Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13057

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    Nah, it's just a technology that requires an incredible amount of energy to achieve the results it does, and has to contend with lots of other critical functions for the power it needs. The armor on a VF is fairly thin stuff... and while the material itself is extraordinarily tough, the energy conversion armor is drawing an awful lot of power to beef up that material to levels that let it shrug off weapons fire orders of magnitude deadlier than what our modern armed forces have. The VF-0's energy conversion armor needed 90% of the battroid's generator output to beef its armor strength up to the level of a main battle tank. Part of the problem is that while the thermonuclear reaction engines that VFs use to get around use the heat and plasma from the reaction to either heat intake air as propellant (in atmosphere) or use the reaction's plasma stream as propellant in space... which ultimately means that a LOT of potential power is lost generating thrust. So as technology advanced, generator output increased, but so too did engine thrust requirements and the number and severity of "accessory loads" on the power system thanks to more (and more powerful) sensor and stealth systems, integrated energy weapons, computers, communications systems, etc. Barrier systems are also famously energy-thirsty devices, so that probably isn't helping matters any. It wasn't until the VF-25's generation (the 5th?) that engine reactor output finally outpaced engine and accessory power demand to the point that light energy conversion armor could be employed around vital areas like the cockpit and engines in fighter mode. To fully utilize energy conversion armor in all modes, a fold wave system or fold dimension resonance system is necessary, which lets the YF-29 and YF-30 cheat up their generator outputs by pulling energy directly from super dimension space. Considering what is said/shown in Macross the Ride, the VF-27 probably needs at least 3 engines to produce enough surplus power to run its gun pod on top of everything else, so when the gun pod is not in use it can use the excess output for its stated ability to use its barriers and energy conversion armor to compensate for the friction heating of the airframe while flying above Mach 5 at around 10km. Actually, both the CG model from the animation and the art in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah show verniers on the VF-25's wingtips. You can seem them quite clearly in this image. Of course, there is another reason to leave the wings out with the Super Packs on... as seen in Master File, you can still use the 2 outer pylons on each wing for ordinance. (There's a really good picture of this on pages 076 and 077, which show VF-25's using their pylons for AMM-101 and RMS-7 missiles with their Super Packs attached.) Just because it's optimized for space doesn't mean it can only be used there... they used VF-19F's in atmosphere during Operation Stargazer in the Macross 7 TV series. All told, the YF-21's active wing technology is described as being extremely difficult/complicated to control properly without using a cheat like a BDI system or implant technology, to the extent that a conventional FCS capable of controlling it is still WIP in 2058. (This is part of the description of the VF-19ACTIVE "Nothung" from Macross the Ride.) To a certain extent, they're using boundary layer control for this... and have been since the original VF-1... but the existing stabilizers (which are variable cant on many later designs) and thrust-vectoring carry a big part of this burden.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    It wouldn't be the first time someone stuck canards onto the F/S variant...*points to Basara's VF-19 Custom, which Chronicle suggests (on Mechanic Sheet ALL 02) was customized from a VF-19F, and to the VF-19EF.*
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Probably not a huge concern for the VF-19F/S type, after all... that version of the Excalibur was optimized for usage in space.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Extrapolation from Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.2. It helpfully identifies the preferred fuel and gives us the internal tank capacity... which, since the fuel is a real material, gives us enough to approximate the total fuel weight. Hydrogen slush has a density of 0.085g/cm3 (or 0.085kg/L) and the tanks have a capacity of 1,410L... you get 119.85kg of fuel, or 264lb 4oz.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Dunno if anyone's brought this up in this thread... but here's one going the other way: NASA/CR-2005-213749 Advanced Energetics for Aeronautical Applications: Volume II offers analysis of some proposed nuclear fusion turbine engine designs that look an awful lot like the diagrams of thermonuclear reaction turbines in the old Sky Angels tech manual and Variable Fighter Master File. They even bear up to some of the Macross-y overkill-sounding details like an unlimited sortie range in atmospheric flight... with a projected 60,681nmi range on a single pound of H1-B11 fuel. That's 2.8 trips around the world. (Makes you wonder what a VF-1 can do with the 264lb of fuel it carries in its internal tanks...)
  6. Seto Kaiba
    If that's the case... then they failed spectacularly. One of the MANY problems with this line of reasoning is that, as I indicated previously, there were already explicit statements that these mecha were transformable years (or in the VF-X-4/VF-4's case, over a decade) before the article was written. The same is true for the VF-5000... there may not have been art, but the existing material was VERY clear that it was a variable aircraft. Your claim that there is no evidence is demonstrably false (and, in fact, had been disproved several posts previously). There has never been a toy for the YF-24. Nor, for that matter, art of its other two modes... yet, like the VF-4 and VF-5000, we know it's transformable because the text materials tell us so. Only one, in actual fact... the VF-X. The VF-X-4 is a transformable aircraft, per the notations in Macross Perfect Memory. The problem, as originally stated, is that the information was incorrect back then, and time has not made it less so.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    That's about the letter of it, yeah. Well, I'm not sure if you'd call it the pinnacle of 4th generation variable fighter design... it's certainly the most successful design of its generation though. Well, sort of... the initial mass production type (VF-19A/C/E?) had the same set of problems as the YF-19, and the VF-19F/S had a more stable engine and refined airframe that made it something an average pilot could fly without losing control. My interpretation would be that there's a subtle nuance of "anyone can fly" vs. "anyone can fly well" where the VF-19F/S vs. VF-171 thing goes. * The record is sketchy (and contradictory) on the nature of the VF-19E. The VF-19's Variable Fighter Master File book presents a VF-19E as the first variant of the second mass production type (the VF-19F/P/S), but the VF-19E in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy is a first mass production type (ala VF-19A/YF-19). The derivative VF-19EF is shown looking like the F/S type in Macross the Ride, but the A/C type in Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa. The one thing we CAN say with certainty about that one is that it is not the VF-19 Kai "Fire Valkyrie" base model... Chronicle identified that as the VF-19F on Mechanic Sheet ALL 01B. This is gonna drive me nuts... I know I read something about the Project Super Nova space testing arrangements, but I just can't remember where.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Definitely start with the original series, or half the stuff in Macross Zero will come across as "Wow, that's neat looking... but I have no idea what the hell is going on".
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Unfortunately, no... there are arbitrarily-scaled comparison-only numbers for maneuverability and so on, but only between the VF-25 and VF-27. Survey says... "Yes, you absolutely can." If a VF's verniers are powerful enough to get it airborne in fighter mode with 0 forward velocity, just imagine the crazy stuff that they could be used for... especially those full-circumferential verniers on fighters like the VF-14, VF-17, VF-19F/S type, etc. From the animation, it looks like UN Forces missiles routinely use verniers for their maneuvers in atmosphere.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... I was more on about that the VF-19S doesn't use the FF-2550F, that's the VF-19 Custom's bag. Oh boy... now you're askin' the tough ones. Well, generally speaking, the VF-171 is "outclassed by design". It was developed after the VF-19 but before the YF-24 Evolution as a sort of compromise plane that would incorporate many of the technological advances of the Project Super Nova prototypes but without the unnecessarily excessive performance that was their greatest weakness. The VF-19 and VF-22 were extremely unforgiving aircraft to fly, as their performance pushed (and exceeded) the limits of the human body's endurance. The Nightmare Plus was designed to be an aircraft that even average pilots could get the most out of. Once you've got the same generation of weapons... the Anti-ECA shells in the gun pod and the warheads on the missiles... the difference becomes more one of individual skill and tactics than raw performance. We saw this in Frontier, when they gave the same ammo SMS was using to the regular New UN Forces, and suddenly they were having a much easier time against the Vajra. Alto, in a Nightmare Plus EX, was able to nearly rival Ozma in his VF-25S Armored Messiah... and that's pretty damn impressive right there. It's not an insurmountable difference in performance, and MDE weapons on the VF-171EX would definitely be an advantage.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    I wouldn't be too sure of that... As far as official sources go, the only VFs that've been described as being able to fully utilize their energy conversion armor and/or pin-point barrier system in all modes are those equipped with variants of the fold wave system... the YF-29 and YF-30. The VF-25's FF-3001 Stage II thermonuclear reaction turbine engines had just enough surplus power to run dedicated light energy conversion armor around vital areas (cockpit and engines) in fighter mode1, and the VF-27 needed the surplus from FOUR Stage II engines to get whole-airframe ECA and/or pin-point barrier working in fighter mode. The YF-30 can only achieve that because its Fold Dimension Resonance system, an improved version of the fold wave system on the YF-29. The material requirements to build one seem to be pretty expensive... the YF-29's needed 1,000 carats of fold quartz. Well, yes and no... the SV-51 had a couple of advantages over the VF-0, principally because it was intended for combat use from its inception, where the VF-0 was a technology evaluation and demonstration craft hastily pressed into training and combat service. It's said that it had greater stability in actual combat, and that its active stealth system was more powerful than the VF-0's, but it also had the drawback of being slower to transform and a shorter sortie range. Not quite? The VF-171EX is using the FF-2550F, apparently detuned to 67,500kg-f. The other plane that uses the FF-2550F is the VF-19 Custom, which had an output of 82,500kg-f (probably overtuned). The detuning of the FF-2550F for the VF-171EX is likely a constraint imposed by its airframe design tolerances, as the Nightmare Plus EX is said to be tuned all the way to the design limit. The VF-19 engine numbers in Chronicle are all messed up... but there's a FAQ for that. Well... there's something to this effect in Macross Chronicle's Technology Sheets... but only for the VF-25 and VF-27, IIRC.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Depends, are you asking for screen captures from the movie, or other art? I've only got a few publications that talk about the other Macross Quarter-type ships, and IIRC they all use the same pictures that are in the movie art book you've got there... just at different sizes.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Your wife got you a DX Konig Monster for your birthday? Darn right she's wonderful, you lucky bugger. No, the cockpit sinks down into the torso and ends up under the head as it moves forward into the space the cockpit previously was in. (Per the description in Macross Chronicle.) Canaria's VB-6 was customized with an EX-Gear cockpit system, permitting a single pilot of exceptional skill to operate the VB-6 on their own. (Per Macross Chronicle mechanic sheet Frontier SMS 06A.) According to Macross Chronicle, the Konig Monster CAN fire its railguns in Destroid mode, and handles posture control with the engines in the legs. How exactly it aims is not explained, though I have a mental picture of it taking a knee and leaning forward. The mechanic sheet for the movie version of the Konig Monster mentions that the missile launchers in the arms are unavailable in Destroid mode. No word on if it can use the hands in Heavy GERWALK mode. The Destroid mode is described in Macross Chronicle (the movie sheet again) as being "a form that mainly considers close-range combat", rather than the bombardment and bombing the other two modes are used for. The series mechanic sheet for same has corroborated the "it's for close combat" thing too. So, on balance, looks like Destroid mode is for when the pilot wants to engage in fisticuffs on a nearly unprecedented scale.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Well, if we really wanted to furiously pick nits with all the zeal of an amphetamine-fueled monkey... the old Sky Angels book is a doujinshi, while Variable Fighter Master File is at least an official licensed product even though it's not canon, and was supervised by Kawamori. Theoretically, VFMF should be more reliable (to the point that that matters in non-canon material) than the old doujinshi... esp. since the initial VF-1 Master File is, in many ways, a modernized version of what's there in Sky Angels. Nope. Depends what it's being used for... and it doesn't always hold true that the larger round should have the lower muzzle velocity. The GAU-8/A's muzzle velocity for its 30mm rounds is marginally faster than the M61's for 20mm, for instance. Since ballistics plays by slightly different rules in space, and overtechnology-based armor materials are terrifying stuff, I'd say it's more a question of maximizing stopping power and ensuring a hit on a highly agile target rather than striking from the farthest distance possible when it comes to muzzle velocity. Not in terms of "this is what makes up that weight", AFAIK.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    As the man says, GuardianGrey, M3 is Mr March's project. He does all the front-end stuff like the beautiful art, the elegant and finely crafted stats pages, and the layouts. I help out here and there doing the back-end administrative stuff that keeps the server running, chase new publications, and function as an "in-house" researcher/translator when the need arises. (That he manages to get anything useful out of my foamy-mouthed rantings is a thing of wonder all on its own...) Yes, you're thinking of the VF-4S(P/T) Siren that Masaya and the Macross II mechanical design staff did for one of Macross II's two video game prequels... Macross: Eternal Love Song for the PC Engine. It had a more VF-1-esque transformation (and four coaxial lasers on its monitor turret). It also had a beam rifle longer than the fighter itself, and funnels. Personally, I'd say the usage of 可変戦闘機 (Kahen Sentoki, lit. "Variable Fighter") in the art caption and/or description tends to be a "smoking gun"... to say nothing of the VF-# designation. Also, the VF-4 had already been depicted as a fully transformation-capable main character craft in 1992. The term "Variable Fighter" has nothing to do with their operating environment though... and there's no shortage of variable fighters optimized for performance in one regime or other. (They would've known that, since the idea really got crammed into the limelight via Macross II, and never really went away thereafter.)
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Just gonna throw this out there, but that article in V-Max is riddled with inaccuracies to the extent of being pretty much useless, so citing it as evidence of anything would be a bad idea. The VF-5 was... well... a VF. That the author immediately says it's non-transformable should be a clue as to how (un)reliable the article as a whole is. As with the VF-5 mentioned above, the VF-4 was always a transformable fighter... I mean, it's right there in the designation. It's also marked as transformable on the VF-X-4 line art. The stealth technology in Macross is passive stealth (via radar or fold wave-absorbent materials and airframe shaping) or active stealth (via active cancellation). While the presence of one does not imply the presence of the other, the answer to your question is still "Yes". No. The active stealth systems used in Macross are described as being of the "active cancellation" type, which uses its own small radar transmitters to neutralize their radar return through destructive interference. A new generation of active stealth technology, combined with low-observable passive stealth design, made the Project Super Nova fighters effectively invisible to previous-generation VF radar systems even at point-blank range... as seen in Macross Plus. I vaguely recall seeing a few references to Destroids having energy conversion armor technology, yes... EDIT: Yes, according to Macross Chronicle, destroids with thermonuclear reaction power systems can (and do!) employ energy conversion armor to bolster their defenses. It doesn't make up nearly as much of the total defensive ability on a destroid as it does on a VF though, as the less potent reactors used in destroids can't support it (and the less strict weight tolerances and mobility requirements mean that they're able to more than make up the difference with thicker armor plating instead).
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Ah, good catch. Dunno where my brain was that day. The gist of it is that the sound energy/spiritia is a kind of fold wave... and from the sound of it, the sentient mind has some kind of low-level connection to super dimension space that can reflect/affect the emotional/mental state of the person. Kinda like the warp in Warhammer 40,000, but without the extradimensional horrors that want to eat your soul.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Nope... I've never seen anything on it, and to be honest I'd never thought it was an official in-universe thing. The VF-25 Master File has a paint scheme for a unit that sounds roughly analogous to the Minmay Guard's theoretical purpose on page 125. It's a VF-25F from the "Queen's Knights", which has some Sheryl Nome-specific iconography painted on it.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    You'd probably find the explanations in Macross Chronicle fairly satisfying then... I know I did. Eh... I wouldn't bank on that. Thus far, SoftBank seems to be largely trying to stay away from locations and events that are prominently featured in the existing body of Macross animation. We get the occasional nod to things from the shows in the squadron paint schemes and so on, but on balance they're sticking with events that AREN'T part of existing Macross stories. The VF-25 book, for instance, was written from the perspective of a fleet that wasn't involved in any of the events of the Macross Frontier series. The Episode Archive book sort of glosses over the events of the Macross Plus OVA, but puts more emphasis on the period of testing before Isamu got involved (the fatalities and smash-ups Jan alludes to), and the second half is completely out in left field.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Not up on paper sizes, myself... but it's the same size as the other VFMF books.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Well, part of that might be because the Independent Special Command units aren't really squadrons, per se... whereas the special operations teams like Diamond and Emerald Force are. The VF-22 book does something bizarre here... they show a Uraga-class carrier with the Saratoga II's hull number (565) circa 2044, but it's a normal Uraga-class carrier attached to the Macross-7 fleet instead of the Macross-13 fleet variant that actually appeared in the Macross VF-X2 game. There IS a VF-X Ravens VF-22 in the book on page 111... with special commemorative markings for "Holtzand 10th Anniversary"? Well, they sometimes reprint squadrons from other VFMF books... but that's kind of rare.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    The ejection diagram in the old Sky Angels VF-1 tech manual (penned shortly after the series) shows the parachute is in the seatback.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    That's one possibility... I'll know for sure once my copy rolls in in a few days, but "Sewell Independent Space Force" almost sounds like it could be the local military (not NUNS) of some emigrant planet.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Hmm... now I am doubly curious.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Very curious what that X-like symbol on Charlotte Grace's pilot suit and that VF-25 is... can't make out what's written on the plane, but it's "_____ Independent Space Force?" This is gonna drive me nuts while I wait for the EMS package with my copy.
×
×
  • Create New...