ChronoReverse

I suppose you can see some resemblance because of the large wings but I don't really get the F-22 vibes from the YF-24. The F-22 doesn't have delta wings and it also has tail control surfaces (which I can't recall what they're called for some reason). The intakes on the F-22 are also a lot more "square" when viewed from the top.

Yes, the final episode shows the Macross 7 using the pin-point barrier system, with many more movable discs that the old three on the SDF-1 Macross. If I recall, there was about 9 or 10 discs visible at once on the Battle 7.

Thanks, I could've sworn I saw the M7 with PPBs so I thought it was a strange assertion to make that the NMCs haven't been shown using PPBs

Was the PPB shown for the M7 NMC?

I don't see how Alto arriving doesn't make sense. The Varja jumped ignoring the fold distortions and arrived. Alto jumped maybe an hour after the Varja jumped using the prototype booster that ignores fold distortion.

Anyway, while we got plenty of awesome, this episode felt a little bit packed and rushed. But who knows, maybe they have a lot for the second half of Macross F. It's not a terrible flaw though and it was nice how even though the Frontier Fleet was winning at the end, it didn't feel much like a victory.

Don't the 17's go about in GERWALK mode for a bit in the OP of Macross 7?

Interesting how the PPB punch is still there (isn't there no PPB for the 25's?). I wish there'd be more literature about the reason for the 171 as it's starting to look less and less like a cost-reduced version of the 17

I don't see the issue at all. Reaction weapons are super powerful, of course they'd work if the mini-macross cannon can work against a mothership.

Everyone else loaded up on the anti-Varja ESA ammo several episodes back. We already saw Ozma blow tons apart 7 episodes ago.

It's still a bit strange that the letters LAI is stenciled on the device. Is there a really a need for the corporate logo to be placed on such a device?

Why not the experimental fold booster had a catastrophic flaw that results in the dimension eater? Maybe that's why Luca said to be careful.

I HATE inertial damping, precisely BECAUSE it's the easy way out. It's an epidemic excuse that isn't even remotely plausable and removes consideration for the design to do anything other than look good.

And inertia damping automatically means you aren't being overly technical. It's the standard Trek solution to a problem: throw technobabble at it.

Unfortunately they're already in Macross from the very beginning. The moment you have "gravity generators" you automatically have a form of inertial dampeners.

Anyone else notice that little trick Brera used to get awayafter Alto got behind him? It had that weird pink trail thingy while it almost "teleported" into position (cobra?) at around 19:14.

This isn't like inertial vectoring nor it is merely overwhelming vernier power. Anyone have any guesses?

I'm just glad it really wasn't the SDF-1. It would have a monumental gimmick to have had the SDF-1 out nowhere without telling us in episode 1. The SDF-1 Macross is too big, too iconic and too important to not mention if it just lifted off, much less crashed/disappeared.

They're largely ineffective against Protodelvin but they'd almost certainly be useful against rogue Zentraidi.

I'm just thinking about the VF-22. It has the intertial vector control system, wing surfaces AND the verniers. The QRaus can maneuver despite its shape because of the VCS and verniers but that doesn't explain why it's so close to a VF. But it's only a tiny stretch =)

I wonder how it is that the QRaus can still handle so well in an atmosphere considering that they're as aerodynamic as bathtubs. In light of that I guess the 27 shouldn't have too much trouble. Perhaps it'll even the maneuverability edge.

In an atmosphere, wouldn't canards and wing surfaces be more important? Remember Milia and the VF-11 design?

I'd imagine that the VF-27 could brute force its way with the said 3D thrust vectors, but it does seem a bit unaerodynamic.

It's fridge logic. If the original design wasn't meant to transform, retrofitting the thing to be able to transform is a huge undertaking. It seems even more far-fetched than usual to think that they went "Hmm, we really need to connect these two points because the fold engines disappeared on us. I know! We'll try transforming the ship!". Surely it would've been easier to lay out long cables (considering they could rebuild a city so quickly) unless it was intentionally rebuilt to transform.

Huh. The humans gave the ASS-1 transforming tech? I thought they got transformation technology from OT which was derived from ASS-1.

You're right about the ARMD though, so that's a wash then...

Why can't it just be some other Supervision Army Gunship? It's not like the ASS-1 was unique.

Valkyries can VTOL in GERWALK and then transform back into a fighter. Problem solved.

Like I said, fighters of today do have eye tracking cameras, they just aren't used to the extent Macross has had them used yet. However they are designed for this purpose and they are probably working on a system that isn't as simple as it may look.

The issue isn't tracking the movements of the eye. That's simple enough and really is just an engineering issue. The problem is the selection process.

For it to be fine-grained it would be putting more burden on the pilot instead of reducing it. But if you add advanced heuristics then the control of the pilot is less. The latter is not a bad thing but it's the opposite of what's shown in Macross.

I've never liked the idea of the eye tracking thing even back in Zero and I still don't like it now as presented.

Unless the interface has access to your brain signals, there's no good way to indicate what you're looking at should be targeted. It can't be anything my gaze sweeps over since if I go from A to C, where the view is [A B C], I'll include B. Do I have to be careful to steer my eyes around that? How do you do that for a cloud of 50? Suppose I press a control to indicate what I'm looking at is to be targeted. Does that mean I'll have to do 50 clicks in a second on a single control? That's a lot of split second decisions. While flying and making a lot of other split second decisions.

What I could see as being useful is a combination of the eye tracking and a button on the controls. It'll be similar to drawing a box to select with a mouse except it takes your gaze instead. Instead of the far-fetched individual targeting of each missile in a swarm, clusters of missiles are treated as a single object in terms of selection and thus targeted. It would of course require refined computer algorithms to be practical but it would provide greater granularity without putting too much burden on the pilot's concentration.

WHITES?????? I hope you mean Yellows otherwise you know something that the rest of us don't!!!

Well, they may be considered yellow but they look more white to me =P

Gunpod = Rounds kill yellow Vajra, bounce off of Red Vajra

Missiles = Blow Vajra up if they hit

Clan Clan's Shoulder Cannon = Cracks the armor on a Red Vajra

Mikhails Sniper Rifle = Blows chunks off of the Red Vajra

Knife = Penetrates Red Vajra armor

I dunno.

The missile blasts in the first episode only made the Red shudder. Even when the bajillion missiles were unloaded into it, it didn't even get scratched. I'd say that missiles are only effect against the smaller ones unless they're reaction type.

As for the knife, it penetrates the gaps between the Red's armor but cutting the normal armor would probably take too long most of the time in melee combat.

With that said, the VF-25 was almost ineffective against the Reds in the early going. They were able to destroy the Whites though. However, the VF-171's couldn't even hit the Whites (when the missiles failed) so we never get to see if their gunpods could do the trick.

Later on, SMS was specifically loading anti-Varja ordinance.

With today’s technology, it’s easy to have a city-wide network of surveillance cameras using facial recognition software. Such a system would automatically pick up an individual that wasn’t registered in the population database and report them to the law enforcement authorities. We are already moving that way in real life, with UK for example having 40 million surveillance cameras! Just surprised that after Macross 7, such a system wasn’t adopted as standard on colony fleets to guard against infiltration by hostile forces.

Except not =/. There was a recent news article about a study which showed all the cameras in UK had pretty negligible effect on crime. And current facial recognition technology isn't quite as good as you're making it out to be. There's a reason why people are still paid to look for faces.

This doesn't discount the possibility of all this in a Macross future setting though and it does seem like a pretty interesting oversight.