that Kawamori Shouji is a Gundam fan, I've speculated that they are like the O'neil Cylinders seen in the original Gundam. Population would be mixed. English and Japanese would most likely have been the main languages. On the dub side of things: the original releases are Japanese, with the occasional English, Zentraedi, French and other languages. The signs in Macross Plus and Frontier indicate a similar pattern. And the reality check (note the predominance of English, as well as Korean on the sign (Korean being present only at larger stations) Japan is a country with a heck of a lot of English despite not everyone being able to speak it or read it. The same can hold true for Macross. What signage we see doesn't necessarily reflect what is really spoken:

It may appear in the next issue... the Haruna comes from M3. The Athabasca is a real world ship (the last I heard). Not sure if it appeared in M0 or in the "Lost Two Years" short story in Perfect Memory.

From what I've read (Japanese and English), it was intended to become the flagship of an Earth defense fleet. It's unclear if that mission would entail space exploration (Solar system or beyond). Given the rushed nature of the Oberth Space Destroyers and the less-than-stellar manueverability of the ARMD Space Carriers, it's pretty clear that all of these firsts would be replaced sooner rather than later, like the Hound Dog was with the Lancer II. At that time, some of the older ships could have been sent on exploration missions, perhaps even led by the SDF-1. However, it's all speculation, as the Zentraedi showed up, the Earth was destroyed, the Oberth ceased being manufactured, the SDF-1 was reproduced, the ARMD space carrier was renovated, and emmigration and exploration missions were sent out from Earth. Mind you, that's probably what the original plan was (with less emphasis on emmigration, of course) and it probably would've taken a lot longer, as there would not have been a Factory Satellite pumping out ships at an incredible rate.

Kazutaka Miyatake did the design for the ARMD Stealth Space Carrier in Macross 7.

Typo? lumping the various classes together to make the scene easier to animate and understandable to the first time viewer? (You know, the one that won't look at it frame by frame nor over examine it.)

No. See Mr. March's post after yours. My translations notes are in the other room... but basically size, population, and having the factory/construction districts in the underbelly/under the city part of the city section, along with all of the attached "Island" ships. The New Macross Class has seperate factory and other support ships, along with being substantially smaller. Chronicle even mentions that the two classes do look similar.

My info comes from the Chronicle article regarding Super Long Range Emmigration Ships and Fleet Composition. The class of ship is applicable to the combined (battle + city (+islands)) super long range emmigration ship.

You may want to change the topic title as it's misleading. New Macross Class being different from Island Cluster Class being different from whatever class the Galaxy fleet is (near as I can tell, it's the, or one of the fully enclosed (ie: no clam shell) Super Long Range Emmigration (City & Battle ships classes that Chronicle mentions.) Even including the class of super long range emmigration ship, there are differences between both the City ship as well as the Battle ship that d3v mentioned. Ie: City 5 and 7 in addition to Battle 5 and 7 are quite similar, despite one having a more Zentraedi motif and the other having more green space and less tall buildings (or buildings, period) inside.

Seconded. Of course, now it's time to convince the wife to invest in the PS3. Not only for the backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2 Macross games, but also to play the Macross F BDs!

Aaa... tatami room. I kinda miss that in the new house.

I'm curious where the info that the VF-17 has a non-beam gun pod comes from? I just spent the past few minutes scanning through various Macross books, and none of them mention that it is, or is not a beam gun pod. All that it is referred to is as a "Gattling gun pod". Furthermore, one of the latest issues of Macross Chronicle states that all gun pods are 30 to 57 mm and have 3 to 6 barrels (VF tech sheet 1B) - the VF-17's gun pod having 7 barrels; a typo or something else? The same article also states that gun pods see a greater variation (or amount of change/possibility) from the VF-11 onwards, and mentions the VF-17 being able to use a beam cannon. Given the picture that is included, it's obviously referring to the large bore gun added to the end of the gun pod at one point in M7. But isn't it thought provoking that only the VF-17's gun pod has this capability? Implying that the gattling beam gun nature of the VF-17's gun pod powers the beam cannon adaptor.

... or they do have internal fold drives, but they are extremely limited. For example, the Shinnakasu Industry/OTEC FBF-1000A external fold booster, seen in Macross Plus, 7, etc., is limited to trips less than 20 light years. Given that it is a pretty large booster, and despite micronization from technological progression, I doubt that any internal VF fold drives would meet or exceed that 20 light year range. Therefore, it's plausible that the VF-27 has an internal fold booster, just that if it wants to go any significant distance, it needs an external one. Not that I believe that the VF-27 has an internal fold booster or anything. Unlike the internal weapon pallets on the VF-25, there's no precedent in Macross for it.

The one nice thing about the official stats that have been released (for the majority of VFs) is that a max speed at 10,000 m (sometimes higher) is provided. Mind you (directed at the general reader and no one in specific), that has less to do with the thrust outputs of the engines, and more to do with the airframe's ability to deal with the heat from air friction.

Different publishers. Big West may be under contract not to release Macross F stuff to anyone but Kadokawa (publishing the Newtype book), Gakken (publishers of the Official File), and possibly others. Mind you, Wiibu (I think that's the people actually behind Chronicle) may just be holding off as they know that the market is currently full of publications with Macross F stuff (magazines, books, mooks, etc.). (Looks at bookshelf full of Macross F publications... sees the yen floating out of wallet...)

F=ma (or a = F/m) Where F = force, m = Mass, & a = acceleration. Of course, this only provides instantaneous accleration, and nothing more. Speed is an entirely different ballgame and requires a lot more hard math. If you want to calculate other things, like the maximum possible velocity, you will need other variables. For some VFs, we have the majority of information needed (the SUper VF-1 has both a maximum thrust and a time limit), but for many VFs, we don't have enough or even any information. This is, of course, not including things like the coefficient of friction (neglible outside of an atmosphere) and the force of gravity*. In other words, we can get numbers for limited situations (ex no friction, no gravity, straight line flight) for a limited number of VFs. *a VF will accelerate faster towards a space carrier and slower away from it, but as the amount is so small, there's no need to figure that out other than the fun of figuring it out.

In the Newtype 100% series, Gundam 0083 (for example), there are stats for the major mecha. That said, this book isn't mentioned as being part of the 100% series...

From the latest newtype: "Covering all episodes, complete guidebook on sale! Replay of all the episode is begun and also covering the main characters and up to [until] the mecha creation [setting, establishment], in addition to a Frontier town guide according to supervising editor Shoji Kawamori. This one book, you can 120% enjoy this perfect guidebook entry (to the market) [appearance]. Macross F 2059:MEMORIES By Newtype, ￥1,260 (tax included), on sale Oct. 24 Issued by: Kadokawashouten, Sold by: Kadokawa Group Publishing"

VF-25 Kit. Bandai. 2008.09, ￥4,725. Available in model shops across Japan. (You can see the kit boxes behind the glass it's standing on)

Or warships of the UN Spacy. I think the Super VF will sell a bunch more issues than Hikaru. Not many people recognize any of the cast of Macross, but a heck of a lot recognize the VF-1, and a surprising number of people that I wouldn't normally expect to know Macross, recognize SDF:M and/or DYRL songs!

I'm open either way (internal weapon pallets or no), but until some official looking stats come out specifically stating something, my opinion is that there are (as the logic of the series until now dictates that there should be). In regards to the stats that have been published (Great Mechanics.DX 6), they were incomplete in as much as the knife was not mentioned - something that has been seen in the anime, and pictured and mentioned in other publications. So... yeah, y'all don't have to agree with my opinion. Despite the VF-11B/C Thunderbolt not having internal weapon pallets (which house the missile launchers), they were later retrofitted into them (despite Kawamori's input and perhaps because of them being present on the VF-11MAXL Kai). Which says to me: as technology progresses in the Macross universe, things tend to shrink in size (engines) and more things get crammed into the airframe (internal weapon pallets). Who knows, maybe they will be retrofitted later? Maybe we'll see them in the movie? Maybe they aren't there and that one shot was an illusion done with mirrors. )

Ah... forgot about that. I stand corrected.

Spotted it in the Japanese wiki about a month ago as well. I think it's currently a nickname. Not sure if it's official, or not. 通称ナイトメアプラス。 http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8A%E3%...83%BC%E3%82%BA)

The YF-19, VF-11, VF-19 and VF-5000 all have internal pallets or micro-missile launchers in the engine nacelles AND FAST packs/Super parts. In Macross Plus we can see the nacelle pallet opening, and lifting the Super parts out of the way with the hatch. Same holds true for the VF-25 if there are internal leg weapons pallets.

The same arguement has been used regarding internal pallets in the VF-17 and VF-11 (VF-11 MAXL Kai). Both of those have internal pallets. Ah, but we haven't been given complete (as in full-body) line-art.

Why should they? Just curious re: your justification.