Seto Kaiba
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What I've gathered from the much less detailed information available on Zentradi mechanics is that the flight engines on Zentradi mecha operate more or less identically to a thermonuclear reaction turbine's space mode... a hybrid of fusion plasma rocket and ion thruster. Their propellant efficiency is probably quite high, considering the limited space they have to store fuel. The best part was definitely seeing multiple YF-30s in the book... between that and the VF-31s, who cares about the Siegfrieds?
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What's the verdict on the SV-262Hs? A good, solid display piece? (I got mine the other day, but I haven't unboxed it yet... that unconventional transformation has me wondering how fragile it is.)
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To me, the bits that delve into the specifics of how things operate are my favorite part... the VF-0, VF-1, VF-19, and VF-25 books were this to a "T", but the VF-4, VF-22, and VF-31 books are a huge disappointment on that front. (The squadrons book is actually interesting not because it has technical material, which is mostly of the forgettable variety, but because it offers insights into the tactics used during the First Space War.) Yeah, ever since the earliest tech manual (Sky Angels) it's been pretty clear that the key difference between a thermonuclear reaction turbine engine and a normal jet engine is that they've substituted a compact thermonuclear reactor for the burner stage. Other than that, it works an awful lot like a normal turbine... in atmosphere, anyway. The "foot" is traditionally the thrust-vectoring paddle, while the actual nozzle sits on top of the back of the engine inside the foot. That's also where the thrust-reverser's intake is. (Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa points to that interior nozzle being capable of limited thrust vectoring in its own right, esp. on the VF-171.) Basically, yeah... at least, in their air-breathing mode. They're made with tougher stuff so they can endure higher temperatures and RPMs, but at the end of the day they're still heating intake air in a high-pressure environment to provide thrust. The chief difference is that, as I noted above, they've replaced the combustion stage and its very volatile liquid hydrocarbons with a compact thermonuclear reaction system that is using fold effect-based gravity manipulation to initiate and contain the reaction, and the heat from the reaction is used to both generate electrical power and conducted into the airstream to provide the engine's thrust. (The engines are actually one of the best described technologies in Macross, and ironically their implementation is mirrored by a later NASA paper on theoretical fusion turbine engines.)
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Well, the art was (mostly) fine... but the rest of the book was an absolute mess. There was a good-sized chunk of the development history section that had basically bugger-all to do with the development of the VF-4, being mostly a plug for Macross Delta, and the same with the service history section. The actual technical coverage sandwiched between them was a disappointing mess that had that iconic feel of a student trying to BS their way through their term paper the night before it's due without doing any research. They made up some gibberish about having a couple different aircraft all being mass produced under the designation "VF-4" (actually prototypes), they totally ignored the official variants list, made the VF-4G out to be the only one which was able to transform, and even presented the VF-4A and VF-4G as being different sizes... I could go on, but really, since the VF-4 is a personal favorite it's just making me depressed. On checking, I was wrong about the chart appearing to have a second GIC... they relabeled part of what used to be labeled "GIC" as the "ISC Receiver". Other than that, the chart is more or less identical except for the engine nozzle at the far end.
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On the subject of the engines, the book talks a fair bit... but says very little. The whole of the first two paragraphs is devoted to a rather tedious explanation of how the FF-3001/FC2 engine used in the VF-31S is a derivative of the FF-3001/FC1 engine the YF-29 used, which itself is a derivative of the FF-3001A Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engine used by the VF-25 and VF-31A. (They missed a step, about the FF-3001/FC2 engines Xaos uses in their custom VF-31s being detuned versions of the one installed in the YF-30 prototype that were rated for 12.5% more thrust.) The rest is a fairly wordy but otherwise non-specific comparison of the FF-3001A and FF-3001/FC2 that suggests the latter has improved power and propellant efficiency due to a refined GIC system and thermoelectric converter. (The diagram is mostly copied directly from the VF-25 book, though it looks like the FF-3001/FC2 version may have at least one system that wasn't part of the base model engine... I'm not sure if someone just labeled this wrong, but it looks like there's a second GIC system downstream of the reactor, and there's something on there that has gone totally unremarked-upon labeled "ISC Receiver" that, from its acronym, must be tied to the inertia store converter.)
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It's a convenient little service they offer, especially if I can nick a company car to go fetch my packages. Got mine 'round lunchtime today, but didn't get a chance to read 'em until after work hours. I'll say this much... after a quick skim of the contents, if you don't count the pictures that might actually be the better choice. The VF-31's Master File book is not as bad as the lamentable and borderline-unreadable mess that was the VF-4 Master File, but it's not a big improvement either I'm afraid. For me, the biggest disappointment is that a fair-sized chunk of the book seems to be copied from the VF-25's Master File book and only minimally reworded. It's not entirely unreasonable, considering how much of the VF-31's hardware is newer variant versions of hardware that was in the VF-25, but it feels kind of like a copout at the same time. The rest is noticeably light on detail... very little said about the VF-31's weaponry (its distinctive built-in railguns are almost ignored), its FAST packs are glossed over, but the Variants section makes the goofiest choices in previous books look positively reasonable. Lotsa pretty pictures tho... but not nearly enough of the real VF-31. They do, at least, give an unofficial designation to the class of ships the Aether and Hemera belong to: they call it an Enterprise-class space carrier. The Master Archive Mobile Suit: MS-06 Zaku II book, on the other hand, is a treat for the eyes...
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Above a certain declared cash value, FedEx requires signatures on international shipments regardless of the content... I've run afoul of that many times before. I found it helpful during the Mecha Manual's last round of acquisitions, to use the "Hold at FedEx Location" option in the FedEx app to have them deliver any package from overseas at the FedEx store closest to my day job. Then I just pop over on lunch or after work and collect everything since the stores are open much later than the depots.
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Should have mine sometime today... it's a very Macross midweek, with the VF-31 Master File and DX Sv-262 today, and Vol.9 of the Blu-ray tomorrow.
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CD Japan sent me a shipping notice for Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried and Master Archive Mobile Suit: MS-06 Zaku II this morning, so it looks like it's out already... Though I gotta admit, based on what I've seen in terms of spoiler pics from the Variants portion of the book, I am NOT impressed... and am quietly dreading another mess like the VF-4 book.
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Seems unlikely, IMO... thus far, GAGraphic and SoftBank have only really bothered to cover the most prominent variable fighters featured in the various Macross animated titles. They're not really focusing on in-universe importance, they're focusing on the ones that are the most "action figure-ous". Take, for instance, the latest volume that's due out any day now... Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried. The book isn't for the actual production VF-31 that was to become the next main fighter of the Brisingr Alliance the way the VF-25 book was about the fighter in New UN Forces hands. Instead, we're getting a book about that handful of hideously garish custom fighters the bumbling clods of Xaos's 3rd Fighter Wing Delta Flight flew while Windermere's Aerial Knights handed them their asses at regular intervals. Plus, considering how bad the Variable Fighter Master File: VF-4 Lightning III book was, I'm not sure we should really WANT another one that features a lesser-known VF. The VF-4 book's history sections were little more than a tie-in to Macross Delta, and the technical information in the book was mostly wrong and ignored or contradicted official information and common sense. That's a Macross Chronicle Mechanic Sheet... it was only like four pages in total. The Variable Fighter Master File books are, well, books... which run to about 128 pages. They may not have any Tenjin paintings like Macross Chronicle did, but they have some fairly good CG and model kit-related art instead.
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Yep... Gamlin used the internal launchers on his VF-17 only rarely, and the VF-171s aren't ever actually shown using them at all as far as I can recall, but they are in fact there. The ports are easier to see on the EX model with its white paintjob. They're on the wing root, just aft of that part that has "NUNS" stenciled on it.
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Well, I'm not sure downgraded is necessarily the right word for it... simplified, refined, or optimized for mass production might be better words, though even they don't really capture the truth of it. You see, the VF-17 Nightmare started out as a 3rd Generation VF when it first debuted toward the tail end of the 3rd Generation development period. The initial models used old style thermonuclear reaction turbine engines and older avionics hardware, but starting from the -D model they were upgraded with AVF-tier hardware including thermonuclear reaction burst turbine engines. That arguably puts them into Generation 3.5 along with other pre-4th Gen designs that incorporated AVF advancements like the VF-16. The VF-171 Nightmare Plus, however, is a true blue 4th Generation (Advanced) Variable Fighter with all the technological bells and whistles that implies... meaning that, while the VF-171 is definitely not representing an advancement over the VF-17 in all areas, it is actually technically an upgrade in most respects. Among the design changes that could technically be called downgrades are: The VF-171's FF-2110X thermonuclear reaction burst turbine engines are a derivative of the FF-2100X engines used by the VF-17D, but with a 20.96% reduction in maximum instantaneous thrust (in space). This does not seem to actually affect their ability to function as SSTO aircraft, but it definitely does reflect a decrease in acceleration and thrust-to-weight ratio. The VF-171 gained a bit of weight compared to its predecessor, being 12,150kg to the VF-17D's 11,850kg. The VF-171 is slightly slower at altitude, topping out at Mach 3.5+ at 10km instead of Mach 4.0+. The VF-171's design lacks the forearm-mounted laser cannons that were the VF-17's main GERWALK-mode gun option. The VF-171's internal micro-missile launchers were decreased from 4 to 2 compared to the VF-17. On the other hand, the upgrades it got in the process are: The VF-171's transformation is mechanically simpler and more robust than the VF-17's, and enables the VF to employ its gunpod with greater ease in GERWALK mode. This also made it easier to mass-produce. The VF-171's redesigned airframe gained increased defensive capability and increased canopy field-of-view. The VF-171's aerodynamic redesign provided increased maneuverability and operational versatility, enabling the VF-171 to be used in almost every major operational role from fighter to bomber to reconnaissance aircraft to drone mothership. The VF-171 has AVF-tier avionics and a 3rd Generation active stealth system (same type as the VF-19). The VF-171 has a pin-point barrier system for defensive and offensive use. The VF-171's armaments were upgraded across the board, and the laser weapons of the original VF-17 were replaced with beam guns. It also gained six underwing pylons for greater ordinance versatility. All told, the VF-171 gets an unfairly bad rap because it's (almost) never flown by a main character. Its only appearances are near the end of its service life, where it's there to get blasted to show how much better fighters one generation newer are... though we did get occasional shots of awesome like Machida's punch, or the Brisingr Alliance VF-171s shooting down Drakens during their counterattack.
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Contrary to what most fans would expect after the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series, the vast majority of variable fighters used by the (New) UN Forces don't actually have command variants. Most of the time, the grunts and their bosses are flying the exact same aircraft, with the VF-25 being the first main VF since the VF-1 to have one. That probably has something to do with keeping maintenance costs down... since its cheaper to not have to maintain a second variant with different hardware for a small number of pilots. After the VF-1, the command variants were mostly kept to the Special Forces VFs like the VF-17 Nightmare or VF-19 Excalibur 2nd mass production type. (Xaos's VF-31s don't count, as they're customs of a milspec model that is one-variant-fits-all, and the VF-27's ace variant is a fake command variant that's pretty much identical to the base model but with slightly different tuning.) Of course, if I really wanted to weasel out of answering that question I could point out that we've thus far only seen three of an unknown total number of local variations of the VF-171 Nightmare Plus that broadly conform to Block II/2055... the Frontier fleet spec (dark blue), the Outer Rim territories spec (khaki), and the EX type (a Frontier spec derivative). It's possible that some fleet or planet out there decided to include a command model and we just haven't seen it.
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Just aesthetics, actually... the YF-30 (and, IIRC, VF-31) don't have the bent/beak nose and they still have ISC. As far as I know, we've never been told what the N in SDFN stands for... but it denotes the mass-production Macross-class ships, since the hull classification symbol SDF was passed to the Megaroad-class emigrant ships starting from SDF-2. The available information indicates that twelve mass production-type Macross-class ships were constructed in the early years of the emigrant fleet operations, to serve as "pilot fish" securing the advance of the actual emigrant ship. We have names and designations for three of those ships so far: SDFN-1 General (Takashi) Hayase, SDFN-4 General Bruno J. Global, and SDFN-8 General Vrlitwhai Kridanik. Some fleets seem to have returned their Macross-class ships at some point after establishing a colony, while others seem to have kept theirs. Uroboros, the planet from Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy, was the first planet we saw that kept theirs... it had been parked on the Yuria archipelago in storm attacker mode, and was being used as a city (Vrlitwhai City). The unidentified SDFN on Vivre/Pipure is probably in the same situation.
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Macross Δ BD/DVD Thread (now with delicious English subs).
Seto Kaiba replied to UN Spacy's topic in Movies and TV Series
No kidding. As nice as Macross Delta is, visually, this is the closest I've ever come to considering a Macross purchase a waste of money. I'd almost considered canceling my preorders at one point. The second half of Delta is just such an unholy mess of poor planning and crappy writing that I'm less than happy with value-for-money on my preorders. Even the quality of the liner note booklet contents took a noticeable dive in the show's second half. -
On the VF-1, the engines in the "backpack" that are used to provide part or all of the forward thrust in GERWALK mode aren't really intended for sustained use. They're liquid-fuel rockets with a high maximum thrust but a limited burn time. You wouldn't want to rely on them to provide all your forward thrust, because you'd run out fairly quickly. GERWALKs tend to fly forward partly by leaning forward a bit and having the thrust the main engines produce at an angle to the ground. The backpack thrusters on the VF-25 look, from their animation, to be something more like miniature thermonuclear reaction engines...
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No worries, that's why we've got this thread after all. Yeah, Millard was a member of SVF-1... he was the one I was referring to when I said there were still old members of the Skulls lurking around who could have, but didn't, pass the torch to a new squadron.
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Just a brief addendum to my previous answer... It's been implied a few times, but it's never been out-and-out stated that there's a direct in-universe connection between the UN Spacy's SVF-1 "Skulls" and the old US Navy VFA-103 "Jolly Rogers". Since the SVF-1 Skulls were originally the VF-0 program's Skull Platoon, it's possible that the origin is not even an American reference as the original leader was the Russian ace D.D. "Daisy" Ivanov and a skull insignia is his personal mark on his VF. (Ivanov may have gone with the Jolly Roger to appease the Americans, or he may just be a huge Top Gun fan pleased to be a pilot of what started out as a heavily modified F-14.) The-Show-That-Must-Not-Be-Named did something quite strange. It drew an explicit connection between the two... but in its version, VF-84 is still around in 1999 (the real-world equivalent was disestablished in 1995) and calls itself "Skull Squadron" instead of the "Jolly Rogers". Roy was a member until the squadron was lost when its carrier was sunk by a tsunami caused by the explosive crash of the soon-to-be-SDF-1. Normally if a unit is completely wiped out, they retire the number... but that doesn't exactly happen often in the real world (anymore). One has to wonder what technicality they whipped up to make that work. Strategic Military Services is not a formal military organization, it's a civilian private contractor with no official organization ties to the New UN Forces. It's worth wondering whether they chose "Skull" for its close association with elite units (e.g. the SVF-1 Skulls, who were famous from both history and historical dramas, and Max and Milia's elite "Dancing Skulls" special forces team) or Ozma is simply a rabid fanboy for one of those groups the way he is for Fire Bomber and management decided to roll with it to keep him happy. Also worth noting is that what Ozma commanded was Skull platoon... not a squadron. SMS doesn't seem to organize its troops into anything larger than a platoon, though as such a small outfit this isn't surprising given the platoon is also the smallest sub-unit of the military's own VF squadrons. To give an example, the SVF-1 Skulls in the original series had three of its platoons identified by name: Skull platoon was its lead platoon, Hikaru's first command was its Vermilion platoon, and two background characters who give Shammy a hard time are identified as in the squadron's Purple platoon. All told, the New UN Spacy doesn't seem to consider the SVF-1 Skulls out of action... they've never passed the "Skulls" moniker to any other squadron despite there being veteran pilots from SVF-1 still out and about after the Megaroad-01 left Earth. That may have something to do with how the ship is officially just missing rather than "missing, presumed destroyed".
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Heh... let's do the time warp again, eh? That post is a bit over five months old. I guess it's my fault for not being more precise about my meaning... what I was referring to when I alluded to the UN Forces being a little bit too enthusiastic about having a squadron named the "Black Aces" was the fact that they had actually founded two distinct units with the UN Spacy fighter squadron designation SVF-41 and the name Black Aces. It's not a case of passing the name and heraldry to another unit when a unit is disestablished, they straight up made the SVF-41 Black Aces twice. (No, really!) The UN Spacy's first SVF-41 "Black Aces" was a VF-1 Valkyrie unit stationed aboard ARMD-07 Ranger in the First Space War, and were lost with the ship when the Zentradi sunk her in Earth orbit. Then, years later, a second SVF-41 "Black Aces" shows up as a squadron attached to a new Uraga-class carrier (CV-339 Bruno J. Global) in the 2040s flying the VF-11B Super Thunderbolt III. They actually show up together in the same article in This is Animation: Macross Plus, with the Variable Fighter Squadron Marking section leading off with a Black Aces VF-1J, then just 9 pages later a separate SVF-41 entry for a Black Aces VF-11B.
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That is the helmet section of the EX-Gear suit... normally it doesn't cover the whole head like that, and isn't deployed at all unless the EX-Gear is ejected from the fighter, but Hayate's was specially modified to provide protection because he stupidly refuses to wear a helmet.
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Sometime in the late 2040's, by all accounts... but no one date is given. Based on what Kawamori has said, the decentralization of the New UN Government was a gradual process brought about by the realities of trying to govern effectively when it could take years to get to some of the newly established colonies. The earliest point where we chronologically see a New UN Forces kite is 2048, with the loss of the 117th Research Fleet... though that's the result of Ozma flying a stock CG model VF-171. Originally it was given that the coup d'etat in 2050-2051 (Macross VF-X2) was the cause for the military's reorganization... the novelization of Frontier and Kawamori's Otona Anime #9 interview demoted it to more a symptom of the decentralization, with PO'd UN Forces brass not happy about the military's power being on the decline and convinced (at least publicly) that humanity needed to present a strong, united front centered on Earth to survive in the galaxy.
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In the firepower department, yeah... though since the coaxial guns on the monitor turret are typically the lightest weapon mounted on a VF, it's not exactly a substantial improvement in firepower vs. the base model. The monitor turret variations sometimes come with other extras that boost performance like additional data link antennas or improved sensor systems. Most of the "oomph" usually comes from a noticeably more powerful engine, either by installing a different engine variant or simply tuning the hell out of the existing engine... coupled with removing some or all of the safety-oriented performance limiters in the airframe control AI's cals.
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Apart from the obvious field-of-view problems that would crop up from having a flipping great chunk of the airframe in your eyeline, the biggest issue would be survivability. It wouldn't be especially helpful to put the pilot closer to the bits of the airframe that are most prone to attracting enemy missiles, producing large amounts of waste heat, catching fire, or even exploding. Even with a wraparound monitor-type cockpit, it's sensible to maintain the forward position for the cockpit in the event that the monitors fail and you need to go back to the ever-reliable Mk.1 Eyeball, as happened with Brera's VF-27 in the Frontier movies and happened whenever the Draken IIIs sustained damage in Macross Delta. Increasingly often, there isn't a "cannon fodder" and "elite" setup. As to why they started in the first place... there are a number of different reasons. Part of it was to give experienced pilots an aircraft with a little more oomph since they had the skills to use it to the fullest, esp. while shepherding the less experienced pilots in their platoons. Part could be argued to be using those same experienced pilots as guinea pigs to test potential upgrades slated for future production blocks of the grunt model (e.g. improvements that went into the VF-1B and VF-1A late blocks). Some variants started out as alternative mass production models that didn't shake out quite right (e.g. the VF-1J) or were built for a specific specialized role (the VF-1J again, being the only one that was natively compatible with the GBP-1S). Eventually it settled down such that the "elite" variant is a fake elite variant that doesn't actually differ from the regular model in performance, but offers better communications capabilities so squadron or platoon leaders can better coordinate the troops, as on the VF-25 and VF-31 Custom. EDIT: To clarify that first remark, the only main variable fighter generation to have that ace/grunt dichotomy which was actually expressed in performance was the 1st Generation (VF-1). The 2nd Gen VF-4 and VF-5000 didn't have command variants at all, and neither did the 3rd Gen VF-11 and VF-14. Of the three 4th Gen main VF candidates, none of them had a command model initially and the VF-19 only got one after the fact when Shinsei added one in their space-optimized second mass production type. The 5th Generation is a split between not having command variants (e.g. the VF-31 Kairos) and having a "fake" ace model that doesn't actually differ in performance from the grunt model (e.g. VF-25, VF-31 Siegfried Custom).
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The planet in question was Al Shahal.
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Nothing official yet, though IIRC the Windermerean forces are using the same H&K G36 knockoff that the New UN Forces used in Frontier.