The Saint

I've certainly got plenty of personal gripes about Frontier, but I think you're being a tad bit harsh, Roy. Not quite sure what the age of majority in North America has to do with the appropriate age for teenage relationships (none of which went beyond minimalist kissing) within in a fictional work from an Asian culture whose age of majority is 20. And age of consent is 13. That's an issue with modern anime fan culture and technology, not the show itself. That's like blaming Star Trek for Picard/Riker slash fiction on the internet. If SDFM wasn't so dated, you can expect plenty of Roy/Hikaru slash, too. Go, scary fangirls. Most of Minmei (Ugh, impromptu shower) and Mylene for in-your-face fanservice, and 50% of Macross 7 for pointless fillers? Maybe now I'm being overly harsh.

Ontario, Canada.

Walk away man, he's not worth it.

Thank you. Should've pointed this out earlier. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/sys...land-Image1.gif Comm antennas.

I don't really understand why Kawamori thinks the resurgence of super corporations post SW-I makes a lot of sense. The current corporate structures developed out of centuries of socio-political-economic foundations that were basically wiped clean by the Bodol Zer Main Fleet's bombardment of Earth. With the distinction/support between private and public wealth essentially destroyed, and the government becoming sole remaining stable provider, I would've expected something more like the United Federation of Planets to develop. In the rush to rebuild, it doesn't seem like it'd make a lot of sense to devote time and effort into re-establishing banking and self-owned private firms. Score one for corporatist culture mentality in modern Japan, I guess.

Because a sky full of tracers is much more pleasant to look at.

Are you in the navy? Are any of your male line a Phalanix system tech? Or a naval weapons architect? Most people in the armed forces don't know a lot about military affairs beyond their responsibilities. Sorry, but you don't get a free pass based on the credential of your family members. There is more to mounting weapon systems then vantage. As I said, mounting CIWS that high, which carries its own FC radar on its mount, creates problems. The higher the CIWS, the lower it has to depress to track a missile as it closes. That means you'll get the radar pointing into the sea, and the sea clutter will severely mess up the radar return. There is a reason why real world CIWS are mounted on the side of the hull for CVs. Much better vantage against sea skimmers, the primary threat. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by a great place to fire missiles. I assume you mean that where you suggest they put CIWS would also be great for missile launchers. Not sure all the sensors and comms would appreciate the hot gases, and I'm pretty sure the lack of flat deck space up there would make reloading an interesting experience. Finally, blindspots are a fact of life on any warship, but since they're ships, they can manoeuvre to unmask their batteries. And since apparently the Cheyennes can leave their nook and run around the deck, the Asuka doesn't really have any blind spot above the flight deck. I said FOD, Foreign Object Damage. Yes, CIWS fires penetrators, which uses a sabot to center inside the barrel. Those sabots are light weight, so they'll tend to decelerate pretty quickly once outside of the barrel. Mounting them on top of the island means a good chance of having a lot of them litter the flight deck.

I would, CIWS are typically mounted a little further away from all the forest of sensor and comm bits. At their location, 2 are shooting over the deck, discarding sabots would rain down and create a FOD nightmare. Also, all 4 would end up look "down" on sea-skimming missiles as they close, bringing sea clutter into view and messing up the radar picture.

How exactly do you figure that? Why would an aircraft need to accommodate a gun operating at a level that is self-destructive and tactically impractical? "We've included a useless setting in our accessory to your vehicle, and we demand that you build the rest of your vehicle to accommodate that one setting that you're never going to use"?

You're not going to get insane rate of fire from only 3 barrels, and the rate of fire can be mechanically or electronically moderated. In other words, just because it's a gatling-style cannon doesn't mean it has to fire at the highest possible ROF. Neither the M61 or GAU-8 are set for their highest ROF. Having multiple barrel isn't just for ROF perks, it's also about heat tolerance (a big issue in space). A gunpod isn't useful if it's designed to fire all its ammo in 0.5s and melt its barrels in the process.

No, it is not. T-80 refers to a specific model of Russian tank. Try to at least Wiki something like this before answering. Fighters today also don't transform, though... You can't keep using modern fighters as a comparison for why it wouldn't work in a fictional world with fictional fighters.... As KB pointed out, GAU-8's killing power is derived from going for the soft spot. Most people watch youtube videos of A-10s firing and cream themselves, without understanding the complexity behind what they're watching. How thin tank roofs (and certain spots on certain runs of certain Russian turret castings) are. How A-10s are actually suppose to shoot Mavericks at enemy tanks before getting gun happy. How Soviet AD would've killed so very many A-10s trying to use their gun if the balloon had actually went up, simply from the necessary flight profile for an optimal gun run. As for 20mm.... No, it does not shred armour very fast or particularly well. 20mm is a weak round, the Americans don't use it because it's the best, they use it because they've gotten used to it. Over in Europe, you're not likely to find a fighter gun under 23mm, with 27mm being very popular. It's also worth noting that most IFV don't use 20mm. The standard is 25mm, with 20mm being the low end for autocannons. Current world trend is towards replacing 20mm due to mediocre effective range and projectile weight. The world average for CIWS is between 25 and 30mm. The Americans skew it downwards with the Phalanx, everyone else is 25mm or higher. I don't think anyone has build a CIWS over 40mm. Unless you mean shipboard heavy cannons. I guess those are also autocannons, but they're more commonly referred to as artillery. Finally, a "55mm" round is missing an important set of number: "x ###mm". Without it, you can't tell how big the round actually is. Could be a stubby round for all we know.

I never said VFs are heavier than modern fighters, I was trying to say that in relation to the rest of the fighter, a VF holding a gunpod is about the proportions as a man holding a rifle. In addition, the strength of the VF must be taken into account, in addition to the stability of the gunpod itself derived from its mass. Considering that we don't have any technology close to duplicating the performance of actuator strength and structural integrity, I think saying that 55mm is too much more a VF is an underestimation of OverTech. Besides, they obviously have no problem on screen. Why struggle against canon in this case?

A 55mm round isn't that big when you consider the size and strength of the big robot firing it, plus the mass of the gunpod itself.

Death by Snoo-Snoo!

Because wireless isn't a more elegant solution, it's a more vulnerable solution. Having a frequency-agile wireless system won't protect you against a broad spectrum jamming intended on overloading your all receivers. In comparison, wiring through actuators and moving parts isn't that big a deal when you consider some of the stuff OverTech can do. The vulnerability of hard line to ECM compared to wireless is trivial, and you're not a giant EMCON headache. You can't build veritechs based on real science at all, so I think super dimensional effects wins this contest. Seems like Macross takes more real life inspiration of how things look and feel, rather than how real science works.

You can Faraday cage electrical hardlines to eliminate interference. If you're using fibre optics (which they likely are), there's even less chance of outside interference. Instead of magnetisim, why not some sort of unknown super dimensional science effect? Maybe it's the same science that's responsible for energy-converting armor. Inlay an energy grid in two opposing veritech surfaces that are meant to seat flush together in battroid mod. Channel power across the two and by the blessing of OverTech, they move towards each other and are held there by the same force that makes the armor stronger.

I think that if scarce resources was that big an issue, the fleets never would've been built in the first place. With so preciously few people left, if they couldn't be fed and sheltered day-to-day, you're not going to get them to build any fleet. There's no long-term survival without immediate survival. Considering how quickly the humans were rebuilding, I think that OverTech (and that factory satellite they stole) provided the necessary force multiplier for manufacturing, combined with the reduction in competition (6 billion less) for Earth raw material, made any scarcity issue by the time of MF unlikely. It'd make more sense to do a scarcity scenario immediately post Space War-I, though it seems the scarcity of anything didn't last for more than a couple years on screen. Remember that it's easier to maintain a higher standard on living on a planet than a colony. Being a largely closed system, a colony fleet has to be extreme frugal. I bet people on Earth don't have to recycle human bodies to keep their resource scale balanced. And MF would seem to support the idea that colonization is heavily about making it as a colony and depending on the planet-side NUN government. If Earth was stretched that thin sending out the fleets, the Frontier government wouldn't have regarded it as a central authority and effective projector of military power. Personally, I'm not interested in watching a bunch of people who simply thinks Fortress Earth would work out better than scattering humanity around the universe. That's a philosophical, maybe strategic difference of opinion. As an actual graduate of that general area of study, it's a lot more interesting to discuss at an academic level than watch the uninformed public be discontent about.

Pretty much, rehash Gundam story lines with veritechs. At least Char won't be such a weird name for a Zentradi.

And you haven't really explained how people "left" on Earth could feel legitimately dis-enfranchised without appearing like a bunch of whiners. As I've said, it doesn't seem like the colonization fleets were very discriminating about who they took. Without actual systematic discrimination of who goes and who stays, and without a clear indication that planet-side life is somehow lesser than space colony-life, neither side can legitimately claim to be better off than the other. Space War I basically hit the reset button for humanity, literally leveling much of the social problems created by centuries of cultural baggage, demographic distortions and unequal distribution of resource problems by bombing everyone back to the stone age. The positive rebound of humanity (in part thanks to OverTech) along with integration of the Zentradi post SW-I reflect the spirit of Macross, not a bunch of people discontent who think they've been shortchanged because they stayed home. There is no shame in staying home.

Bitter about what? Since we have no idea exactly how many people survived on Earth's surface post Space War I, we have no idea just how many people are "left behind" on Earth (or any other colonized planets). For all we know, there could be more people in space than on the planets, considering how big Frontier was and how many colonization and combat fleets are roaming about. Looking at M7 and MF demographics, it's not even like they're particularly choosy about who goes with the colonies. Any resentment resulting from an absence of actual discrimination on the part of the colonization selection process is just a bunch of people inanely whining about how their lives would be better if they had the courage to emigrate to a colonization fleet. Not everyone would want to join one of these fleets either. They're not exactly safe havens. At least you can build Grand Cannons on planets and your atmosphere isn't a privilege. Personally, I find the idea of any story based on resentment of being left behind to not reflect the spirit of the Macross series.

Considering the distance involved in SDFM, the faults were probably a non-issue. No one in SDFM was really observed/commented on folding more than a few light hours. The faults don't seem to come up in MF short of dozens or hundreds of light years. Bodol Zer might've came across some, depending where they were prior to attacking Earth, but who are they going to tell? There were no fold faults impeding M7 because the show's incredible obsession with music Basara's ego spiritia consumed all of the writers' attention neutralized them. Thus they were a non-issue.

It doesn't seem like OverTech FTL sensor has that great a range. Human might have travelled considerable distances, but the actual volume of directly studied space remain microscopic.

Not that Macross Frontier wasn't musically spectacular already, but was I the only one kind of sadden by the fact that none of the Macross Plus songs got a cover by Ranka and/or Sheryl?

They're probably garrisoning planets for the most part. Not that there's anything wrong with being assigned to home guard duty. I agree with Killer Robot. Forward swept wings and canards would serve system defence units that encounter an atmosphere on a daily basis, as opposed to exploration or colonization escort units that spend most of their time looking for planets with atmosphere....

External ordinance degrades passive stealth performance from certain angles, it doesn't completely negate it. Also, making external ordinance more stealthy is not that difficult, especially in space, where passively stealthy surface geometry doesn't have to compromise with aerodynamic limitations. And really, Nightmare Plus still looks like it's got all the correct angled sides to be notably passively stealthy. At least, low observation as opposed to full stealth or full visibility, anyways. The lack of/reduced number of internal micro-missiles bays on the Nightmare Plus might be extremely telling of its difference to the original Nightmare. If the Nightmare Plus has more internal volume to devote to other systems, it wouldn't require the same amount of miniaturization of its systems as the original Nightmare. Cheaper, bigger, simpler and bulkier engines in the Plus compared to more refined, sophisticated and compact engines (to make room for internal missile stores) in the original would certainly go a long way to explain any notion of downgrading. In addition, if the original Nightmare was more stealthy than the Plus, it'd have to have extensive passive and low-intercept sensor systems to support that. Dumbing down the sensor system in the Plus would save a bundle and be a downgrade that wouldn't be reflected in the vehicle's physical performance. At the same time, today, by the time a fighter design's prototype build finally rolls off the assembly line, it's already considerably outdated. At the rate which technology has been advancing in Macross, the time between the designs of the original Nightmare and the Nightmare Plus would've probably seen enough technological advances to make the two pretty equal in a straight-forward dogfight.