rapierdragon

Well I was assuming that the usual advances in the tech had occured since SDF-Macross / DYRM / etc time. Don't forget, Macross F is due to have been launched from earth something like 25 years after SDFM, and at the point the series starts it says its like 2054 or some such (opening intro from one of the first three or four ep's I think... shows the 25'th fleet "launched" like 2025 and then it's spent around another 25~30 years to reach its current point in the galaxy)

They also explain that due to "power requirements" that long-range folds still aren't really possible. Seems the fleet's operational plan is: they fold, spend a few months restock resources and scanning planets and whatnot, and then then do the stocking/scanning thing again.

I'm guessing they discout the original massive Zent fleet fold activity from the original series as "one giant waste of power that left most Zent ships running on empty" (much like the first arc of Robotech). Cause frankly if they had that kind of power/fuel/whatever leftover then humanity would have already colonized every habitable planet in the Zent galactic database.

oddly I seem to recall it being on furnation.com .... though maybe someone had something like it on Deviantart or FurAffinity... feels like it was years ago that I last saw it (so it was probably done back before 1999)

lol... how bout "Macross Frowntier"

.... all the charactors can be sad (opposite of smiling is frowning)...

I think the whole time-delay thing as seen in some Macross Frontier is because many people forget what hyperspace or super dimension space or whatever alt.names for it really is like because they get used to the "idiot's" version that lower grade fiction tends to use. (Macross Frontier obviously using a higher grade of reality for its sci-fi FTL element).

Most people see this "extra dimension" or "fold space" as being rather flat, or perhaps semi-flat-semi-curved like normal space-time. For short-distances (Earth to Jupiter, Earth to nearby star-system) this may be fairly true. Over longer distances though all the small bumps and creases may add up.

Most people use the traditional idea... take a paper, mark "A" and "B" on opposite ends, and simply fold it over in such a way that A and B touch (so the ship, or for this example, a sewing pin, goes through really easily. After unfolding you see only two pin-holes, one at A, one at B). In this fold there is little to no time-dialation involved.

Take a piece of tissue (or paper towel, paper, or whatever), mark "A" and "B" and crumple it up randomly. Now try to find a direct A-B path. You might be able to, or you might find it pierces several additional layers. (unfold your paper and look. How many pin-holes did you get? 3? 5? 7+? 12+?). Now go try it with say a thin paper from one of those large 28"x48" or larger posters if you want.

So Every time the pin makes an extra crossing through the paper it is kind of like the ship left fold space, waited for its engines to recharge, then made its next fold. (I.E. in episode 7/8 where we first see Macross Quarter transform, they mention "having to make 12 quick consequtive fold jumps". ) Perhaps this is due to the ship's energy limits, or fold faults, or the fold drive itself can only jump x-distance so it requires being "refueled" or "recharged" (like the way we currently have to stop at gas-stations to refuel a car now in 2008 when traveling from say, Florida USA to Los Angeles USA (East Coast to West Coast of USA for those who don't know the city locations)).

Even the TARDIS in Doctor Who doesn't really have an "instantly there" factor (though it does sometimes for sake of moving the plot along). I mean it takes some 5-minutes for it to go from Earth to Gallyfrey (which is on the far side of the galaxy).

And then there's notarious jokes like in Red Dwarf where they reference teh Starbug craft as having a gear-box with "127 or so" gear positions. I mean really, any throttle capable of doing 0% to 1% lightspeed by shifting a mere 4 inches would mean that moving the damn control as little as a milimeter (1/64 inch or so) would mean the difference between stationary (0.000 km/s) and over 10 km/s. Even touching the damn control would result in turning the crew into strawberry jam.

Matt Shokoff

matsho@sympatico.ca

In essense, it was a kind of hybrid veritech jet/dragon/robot.

I forget now whether it featured a "western dragon like" form in place of the gerwalk (complete with tail) or if it was altogether more of a "robot dragon" which had the ability to compress/expand the neck and tail so that it had a fighter-like mode and a battloid-like mode.

Fighter mode:

Instead of the traditional veritech where the nose/cockpit area becomes the central body, the forward nose ended in a dragon's head with horns and mouth (which I think opened to shoot lasers or something) and the cockpit was further back (either in the neck or main body).

Gerwalk/dragon mode:

Arms and legs featured extra joints (so when in gerwalk mode it resembled a 4-legged dragon with 2 wings, something like Draco from Dragonheart or Sephera from Eragon).

Battloid mode:

Completing the transformation the neck shortened into the body, making the jets nose aka "Dragon's Head" into the battloid's head, the forward legs becoming arms, the rear legs becoming legs. I think the wings folded back (something akin to Wing Zero from Gundam Wing) and long dragon-tail remained a tail (which like in Dragonheart 2 had blades at its end, which meant it could be used as a whipping melee type weapon)

Either way, it was some really cool art and a very great concept, which somehow managed to bring a bit of a "zoids" or "anthropomorth/furry" feel to Macross/Robotech.

I forget if the artist did a few other animalized veritechs... possibly a griffen-form version in place of the dragon-shape gerwalk as a sort of "work up" explaining how the dragon-form came to be.

I think the explanation the artist used went along the lines of "the addition of foward legs in gerwalk mode allows the form to stake more stable footing for ground-tactics and landing on uneven surfaces. This did necessitate the moving of the main weapon onto the back of the gerwalk (as the battloid's "arms" served as the two foward legs) in place of having the gun on the underside or carried in a hand, but also provided additional stability and control when targeting/sniping enemies at long range while planted firmly on the ground."

Matt Shokoff

aka

Rapier Stardragon

matsho@sympatico.ca

rapierdragon@hotmail.com