Noyhauser

Uhh I chose the the VF-9... and not because of FSW.(not a big fan of FSW as we all well know) It just reminds me of A-4 skyhawk which I always thought was a neat plane. I think smaller fighters in the future are an interesting concept

What japanese anime doesn't fan service young girls? There are whole series that are based off of that premise. That doesn't even talk about the manga industry (Shounen anyone?). If you think Macross was Bad, go and watch Chobits... the main character wasn't even a HUMAN teenager and she was fanserviced at least once/eight times during an episode.

Man I loved the Assault gunboats... Looks like your #$@ is about be handed to you? Alt-s baby Is your star destroyer is at 0% shields and 2% health and a squadron of Ywings hyper in on the opposite side of the map? Alt-s baby Is that Calamari cruiser at 20% health and you are out of heavy rockets, with 30 seconds till it hyperspace? Alt-S and Mu and Rho squadron hyper in to save the day. Also I was being semi sarchastic about the Tie Defender and how they managed to lose the war. I just thought it was about the coolest design ever. (edited for more coolness with the Assault gunboat)

yeah... the space shooter has died out... and I never noticed. I still play Xwing vs Tie Fighter. Its a great game, especially with Balance of Power. Man do I miss Tie Fighter though. Did anybody remember when you first got the Defender of the Empire? L33T!!!!!!!!!!!! All you could think was HOW DID THE EMPIRE LOSE WITH A FIGHTER LIKE THIS????? I don't care about the force, you couldn't dodge the bloody thing. And that wasn't the end of it... not by the long shot... then the Greatest feeling of all... (after you cleaned up the warm feeling in your pants... ) The Missile Boat. 50 Advanced Concussion missiles. Man I don't know if the Rebel fleet had 50 A-wings total to be hit by the missile boat. It was the evilest piece of machinery ever (brought to you by the manufacturors of the Death Star and the evil looking lighting from the emperor's hand) anyway its one of my favorite child hood games, and I can't play it anymore. HAs anybody figured out how to make it work on modern machines?

For a kit like that I wouldn't pay over 70... especially for the work that would be needed to put into it to make it good. When was it last produced? (any hope for a recast?) The Suchilado is basically a J7W shinden with a enlarged nacelle for its Turboprop... so If you really wanted to kitbash it it would be possible. Another random kit that I would like to see is the tank killing helicopters from Patlabor, the JSDF used. Anyways I'll stop drifting the thread with my aimless thoughts.

Wait, is that the main fighter that they use in the northern forces, the turboprop fighter? I always wished I could get a model of that, Its about the l33test design EVER for a fighter. It looks like a very rough cast, do you have to build the cockpit yourself?

I recently won an auction with a VT-1 (among a Strike Valk and a YF-19). But as much as I do like minmay and all I think the orange scheme is god awful (what I wouldn't do if it was an elint seeker or a Battroid) Im at a loss what I can do with it. Im thinking some kind of Customization, Is it possible to make it into Gerwalk with the VT-1 Kit (it might make it more impressive... ), or can anybody think of some squadron ideas... (high speed VIP transport maybe?)

Actually I hate battletech, with a passion. I've been a part of the Heavy Gear Community since its inception in 1996 (not the computer game, but the miniature game from DP9) and if you know that game, Gears are nothing more than a new type of AFV that get ruined by tanks, and infantry have a very very good odds against them. And I have a good conception of what modern warfare entails. I am currently doing paid research work on military procurement processes, my friend did work on the effects of DU ammunition on tanks in Kosovo. I just like extrapolating these things because its a fun getaway from work, but I enjoy doing it more for Heavy Gear because that universe bases itself off of real technology and tries to simulate a realistic situations. Macross uses uber technology (like Over technology) which is like a religion in the sense we don''t actually have a clue what its actually capable of doing but we have to believe it anyways. Don't get me wrong I love Macross, but its a lot harder to extrapolate what stuff in the universe can do. Give me an equivalent of what a micromissile can penetrate in Rolled Homogenous Steel and what hyper carbon steel is equivalent to in RHA, and we can have a proper argument. You ask me where is my evidence Nied? where is yours? we never see Infantry ever take down a foot soldier. Max doesn't even shoot a Zentredi with his new overtechnology gun ( he shoots the wall panel to close the door.) Micromissiles don't even seem like a major imporovement anyways. Also kickback is an important problem in AAGMs. First you have to ensure that your round doesn't fry the weapons operator. Most weapons use a intial kicker charge, which pwops the weapon far enough away from the operator so the main rocket doesnt burn the operator. This was a problem with the Dragon AAGM which could not be used in bunkers because the blowback would severely burn the operator. It must also make sure that the kickback isn't so strong that the operator jar's the weapon while launching shooting it into the ground or up in the air. This puts a major limit on the size and the weight of the weapon. I''ll admit this though, Since Kawamori never does explicity mentions or shows the effect of infantry our conversation is purely academic. At best we can use circmstantial evidence to build up circumstatial cases that will never be proven in a court of law.

My whole point with overtechnology is not that it cannot be applied, but the relative gains that you recieve out of applying such technology is minor when you compare that to larger units. Think of it this way, Macro scale weapons are now X5 more powerful when combined with overtechnology (Gunpods missiles, beam weaponry and most importantly armor) Micro scale hand held weapons only increase X2 with overtechnology. That puts human size weaponry at a distinct disadvantage. See I always wondered why create a macrosized race like the Zentredi? It makes sense if the most efficient size to make weapons and armor is larger than what humans can manipulate. My guess is that the protoculture created the Zentredi to snuff out colonial strife with armor and weapons that normal protoculture sized beings weapons could not harm. Its not like today when one guy can waltz to the top of a building and shoot a RPG-7 into the engine deck of a M-1 and most likely disable it, or a guy with a Javlen at 500 meters blow up a tank. I'd say that infantry weapons in the Macross world can nolonger damage their tanks of the day (VFS) Look at micromissiles, none of the weapons carried by the VF-1 could be micronized to the point where they can be carried by a human (more or less launched by one thinking about the kickback and blowback). Regardless even in 2010 it takes vast swarms of missiles to hit and take down a VF. And by 2040 we have pinpoint barrier technology which just makes VFs nigh invinicible to infantry weapons.

no, I don't think that miniturized weapons could be advanced appreciably with overtechnology, I already wrote about this earlier, please my extensively long post above (and I don't want to rewrite it all again).

If you read my long post, I explain why Infantry can't take out destroids and battroids ect ect. I think Overtechnology has made mecha nigh invincible to ordinary humans. Satchel charges may work on a current tank, but the armor on a VF is probably far more than on a tank (because of the wonders of Overtechnology), and how are you going to get a sachel on a VF? Just watch the MAcross Plus fight scene in either episode 2 or 4, now imagine yourself with a bag of explosives trying to put that on VF, let alone a critical part... good luck. Any VF moving at any speed would be nearly impossible to hit. I think Infantry if anthing is there to make sure the population can be controlled, not taking on the big boys like VFs.

some fighters have reversable control systems so that lefties can switch their control stick to the other side (I said some, the F-16 is not one of them) The use of the sidestick does not seem to interfere with left handed pilots though. I don't think you would see left handedness be a factor for piloting a Valkrie, I think that most of the movements would be controlled by the computer (except for the macro stuff like aiming a gun ect) , so the fighter would automatically carry the gun on the right hand.

you mean not for a hundred years as in two weeks ago??? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3186850.stm

Brain Control system of the YF-21, it may have some pitfalls but in the hand of an expert it gives far more ability to control a fighter than any other system. you just have to think of what you want and it happens, exactly as you want it. You can't get that from any other conventional system.

What game is the first destroid from?

Well it just wraps it all up into a nice little bow if it is a movie in the universe... and we all like nice little bows now don't we?

I think of Macross II as a DYRL type movie in the macross universe. It would make sense since they use its songs in Macross 7.

I think there will be a Vf-11, but not before a YF-21 and 19 battroid come out. Why did they build the 19? Because you have to look at what is going to sell in Japan. Altough there are limited number of variants for the 19 (and they already put out the only one, the VF-19A) the YF-19 and 21 are vastly popular, and will sell more than every other kit with the exception of the VF-1, and the VF-1 Strike. Why? because they are iconclastic Macross mecha. For people who buy only three Hasegawa models (which would make up like 80~90% of the market), i'd bet they would buy the YF-19 and two VF-1s. In all the strories the VF-11 play a minor role, so few people are interested. My guess is that the VF-11 will come out after the VF-19/21 will come out in battroid. they will licence out variants a resin kit to make the 21 battroid a 22. The VF-11 will come, probably with fast packs. Full armor will most definately be a resin kit. They still have quite a long time until the Macross Zero movie line ends, so they can still use that as promo. edit... now that I think about it, the 22 batroid will probably be done by Hasegawa as well.

I probably put more words to print about why I love the YF-21 than all the essays papers and articles I did in University combined... You can't argue with an UBER fighter with all the bells and whistles. Its like the difference between a nice sports car and a Maclaren F-1. I also thought the YF-21's Battroid mode is the best looking out of all the other fighters, it looks a lot more elegant and graceful than the other VFs (long thin legs, thin arms and a organic looking structure... by far the best.

There was no extra fight scenes just waay more fight futage, especially with Guld Vs the Ghost. Its a waaaaaaay better ending for guld, and a way more exciting scene.

Okay a few thoughts... (from a strategic analyst point of view) I think the UN spacy (I speak of the UN Spacy as including all arms of the UN forces) after 2030 started to realize that they going to see more and more renegade colonies and have to deal with them some how. Now I remember in the English version of Macross Plus Episode 1, the YF21 and 19 were designed not to carry reaction weaponry because it would cause a political incident. I'd say that constitutes a major conceptual shift in the thoughts of the defence planners at UN spacy. For the 30 years previous, UN spacy main overriding goal was to protect the colonies from another massive alien invasion, ala SW1. But by 2040 we see the UN spacy engaged in a "Hot" guerilla war (remember even Low intensity wars are hot when you are engaged in battle) against Anti-UN forces. Look at the events depicted in VFX-2, The UN Spacy is almost taken down by the Vindirance terrorist group. Therefore it is quite obvious that there is growing concern that the threat no longer from outside, but more from within. Now you are all probably wondering where I am going with this. If the UN spacy has been primed for taking on a massive space invasion, typically you want ships/fighters able to inflict mass casualties against their opponents. Like we all saw in DYRL and the TV series, Nukes, massive missile barrages containing nukes, Big missiles with big Nukes ect and so forth. But after 2030, the explosion of colonies created from the Megaroad/Macross expeditions, smaller colony expeditions (Eden), and the claiming of territory inhabited by other races (Zola) all put additional poltical pressure on UN Spacy. I'm guessing that this is a federal relationship between associated colonies and UN spacy (some sort of Tax that is paid to the UN spacy or the colonial authority to maintain the UN Spacy and other projects), so you can't do some things anymore, ie cause massive damage to a colony world just to deal with a renegade leader, or group. If that did happen, Colonies would withdraw from the UN system and that would be bad. The UN spacy needed something more surgical to deal with these situations. Now back to my earlier point about the YF-19/21; Project supernova was in my mind designed so that the UN spacy could use these fighters effectively considering this new security enviroment of colony policing (peacekeeping). Examining the capabilities of the Zentredis, the VF-11 was sufficient because they could beat regular zentredi forces with the VF-1, nuclear missiles and Minmay. But the VF-11 was completely worthless in the new security enviroment because it could not carry out precision strikes in builtup areas (its missiles were in its fastpacks) and would get slaughted in a hard slog in a city. The VF-11 was also getting outclassed by the latest generation of Anti UN fighters. The 21 and 19 could do high speed precision strikes on high value targets within colony worlds without causing massive civillian casualties. Its a lot like now and the use of Precision Guided Munitions like the JDAM and Paveway series to take out targets without major collateral damage to civillian targets. Micromissiles probably have unbelievalble accuracy when enhanced with Overtechnology, and could do this role well. Look how easy it was for Isamu and Guld to penetrate the Earth's defence network, and in the end, disabled the whole Macross Network in the SDF-1... Excatly what the UN spacy wanted it to do. In my mind thats why the Ghost Lost... the ghost has no emotion, it can't make the split second decision of the political consequences of its actions. Uhh do I blow up this hospital because its eminating terrorist signals? Try to program that into the ghost, I dare you. Also ghosts can't have an in city presence. I agree with the earlier posts that troops are needed, but the Tank at every corner does have an important role. For example look at how Dutch peacekeepers were disarmed by Serbian forces in the Former Yugoslavia (especially Srebenica); they did not have any heavy weapons and the Serbs walked in with T-55s and disarmed them, then you will realize that some hard military presence is needed. A meanicing VF-11 in Gerwalk on every street corner does have a pacifying effect on a population IN CERTAIN SITUATIONs( this is a qualifier, this is NOT a post questioning what is going on in iraq, I'm just saying that the Ghost cannot do this, while manned VFs can) Now for the need for destroids and stuff. Okay Lets say that Infantry have not increased their capability appreciably since 1999. I mean in the sense that Infantry cannot harm VFs. I say this because in macross Plus they still use H&K MP-5s for guards. I'm guessing that Overtechnology has been unable to provide the regular infantry with significant advances in military technology. This may be a reason why the Protocultures started creating Giant sized soldiers; to take advantage of the techology advances (over technology perhaps?) they could provide. Valkyries can take other hand can utlize overtechnology these are lets say 20X more survivable than our current technology level of fighters. It now requires you to fire swarms of missiles to take out a Valkyrie, rather than just one for current fighters. So the soldier on the ground is less useful against heavy armorded forces in Macross universe than they are now. Its kinda like Gundam in a sense (but for more realistic reasons) only a mecha can beat a mecha. BUT Destroids and tanks manuverability would be a problem as well. Given the overtechnology's advances in sensors and weaponsm, Valkyries could also just commit a high altitude bombing campaign or high speed slashing runs to destroy tanks or Destroids in a city and get away scotfree. Now think how I said earlier the VF-11 would be ill suited to such a role? It wouldn't be able to do such missions well. I can't carry missiles, its not amazingly fast or manuverable or have beam weaponry. the YF-21 and 19 do all these things amazingly well. So the future of ground combat? The earlier poster is correct, you need infantry, and lots of it. You always have and always will. And I'd bet you would have some sort of APCs as well. From here the gap is big; the next would be your low level VFs like the 11. VFs can be your heavy firepower. I think the VA-14 was probably designed for this role with its smaller caliber beam weapons. Phew... I'm open to comments and criticisms, I hope you enjoyed my post. (it was a nice break from my thesis)

On AA and command and conquer generals, I try to keep my political views and my fun time separate (I'm a political analyst.)

maybe in the eye of the beholder.... I actually like the Mig-25. Its one of my fav Hasegawa kits (and the F-15 looks disturbingly like it)

Uhh no advanced russian fighters?? The Mig 25 scared the Americans #$@# during the late 1960s...Especially when the Israelis couldn't touch a recon variant that was loaned to the syrians with their F-4s . The F-15 was given a crash building program as a result.

Hey don't knock the russians, if there was something they had a speciality over the Americans during the cold war it was building anti aircraft missiles. The Mig 25 and its cousin the Mig-31 were designed as interceptors, to take out the big strategic bombers like the B-47/52. Consequently they carry some HEAVY missiles. The AA-6 can be considered favorably to the pheonix, and has a 70KG warhead (it may have a Depleted uranium liner as well.) Thats going to blow a F/A-18 apart no matter what. Its warhead is larger than a SA-6's warhead by comparision