Valkyrie Driver

I have three things on the way...

I have no Idea where exactly my packages are, since they didn't bother to include tracking information. I even requested the customs numbers as per the USPS, but no dice. So all I know is they shipped around teusday of last week...

I can certainly understand why. It is a sleek and sexy airplane. But it has some horrifying design flaws. 1. The T-tail. The flying t style tail has issues with causing pitch up. Which results in a loss of control. Wouldn't be as much an issue in space save for thrusters tied into the control sfc. 2. Stubby wings. Those short broad wings, while certainly providing all the lift needed, severely limited the fighter in terms of maneuverability. It could go fast, but it could not turn well. In space possibly not a big deal, but longer wings would be better for leveraging a turn (given thrusters at the wing tips). This is the same argument against the "high speed" wing configurations seen many places in Macross. 3. The stubby wings limit the amount of ordinance that could be carried. The Starfighter could carry 2 sidewinders on under the nose, 2 at the wing tips, and 2 under the wings. 4. Since VF's are intended to function in atmosphere, it's important to note, that the starfighter had high wing loading. This resulted in poor maneuverability (due to the stubby low aspect ratio wing) and also resulted in higher t/o and landing speeds. 5. Narrow landing gear. Look up f-16 langing gear on google images and you'll see what I'm talking about here. The F-104 was squirrely to land due to the narrow landing gear. I know the F-106 could generate it, but I don't know if the F-104 had enough wing area to generate ground effect. That makes a landing very difficult to do well. I do have an idea for a single engine VF, but I'll be honest, the way I picture it in my mind, is a lot more derivative of the VF-22, and F-35 than the F-104.

Dang... Any suggestions for a name, I spent half an hour coming up with that, and it tapped me out... I mean I didn't want to have a classically military sounding name, because that's kinda boring, and not really representative of what the Macross colony fleets are supposed to be...

I still have a VF-171EX Alto on the way, as well as a Yamato tomahawk destroid, and a VF-25F Alto custom with super parts on the way. GAHHHHH!!!!! I want them to show soooo bad!!!!!!! I love my YF19, but she's a bit loose, and the frontier valks are kinda growing on me...

AMAZING IDEA!!!!!!

Yeah, I get what your saying. Honestly it appears that I'm doing it backwards, but the story and characters have always been there first, and it's evolving. I did the mecha off the cuff. I'm working on that part. I wanted to get the setting and mechanical stuff out of the way while it was fresh in my mind (Had a lot of that running around because of another thread). The setting will help he with the context. I want to explore some some philosophical issues with macross continuity that is only hinted at in SDFM. I also wanted to explore a bit of a love story, that involves the distinct cultures of humans and zentradi, and kinda explore a little of the cultural ethnocentrism that kinda happens, and the seeming segregation of Zentradi and humans. I know it's not really that way, because there is interaction and mobility between different aspects of society. I plan to explore the difficulties you might see between a Zentradi and human that are not willing to give up their distinct cultural identities. I also want to explore the world that is Macross, in a fleet that is in conflict with the NUNS, because of it's ties with the old UN Spacy. I want to explore a bit of the pacifist ideology that is present in Macross, from the eyes of a warrior at odds with a pacifist movement. I have character concepts, but I'm working on filling them out and naming them. It is a bit backwards as I'm posting it, but I assure you I'm putting thought into all of it. I also Chose a name for my fleet, and I hope it hasn't been taken. Macross Horizon. Please let me know if it already exists as I don't want to infringe any copyrights, or step on anyone's toes...

You know, on one hand FAST packs are so cool. What with the extra armaments and boosters. On the other, they're kinda goofy. I can see their use for Standby fighters, allowing them to intercept the enemy quickly. Or using them on BARCAP fighters to increase their dwell time on patrol. There are obvious problems with fast packs in atmosphere, even with the streamlined packs, in which case the minimal packs like for the YF-19 and the VF-0 (conformal nacelle packs) would probably work better. The VF-25 style packs would probably work well in atmo as well. If the 150 second burn time Sketchley mentioned is accurate, then it would seem that the boosters would be spent by the time they got to the fight. But again cannon kinda trumps that...

GAAHHHH! I want my 171 to arrive soo bad! It's killing me.

I haven't got to the characters yet. The mecha was easy to do off the cuff because It was already at the front. I'm thinking about characters, and I want them to be interesting and multi dimensional, so they require a bit more thought. Every good macross story seems to involve a counterpoint to the military, someone with a pacifist bent (Lynn Kaifun or Nekki Basara). So I think I'm going to include that as an element (maybe a pacifist movement in the fleet). I can do warriors as characters, because that's something I know well. I've seen war protests, and I'm familiar enough with pacifist philosophy that I could write that. Music is also a big deal in macross, as is the allure of culture, so I want to include those as elements. I need to keep my core cast of characters small, so it's easier to develop them. Before long I'll post a list of my core characters once I get them outlined. If y'all don't mind helping me flesh them out. Some of it is likely to be derivative of previous macross works.

It's been a while since I've sat down and watched anything macross, seriously, that it's hard to remember all of these things. So yeah, my wording is a bit poor in choice, and some of the details of shows I have forgotten. I do remember Kakizaki getting owned by Britai, and Isamu taking out that power armor with the bayonet. And that was really it until frontier (the whole brawl with Britai also counts under my previous statement). So the realism of dogfighting at range is there, and that is true about the point defenses and the ability to use the gun pod like a Phalanx/Goalkeeper CWIS. I recently went back and watched SDFM (I wasn't paying extremely close attention), and the Super parts didn't really factor in that much (grand scheme). Super Parts didn't play a huge role in M+ either, which I also watched recently (again didn't pay extremely close attention). The only productions I can think of where super parts have played a significant role was DYRL, M7, and Frontier. Granted that's a lot more total screen time than SDFM and M+, but the Valks in the earliest productions didn't seem to need those parts (unless they hadn't been developed at that point in SDFM, which just dawned on me). I guess that the super parts just kinda bug me aesthetically. The sleek lines of the fighter just kinda get ruined by putting those bulbous boosters on them (as I have my Super Parts displayed on the toys that have them...). It just seems that it shouldn't work, but I can't really argue against it because cannon contradicts me. All I can do is throw physics at it, and that doesn't really work because OT and reasons...

You know, I'm not an ace pilot either, though I do play one on TV... Joking aside, this is turning into a great thread. Keep it coming, I will say that some of the stuff is getting ridiculous, I know I said I'd open this to more, but the small stuff (every day items) is a bit silly, though I do see your point. I really like the destroids, they don't get enough credit. My honorable mentions Destroid Monster because it's massive. VF-11, because it's the coolest looking Cannon Fodder Valk we've ever seen. VF-1, because it started it all. It provided inspiration for the Legioss in MOSPEDA, as well as Several Classic Battlemechs, It was the G1 Jetfire toy, so yeah. a lot of my childhood was influenced by it.

Yeah. They just seem kinda goofy to me. You're right of course, the shows do seem to support the idea that you dogfight with the FAST packs. I like my idea though, as it could be just as much unit SOP, as anything. Then you have the fighters that were intended to operate without the need for FAST pack boosters (Y/VF-19, YF-21/VF-22S). As I think about what I want to do with this fanfic, I want to do familiar things, but put a realistic spin on it. When you think about it, FAST pack boosters are the same as supercruise, in my eyes. Supercruise is cool because it means your thrust to weight ratio is greater than 1, which means you have a ton of available thrust. However that means you can get to the fight quickly, but means nothing in the fight. No modern aircraft can maneuver at mach (granted Macross has better materials and some technologies to bleed off the g loads on the pilots). Even in space you have g forces to contend with, g-loading still exists, which means you still have to deal with angular momentum. The greater the speed the wider the turn radius will be, due to that pesky conservation of angular momentum. So while fast is good, I'd rather go slower and get the good shooting solution, rather than have to try maneuvering around a furball going a million mph with my hair on fire. Duke Cunningham, and my dad both said it, "You gotta fly one inch from out of control at all times." In the 1970's we saw a revolution in fighter design in the US. We got the F-14/15/16/18 designs. They were all designed with an eye towards maneurability, and the ability to dogfight, rather than pure straight line speed. These were air superiority fighters, designed to close with and kill the enemy. Previous designs were interceptors, designed to get to the fight, and kill the enemy from range with missiles. Macross hasn't seemed to have learned those lessons. Though we do see plenty of dogfights (probably due to their prominence in history). Besides a standby VF-11 loaded out for a scramble would be different than a VF-11 loaded out for BARCAP. That's just my take on it.

Yo dawg, I herd you liek missile launchers... So I put missile launchers on your missile launchers, so you can Itano circus while you Itano circus... Seriously though, one can never have too many armaments (provided you aren't exceeding max t/o weight). Sketchley brought it up that FAST packs are purgeable, and Seto said that it has been shown that fast packs don't hinder the function of internal bays. For me I'd go doctrinal with it. Much like how modern fighter doctrine says to purge your drop tanks before entering air combat, I'd expect that fast packs wouldn't be able to stand up to excessive maneuvering, given how weak the connection points look. I'd say the opening salvos would be from the fast pack armaments, until all external ordinance is expended. Purge the boosters and enter the dogfight. Conformal leg parts wouldn't need to be purged, unless the ordinance or fuel was expended. The External fuel would feed the boosters, and the pilot would use the main engines for the dogfight and return trip. Typical doctrine also says not to engage beyond-visual-range, but in space it would almost be a necessity, sing as how close you'd need to get to draw a visual.

I see what you're saying. Pallets on top of pallets is kinda silly. However, if you think about it, you just have more missiles for the Itano circus.

I'm still seeing it said that the MAXL variant is a limited production fighter. Now, nothing says that my fleet couldn't just use that spec as the main line fighter, but it seems to me that the MAXL is supposed to try to keep pace with the more advanced fighters, which is not something I want my cannon fodder mechs doing. I did however want my cannon fodder mechs able to transit atmo, so there's that reason.

I'll open this up to whatever. I did have Macross in mind though, when I started. I have to agree that the lanky frontier era mechas are a bit off. The VF-30 is pretty cool though. The frontier mechas do have the issue of hanging wings off the back, which is kind of a put off for me. I like the cleaner lines of the VF-1/11/17/171/19. The 19 for me was just the epitome of cool. The way Dyson made it move in M+ was just amazing.

The thing about using the MAXL custom, is precisely what you said, it was limited to special forces types (I want the VF-11 to be the main line fighter, that is, the Cannon Fodder mecha). I could just use VF-11D's for trainers instead of VF-1's, but it felt right for military academies (prep and post secondary) to use severely outdated equipment (I see ROTC cadets walking around still using old ALICE gear, despite the fact that MOLLE has been the standard for the last 14 years) so it does make sense (when you understand that nothing the military ever does makes any...). Since I'm going for a bit more realism in the way I'm going to write, I figure I can come up with a good medium, for pilots in my fleet, that way they're a bit better to compensate for the less advanced equipment.

Thing is, I don't know how many transformers fans are going to want these. They're all newer toys, movie era and animated. I mean the one's I'd want to be rid of. I want to keep my Bumblebee and Barricade, as well as the F35 (don't remember the name, wasn't in the movies actually). I'll dig them out and get some pictures up, or maybe I'll keep them for when I have kids...

I gotta figure out how to unload my transformers, now that I have a metric ton of vakyries. I don't even really know how many transformers I have...

I'm not too upset about this, but at the same time this has the potential for this to go horribly wrong. I'll reserve judgement though...

I like the Alto, and I looked up the armor parts with the toy, and you're right, crazy expensive. I'll figure it out. But I think I'll go ahead and get a renewal.

How about this peeking pose Or this one, Isamu just took down thundercracker, and Alto is providing overwatch...