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Master Dex

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  1. Master Dex
    MID-POST EDIT: I began writing most of the below before Seto posted, so he covers a lot of this ground, and typically, a bit better than I, but I'm leaving most of my original writing that doesn't mistakenly contradict his, as he certainly knows more (and we are in agreement anyway). My writing below does imply that having 4 engines isn't as important, which is kinda debunked by Seto already, but my point was more that it was the fold wave and/or FDR that is what made the difference in the YF-29 and 30 and why they had 100% ECA in all modes, and that part I was correct on. I'll accept that I underestimated the advantage provided by the extra engines, but I agree that they might not be enough alone to provide full ECA. And the burst thing was an honest mistake on my part, I simply was not as well versed in the nomenclature of the different engine versions. Thanks for the correction Seto. There is no sense in talking about vanilla YF-29 and 30 as those don't even exist. The point of both models is that they are special variants and tech demonstrators for the fold wave and FDR respectively. The 29 isn't special because it has 4 engines, it is the fold wave system. Though having 4 engines does contribute to its massive power for sure. The only possible exception to that fact may be the YF-29B Rod Custom that NUNS Havamal built on Oroboros because we literally know next to nothing about it except that it is based on the Frontier YF-29 design and is supposedly an upgrade to the design, and thus is likely even a bit more powerful. This implies it still has a fold wave system too. Plus, it is operating on planet with so much fold quartz around, it wouldn't be hard to imagine they were able to get some for it. The same goes for the YF-30, there isn't a vanilla YF-30 because it was developed to demonstrate the FDR, and there is only the one production unit of it. The VF-31 is based on the design, but it not a direct development from it. There may even be an as yet unrevealed YF-31 similar to how there was a YF-25 still yet based on the original YF-24 data. If there is a vanilla model to talk about, it would be a YF-31. That said, The VF-31 Kairos likely doesn't have fold wave and likely can't do full power ECA coverage, but the VF-31 Seigfried customs do and may be able to do that. They are simply just not as overpowered as the YF-29, and that is due to having less engines. Additionally, the VF-27 isn't considered to be super powered due to having 4 engines.. more like it has 4 engines because it is an egregious power waster. It needs the extra engines just to supply the power for the heavy quantum beam rifle it uses, and to achieve performance that outclasses the VF-25, which it only can achieve because it was designed to by flown by cyborgs who are more resilient than your average meatbag pilot (and that is with ISC functionality even). On a sliding scale of power rating, the VF-27 sits somewhere in between the VF-25 (lower) and the YF-29 (notably higher). 29 and 30 also use the same type of beam rifle, and the 29 has 4 engines to help with it as well, but both models also use dimensional energy conversion as well which just makes it easier (and may be the only reason the 30 can). I'd imagine the beam gunpod on the VF-31 is less powerful overall, but since Seigfrieds do have fold wave it might be just as good. The Kairos is the real question there, heh. Finally the note on the 24 is mostly just because it is implied that the Federal NUNS version might be as or more powerful than the YF-29, but we don't really know anything about it.
  2. Master Dex
    In general yes, the engines put more power to the ECA in battroid in almost all models. 5th generation models though, seen in Frontier and Delta, are the first to employ ECA in all modes though due to the Stage II Thermonuclear Reaction Burst Turbine Engines. Apparently though there is still a limit in fighter and gerwalk though and Battroid still gets the most armor strength (since Fighter and Gerwalk both use more engine energy for actual flight). Theoretically the battroid can trade some armor energy for faster movement too, and likely does on a whim during high speed maneuvers, and it is likely automatically snapped back up to full armor power when it stops thrusting so much. Automatically controlled by the flight AI I'd expect to the point where the pilot doesn't even have to think about it, they just have to know the more they move, the less protected they might be, but they also are harder to hit due to moving. It's a rather genius compliment and frankly is likely the basis of Max's entire combat skill. He just knows when he is at his most defended and when is the best time to be moving or not. For generation 1-4 this is mostly true of Battroid mode, and the other modes are best utilized primarily for movement or specific weapons (such as missiles) being better available. Gen 5 makes it a factor in all modes and technically adds a level of complexity to VF piloting that is pretty cool IMO. If anything it makes it even more appropriate to frequently mode change. Also worth noting are the outliers like the YF-29, 30, and perhaps the 24 depending on how monstrously powerful it really is. The 29 and 30 have special systems, the Fold Wave and FDR, which add more power to them, such that they can have 100% ECA coverage in all 3 modes, which means no trade offs. No one knows if the 24 really has that capability, but since the 29 with the Fold Wave system is likely the closest to matching the 24's supposed capabilities one could surmise as much (for the record, that is not meant to imply the 24 has a fold wave system or anything similar, it likely doesn't... but then again who knows).
  3. Master Dex
    On the subject of M7 ignoring Gerwalk, which is generally true save for when they were parking the VFs, part of it I think stems from the fact that Basara, while being skilled at flying the fighter and using the battroid, seemed rather awkward and uncomfortable in Gerwalk at least once or twice. I think he actually avoided it as a result. Why this would be any harder for him when he can operate the other modes I can't guess however.
  4. Master Dex
    Nah, Zero did a lot of multi-mode use in atmo, as did SDFM. Max was a frequent user of multi-mode tactics, which is one reason he was so good, and he did it in any medium (including inside ship hallways, and sometimes with a coat on, lol). Arguably, gerwalk is ideal for atmosphere as well, and only older battroids were really just for strict ground usage (since the intent was to combat giant ground troops). Frontier and Delta era VFs are so heavily powered and armed that even the battroid can handle itself mid-air, and was often more agile than gerwalk. Each mode has uses and there is no strict lane that defines them as only being good for one area. Though it is true that in space, you can go with pretty much any mode.
  5. Master Dex

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Master Dex replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    It doesn't seem to be based on rank outside of Delta platoon. Within where they all fly the Seigfried model it is, but the Kairos so far that we know is only the VF-31A. Thus, it is the only one to fly before the made the Seigfrieds to support Walkure.
  6. Master Dex
    M3 only gives the fighter mode dimensions but their battroid size comparison chart, which does not use numbers and is not really set up to measure heights makes it seem the VF-4 stands only a bit taller than the VF-1. However looks can always be deceiving. Since the VF-4 Master File book is only just coming out, it is possible these details were never known, but certainly that detail is included in that book so someone who has it, and can read it (like Seto, because we all know he will probably figure it out first, lol) can answer that properly.
  7. Master Dex
    Nah, I don't think Brinsingr NUNS bought the 25 from Frontier (after all, they are still using their 171s), which makes sense, Brisingr is galactic Rim and Frontier and the Vajra home is near the core. Plus it has been revealed previously the VF-31 is slated for Brisingr NUNS roll out eventually.
  8. Master Dex
    Like the Doctor said, the good things don't always negate the bad things but vice versa the bad things don't ruin the good or make them unimportant, heh. Something like that anyway. A bit much for one episode, lol. I know you are being a bit facetious but I doubt we'll see Federal NUNS bother to intervene. This whole thing can be solved locally and that is likely how they see it. Still just a border dispute. Now if Roid's galactic plan did start to work.. then they'd come and curb stomp. I doubt we'll get that far. If only though, heh. Imagine the Bandai sales, lol.
  9. Master Dex
    I generally don't understand why people keep bringing up Mao as an option. It isn't just implied she died in the Vajra attack, it was pretty much spelled out. Besides.. people make comments about how old Max or Millia would be... consider Mao! She was already in a wheelchair by the looks in Ranka's flashbacks.
  10. Master Dex
    When it comes to explaining why Q-Raus are not actually all that amazing, we can simply explain the reason of why almost all Zentradi mecha before SW1 are somewhat lackluster. Zentradi don't design their own stuff, they don't innovate, they don't even know how to repair. They use designs that the Factory Satellites are programmed to build that have been in service since the days of the early Protoculture wars, or at least by the end of the Supervision Army war before the Protoculture finally died out. So they are just re-using old designs which while well made, have basically not improved in over 500,000 years. This means all Zentradi success is based on their battle acumen, and use of superior numbers and firepower. The fact that certain Q-Raus are seen to look super powerful can only be because of their exceptional pilots. The fact is, until the UN Spacey got to redesigning and upgrading it later on, Zentradi tech was advanced, but it is also ancient and doesn't scale well with human design innovation which made improvements to designs as SW1 went on even. Don't get me wrong, humanity was still severely under-equipped to handle the Zentradi and never stood a chance really (the survival they got at all is really a stroke of extreme luck that culture shock made such an impact) but mostly due to Zentradi being forever warriors and also they had millions of ships each with tons of battle units at their disposal. It simply did not matter if their tech was old and clunky with those numbers. In a one of one though, Earth fighters generally fared pretty well each time, almost superbly. Hikaru wasn't much of an ace pilot really, he was a lucky guy. He did good enough but he was pretty new to it all compared to Focker with his years of experience. Hikaru still wiped up many Zentradi though. Max of course was newer but Max is also a genius and a natural so he doesn't really count.
  11. Master Dex
    Brera's poorly animated fight with the Hydra was actually in episode 10, during the shooting of the Birdman movie.
  12. Master Dex
    It isn't listed anywhere though, including MMM, so it might just be a speculation or hearsay.
  13. Master Dex
    Wilder might be more nostalgic than even NUNS are about video tapes (though let's be honest... Wilder owns that movie on video tape probably, perhaps even purchased from Gavil. THE BEAUTY OF OLD FILMS!!)
  14. Master Dex
    My entertainment on this forum is partly waiting for Seto to post anything in detail. It is always fun to see him get into the gritty details. Having self-translated archives of facts to back up his stuff is of course the boon to his ability to do this, and it is why I pretty much straight up ask him things now. This entire debate though, despite being able to be solved by facts as such, seems more or less about whether the VF-31 is actually an all around better fighter than other 5th generation models. Not counting the YF/VF-24 which is likely Superman compared to other 5th Gen's Captain America (yes I am comparing between DC and Marvel, get over it), and being considerate to remove YF-29 and YF-30 for their obvious advantages (and because neither can be mass produced as is), this really comes down to comparing the VF-25, VF-27, and VF-31 (side note, did anyone do anything with the number 28? I know Olympia fielded a YF-26 that lost to the YF-25, but I've heard nothing of any 28s) The VF-27 is so heavily specialized for a particular type, cyborg pilots almost exclusively are needed to fly it, that it also is technically not a fair assessment for general use. So really, for comparing 5th gen mass produced VFs we just have to decide if the VF-31 is better or on par with the VF-25. I personally find the design more aesthetically pleasing, and the YF-30 inspired transformation scheme seems more robust to me. I do not recall if VF-25 has any internal missiles without super parts or not. There is one questionable scene in Frontier ep.1 that implies it, but it is never really seen to fire any without extra parts. So the 31s light missile count does give that an advantage perhaps. I think I am more with Seto on the weapon load out placement choices. Arm cannons should be beam weapons since we know it works. A real question worth asking anymore is with the increasing ubiquity of smaller beam weapons and now heavy quantum beam gunpods, is there really much advantage to a projectile gun much anymore? Maybe as a backup? The 29 sure doesn't seem to be hampered much with only its hip guns (I know there is a slight curiosity on if the ES-25As are the hip guns same as on the 25 or if the 29 has some weird head guns, but I'm more inclined to think Chronicle made a typo there). And to credit the hip guns on the 25 can be either projectile ES-25A or the ROV-25 beam guns so the VF-25 can choose to go all beams save for its gunpod. (Branching off there, assuming the 29s hip guns are the ES-25A as makes sense, though it is not stated, it can probably mount the ROV-25s as well.) I can see uses for a traditional projectile gunpod still perhaps... and the modular weapons pack of the 31 does imply the option that a pack could exist that outfits it with a projectile gunpod instead of a beam gunpod. However, we have seen absolutely no other packs fielded by Xaos so we can't really confirm that yet to my knowledge. Personally, I'd just keep a dedicated gunpod of some time like the 25 has and then still use the modular pack however useful for a mission, whether with additional beam gun or otherwise (such a configuration would be closer to the YF-30's setup). So overall, the VF-31 has a great modular system that gives it flexibility, but the 31s used by Xaos seem to squander that flexibility, partly because their mission doesn't call for it (thus wasting the potential of the fighter), and because they probably don't have access to all the things that Brisingr NUNS would use once they adopt VF-31's (which hampers them just as much) again because their mission is different from the military. SMS on the other hand was sold as doing the military job without red tape and liability, so they got all the toys Frontier NUNS would also use and they used it all very eagerly and effectively (and they are also likely just a better run organization). So SMS may have had a less modular VF in the 25 but they utilized is way better than Xaos uses the 31. Pros and cons weighed, the 31 can be a better investment if used to its potential, it is currently not. At the same time, the 25 seems to have some smarter design choices on it. More Shinsei blood will do that though, Surya Aerospace is still new to the game after all.
  15. Master Dex
    There are a lot of hints about the specs of the YF-24 from official sources that claim the pared down specs the emigrant fleets got was heavily reduced in capability. Thus the likely VF-24 Federal NUNS has produced by the time Frontier made the 25 is likely a total monster of power. NUNS traditionally uses the benchmark of being able to combat a Zentradi fleet (understandable considering history, they likely want to ensure Earth is the last world to face such a glassing), but it is possible that the discovery of the Vajra in the 40s spurred some of it too. The YF-29 which is the closest an emigrant fleet likely got to the 24's true level was designed precisely with Vajra in mind after all. The difference is, Federal NUNS can fund such a crazy fighter. I think the story says that Shinsei sold the YF-24 design on the ability of it being able to do short range folds (with a booster surely, unless that is another innovation that Federal NUNS has classified) straight into enemy fleets, wreck the place from the inside, and then fold out so the allied fleet can mop out with little resistance (or Macross cannon everything else since it can charge while the 24 is rampaging).
  16. Master Dex
    So what exactly is this then? A book with pretty pictures, info, or both?
  17. Master Dex
    What, you don't believe a ~400m transforming robot/ship can sky surf into a planet on a piece of debris in perfect sync with a musical number? Lol, admittedly, I was a bit taken aback by that part. The craziest thing there though is not that they do that.. but Wilder calls out Big Wednesday formation and all of the people, sans Cathy, react like "oh this thing" instead of looking shocked or freaked out. This gives the implication that these people HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE! When!? Why!?
  18. Master Dex
    I too am having trouble believing this can simply be 20-something episodes long.. but I also know it has happened.. which is kinda depressing the way they are pacing it. This pacing would be a lot more excusable for a 3 or 4 cour series.. but as is known right now... I'm left wondering how they decided on this.
  19. Master Dex
    Who knew the NUNG was so nostalgic? lol Or maybe it is just Gavil that prefers outdated formats. "The BEAUTY of scan lines!"
  20. Master Dex
    Macross is one of the only Sci-Fi franchises where "Punch it in the face with an aircraft carrier" is considered a sound military tactic, lol. Whilst singing of course.
  21. Master Dex
    It is true the Zentradi were directly created by the PC for a specific task, rather than the more whimsicle "let's screw with DNA of stuff here and see what happens" approach of other species. But Since Zentradi were just meant to be a warrior slave race.. not really heirs of anything... well one thing actually. They are the heirs of the Protoculture's biggest screw up.. since their standing orders are to find and eradicate Supervision Army ships and members, and apparently, some still exist out there.
  22. Master Dex
    Sheryl's earrings are definitely grandfathered in, as they are a family heirloom dating back to her great grandparents. In the blu-ray version of Macross Zero they edited the earrings into the shot where Mao Nome is looking at the small shrine to her and Sara's parents. It is likely the fold quartz for them was found on or near the Birdman's body originally and was created by the Protoculture rather than being of the naturally produced kind the Vajra make. Certainly, no one on Mayan had any idea what potential those stones had, and Mao kept them and passed them on until Sheryl got them. As for when fold quartz was identified for its properties, likely around the time the Vajra were first discovered in the 2040s, and Frontier and Galaxy were the first fleets to make effective use of it I bet.
  23. Master Dex
    Glad to see my can kicking was well placed. That was a wonderfully succinct answer. I remembered about half of it from before, heh. I guess then that super dimension space is basically seen as a pocket universe linked to ours. String and M-theory posit 10 or 11 dimensions total but with most of them (excluding the 3 spatial dimensions and time) being incredibly small, curled up, and not as noticeable to us in our reality. Some theoretical physicists have posited the idea there may be a sister universe to ours where the reverse is true and those dimensions are fully expanded, and perhaps their smallness here is due to bleed through, that could mean that super dimension space is something like that. Alas, like the rest of String and M-theory, while the math works out none of it can be physically tested with modern technology so we have no way to know for sure if any of it is true. I have alternatively considered the idea that it might be the Macross explanation for dark matter and dark energy, qualities we know to exist now in our universe but cannot yet quantify. Especially with dark matter appearing to have a lot of mass in the universe that affects us but having no form or interaction at all beyond that. Almost sounds a lot like that heavy quantum. Maybe most of what we call dark matter is just hiding 'somewhere else.' All conjecture of course, but I enjoy considering these ideas.
  24. Master Dex
    I could try to answer this one, and might do a half decent job... but I admit I am still piecing it all together from sources with more complete information than I've had. Suffice it to say, the answers are more often than not in supplementary materials to the show like Macross Chronicle, the various valkyrie Master Files, etc. I think there are better people that can give a good answer *kicks can down to Seto* I know fold energy is energy from Super Dimension Space, the realm ships fold through to travel faster than light, but I am not always entirely aware of what it is. Like any FTL in science fiction.. there is a bit of handwavium, unobtanium, and technobabble inherent. The better scifi tries to have more unobtanium (things that don't exist yet but don't entirely violate known physics and could exist) than the other two (handwavium being pure made up stuff for sake of plot, and technobabble being large complicated descriptions that often don't actually mean anything. Star Trek is fond of the latter, Star Wars thrives on the former). The ratio of the three is what determines when something is hard sci-fi (more realistic in a sense) or not. Macross tends to play jump rope with Mohs Scale of Sci-Fi Hardness in that at times it goes to amazing lengths with its supplementary information to be realistic. All the information of Valkyrie specs is done in amazing tasteful ways and uses numbers that make sense and mean things in real world terms. In a sense all Valkyries are unobtanium because if we could construction compact fusion engines similar to the reaction engines they use, such a vehicle would not be impossible to build given time, desire, and money (it is highly unlikely we would ever need to make such a thing or want to spare the expense from political and economic standpoints though. They exist in Macross because they are useful there. In our world they'd be superfluous). Super Dimension Space exists on the edge of handwavium though in that the details given make it more clear cut than simply 'magical hyperspace realm that does what we need it to do' but at the same time it is something which cannot be proven to exist in terms of physics so technically still counts as something made up for the plot. As a result, while a lot of Fold stuff is rather tastefully done and is often consistent which is good for the story but it means there might not be a clear answer as to what fold energy really is (and I could be wrong too hence my earlier can kicking). This is just my take on it.
  25. Master Dex
    It might not look as cool or make a unique enough toy to sell, lol.
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