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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    I get nothing on the title "Great Mechanics - Summer G". Poss. Great Mechanics G 2015 Summer?
  2. Seto Kaiba
    The thrusters are visible on the cutaway in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah, but are not specifically called out in any section of the book that I can find. Unless it's capable of thrust-vectoring like practically every vernier in Macross... I don't recall seeing anything like that, no.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Bingo... the arm with the weapon was responding to the optical pointing system incorporated in the helmet. I got you a picture (from Macross Frontier Ep2) that shows the VF-25 in GERWALK burning its backpack engines. The YF-21/VF-22 has additional nozzles in the feet... it's just the main nozzles that migrated to the backpack.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    You'd probably get a kick out of Dai-Guard then... it's a send-up of super robot tropes, and one of them is that the giant robot the private security company in the show bought secondhand from the military is interface hell for its three-man crew. (They have a crew member whose sole job is to manage the damn thing's transmission.) Though, really, Macross has taken a relatively Gundam-inspired take on mecha controls... the pilot's only really specifying direction, velocity, and posture. It's the computer that's turning those joystick waggles, button presses, and pedal pressures into something approximating human movement. They aren't controlling the motions of the robot directly, they're just giving approximate input to the motion management software that controls the actuators and auto-balancer, which takes all that data and converts it into the physical motions of the robot. I doubt it. The VF-31 has been shown in the trailer to have a fairly traditional cockpit (with EX-Gear, as on the VF-25). The Sv-262 might have a cyber-cockpit like the VF-27. The kind of agility these mecha exhibit would be straight-up impossible if they weren't using a control system that had been greatly simplified for the operator. Take a gander at Dai-Guard or Patlabor for a good look at how clumsy robots get when the operator's got to worry about four hundred different levers, switches, pedals, and so on. The VF-1 never had brainwave sensors... that technology first appeared on the YF-21 prototype, was relegated to a backup system on the VF-22, and only finally adopted as a primary means of control via direct cybernetic interface on the VF-22HG and VF-27. Only when the VF-25 is being controlled externally by a suit of EX-Gear (Connect-Slave mode). When the EX-Gear is mounted in the cockpit, it forms a traditional set of controls.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    OK. Kept short and sweet, both thermonuclear reaction power systems and thermonuclear reaction weaponry use the exotic, super-high mass matter known as heavy quantum (heavy quanta?) to catalyze and control the reaction. Heavy quantum's mass is so obscenely huge that, in sufficient quantities, it'll crush itself so hard it'll auto-ignite in a fusion reaction when subjected to the physics of the three-dimensional universe. This effect is what's used to moderate and catalyze the reactions inside of reaction engines, and as a substitute for the fission trigger in thermonuclear reaction weaponry. In power generation systems, I suspect that's being exploited to allow the reaction furnace to sustain itself on the proton-proton chain reactions normally found inside stars... which would increase the energy yield of the hydrogen fuel about 21.2x over just fusing the hydrogen and stopping there. IMO, there are two possible explanations for why a thermonuclear reaction warhead might leave behind some radioactive byproducts. Either they're using some other overtechnology to catalyze the fusion reaction instead of heavy quantum, or they're not using enough heavy quantum to bring the higher-dimension spatial physics into play and thus the reaction is producing a fair amount of gamma radiation in addition to the enormous release of heat.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Like JB0 said, the pair-annihilation (antimatter) reaction warheads were a later innovation... circa Macross 7. (It doesn't look like pair-annihilation reaction weapons ever actually replaced thermonuclear reaction weapons outright... they seem to just be one megadeath nastier, for foes who have it coming. Most of the reaction warheads in the Macross series appear to be of the thermonuclear type, which use the same extradimensional physics as reaction power systems and Macross Cannons to produce vast amounts of heat energy from a fusion-like reaction.) Macross Chronicle's Technology Sheet 09A "Reaction Weapons" indicates that the initial models of reaction warhead that were used during the Unification Wars did have the potential to create some residual radioactive effects. They don't say why, but the issue was apparently solved when they built later models of reaction warhead that were used in the First Space War and after. (I have a physics-based theory about why there might be residual radioactivity, but it's purely speculative.)
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Technically, 13 "and a half". There's the initial, converted Supervision Army warship (SDF-1), the unfinished SDF-2 that was converted into the first Megaroad-class emigrant ship, and then the twelve postwar "mass-production" Macross-class ships (SDFN-1 thru 12) modeled on the SDF-1 Macross's design. I say "mass production" in slightly sarcastic quotes because, according to Macross Chronicle1, each production type SDFN is unique because they were constructed in part with systems taken from scrapped Zentradi warships. For convenience's sake, I suppose they're probably collectively the Macross-class. No, based on what's seen in Macross Frontier and said in Macross Chronicle2, the hull classification symbol "SDF" was passed to the Megaroad-class emigrant ships starting with the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 in 2012. SDF-3 was Megaroad-02, and so on. The 12 production Macross-class ships were given the hull symbol "SDFN" and started over from 1. (So far, we have had mention of the SDFN-1 General Hayase, and seen the SDFN-4 General Bruno J. Global and SDFN-8 General Vrlitwhai Kridanik.) Yes, the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 was the first ship of the Megaroad-class, at least 25 of which were laid down at various shipyards in the Sol system. (No exact number is given, and as Macross Chronicle says a "great number" were built, there may be more than one per emigrant fleet at times as there were with some New Macross-class emigrant fleets like Macross-1 and Macross-5.) The production Macross-class ships were supposedly used as advanced reconnaissance ahead of the early emigrant fleets, and some were seconded to other operations (like the SDFN-4's assignment to the ill-fated 117th Research Fleet) after their emigrant fleets found new homes. Others, like SDFN-8, apparently were retained by the emigrant fleets after settlement... SDFN-8 having become "Vrlitwhai City" on Uroboros by 2060. 1. Technology Sheet 06A. 2. Worldguide Sheet 12C.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Macross II's director Ken'ichi Yatagai dropped a few hints that were leading in that direction in B-Club Magazine Vol.79's feature on the OVA, but nothing that's particularly definitive. The Mardook are an ancient miclone group with males and females coexisting, who regard their culture as sacred, and their technology surpasses that of the Zentradi and Meltrandi. Considering the state of the setting at the time of writing, it's at least not improbable that the Mardook were the descendants of another group of Protoculture who fled their civilization's collapse and tried to start over. Of course, as Macross II is a "parallel world" story, the yardstick for identifying the Protoculture is somewhat different. They're only "advanced aliens" rather than the "sufficiently advanced aliens" that they seem to have graduated to around Macross Zero.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Okay, there are a couple issues with that... What Master File calls the ARMD II-class are the Do You Remember Love?-style ARMDs. The rebuilt SDF-1 Macross and the twelve new Macross-class SDFNs were always equipped with that type. The new ARMD I and ARMD II docked to the Macross were among the very first ships of that type built in the main continuity. Master File isn't entirely reliable on this, as it forgets that little detail and its version mentions the ARMD II-class as something much newer, cropping up around the time the ARMD's hull numbers reached 200+. There's no indication that the ARMD-class (TV type) were sent out and then recalled in official sources. We have no idea how many were built of each type before the classes was phased out of production in favor of the newer Uraga-class escort battle carriers and the Guantanamo-class Advanced ARMDs. There are still several TV series-type ARMD-class space carriers kicking around in some stories set in the 2040's (e.g. Macross 7 Trash and the game version of Macross Plus). We also see that they were still using some ARMDs in emigrant fleets including the Macross-1 fleet seen in the opening exposition of Macross 7. With respect to the ship in the Macross Delta trailer... it's obvious at a glance that it's a Macross Quarter-class variant. All that's changed is they rounded off a lot of the points (like the front of the torso and pelvis) and stuck one or two extra guns on it. The configuration of the torso block, the shoulders, the head, the BASTER-L and BASTER-R battery ships on the back... look at the closeup 34 seconds in.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, the VF-1D Valkyrie isn't any taller in battroid than any other variant of the VF-1 Valkyrie. Stonewell/Bellcom didn't really make the VF-1D's cockpit block all that much larger, they made room to extend the canopy and add the second seat by taking a good deal of equipment out of the back end of the cockpit block and seating it a little further back in the airframe. Some Macross sources (like Macross II's VF History piece in B-Club 79 and the main timeline's Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1) assert that the reason the VF-1D was swiftly replaced by a dedicated training variant (the VT-1) was that one of the systems compromised to make room for the instructor seat was the escape/survival system... so they couldn't be safely used as training aircraft in space.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    The original (pre-FB2012) rationale for the SDF-2 was that it was constructed at a shipyard on the moon to be the second Macross-class space battleship in the UN Spacy's fleet. It was dubbed Megaroad when construction on the ship resumed after the end of the war, and with the announcement of the Human Emigration Project it was retasked to serve as an ad hoc emigrant ship. Had it been animated as planned in the original Macross series, the SDF-2 Megaroad would've still been a Macross-class military vessel when it was completed, and would've been retrofitted with civilian living space like the SDF-1 Macross was. The bit about the SDF-2's design being modified into the first of a new class of emigrant ships was a later addition to the timeline. The DYRL?-style SDF-1 Macross in Flashback 2012 is supposed to be the SDF-1 Macross... nothing more, nothing less. There wasn't a concrete view of which version of the First Space War was the correct one at the time Flashback 2012 was made. That didn't occur until Macross II and Macross Plus came out, with Macross II treating DYRL? as the more accurate of the two and the supplemental materials that came out with Macross Plus establishing DYRL? as an in-universe movie. The explanation that would ultimately be given for the DYRL? SDF-1 in Flashback 2012 and Macross Plus was that that's what it ended up looking like after the eight month complete overhaul it underwent to repair the damage it had sustained during both the final battle of the First Space War and Quamzin's suicide attack. The ARMD-class space carriers that replaced the naval carriers were simply part of the overhaul... and the Macross had (in-universe) always been intended to have ARMDs for arms anyway. That was my thought as well... that DYRL? was likely filmed using one of the Macross-class SDFNs. It doesn't necessarily need to be the SDFN-01 General (Takeshi?) Hayase, since they could always change the hull number temporarily the way Star Trek IV did when the USS Ranger (CV-61) stood in for the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). They would've had twelve to choose from.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, I'm sure. The original animation in Macross Flashback 2012 was the realization of a set of scenes that had originally been included in the final episode (#36) of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, but were removed in the storyboard phase to keep the episode from exceeding its allotted run time. Ultimately, that meant that the SDF-2 design they created for that episode (see Macross Perfect Memory pg150) went unused and a new design was subsequently created for Macross Flashback 2012, which is the Megaroad-class emigrant ship design. Because Flashback 2012 incorporated some DYRL? aesthetics like the Macross w/ ARMDs, and because it was produced after DYRL?, it tends to get rolled into DYRL? as an epilogue even though it's really more an epilogue to the entire First Space War story arc (and was conceived as an epilogue to the original series).
  13. Seto Kaiba
    The events depicted in Macross Flashback 2012 were originally storyboarded for use in the final episode of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross series, which was set in 2012. They were dropped from the episode plan due to runtime constraints, but when it was finally animated as Flashback 2012 it was still set in 2012. When Macross II's creators were building their own Macross timeline, they did some weird stuff with Flashback 2012... sort of on the same level with how DYRL? later became an in-series movie from 2031. As they have it, Megaroad-01 didn't actually leave the Sol system until 2014, and the Flashback 2012 OVA was "an episode" which marked the 10th anniversary of the First Space War. (That whole timeline is structured rather differently.)
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Via Macross the Ride, there are at least a few people left in the galaxy who [are/claim to be] descended from Anti-Unification Alliance soldiers who survived the First Space War... like air racer Magdalena Zielonaska, who claims her grandfather was the original pilot of the modified SV-51γ she races in. Her family's got plenty of money and influence too via their ownership of the Vistula & Oder investment bank. So, I guess there's the possibility that this new faction could be a anti-government faction with ties to the original Anti-Unification Alliance. (Or the SV designation could simply indicate that some remnant of Sukhoi Aviation is at large in the galaxy and developing Valkyries for parties other than the central government.)
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Technologically... nothing. Aesthetically? If you like blended-wing designs, the VF-5000 is practically guaranteed to be your 8,300kg, 14m long cup of tea. The only delta-wing Kawamori did prior to the Sv-262? So... we're just not counting the VF-4, VF-11MAXL, VF-17, VB-6, VF-0C/D, VF-171, YF-24, and YF-30? (Those are, respectively, a modified cranked arrow, clipped delta, sawtooth delta, ogival delta, clipped delta, sawtooth delta, clipped delta, and clipped delta.)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Macross tends to do things on a greater scale than Gundam does... particularly when it comes to things like weapons and power generation. The VF-1 Valkyrie's 5,000KW-class laser cannons are considered a light secondary weapon in Macross, but in Gundam's Universal Century that same 5,000KW power rating would put it on the heavy end of energy weaponry for much of the timeline. Generator output-wise, the VF-1 Valkyrie's producing just under 1,000 times the output of the RX-78-2 (1,300MW vs 1.380MW), and it only goes up from there. (As a side note, while the VF-1's reactor output may seem arbitrary and excessive at a glance, there is actually a good reason for it that's grounded in the physics of space flight. Thermonuclear reaction engines use MHD plasma ion thrusters for propulsive force in space, and that technology requires a LOT of power to get the kind of instantaneous thrust figures the VF-1 produces... we're talking a power requirement as much as 40KW per 1 newton of thrust. To do what it does with that 650MW output, the VF-1's engines have to be upwards of 40% more efficient than even the best modern MHD plasma ion engine... likely significantly more.)
  17. Seto Kaiba
    While this is true for laser and particle beam weapons, it's not quite applicable to weapons which utilize heavy quanta... since those involve more exotic principles and there's not a direct relationship between energy input and energy conveyed to the target. All the lethal force comes from the focused fusion reaction of the heavy quanta. (If we were to sit down and work it out, we're probably still talking probably hundreds of gigawatts of energy conveyed to the target for even the smaller shipboard turret-based implementations.) The more conventional energy weapons (lasers, beam machine guns, etc.) are rated in output wattage on the rare occasions that they're actually quantified. For instance, the VF-1's coaxial lasers are rated at 5,000KW, Master File cites the VF-19's rear-facing beam gun at 9,500KW and the beam cannon on the VF-1's Strike Pack at "dozens" of megawatts, and the SF-3A's anti-ship beam guns are rated at 750MW each.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    It's hard to measure relative power when the weapon in question's more potent implementations tend to kill anything and everything that gets anywhere near the beam. The chief limiting factor should/would theoretically be the robustness of the power and cooling systems servicing the gun. The more powerful the reactor the more heavy quanta you can collect and the longer you can sustain the resonance fold effect that draws it into realspace, and the downtime between shots is going to drop along with the time it takes to cool the weapon back down between shots. You could say it's broadly true that a bigger super dimension energy cannon means more destructive potential though... as the increase in size generally means it's connected to similarly-increased power and coolant systems. (The only case I can think of offhand where this might not be the case is the YF-27-5's BGP-02 beam rifle... it isn't clear how it relates to the BGP-01 beam rifle used by the production model in terms of firepower, but the YF-27-5 has only two engines and an underwing generator pod to drive it instead of four engines.)
  19. Seto Kaiba
    True, but I'm a layperson too... heck, I didn't even take physics in high school or college, and I saw the problem right away. You'd think someone, somewhere along the line would've noticed they were describing something that was literally impossible to achieve... an engine that doesn't need fuel and has unlimited endurance means you've invented perpetual motion, and even grade school kids (or anyone who's watched Mythbusters) know that doesn't work. Perhaps in the sense that it's a ring-topology reaction... but you'd probably get closer to the heart of the thermonuclear reaction turbine concept reading about stellar nucleosynthesis.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    I'm kind of disappointed in this video... they didn't even get 60 seconds in before accuracy went out the window. Like any other form of power generation technology, fusion reactors require fuel... the reactants that are fused to produce the energy. Without reactants, you're not going to have a reaction, so the statement about "a next generation of airplanes that doesn't rely on fuel" is pure BS. Likewise, that bit about fusion engines offering "unlimited range, unlimited endurance" is also BS... the fusion reaction can only be sustained for as long as there is reactant to fuse to maintain critical temperature/pressure inside the reactor, after which point it will no longer be possible to sustain the reaction. The range might be long enough to be "effectively unlimited" for practical purposes, like multiple flights around the world, but eventually you WILL run out of reactant and have to refuel. You might get a couple of weeks of continuous flight time, but that's about it. Lockheed Martin really ought to have someone proofread this stuff before they use it to shoot an informational video. I'm not sure there's really a parallel there... the tokamak and stellerator are both thermally-catalyzed magnetic confinement reactors, the thermonuclear reaction overtechnology is moderated and catalyzed gravitationally... and, by design, they're not fussed about maintaining the temperature of the plasma stream past the reaction chamber because it's going to become engine exhaust.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    I don't recall them ever actually presenting the term "Variable Fighter" in English in dialog... normally it's 可変戦闘機 (Kahen Sentoki). There's a lot of stuff in Macross which is based loosely upon the practices and designation systems of the United States armed forces... and yes, the fighter designation system in Macross is based on the US's 1962 tri-service designation system. Designations for prototypes and experimental aircraft have been a little weird, YF-# is the most common but we've also occasionally seen YVF-#, and VF-X-# is the most common experimental, but we've also seen XVF-# a few times and one instance of VF-X#.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    "Prototype Fighter". The aircraft designation system used in Macross is based loosely on the 1962 US tri-service aircraft designation system.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Well, there's a fun story in that... Y'see... the VF-11 might've first appeared in Macross Plus in 1994, but it wasn't actually depicted with ordinance hung from pylons out on the wing in a narrative Macross title until its appearance in Macross the Ride in 2011. The chapter "Peace Children" shows the VF-11C Thunderbolt Interceptor (Macross the Ride Visual Book Vol.2 pages 25, 44-45) with two pylons on each wing... one of which has the stealth micro-missile pod sketchley mentioned and the other has a HMM-111CS high-maneuver missile like those seen in Macross Plus. I don't believe that particular tidbit of information has been included in the Macross Mecha Manual entry... yet.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Agh... my wallet! I know I'm gonna cave and end up buying one of these... I've wanted a VF-4 for ages.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    My thoughts precisely. As long as Kawamori brings us an interesting story with some likable characters and cool fighters, it's all fine to me.
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