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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    There's mention in Macross Chronicle of a transparent, glasslike supermaterial called Herculite, which is used to construct exterior-facing windows and such in starships... dollars to donuts VF canopies are made of the same or similar stuff.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    In a word... "Yep". The more detailed technical publications like Master File do indicate that the thermonuclear reaction engines provide their own space-use propellant in the form of plasma bled off the reactor... which is why their space endurance is so much lower than their atmospheric endurance. They're consuming their internally-carried fuel at an astronomically (lol) greater rate to provide enough plasma to produce the thrust they're being asked to produce. It's not a pure fusion rocket (there's an ion engine in there too) but it's monstrously inefficient compared to the way they operate when in atmosphere. I'd assume the FAST packs continue to use chemical rockets for simplicity's sake... meaning that, by using OTMat rocket fuels in conventional rocket designs, they can keep the system mechanically simpler and thus reduce the cost necessary to operate and maintain the packs, as well as minimizing the loss incurred when a pilot has to ditch his packs due to damage or a sudden change of operating regime. A reaction engine is not a cheap thing by any means. Remember, Hikaru's VF-1S was in GERWALK mode at the time... its energy conversion armor would've been operating (albeit not at full power), meaning the armor would've been tougher than the canopy was at that point. Earlier on in the series we're shown exactly how tough the canopy is, when Hikaru powers an unpowered VF-1D through a row of concrete buildings before the armored cover could slide into place. With respect to the YF-19 and many other later designs still having traditional canopy designs instead of a fully holographic cockpit, it's the failsafe approach. The YF-19 was the more traditional of the two Super Nova designs, so I'm sure "it's traditional" plays a slight role in it, but with the clear canopy you can still see where you're going even if you lose the cockpit display electronics or the sensors feeding them. Guld's YF-21 retained a (reduced visibility) clear canopy even though it had the BDI system for similar reasons. The next generation after that sort of found a happy medium, with the clear canopy supplemented with a more advanced wraparound holographic HUD that could project displays for things like zooming in on or outlining hazards for better visibility, displaying alerts, etc. Even the VF-27 retained a clear canopy under that armored cover in the event that the BCS cockpit system failed, and it'd be an awfully stupid design flaw if the Sv-262 didn't. The material the canopy was made from probably improved along with the armor materials used elsewhere in the airframe too, so that the cockpit would be better protected even without going to a hard-armor cover. Ah, so the path of least resistance... since those rounds cut through the fully-energized energy conversion armor of a VF-0 in battroid mode, it's a safe bet they'd go right through the canopy. The full wrap-around monitors are almost omnipresent at least in battroid mode... it doesn't appear that it was enough of an asset on the YF/VF-19's fighter mode to merit inclusion in future models though.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    They have their own engines... the VF-27's wing-mounted engines are the same type as the ones mounted in the legs (FF-3011/C), while the YF-29 uses an improved version of the VF-25 engine in the legs (the FF-3001/FC1) and a new model of engine in the wing pods (FF-3003J/FC1). Based on the official material on the VF-27 and the coverage of the prototype in Macross the Ride, the VF-27 appears to actually need those four engines to do all the things it does... like powering that monster beam rifle, running its energy conversion armor and pin-point barrier in fighter mode, etc. On the YF-29, the four engines appear to be more for agility and speed rather than generator output. They're still chemical rockets... presumably using more advanced overtechnology material fuels.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    In all likelihood it's probably a beam machine gun since it's a fixed cannon... lasers are normally for the more fiddly coaxial mountings on the monitor turret so they can be used to intercept missiles with their wider field of fire. (Plus the Aerial Knights seem to really have a hardon for dimension weapons, so it could even be a converging energy gun...) Nah, energy conversion armor isn't like a force field inside the armor material (ala Star Trek's structural integrity field or Gundam 00's GN armor), it's a layered, laminated, electromagnetically-responsive smart material that becomes significantly more resilient when exposed to certain types of electromagnetic pulses. Damaging the armor on one part of the fighter won't weaken the armor elsewhere on the fighter, unless the damage cuts off power to the EMP generators downstream of the damaged area. By the same token, the damaged area won't be restored to full defensive ability until the physical armor material is repaired or replaced.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    I forget, what was the directionality of the shot in Zero? Did it come up through the bottom of the cockpit or down through the top? Mind you, we're talking a MASSIVE difference in armor quality there. In GERWALK mode the VF-0's armor was roughly as tough as that of a well-armored attack helicopter, and in Battroid it was on par with your modern MBT. To put that in perspective with other VFs, that's about 1/3 the armor strength of a VF-1, 1/8th the armor strength of a VF-17 or VF-171, and I hesitate to even compute the armor strength a VF-31 or YF-29 would have, as the latter is said to have four times the defensive ability of the VF-25 w/ Armored Pack, and the "naked" VF-25 was at least as well-armored as a VF-171. ... aaaaaactually, that may not always be the case. We don't often get power output figures for coaxial or wing glove-mounted dimension, beam, or laser weapons, but from in the VF-1's generation the anti-aircraft laser cannon mounted on the monitor turret was actually slightly more powerful than a gunpod bullet. Bear in mind, when I say that I mean a 1 second discharge imparts more energy to the target than one gunpod bullet, and we all know the virtue of a rotary cannon is that quantity has a certain quality all its own. The difference isn't huge, about 132kJ (~2.7%) in the laser's favor, but it's still pretty damned impressive for such a small weapon. As generator outputs climbed through the generations, it's probable that energy weapons have also increased dramatically in power. Very true... the VF-0 Phoenix and Sv-51 were both rather under-armored compared to later VFs as a result of having to use conventional (overtuned) turbofans for power generation. I did some rough, back of the envelope math with a friend of mine from Boeing a while back and we concluded the VF-0 probably had less than 1/10th the generator output of a VF-1 if its turbofans were doubling as turboshaft generators. Whether the canopy enjoys the same protection as the rest of the aircraft via energy conversion armor is unclear, but my guess would be "no" since they generally slap an armored cover over it instead in battroid mode. It's made of some seriously tough stuff that's similarly durable to the hypercarbon the rest of the airframe is made of, but that'd leave it somewhat weaker than the rest of the armor in battroid mode. Also true, though it's worth noting that we're not 100% sure if the VF-31's used by Kaos's PMC forces have a fold dimension resonance or fold wave system... if they do, that means the VF-31 could potentially have been running its energy conversion armor at full power in all modes using energy drawn from super dimension space. If not, its Stage II thermonuclear reaction engines would've supplied enough power to run light energy conversion armor around vital areas at the very least, as on the VF-25. The cockpit is naturally one of the areas marked out for that extra protection.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Hrm... for the first time, I've had to tender a Neutral vote. This episode was good, but it didn't feel like a cohesive story... I had the same impression here that I had when my girlfriend dragged me to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Namely, that what I was watching was bits and pieces from two different stories inexpertly stitched together with no regard for tone. The first half was so happy-go-lucky that the second half feels jarringly out of place by comparison. On the own, each could've been a 22 minute episode... but made into a single episode, it feels like two plots, neither of which got the attention it deserved. Even Keith hung a lampshade on the distressing lack of transformation in these dogfights... they're beautifully choreographed, but I'd like to see them remember that the V in VF means "Variable".
  7. Seto Kaiba
    It certainly appears that the micro-missile launchers are an externally-mounted conformal pack on the Draken III based on the official art on Macross.jp. Yep. Per Macross Chronicle, the big dorsal booster is a QF-5100D Goblin II drone which can be detached from the VF-27 and operated remotely via the brainwave control system.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    's hardly the first time a Variable Fighter has used an attached drone as an ersatz booster pack for its Super Parts... this concept previously appeared in Macross Zero as the VF-0 Phoenix Special Attack Spec. and in the Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa movie as the VF-27γ's Super Pack. The original generation of Option Packs (e.g. Super Pack, Armored Pack, Strike Pack) were developed as a way to work around the shortcomings of the VF-1's design that were imposed, in part, by constraining the fighter's size to roughly the estimated size of an alien infantryman and to expand its operational versatility. For instance, the Super Pack was developed to address the VF-1's low endurance in space flight via extra, bolt-on fuel tanks for the main engines and a pair of hybrid rocket boosters to supplement their output and reduce their utilization. In later generations of variable fighter, these issues had already been addressed in the fighter's "naked" configuration and option packs became more about extending armor, armament, and maximizing performance. With conventional (read: space use) Super Parts, it is generally expected that a VF will purge the option packs before entering atmosphere... but not always. Several types of option pack have been designed to be used in atmospheric flight. The first (production-wise) was the VF-1改 Refined Valkyrie's Super Pack II in Macross 2036, which was presented as an all-regime Super Pack. Macross Plus and Macross 7 also presented all-regime versions of Super Packs for the VF-11, VF-17, and VF-19 (seen during Operation Stargazer). Macross Frontier's movies added three more: the VF-25's Tornado Pack, the VF-27's Super Pack, and the YF-29's Super Pack. The Sv-262 Draken III seems to be taking a lot of pointers from the YF-29, so it's not altogether surprising that it's using its Lilldrakens as atmospheric flight boosters.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Macross FB7 kind of satisfied this need, didn't it?
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Unfortunately that's a question we can't answer at the present time... without the official specs, we can't tell you how they compare in objective terms. We're probably a month or two out from having official specs published, since they usually come with the packaging of the model kits or toys. My entirely non-objective wild-arse guess on the matter would be that the Sv-262 is likely marginally less advanced than the VF-31, and certainly less versatile. The Siegfried feels like a true multirole fighter thanks to the ordinance container, wing pylons, etc., while the Draken feels more like it's meant to be an air superiority fighter. I'd wager the Draken's probably an inferior aircraft to the Siegfried on its own... and that superior Windermerean reflexes and physical abilities are making up the difference.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Chronicle does assert that the ancient Protoculture did have their own version of inertia capacitor technology implied to be superior to the inertia vector control system they equipped the Zentradi Army's Queadluun-Rau with, but the human-made inertia store converter technology is a relatively recent innovation that took about 17 years of development to get right. The YF-24 was the testbed for the technology's development, and the later YF-24 Evolution prototype was the means by which the technology was disseminated to the emigrant fleets and planets. EX-Gear is not strictly necessary for an Inertia Store Converter-equipped Valkyrie, but you could argue that it's a near-ideal complementary system. Its g-proof seat functions while docked to a VF allow the pilot to more easily withstand the g-forces inherent in operating a variable fighter, and the improved control system helps pilots more readily adjust to new aircraft and get the most out of any aircraft they happen to fly. (It bears remembering that ISC technology obeys conservation of energy - the g-forces it buffers are not lost, they're stored temporarily and then slowly returned to the airframe in a controlled fashion. You could say that it clips the peaks and fills the valleys in a graph of the g-forces a VF is subjected to, so that the g-forces never reach an intolerable or injurious level for the pilot or a damaging level for the airframe. EX-Gear lends a helping hand with the g-forces that the pilot is still experiencing.) It's also worth remembering that, while it is probable the Sv-262 Draken III uses an inertia store converter, we don't know for sure that it does... the Windermerean superior physical abilities may permit them to go ahead and tank those high g-forces without assistance, or perhaps with assistance from the cheaper and less-capable inertia vector control system. The Japanese websites I've been perusing lately suggest that the detonation of the dimensional warhead (dimension eater) at Scarfell/Carlyle cracked the fabric of space-time in that place... though with what consequences we don't yet know. It's not going to be anything good, though... it never is when something bad happens to space-time. On a fun aside, I have a notion about Windermerean runes...
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Well... yes and no. To be precise, the same principles were applied in an earlier and less effective form of the technology that humanity acquired from the Zentradi after the First Space War. That's the Inertia Vector Control System that humanity encountered on the Quimeliquola Queadluun-Rau and later applied to the YF-21/VF-22 Sturmvogel II, which presumably uses fold carbon. The more effective Inertia Store Converter technology was developed from the Inertia Vector Control System and has the requirement of fold quartz to achieve the high levels of g-force protection that make it possible for a flesh-and-blood being to operate a 5th Generation variable fighter to anywhere near its full potential.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Finally got to sit down and watch this one... had to wait a few days after my computer decided that the best way to let me know it'd decided seven and a half years in service was enough was to set itself on fire. Armed with a new computer and a 4K display, I waded into the latest episode and was reasonably pleased by it. We finally got to find out WHY Messer has a stick up his arse, though Kaname hasn't made a serious effort to give him a stick-ectomy yet... and we got the first inkling of a Hayate x Mirage romance, which it looks like next episode is going to elaborate upon further. My one pet peeve about this episode is Messer's reaction to Var syndrome. It was enough to have the creepy popping veins and psychotic leer, he did NOT need to Hulk out. The VF-31 is a 5th Generation variable fighter... clearly it's not that hard to get 'hold of, since you can't build an ISC or fold wave system without the stuff.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    It's probably a different microorganism... the V-type bacterium associated with the Vajra caused debilitating illness and eventual death in humans (and human-like organisms) because it took up residence in the brain. The fold bacterium that's causing the Var syndrome doesn't seem to be killing anyone except by driving them berserk.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Sort of... it's not really a steady upward trend, it zig-zags a fair bit with severity varying depending on what performance attribute you're talking about. When we finally get specs on the VF-31 we'll know for sure what the trendline looks like, but it seems like the same kind of disparity between the regular and special forces Valkyries in the 3rd Generation, where you had a well-rounded but not terribly high-spec main VF and higher-performance specialized VFs for the special forces. In this case, I think the VF-25 and VF-31 represent your "well rounded" VF, while the VF-27 and YF-29 are your high-spec low-volume types. The VF-19 was actually the one with better engine power overall, a better thrust-to-weight ratio in both regimes, and better operational versatility thanks to its less severe emphasis on passive stealth and ability to carry ordinance both externally and internally. In most other respects they were pretty much on the same level, having been developed at the same time, side-by-side, to the same standards.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    "Carat" with a C is a unit of mass for measuring gemstones equivalent to 0.2g."Karat" with a K is a unit of fineness for measuring the percentage of impurities in gold, equivalent to 4.166666667% per karat.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    1,000 carats.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Yep. The engineers who developed the fold wave system very likely came by the idea the same way the ancient Protoculture's engineers did... through the study of the Vajra's ability to produce vast amounts of power through fold dimensional energy conversion. It's probable the Protoculture had already managed to successfully tap super dimension space for energy via a purely technological approach before developing bio-technology to do the same job, though I wonder if their initial bio-technological effort was made with fold carbon or if, when that experiment was done, they had already discovered a process to produce synthetic fold quartz like they used for the Birdman. It's probably not a technology that's going to see widespread adoption in the New UN Gov't until someone rediscovers a process to synthesize fold quartz. The fold wave system on the Durandal uses a prohibitively massive chunk of fold quartz to achieve what it does.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Also the Sv-51, sort of... it doesn't stay perfectly parallel, but it only moves maybe 45 degrees. Ray and Veffidas had a tandem-cockpit training version... which would've had more room regardless.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    I'm not sure it's genetic, since there don't seem to have been any identified cases of Var syndrome or anything resembling it until around the time Windermere's royals decided to launch their war against the New Unification Government. The Zentradi fighting instincts didn't need any help to make them violent, and they'd already been conditioned to obey the Protoculture. They wouldn't have needed pharmaceutical assistance, or the mind control aspect to get the job done. I suspect that the combination of the polyphenols in Windermere apples and the unique bicarbonates in water found around Protoculture ruins is something the Windermereans discovered at some point in their own history. I bet that, especially since they're supposedly mildly empathic, the Windermereans regarded the Var syndrome as a curse on those who didn't properly respect/revere the Protoculture ruins on their world. Since the Windermereans seem to think that human society is somehow unclean, it would strike me as poetic justice in their eyes to combat an unclean society with a "divine" curse. We've got a lot of mythological symbolism kicking around in Macross Delta, and apples figure prominently into both Greco-Roman and Norse mythology. In Latin, the word for apple is spelled (and pronounced) almost identically to the word for evil. In Greek and Norse mythos, apples are the source of immortality for the eater... which seems a rather ironic twist here, when instead of granting immortal life the apple turns you into a doomed, psychotic killer. I've picked the brain of my youngest brother, who has some experience and training in organic chemistry by way of his vet-med study, and he suggested that the chemical that apparently triggers Var syndrome (seiznol?) is a form of endocrine disruptor that triggers excessive secretion of norepinephrine, adrenaline, and a few other monoamine neutransmitters. Apparently the symptoms of excessive release of several of those (especially norepinephrine) line up well with those of a Var syndrome sufferer... aggression, anxiety, headache, increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, excessive sweating, etc.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    We can only hope... IIRC the Macross Modelers pamphlet for the VF-31A was done with GAGraphics's help, so I guess you could say they've already gotten a start.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    That's an excellent question... based on what Hermann said in Ep.8 and what's been said in the manga, it sounds like a Windermerean's runes are sensory organs (albeit minor ones). I'd imagine a male Windermerean losing one would impair their ability to sense the emotions of other Windermereans (IIRC that's what they're established to be for in the manga), though not severely so as they have two. In his close-up in Ep.1, Hermann only seems to have one rune... so it's possible he may have lost the other at some point.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    The real cause of Windermere's war... they're sick of micropayments.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Keith saves his most lethal wind for burrito day in the Aerial Knights commissary. Take out the "song" part and you're there... the Vajra are powered by fold quartz dimensional energy conversion, not an entirely dissimilar approach to what the fold wave system produces in the YF-29. Kawamori's Aesops are usually drawn from current events... the Nazis aren't the only contentious cultural group to use "fatherland" for their home. There are a couple middle eastern languages that do that too, and the Aerial Knights so far smack rather obviously of a xenophobic religious extremist group. Has it actually been officially confirmed that Makina is related to Raizou Nakajima? Last I heard, that was just a wild, unfounded fan theory. Mirage is Max's granddaughter, but the Jenius family is essentially the one recurring exception to the rule when it comes to having recurring characters. With them as pretty much the sole exception, Kawamori doesn't generally indulge in having characters in his new Macross shows be related to those in previous ones. Often there's no association at all, except that some have become well-known historical figures or are simply famous. Considering that Hayate supposedly resembles someone Arad knew, and how everything keeps coming back to Windermere, I'm betting ...
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Honestly, I'm flat amazed that Kawamori resisted the temptation to include a cyborg in Macross Frontier who had a gun or two stashed away inside their limbs... the blade Brera has is frankly low-key compared to some of the stuff in Ghost in the Shell, for instance.
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