Seto Kaiba
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... what's a puzzle about it? The official chronology tells us point-blank that the Protodeviln raised an army from the spiritia-drained and mind-controlled Protoculture and Zentradi they encountered to fight for them and secure more spiritia to sustain themselves in three-dimensional space. That army was the Supervision Army. The first world to fall under their control was the world where their bio-weapon bodies were built, which was an advanced arsenal world for one side in the Schism War. It had literally everything they would need to produce a war fleet and even soldiers... including an enslavable population of technical experts. The ships in Macross 7 were, yes, vessels built by the Varauta system colony established by Megaroad-13 and improved with some ancient technologies the Protodeviln were able to supply. Geperunicch's flagship was originally constructed by the colony to be the flagship of their planetary defense against large-scale threats like rogue Zentradi fleets. They likely had to build a large number of new vessels to reach their ~500 warship fleet due to the fact that they turned most of the population into brainwashed soldiers, rather than the fraction who would have actually been soldiers in the UN Forces. Emigrant ships are, as a matter of course, equipped with manufacturing facilities... but in this case the Varauta system colony looks to have had a fairly extensive shipbuilding infrastructure already, considering the largest ship on the "Varauta Army" fleet predates the Protodeviln's accidental release from captivity.
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... your conclusion is pretty much the exact opposite of the OVA's presentation though. The Mardook's legend of the Ship of Alus (アルスの舟) basically identifies it solely as a ship from a blue planet that they would one day encounter, which would bring peace to their people and effectively end their crusade across the galaxy. Whether or not there was ever a real, physical Ship of Alus that was the basis for their religion's prophecy about it, but there's no denying the Macross's role in the war essentially fulfilled the criteria of the prophecy. It was a ship from a blue planet (Earth) that brought peace (via the songs of love spread by the emulators) to the Mardook and ended their genocidal crusade across the galaxy. Ingues and Ishtar's conclusions were that the ship was the Ship of Alus, and that seems to have turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy as Ingues goes above and beyond his usual cruelty to ensure that he isn't overthrown... resulting in pushing his people too far and them deciding they're better off without him. As far as why they leave Earth after signing a peace treaty with the UN Government... that's to go figure out what to do with their lives now that the ancient raison d'être behind their culture and society has gone up in a thermonuclear explosion. -
... the Protodeviln didn't do ships, there were only seven of them and they don't need ships to survive in space or travel by fold. The Supervision Army was the Protodeviln's military force, but their aesthetic doesn't seem to correspond to the Zentradi ships we've seen.
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Yes and no.The only source I know of offhand that treats the difference in the NP-AR-01 forearm pack as an actual in-universe design variation rather than a design being polished by the mechanical designer for the movie version is Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.2. The official stats treat the DYRL version as identical in all respects to the TV version, but Master File has DYRL's version down as being a later variant of the arm pack (NP-AR-01C, to Macross TV's NP-AR-01B). The unhelpful "but..." that you probably saw coming is that the book is not official setting material, and its explanation of the NP-AR-01C's increased size is not an increase in armament. What it attributes the increase in the pack's size to is the pack's internal fuel tanks being expanded to hold 170 more liters of fuel per pack (for a net gain of 340L, or 6.77% of the FAST Pack's total fuel capacity).
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Not to diverge too far from the central topic, but the problem with energy conversion armor and transformation is at least as much a case of the fighter earmarking most of the output of its reactors for the (admittedly inefficient) production of the massive amounts of thrust of which they're capable as it is the energy conversion armor technology's power requirements. What changed in Macross Frontier's (5th Generation?) Valkyries is that Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines seem to have finally reached a point where the increase in reactor energy production is outstripping the increase in system demands on that output. Having four engines (or a fold dimension resonance system) just increases the available surplus to a more usable level. Destroids can get by with relatively low-output (and therefore substantially less expensive) thermonuclear reaction furnaces because not being weight-sensitive means they can use conventional armor instead of energy conversion armor and they don't have to siphon a large percentage of heat energy or plasma off the fusion reaction to heat intake air or provide a plasma stream for thrust production. All of the energy produced in the reaction can be harnessed to meet energy requirements for onboard systems.
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That's a perfect illustration of the point... according to the written spec, the VF-1 Super Valkyrie is only supposed to have 30 micro-missiles of various types (12 in each HMMP-02 missile pod, 3 in each NP-AR-01 pack)1. 1. Or, in a few model kit-connected cases, 46... with twenty in each HMMP-02 missile pod and three in each NP-AR-01 pack.
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I've examined a few scenes for this kind of thing and I've found they're inaccurate as often as they're accurate when it comes to matching missile counts to what's given in the print stats. They seem to err on the side of what's dramatic rather than what's mercilessly accurate... but then, on a few occasions Kawamori has said things about the shows being dramatizations of the wars rather than strictly literal depictions of them, and we know how much the film industry loves to give guns more ammo than they realistically hold. Rambo wouldn't have been nearly as impressive visually if the protagonist's machinegun had run out of bullets inside of ten seconds. The instances of (apparent) inaccuracy have gone down as time has gone on... I suspect in large part because the Valkyries have gotten larger and are carrying progressively more missiles. A VF-1 Super Valkyrie from the series could fire two-dozen micro-missiles and then it's done... a YF-29 or YF-30 could fire that and still have 3/4 of its capacity left.
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... it isn't, and in fact that it isn't more cost-effective is a big part of my point. Even Macross's creators have hung a lampshade on the fact that a transforming mecha should be nowhere near as cost-effective to build and operate as a normal giant robot. That's why the Valkyrie is said to cost 20 times what a Destroid does, and the UN Forces supplement the necessary Valkyries with unmanned fighters and (occasionally) non-transforming combat aircraft. If someone in-universe built a variable tank with all the same technology as a Valkyrie and managed to keep the cost to only 1/2 of what a Valkyrie costs, you could still field 10 Destroids for what you're spending on the one variable tank. As the Destroid has just about the same armor strength as the Valkyrie, will likely carry more direct-fire weaponry, and can be fielded in larger numbers, it really torpedoes the idea that a variable tank would be a viable platform... and that's not even considering the setting offering zero tactical advantage to the transforming ground mecha. It's not ALL in the armor and reactor, but a lot of it is... energy conversion armor is expensive stuff, and at least at first the Destroids of the First Space War were able to achieve better armor strength than a Valkyrie at a fraction of the cost because they could use a greater thickness of "conventional" (overtechnology materials) armor instead of energy conversion armor. The latest ASWAG ECA was so expensive in 2059 that the VF-25 only used it in one or two places on the entire airframe and the Armored Pack, which uses the stuff extensively, is so costly that only the most experience pilots are allowed to use it. Eh... we do see infantry and armored fighting vehicles, and the EX-Gear special forces, though I wouldn't lump the Maverick in with them as that's not a front-line unit. That was an improvised design for long-range artillery support (a missile-toting miniature partner to the Monster) built for anti-warship operations in space.
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The Protodeviln aren't really a race, technically... the bodies are designer bio-technological weapon prototypes, and the minds are energy beings from another universe. The Vajra and Galactic Whales don't really count because the Vajra decided to go elsewhere and leave humanity to its own devices and the Galactic Whales don't appear to be sentient by any human meaning of the term. (The Dyaus from Macross 30 are probably in this category too.) Well, the government may not be Earth-centric, but its de facto seat of power is still Earth IIRC. Maybe, maybe not... Earth may have taken a beating in the First Space War, but it seems like humanity is the most technologically-advanced sub-Protoculture species in the setting. If the other newly-introduced species in Macross Delta were encountered while still pre-atomic, pre-spaceflight Machine Age cultures like the Zolans, humanity may be the most numerous species by dint of their status as a high-tech interstellar culture. The population of Earth in the height of the Machine Age was around 2 billion... with the average emigrant fleet from 2030 on now having a population of upwards of a million people, and those being launched at a rate of one or two a year, there are likely more humans in the galaxy than any other one Protoculture-created species (except the Zentradi, who have a lock on the top spot with their probable population of several trillion). Cloning is cheating, but it's undeniably effective. Sure. The Zolans haven't shown up in many titles because they were only introduced in Macross Dynamite 7 and there haven't been that many titles set after that thus far... so named Zolan characters are a bit thin on the ground. As far as why Michel and Jessica Blanc didn't exhibit the distinctive differently-colored bangs (or forearm hair in Michel's case), the reason is that they're only part-Zolan. I don't recall if they identify the exact order, but they're either 1/2 or 1/4 Zolan by intermarriage between humans, Zolans, and Zentradi. Macross R's Anri Mahlberg is a more typical Zolan. We don't see art of him without his suitcoat on, so he may or may not have the forearm fur, but he definitely has the different-colored bangs and big pointy ears. His description in the Visual Books notes that he's a former doctor (fully licensed) who quit his job at the university hospital in Frontier to become an investor. He lives in the Island-1 San Francisco area, is a sharp dresser, a bit of a bodybuilder, and earns some extra money on the side by providing off-the-books medical services to people in the entertainment industry or criminal underworld. He's also gay and sees himself as a sort of a "big sister" figure to the story's protagonist, Chelsea Scarlett. (Think Bobby Margot but not playing it for laughs as much.)
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Yes, I know... but those are issues unique to the Eureka Seven setting. Your other examples are all cases where the robot mode's role was nothing more than "a tank that walks", making the transformation pointless and impractical. Your other examples fall into that exact problem... in their own shows, the transformation was pointless and made the mecha less effective, not more. As I pointed out previously, the D-50C Loto's transformation explicitly made it less effective than either a traditional mobile suit or a conventional main battle tank. The tank mode was just plain unnecessary in a setting where almost every warship can transport a number of full-size mobile suits and mobile suits are perfectly capable of walking, jumping, or flying under their own power. That's why SNRI gave up on the design as unfeasible just a few years after Unicorn... so please stop pretending it's an example of the idea's practicality. ... they didn't. What the heck do you think the Cheyenne II and Super Defender destroids are for? (To say nothing of the Beatrice 8x8 armored fighting vehicles and EX-Gear suits...) Of course, if the enemy has already reached the surface of your planet you have already screwed up horribly, so most defense is focused on keeping the enemy away from your planet or fleet in space. That was the point... to economize the ground forces by producing one multi-role Destroid that could perform the interrelated and highly similar functions of three specialist units. There's no practical advantage to that... inside of a ship or in a surface city, something as large as a Destroid is not going to escape notice by anyone. The power of the weapons being used is such that buildings are not going to provide meaningful protection from enemy fire, and Destroids are designed for ranged combat so getting close to the enemy (especially an enemy like the Zentradi) is handing the enemy the advantage on a silver platter... Not to mention the transformation increases the cost of the mecha, which means the defenders would be able to field fewer units to confront the enemy. Just because all he fired was his gun pod doesn't mean that was all he could fire... just that that was all that was advantageous to use when a missile detonation could've brought tons of rock crashing down on him as easily as Roy. That's debatable. The problem with this line of thinking is that a VF's energy conversion armor is very expensive... and so are the high-output reactors necessary to power it. If you build a variable ground mecha with energy conversion armor and reactors fit to match a modern VF's capabilities, you haven't built a transformable destroid... you built a crippled Valkyrie. Once you've gone that far, it's much more practical and cost-effective to just send the Valkyrie (and maybe strap some Armored Packs to it) rather than replace the cost-effective, simple, easy-to-maintain Destroids with expensive, complex, high-maintenance transformable substitutes.
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's kind of my point, really. Mit is pointing to examples of transforming tanks in other mecha anime series as examples of how effective a transforming robot tank could be... apparently in blissful ignorance of the slight problem that, of his examples, only Eureka Seven depicts applying transformation to a ground vehicle as producing a result that isn't somewhere between moderately ineffective and entirely redundant. If you have a tank mode and a robot mode that are both for land warfare, you have a lot of unnecessary complexity in the design. Even in Macross, the idea quickly takes one on the chin from the simple fact that, after the UN Wars end, there was no real benefit to a variable ground mecha... as in Gundam, it's adding unnecessary cost and complexity in an attempt to fix what isn't broken. There's no real advantage to changing the height profile if the enemy is either 10m tall or piloting a 10m+ tall robot, transforming won't improve land speed when a destroid can already run at 180km/h and will only limit what terrain it can cross, it limits, rather than expands, the armaments the unit can carry... etc. Millennia, really... most of the base designs go back to the Schism War or earlier, ~500,000 years before Macross's present day. Though it's worth noting that even the Zentradi mecha drive home the point that a design should only be as complex as it needs to be to get the job done. Writeups for the Regult and many other units emphasize that their excellent maintainability and reliability springs, in part, from the simplicity that makes them easy to produce on a colossal scale.
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Pretty sure it's your fingers doing the talking on this one... because Great Mechanics.DX 9's "Variable Fighter Evolutionary Theory" article has a heading titled "Accidentally Discovered GERWALK" that describes it as a mode resulting from a failure in the fighter's transformation system. ... what about it? The F-50D Guntank in Mobile Suit Gundam F91 was a prototype built for a canceled program... the transforming Mobile Suit-Tank concept's (Formula 50's) last gasp before SNRI and the Federation concluded the idea wasn't workable. The one that appeared in the film was a dismantled prototype that Roy Jung salvaged in UC 0107 and rebuilt for his museum on Frontier IV. Not to mention the Ghosts don't have fleshy meats inside, so if they lose one there's no loss of life (on their side) and they don't have to train a pilot to fly it... which contributes to keeping pre-flight and non-combat operation costs down. (After all, in peacetime you don't have a bunch of pilots cooling their heels at the pub and drawing a salary...)
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As some have pointed out already, there's no reason for a variable tank because a Destroid and a tank perform essentially the same battlefield role... and the destroid does it better (in-setting). If both modes do the exact same job, why bother with the extra expense and maintenance headache of transformation? The Valkyrie's transformation is justified (in-universe) by the fact that each mode is ideal for a different job... Fighter for multirole fighter operations, GERWALK for attack helicopter-type operations, battroid for ground combat, and (in one rare instance) Gundroid for space dogfighting. (Even in Gundam, the idea of a transforming robot-tank combo was a flop... SNRI's D-50C Loto proved to be pretty much useless in anything resembling a stand-up fight because the design concessions to make it transform from tank to mobile suit, two modes that did the same job with the exact same weapons, had a significant negative impact on its performance... so significant that it was not capable of fighting modern non-transforming mobile suits on an even footing, and was thus relegated purely to ambush tactics and long-range fire support. Considering those jobs could be done just as well or better by normal mobile suits, the transforming tank-MS concept got canned by SNRI.) But there is already a universal Destroid platform that does the jobs that were originally done by several different Destroid models... it's called the Cheyenne II, and it functions as a Main Battle Robot and Surface/Air Defense Robot. The only Destroid roles that the Cheynne II doesn't fill are the heavy artillery role (unnecessary) and the hand-to-hand combat role (taken by Battroids). It does the jobs of three different families of Destroid without any need to transform... which keeps the costs down, and lets the New UN Forces field a lot more of them. Yes, the cost of Valkyries doesn't put the UN (later New UN) Gov't off buying them... but they do make efforts to reduce their overall cost with less expensive models (e.g. the VF-5000, VF-5, VF-9, VF-171 etc.) or offsetting the cost by reducing the number of VFs in their air/space forces and operating increasing numbers of unmanned, non-transforming fighters (Ghosts). Some entire fleets have gone to using air forces that are made up entirely of Ghosts. The chief virtue of the Destroid is, like the Ghost, that it is considerably cheaper than a Valkyrie and therefore can be made in much larger numbers for roles where numbers matter more than versatility (like air defense or land warfare).
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Well... insofar as Macross's ongoing continuity concerns itself with matters of canon ("barely at all"), the Macross: True Love Song game does not appear to be part of the official setting. As far as their use of VF-19's and VF-22's... I'd assume that they just built new fighters to replace whatever they were launched with and/or subsequently upgraded to prior to the VF-19 and VF-22's adoption by the UN Forces. The Macross-7 fleet started to do this with the VF-19 and VF-22 in the second half of the show (which is how we get Emerald Force, and a host of reasons to want to see Gamlin give Docker a swirly). Little known? They're not the focus of attention, but they're not exactly obscure... several Zolan or part-Zolan characters have been in titles after their introduction in Macross Dynamite 7. (Incl. Macross Frontier and Macross the Ride.) Examples include Michel and Jessica Blanc from Macross Frontier, and Anri Mahlberg from Macross the Ride. They're an intelligent, humanoid species from the planet Zola... one capable of interbreeding with Humans and Zentradi, which is a slam dunk sign that they're another species the Protoculture re-engineered in prehistory. Based on one unique physical trait which Zolans possess, it's suspected that they were originally something like a marsupial. The when of their discovery isn't clear (likely the 2020's or 2030's), but it seems they were discovered by an emigrant fleet... their planet was capable of supporting human life, but microorganisms originating in the galactic whales made it unsafe for the human colonists to settle there so there doesn't appear to be a permanent human presence on the planet. Zola's culture and level of technological development is said to be roughly equivalent to that of a developed country in the first half of the 20th Century (1900-1950), and what we see of their society in Dynamite 7 is largely agrarian. They have, however, obtained an assortment of advanced technologies like spacecraft and variable fighters from their human allies. They don't seem to possess any video media in daily life, but radio seems to be big there... particularly with cultural exports from human fleets like Macross-11, which apparently supplied Zolan adaptations of popular music and radio plays of classics like Romeo and Juliet (adapted as Zomeo and Zoliet). They seem to be pretty big on non-violence (or at least keeping necessary violence non-lethal) too. Zolans living out in space with humanity seem to have little-to-no trouble blending into human society. The only particular details of their physiology that have been discussed are that they have pouches like marsupials, and that they have a symbiotic relationship with an animal called a cat-snake, which is worn around the neck and which is intelligent enough to apparently read and translate for them (one is shown providing interpretation guidance of a dead version of the Zolan language), though we've seen some without the cat-snake.
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In the novelization, IIRC they draw a connection between Manfred Brando and the 117th Research Fleet... though I don't recall the particulars. He was backing the fleet financially, I think.
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Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
We already had a "Nothung"1, which was Siegfried's sword in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen... though that was a Valkyrie, not a Destroid. Dunno... between Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy and Macross Delta it seems like Kawamori's coming at us with a lot of Norse mythological references. Macross 30 was set on Uroboros, the plot and placenames of which were absolutely rife with Norse references for Protoculture-related ruins and caves. (Many of the regular military bases taken over by bandits have Greek names.) Factions Gefion - SMS Uroboros' headquarters, named for the Norse goddess of foreknowledge (appropriate considering all its visitors are from the past). Havamal - 815th Independent Special Command, named for a collection of poems relating to Odin's exploits and advice for living, conduct, and wisdom. Yuria Archipelago (places) Mimir (cave) - named for a Norse god who was beheaded, and whose severed head whispers advice and secrets to Odin. (appropriately, this is the location where Leon trains to qualify for his Hunter's License.) Raratoskr (cave) - named for a Norse mythical beast, a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree (Yggdrasil) to deliver messages between Nidhoggr and the unnamed eagle. (There is a massive tree on the island where this cave is.) Baleyrg (ruins) - one of Odin's (200+) pseudonyms/titles, meaning "Firey-eyed". Volundr (cave) - named for a legendary master blacksmith in Norse mythology, who forged the sword Sigurd/Siegfried uses to slay the dragon Fafnir. (This sword is Gram, also known variously as Balmung or Nothung.) Niddhog (cave) - named for the dragon who gnaws at the root of the world tree Yggdrasil, who chews the corpses of oath-breakers and other contemptible criminals. Vafudr (ruins) - named for another of Odin's titles, meaning "Wanderer". (This is where the first of the time-lost singers' song energy is collected.) Sierra Desert (places) Heithrun (cave): named for the Norse mythical beast (a goat) who produces mead for the einherjar. (IIRC this is where Mina finds the cure for Sheryl's illness.) Sanngetalll (ruins): another of Odin's names, meaning "Finder of Truth". Alv (cave): named for the Elves of Norse mythology. Thrudheim (fortress): headquarters of Havamal, meaning "World of Strength" and named for the home of Thor. Dverger (cave): named for the Dwarves of Norse mythology. Helblindi (ruins): named for one of Loki's brothers, Alfathr (ruins): another of Odin's names, meaning "Father of All". Grotti (cave): named for a magical millstone in Norse mythology that could create wealth (and soldiers). Madis Glacier (places): Gladsheim: Havamal's last fortress, where the superweapon they've been trying to unlock is, named for the realm in Asgard where Odin's hall of Valhalla is. Skuld (city): named for a Norn (a diety that controls the destiny of gods and men) in Norse mythology, the name means "Debt" or "Future". ... still workin' on this map's origins. All told, my money's on the VF-31 and Sv-262's names being more than just something they thought sound cool... there have been entirely too many plot-significant Norse mythological references already. My money is on the Aerial Knights being in the role of Fafnir from Norse mythology and/or the Ring Cycle. They killed someone to seize a cursed treasure (technology?) from the gods (Protoculture?) and then became a dragon (Draken!) to protect that treasure with an eventual ambition to overthrow the gods (Protoculture) before being slain by Siegfried (Delta Platoon). We even have a Freyja being forced into an arranged marriage at the outset... this works a little TOO well. 1. Specifically, that was a modified VF-19EF Caliburn that was being used as a technology evaluation and demonstration airframe in the development of the VF-25 Messiah. It was designated VF-19ACTIVE, and flown by Chelsea Scarlett in Macross the Ride prior to her mid-story upgrade to a YF-25 Prophecy. -
If the numbers on the chart art distances, the most likely candidate is Sagittarius dwarf elliptical galaxy.
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As I (and others) pointed out on MechaTalk last time you asked this question, the reason that Macross doesn't bother with variable ground mecha is obvious... the majority of combat takes place in space, where ground mecha in general are practically useless. Also, it's adding unnecessary cost to a part of the military's operations where numbers matter more and there's no bloody need for such a thing.
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Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
I don't believe we've really had a very detailed explanation of their role in the New UN Forces, honestly... What we can surmise from their equipment and designation is that they're a dedicated all-Zentradi unit in the NUNS Marine Corps, which may be using segregated units like that to either help Zentradi soldiers acclimate to culture more gracefully or as a way that they can ring-fence and provide for Zentradi who are unable (or unwilling) to adapt to civilian life like the 33rd Marines. (This would not be the first time in Macross that the UN Forces provided that kind of environment... in Macross II's timeline, there were even dedicated models of VF built for units like that.) Well, sort of... The UN Forces did absorb units of Zentradi defectors in the aftermath of the First Space War, but they had some problems keeping certain Zentradi mecha operating in sufficient quantities due to the availability of parts and so on. The Queadluun-Rhea battle suit's one unit that came about as a result of problems maintaining their fleet of secondhand Queadluun-Raus, designed with some major improvements to pilot survivability (because the UN Gov't doesn't regard them as expendable). Since we see a Queadluun-Rhea in the 10th's forces, I doubt they're using antiquated machinery. I suspect the Type-104 Regult and other new designs are the results of attempts to improve the survivability of the Regult and Glaug to a level the NUNS considers acceptable. The kitbashed Regult-Rau hybrid may be an effort to create a more economical or ground operations-friendly Queadluun alternative. Probably from the period around 2040, when the Q-Rhea first came out. What I suspect is up with the 10th Assault Battalion in Macross Delta is that they're a garrison force like the 33rd, though since they ended up on a fairly populous planet I suspect they're probably a unit of "I feel more comfortable in uniform" types rather than that sort of willful malcontent the 33rd was a dumping ground for. They seem to be an awfully laid-back and peaceable bunch before outside intervention drives them berserk. There are still a couple thousand main fleets kicking around the galaxy... so there's no shortage of Zentradi yet to encounter human culture. -
Macross Δ (Delta) News Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
That's the 2/2016 issue of Animage, IIRC... dunno 'bout the contents. Great Mechanics G and Figure King have been lavishing no small amount of affection on the mecha of the series, so it may be a case of targeted marketing? -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
That's a possibility, yeah... Or, to look at it another way, fold quartz may have become common due to an outside factor. We could be seeing the result of exportation of fold quartz from a planet or planets with large caches of the stuff (e.g. Uroboros or the fmr. Vajra planet). It's also possible someone found a way to refine/purify the stuff the way Vajra queens do, or found a way to produce fold quartz or an acceptable synthetic alternative material without needing the raw material. There is, after all, an enormous political, economic, and military incentive to increase the availability of fold quartz. On the other hand, if fold quartz is still a rare and precious commodity then we have the possibility that the Aerial Knights are obtaining it through other means, like black market transactions, outright theft, or potentially something as reckless as poaching Vajra from a hive that's in the vicinity of their home world. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Yes, really. It's the mecha that Mikumo jumps onto. It has the distinctive canisters on the back of the right shoulder and a back-mounted impact cannon. Really, it's inevitable that their fighter would have to have a YF-29/YF-30 grade ISC, otherwise the VF-31 would absolutely eat it alive. As far as where they got the fold quartz... there are a LOT of possibilities there. -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
My money's on modern variations... the UN (later New UN) Government has had an Esbeliben automated factory satellite in orbit of Earth for a good 55 years now, so they've had plenty of opportunity to come up with their own improved versions of Zentradi mecha with which to outfit the Zentradi forces in the (N)UNS Marines. There's a Queadluun-Rhea mixed in with the Var syndrome-induced rogue troops in the episode, so it seems likely they're operating human-designed variations of traditional Zentradi mecha. Considering the Sv-262 has demonstrated several capabilities in common with the YF-29 already, my guess would be that they've gotten their hands on the YF-29's specs and developed their own fighter based on them (with the YF-29's improved ISC). (We do know, via Macross the Ride, that the YF-29 spec was leaked by LAI nine or ten years before the events of Macross Delta, which definitely makes it plausible.) -
Macross Δ (Delta) - NYE Special Talkback - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
Well, she was highly popular (and perfectly legal) right up to the point where Marj went and installed an illegal/restricted bioneural processor in her that made her self-aware. (I vaguely recall reading something about virtuoids being not-uncommon in the wake of the Sharon Apple incident, but they're all restricted to the "all flash and no substance" non-interactive/non-learning type by law.) They had colonies on the moon and space colony clusters at the Lagrange points too... so I'd wager a lot of stuff probably survived. The familiar-looking cars could also potentially be excused by the fact that the entire Macross Frontier emigrant ship is basically a huge, deliberately retro recreation of various areas from prewar Earth (San Francisco, Shibuya, etc., allegedly for psychological reasons), and that dedication to the prewar Earth aesthetic may have carried over to the automobile designs on offer in the fleet. Though I'd expect the resemblance to modern cars is probably superficial... the one car we see up close (Ozma's replica Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione, circa 1992!) has visible vernier thrusters and other bits of hardware that were definitely not available on the original, and is likely using a hydrogen engine like the cars in DYRL? for low emissions. (Or it may be battery-electric or using a fuel cell.) -
Macross Δ (Delta) Mecha/Technology Thread - READ 1st POST
Seto Kaiba replied to azrael's topic in Movies and TV Series
She says "一〇四式リガードちゃん" Literally "Type One Zero Four Regult-chan". (Yes, she is reading the digits individually... if she'd said "Type One Hundred and Four Regult-chan" it would've been 百四式リガードちゃん.)