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sketchley

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Posts posted by sketchley

  1. 2 hours ago, MechTech said:

    QUESTION: Do you guys think I should paint the base, or leave it natural aluminum? I'm throwing it around and not sure. The original plan was to paint the base and weather it to look like it came from the actual plane (if it existed). Thanks for your time and feedback! - MT

    You should definitely weather the base!  There's not enough contrast with the more-or-less 'factory fresh' bullet (or do you have plans to weather that, too?)

    Can't say one way or the other about painting the base, though.

  2. Never saw the original in 3D.  The only thing it has going for it is that it recaptures some of that James Cameron magic from his earlier films—Aliens, Terminator, and so on.

    Is Dir. Cameron going to be using the footage he shot at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in Avatar 2, or was that only ever a rumour?

  3. 42 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

    Okay so I wasn't going insane seeing the footage of Mission 3! No wonder they looked familiar. Though I don't know if it's because I enver got a good look at them without the screen moving, but it seems they were much smaller then their 3000m counterpart from the movie. Honestly most of the Meltradi ship designs could easily pass off as UN designs, not having the organic look of the other Zentradi ships.

    I was going to mention something about size in my post above, but I realized that Miria's Gunship isn't exactly to scale either (not shrunk as much, but scaled down nonetheless).

    I'm not sure if those "Meltrandi" transports are shrunk down versions made after humans took control of a Factory Satellite, or just size-reduced due to the limits of the game itself (what I think is the reason behind the Miria's Ship's scaling).

     

    I'm not sure what we can attribute to the differing visual design of the Meltran ships in DYRL.  On the one hand, they look closer to the human ships.  On the other hand, the Meltrans are described as being physically different (or having a different physiological make up) than the Zentrans.  For starters, the Meltrans (in DYRL) use fibre-optics in place of their nervous system—to the extent that some sources indicate that they're not so much 'piloting' their mecha as 'plugged into' their mecha.*  So it makes sense that they would look less 'biological' and more 'technological'.

    * The info on that is a big vague.  My guess is that it was one of those things that was attempting to describe their enhanced reflexes, but wasn't thought out very well at the time—probably because the concepts weren't developed in the real world yet (E.g. William Gibson's Neruomancer was published in the same year DYRL was released, and The Matrix was still a decade-and-a-half away).

  4. 3 hours ago, TG Remix said:

    So I remember talking about Zentradi technology not being standardized throughout every fleet, and that made me think of the Meltran ships In DYRL. In the movie they had to be different (along with the Queadluun-Rau's) so they could be visually different from the Zentran they were fighting against. But since a fleet of them also were in 7, I wonder how they'd fit in being apart of Golg Boddole Zer's fleet. Or, in a more reaching idea, if they were Supervision Army ships since DYRL's Alien StarShip were from the Meltran.

    Those Meltran ships... on the one hand we have DYRL which was purportedly filmed 'in-universe' using Unified Forces ships (etc.) as stand-ins for the real thing (E.g. the Beginhill Training Ship being dressed up with holograms as the Bodolza Mobile Fortress).

    Then we got M7 with a Meltran fleet using those ships.

    On top of that we have VF-X2 using one class of those Zentradi ships as a (human?  Unified Forces?) transport ship, and other groups using Miria's gunship as... well, like how it was portrayed in DYRL.

     

    It's a real headache to sort out.  The only guidance we have is from Kawamori-san himself:  "SDFM story, DYRL designs."

     

    3 hours ago, TG Remix said:

    And on the topic of Zentradi ships, has there ever been official word or even estimation on how much mecha (battle pods and battle suits) each Zentradi ship can hold? Or even how much crew there is in them?

    Officially?  "Many" for the mecha.  No such stats (if 'many' even counts) for the crew.

    The production staff never got around to (or didn't even bother to) fill in those stats.

     

    Unofficially, there are many sources, but your mileage varies.  Fanky's doujinshi "Ships of the Galaxy #3: Zentradi Fleet"* is arguably the most complete and has what you're looking for, but some other parts of their publication are dubious at best.

    * http://www.cwo.zaq.ne.jp/bface700/16sum/gs03.html

  5. 2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

    Presumably the 1st Large Scale Long Distance Emigrant Fleet.

    Originally, the Minsk and Haruna were going to be attached, physically, to the Macross-class SDF-2.

    VFMF: VF-1 Valkyrie states that it (ARMD-9) and ARMD-10 (Haruna) departed in Aug. 2012 with a Megaroad class.

    As the Macross Compendium* states that Megaroad 01 departed in Sep. 2012, and Megaroads 02 and 03 were in 2014, it's fairly safe to infer that those 2 ARMDs went with Megaroad 01.

     

    * https://macross.anime.net/wiki/Megaroad_class

  6. 3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

    It seems to be linked to the region selection page, because if I get into the shop, then go to change regions, every region option except for US-English works fine.

    It sounds like it might be an internal DNS error.  Like the mistake is pointing at the CSS file and not the proper page that is supposed to render and display the code.

    The problem is that it sometimes takes figuratively forever to update DNS errors even if the fix was created within hours (or even minutes) after an error first appears.

  7. 18 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

    I understand now. And it's not too out of the ordinary to imagine the Thunderbolt and Vampire working side by side either.

    In some ways it's like the Macross universe's version of the USAF's F-16 vs YF-17 "competition"—with the F-16 being adopted as-is, and the YF-17 being reworked into the F-18 and being adopted by the USN, etc.—just replace the F-16 with the VF-11, and the YF-17/F-18 with the VF-14.

     

    * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YF-17

  8. 20 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

    So like how the Varauta government established itself under a name and follows it own rules (VF-14 Vampire's as a main fighter instead of the Thunderbolt, and their different uniforms and suits compared to the 37th Long Distance fleet if that's an indicator) but still follow UN regulations? Actually now that I say it, is it said what their ships from 7 are based off of any other pre-existing designs from the UN like their Variable fighters, or they're brand new designs?

    Regarding the VF-14, Macross Chronicle sheds some light on that: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/MCRmechanic/OTHERun04AVF-14Vampire.php

    * main fighter generally means the main fighter of the Unified Forces, not the 'main' aircraft used by a local government.

     

    As for the uniforms, the Variable Fighter pilots in the M7 fleet use something different from what the central Unified Forces uses.  Staff Officer Gunther is from the Unified Forces Headquarters—presumably the unit that he was attached to when he (and they) disturbed the Protodevilun during their investigation of the forth planet in the Varota system.

    So that may just be down to different branches/sections of the Unified Forces, and/or that each Emigrant Fleet is allowed to choose which uniform for the personnel under its jurisdiction.

    * the real reason is ease of differentiation in the viewer.  If both the protagonists and antagonists are all wearing the same uniforms and flying the same Valkyries, it would confusing to the point of baffling.  Kawamori-san (and Studio Nue in general) are really big on having visually distinct designs for rival forces (even down to differing silhouettes), and this is a good example of that.  The more extreme example is Kawamori-san replacing the VF-19 with the VF-171 in Macross Frontier because the VF-19 looked too similar to the VF-25!

     

    Anyhow, one thing to keep in mind is that the Varohta Forces that we saw in M7 have equipment that the Protodevilun modified and 'enhanced'.  The shapes of the real things are moderately to greatly different.

  9. 3 hours ago, TG Remix said:

    So to get the gist, even if numerically a New Macross battle ship is already constructed it could take a pretty decent long time for it to get itself an entire fleet to travel with? Sorry if I'm just repeating the same stuff again.

    Short answer: yes.  Not only do all the escort ships (both military and living support) have to be built, they also have to be outfitted, and then crewed.  During the process, several hundred thousand citizens (aka emigrants) also have to be settled into their new city.

     

    3 hours ago, TG Remix said:

    With the discussion of emigrant fleet traveling, I did think about the purpose of the SDFN class. They were built to investigate and secure routes for long distance colonization ships (Whether that's for the Megaroad's or New Macross'.) So I'm assuming if emigrant fleets weren't travelling to the core of the galaxy, the SDFN's (or research fleets anywhere) are for more potential planets outside? Maybe that would've helped the Macross 5 being jumped by Protodevlin, Or am I just overthinking a reason for Kawamori to have another SDF Macross in his story, lol.

    If memory serves, the SDFN class were produced during the initial years of the program.  Their main mission was to spread humanity out in the galaxy—just in case the Zentradi came back to finish glassing the Earth.

    The official materials state that they were the initial pathfinders (as you mentioned) for travel routes outbound from Earth.  It's not directly stated, but given the other details we know, it's fairly safe to say that they were also involved in the short range emigrant fleets (one may have even discovered Planet Eden).

    At some time after the introduction of the Megaroad class, the SDFN class was discontinued.  From what we can glean from Macross Frontier, some (perhaps all) were retired from the emigrant mission, and turned into the flagships of smaller research fleets, etc.

     

    Sadly, this is dabbling in the era that even Japanese Macross fans lament as they refer to the "great blank period".  There just aren't that many details about it.

  10. 5 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

    How to get to Earth from Frontier in less than ten years:

    1) Put yourself in a crate marked We'd like to speak with you about your Battle Fortress' Extended Warranty

    2) Have yourself shipped to Earth.

    Those notices take less than a week to get where they're going!

    In the Frontier context: they introduced the Super Fold Drive, which purportedly surpassed Fold Faults and reduced travel times to 1/10.  So, it's arguable that one could travel back to Earth in 1 year.

    Incidentally, Kawamori-san described the Macross setting (for Macross Frontier) as "the Great Age of Exploration with e-mail".  Hopefully that helps inform on not only the distances and travel times involved, but what he was shooting for with the Galaxy Network and the relatively concurrent dissemination of information (songs, technology, etc.) throughout the galaxy.

  11. 6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

    So is what I referenced... I think we're probably actually both citing the same source.  

    Kawamori didn't specify that it would take ten years for someone to get from Frontier to Earth.  Rather, it was ten years from the most distant emigrant fleets to Earth... but I guess you could day the value of "most distant" may have changed a bit when the Delta series was being written, though they kept the ten years.

    I haven't really dabbled in Macross Delta stuff, so it may not be the same source.

    Nevertheless, the 'same number, different meaning' mind-slip seems to happen more often than we'd all like with Kawamori-san and Macross.  In addition to the 10 years = changing distance, we have the 100 Zentradi ships thing (were in Buritai's fleet?  survived SWI?  went with Megaroad-01?).

  12. 11 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

    IIRC, what was said was that it was ten years to/from the farthest-flung emigrant fleets/planets... which tallies with Macross Delta, given that Megaroad-04 needed ten years to reach the Brisingr globular cluster.

    What I was referencing came from Macross F.  And as you know with Macross, it was most likely altered when Delta was released.

  13. 2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

    It is and it isn't... the various worlds colonized by the New UN Government's emigrant fleets are spread across a huge volume of galactic space, but it's not like the New UN Government has control over the space inbetween.

    Elaborating on this:

    There are 2 general types of Emigrant Fleet:

    • short range (within 100 light years of Earth)
    • super long range (beyond 100 light years, arguably thousands of light years)

    The short range ones started first, and one of those discovered Eden.

     

    Based on that, we can speculate that the region closest to Earth (100+ light years from Earth) is the most explored, most developed, and most colonized.  It is arguably comparable to the UFoP in Star Trek (but more like a collection of fully independent countries rather than under the control of one mammoth government).

    Beyond that 'core', it is literally pinpricks of human settlement in a vast sea of darkness.

     

  14. 6 hours ago, darkranger12 said:

    Has anyone made a NUN territory map? I know the delta one has a map but doesn't overlay the Milky Way at all.

    Way back when, I attempted to make some for ... a different project.

    http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Locations/Locations.php#intro

    The ones most relevant are probably Milkyway Galaxy Map, and Milkyway Galaxy Core Map.

    There's a lot more named stuff in the text below that section.  Just keep in mind that GREEN text is official setting, BLUE is unofficial, and black is neither.  The proximity of the named planets to Earth are best guesses based on what we know about standard Space Fold travel rates, and the locale's context (E.g.: places mentioned in the VF-X2 game have to be relatively close to each other, as the game takes place over weeks and months with relatively short* travel times.)

     

    Disclaimer: with all things Macross, the official setting materials are vague.  Many times they just mention "in the vicinity of the centre of the galaxy".  They make no mention of what quadrant or how high above or below the galactic plane those things are located.

     

    * at the opposite end, we have the Macross Frontier Fleet: it took 20 years to get to where it is at the start of the TV series, and the fastest trip back to Earth—with standard Fold Drives—is 10 years.

  15. 11 hours ago, TMBounty_Hunter said:

    Going through some older Model Graphix and found this in issue #222

    mg32_222.jpg.cf2956cb9acc6f311a0c2620c061dccf.jpg

    mg31_222.jpg.e8f7c2572d7353b69686415ba071c946.jpg

     

    Seeing that brings back memories!

    Way back when I made speculative stats for it.  ...way back in 2005! 👴

     

    Obviously, I had no idea how to read Japanese at the time—it clearly states (next to the big exclamation mark!) that the  General Galaxy VF/B-22a Jagd Vogel II isn't part of the official setting! 🤣

     

     

    Nevertheless, what I liked about the design is that it clearly takes inspiration from the FB-22 bomber variant idea that was floating around at the end of the 1990's.

    E.g.:

    fb-22-strike-raptor-the-stealth-bomber-r

     

  16. 54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

    Yes, exactly that. Was wondering if they were connected, but I guess it was just a coincidence. would there be any word on the Annabella Lasiodora as well? I heard VF-X2 and one Frontier story had two different background for it?

    The similarity most likely stems from being penned by the same artist around the same time (SDFM:DYRL: 1997.06, VF-X2: 1999.09).

     

    As for word on the Annabella Lasiodora—here's my translation of the relevant section in Macross Chronicle: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/MCRmechanic/Other06aHatchetAnnabellaLasiodora.php

  17. 47 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

    I gotcha, was making sure since there was somewhat of a Zentradi tank in the DYRL Saturn/Playstation game...

    You mean the 陸戦用大型制圧ポッド (Ground Warfare Large Suppression Pod), or what Kazutaka Miyatake describes as a "Four-legged Tank" (四脚戦車) in his art book.

     

    There are some pictures of it here (ignore all the text, as it's made-up baloney for the Robotech setting): http://www.robotechresearch.com/rpg/mecha/zentraedi/crystal_dreams/tolver_malgrin/tolver_malgrin.html

  18. 2 hours ago, TG Remix said:

    Though, I don't think there'd be any info (or non-obscured art) of this thing from M3, just that it's called "Zentradi Final Weapon."

    post-9033-1255400841.jpg.57ba5afbf3424534a75dc2799a4e62a0.jpg

     

     

    Alas, the only info about this appears to be what's been posted in Macross World (back in 2009!): https://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/29401-gattai/

    Regarding its name, I think "Final Weapon" is a mistranslation.  If Redwolf's post is correct, then it would be 最終兵器, or "Ultimate Weapon" (idiomatically: one's final trump card).

    IMO, I think it's used only in the context of the game (as in the final boss), not the Zentrādi overall, as the staff behind the various productions of Macross occasionally use descriptive names (E.g. the "8-Engine All-Wing Giant[-People] Bomber" [aka: flying wing] from Macross Plus).

     

  19. 4 hours ago, Bolt said:

    Interesting, indeed. I don't recall noticing anything like that..

    The first thing that came to mind is a pilot's finger light*.  However, I brushed that off for the same reason I didn't include finger lights in those stats: they're for map reading**, and not needed in fighters such as the F-18 and F-22 that use MFDs to display info.

    * https://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/13529

    ** that came from a list of gear helicopter pilots in Desert Storm carried with them in their suits, if memory serves.

     

    So, what's the glove doohickey for?  As it's only on the Windmere pilot suit, maybe it's a key fob to operate the Sv-262?  Or a controller for the pilot suit's jet pack?

  20. Macross Pilot suits: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/Flightsuits/Flightsuits.php#FSGeneral

    I finally found the time to update this.  In short, adding scans of the TSV-62 Mk.I and TSX-62 (from the VFMF books), and so on and so forth.

     

    However, while working on the Delta content, I spotted something perplexing about the Windermere pilot suits: they have some kind of electronic device on their index finger of one hand.  Was that ever shown being used in the series?

    Was it even depicted at all?  (the source is Macross Delta Character Design Works, and the accompanying text is mostly the designer's comments).

    Scroll down to the very bottom for what I could glean from the book about it: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/Flightsuits/Flightsuits.php#MD )

     

    And for those that have trouble accessing my site, the gloves in question:

    MdWindermereSuitGlove.jpg.21773ab2a8c312c09cc878a748f4f4a4.jpg

  21. 57 minutes ago, Thom said:

    SG-1 had a good formula. Individual episodes that had an overarching plot throughout the entire season. Same with Babylon 5. Looks like they'll be doing the same here, which would make me happy.

    DS9 also did it well—especially in the latter seasons.

    I'm also in the middle of an SG-1 rewatch.  I think one of the many things that SG-1 got right was the chemistry between the cast.  Hopefully, SNW has also done that.

    However, one of the other big draws of SG-1 is all the on-location filming they did of Vancouver and the lower mainland, which is where I'm from (more or less).  One wonders if SNW will do the same for Toronto/Southern Ontario.  ;)

  22. 21 minutes ago, twich said:

    So, let me see if I counted this right.....It has 6 of the integrated 25mm-35mm laser machine gun integrated weapons, Dual Quantum beam cannons, like the YF-29 turreted guns and although I cannot see them, I am sure it has micro missile launchers.  4 thermonuclear reaction engines.  I have not seen the 2nd Macross Delta movie, but I can see how a YF-29 was needed to deal with these.  While I love the VF-31A Kairos and VF-31 Siegfried, I don't see it compete with this level of valkyrie.  Are the powers that be equating this as a possible 6th gen fighter?

    Twich

    Close.

    Those 6 "laser machine guns" are actually 6 Lil Drakken drones (the pink parts, present in the Battroid and Fighter mode images, but missing on the GERWALK mode image, above).

    Each of those can separate and fly independently.  In addition to the "laser machine gun", they are each equipped with a pair of micro missile launchers.

    Does the base (main) unit have micro missile launchers?  It's hard to see, but it looks like there are a pair in what becomes the upper leg—just below the knee caps (visible in 2nd image above, not visible in the others).  There *may* be a pair of laser machineguns on either side just behind the cockpit, as well.  But those could just be the business ends of the dual quantum beam cannon turret when in Fighter mode.

  23. 3 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

    Out of curiosity. For avionics/aviation, which is more used for FCS? Flight Control System or Fire Control System?

    I can't say authoritatively, but context plays a strong role.

    For example: "the Boeing747 FCS" probably means Flight Control, but "the F-18 FCS" is unclear.

    3 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

    And I think ECM also makes more sense. Anyways, just name it what you think that fits.

    There's no other antenna on that part, is there?*  If not, referring to them as "antenna" should be fine.  E.g.: backpack cover antenna (L).

     

    * like the long-thin one coming out of the top in this hand-drawn image:

    https://macross.fandom.com/wiki/VF-1D_Valkyrie?file=VF-1D+GERWALK.gif

  24. 8 hours ago, GrampaStump said:

    Very interesting.  Those drawings could be very useful.  In this case, I don't think I'm going to call that part "FC" because I'd rather use a word, but its a good starting place.

    I looked at the schematics of an F-14 Tomcat (which I believe is the primary inspiration for the Valkyrie in fighter mode) and found something that looks very similar on the rear vertical stabilizers that are called the electronic countermeasure aerials (or ECM aerials, for short).  So think I've got my name!

     

    "FC"... I also don't like it, as FCS usually refers to "Fire Control System".

    The image source is the Variable Fighter's Aero Report article in This is Animation: Macross Plus.  Alas, that's what it is labelled as in Japanese (with no description of what "FC" stands for).  For better or for worse, there are known typos in that article, so I suggest taking it with a grain of salt.

     

    ECM antenna/aerial makes much more sense, all things considered.

  25. 54 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

    (...) I'm curious what else these are going to turn up in. (...)

    My first thought upon seeing the brick shape was "roof ridge".  So, architectural/building sets?

     

    Edit: apparently the technical name for what I'm referring to is "roof hip".  🤷‍♂️

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