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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    The animation in Macross Plus does show the YF-19 firing its fixed-forward guns during the dogfight with Guld in the second half. I don't think we see the YF-21's coaxial gun fire, but the bits that end up on the hips are where the gunpods are stored. Exactly how energy conversion armor works is not clearly explained, unfortunately... but there are various materials in existence now that are at least similar in function (increasing rigidity and so on when exposed to a current or electromagnetic field). Nah, that's just the variable camber wing mechanism... which works a bit like an active aeroelastic wing, just turned up to 11.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Oh, I can sort that out for you, GuardianGrey... because most of the tech specs on their wiki were written by me back when I had a character and staff position there. The SV-37 and SV-52 were what I cooked up in an afternoon or so when the game admins were asking for new designs to pad out their anti-government faction. I supplied the line art for the entry too, though only from a scan I'd found (I believe right here on MacrossWorld) years ago. Sadly, the game's pretty much a dead duck now, so I'm not surprised you weren't able to get a response from the remaining staff. Hard to say, but based on the art in the Variable Fighter Master File: VF-22 Sturmvogel II book, I would say it's probably about the size of a man's torso, maybe larger. The Shaher Femail was deliberate misdirection on General Galaxy's part, though... my guess would be that they decided not to put an inertia store converter on the VF-0 either because the airframe wasn't compatible, or because they didn't want to put an insanely expensive piece of hardware in an aircraft belonging to a civilian famous for crashing more than anything else. Could be a museum piece, or a replica VF-0 from a planet like Ouroboros... I doubt Shin's VF is anywhere anyone might find it. Yeah, Macross the Ride had a few numbering inconsistencies like that... like the SV-52 Oryol being listed as having the same engine as a VF-17, which they then list as FF-2010X (should be 2100X). Pobody's nerfect. The Schneeblume in particular is more a "what if" for a design we've ALREADY seen... specifically, "What if you designed the VF-1 during the 2000s". The Schneegans seems to have found its completed artistic expression in the YF-29 (a YF-29 in Schneegans colors can be seen in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah). Yeah... pretty much. I think there are actually a couple really good .5 generation designs out there. The VF-1 Plus (Block 6 and later) is arguably a Gen 1.5 VF, since the cockpit design and other refinements were nicked from the Gen 2 VF-4. The VF-4G's probably Gen 2.5 because of modernizations with tech from Gen 3. The VF-17's a sort of Gen 3.5 for reasons we already went into, and the VF-171 is arguably Gen 4.5 because of the tech it began to inherit from the 5th Gen AVFs (EX-Gear, etc.). The Macross Frontier novelization's VF-17F and so on may also qualify. The ones that are impossible to quantify are the one-offs or limited production ones like the VF-0 Custom "Zeak" and particularly the VF-9E, a trial production Gen 2 design upgraded with Gen 4 hardware.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Chronicle's VF "genealogy" chart (Mechanic Sheet 01Q) offers something like a generational breakdown of VFs... You and they are on more or less the same wavelength, though they put the VF-17 in with the VF-19/22/171 instead of the 11/14. If they had ".5" generations, the VF-17 would probably be one of those, as would the VF-1 Plus variants and so on, because they were built during one generation and adopted tech from another.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    ... and 90% of the combat in Macross 30...
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Unless the pilot in question was locked on to multiple targets at the same time... which is something every VF has been able to do since the original series. They're pretty much always shown kitted out for space use in the Macross Frontier series itself... and I don't recall how they were armed in Macross 30 when you don't have a Super, Armored, or Tornado Pack on. The VF-25 has some limited passive stealth features, but it's principally an active stealth craft... IIRC, Kawamori made it with the intention of specifically getting away from passively-stealthy real world silhouettes. Most VFs seem to be more active stealth than passive, the VF-17 being the principal exception because it came out between active stealth system generations.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    It's not a size concern, but rather that there is some unspecified aspect of the designs of some VFs that make them incompatible with the ISC. The exact nature of the incompatibility is not elaborated upon, unfortunately, however the VF-0 is possibly incompatible, the Zeak doesn't have one listed in its stats. The chief issue there being the aforementioned problems the VF-11 shares with virtually every other aircraft that could potentially be upgraded to AVF tech levels... insufficient structural strength, limited internal space in the airframe (relative to AVFs), and issues with AVF-level tech. That's not quite what I said, actually... the VF-9E, etc. were unrelated efforts to upgrade existing fighters to AVF standards, a job which was generally abandoned as impractical if not downright dangerous. (e.g. the VF-9E, VF-11MAXL, VF-171EX) Their development had no direct connection (that we know of) to Project Super Nova and the solicitation for new next-generation designs. Wrong kind of "Experiment". Aircraft designated VF-X (or XVF) are literally in-universe experimental aircraft like we have in the real world. Offhand, I don't know why the Schneeblume isn't in the VF-E section... probably for want of a good, clean line art source. "VF-Experiment" is the name of the column in Character Model that the Schneeblume and Schneegans were from... it was the column that ran before VFERR. Er... not sure why these are listed as "candidate" designs... they were already AVFs when they were new, and at least the VF-19 is known to have been able to partially adopt VF-25 equipment.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    Time travel's a hell of a thing.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    The information in that scan is contradictory, as noted before... and it's not official setting material either, which is also problematic. Mind you, the Armored Pack's chief advantage isn't so much the NUMBER of missiles it carries as it is the types of armament it carries (the Super Pack doesn't have those high-initial velocity anti-armor rockets and anti-warship beam guns) and the extra armor it adds to the fighter, which is the same ultra-tough next-gen armor as the VF-25's antiprojectile shield, allegedly giving it defensive ability approaching that of a battleship (which we have to take seriously, since we see the VF-25 Armored Pack tank a hit from the same guns that were popping frigates earlier). The Super Pack's armaments are suited to dogfighting... the Armored Pack's weapons offer more options, particularly for anti-ship work.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    That's from Macross 30.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    No, the VF-171 has not been depicted with a beam adapter like Gamlin's VF-17 so often used... though that doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible if it's using a later variant of the same gunpod. No clue what the bore of the GU-14B is, though my gut reaction guess would be 30mm.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    By all accounts, the energy consumption of a pinpoint barrier system is pretty ridiculous... there's a little inconsistency between sources, but they agree that the system on the YF/VF-19 consumes more than half (60-70%) of the VF's generator output. Mind you, for what you get, that seems like a bargain. We've seen that a pinpoint-barrier equipped VF can smash its way through a ship's internal bulkheads, stop direct hits from the New Standard gun pods of the first AVF generation, protect the (relatively) delicate mechanisms of a VF's hands from breaking when pilots resort to fisticuffs, and on the VF-25 they're even shown to be able to blunt most of the impact of an anti-capital ship beam cannon...
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Nope, it's still a perfectly viable passively-stealthy airframe... but that passive stealth is degraded somewhat by hanging bombs and missiles off the wings, etc., which the active stealth system compensates for. The ISC is not supposed to actually be all that large... it fits inside the nose of the VF-25 with everything else in there. The catch I'm thinking of is that various sources (Macross Chronicle, Great Mechanics.DX, etc.) have mentioned that certain airframes simply are not compatible with the ISC. No context is given to explain what the compatibility issue is, but the VF-0 Custom "Zeak" isn't listed as having one in Macross the Ride and the VF-171 is said to be flat-out incompatible. (Curiously, the VF-19 IS compatible...) I'd have thought the existing lasers would be more than sufficient for anti-missile duty, and since AVFs have anti-beam coatings, I can't imagine who such a large, diffuse laser weapon would be useful against... We know that the quantum beam cannons can be made fairly small... the only question is "is there enough juice to power it?". We know a third engine could conceivably power one full size one... so two cut-down ones might not be that big a stretch. The quantum beam gun pods that the VF-27, YF-29, and YF-30 use appear to have the same basic setup... their default mode is a "beam machinegun" type rapid fire weapon, and they have a heavier "beam grenade" mode which just seems to fire a much bigger blast. (Admittedly, in Macross 30, beam grenade mode was replaced by a sort of beam sniper mode for consistency across the other VFs, who all somehow got the SSL-9B Dragunov as their alt gunpod. Actually, I think it probably had a lot more to do with the same thing they were having SMS's Chelsea Scarlett and the NUNS special forces "Round Table" do... test hardware for the VF-25 under field conditions. The official word from Macross Chronicle and Great Mechanics.DX is that pinpoint barrier systems produce a focused distortion of space-time... the gist being that it's essentially warping space to create a region matter and energy can't pass through. sketchley would probably know more about this than me, since he's done some work on Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur. Yeah, it shows 8... the VF-171 is said to have two optional gun pods, one is MC-17C and the other is GU-14B, IINM. I think the 8-barrel version is probably the latter.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    More or less... we don't know if it uses the same ARIEL avionics package as the VF-19, and its engines are actually an improved (detuned) version of the VF-17's, but it's got the important bits like the 3rd Generation active stealth package, the pinpoint barrier system, fold booster capability, etc. The EX variant actually used the same engines as a VF-19 (FF-2550F). In a way, the Nightmare Plus actually has a few advantages over the higher-spec VF-19 in that it can be adapted to do pretty much anything. They're using the same generation active stealth tech as the production VF-19. Yeah, Kawamori did a few pieces with not-official-setting material in Character Model, the better known one is VF-Experiment and the VFERR thing gets overlooked a lot. The VFERR article was written as a sort of post-Operation Iconoclasm retrospective of the VF-0 Phoenix and captured SV-51s, and had a couple odd things like an AI-guided cruise missile with micro-missile launchers. I wasn't able to find any either, so it may be that the site's author just doesn't care about sourcing... especially in a series as loosey-goosey about continuity as Macross. In all honesty, I'm not certain that the VF-0 design is compatible with ISC or that it could withstand the strain of a THIRD FF-3001 engine... though the VF-0 Custom already had AVF-grade high-output laser weapons. It used the same model on the VF-25.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    The VF-171 is an AVF, yes... it has the key hallmarks of the AVF generation (fold booster compatibility, pinpoint barrier, etc.). Couple corrections... There's no "e" in "UN SPACY". The UN isn't "Unity Nations", it's just "Unity" (or "Unified", or "Unification") Government/Forces/etc. I tend to prefer the latter, though "Unified" is, I think, the closest literal translation of the term. Development of the VF-171 began before the governmental and military reorganization, due to difficulties and various complications involving the adoption (and export) of the VF-19 and/or VF-22. Er... I'm pretty sure that's an unofficial Macross design from Character Model magazine, circa 2004. I believe it was part of an article called "Macross Zero VFERR" (short for "Variable Fighter Experimental Requirements Review". EDIT: Yeah, Macross Chronicle puts it in the same category as the Schneegans and Schneeblume.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, in Macross Plus, Isamu is definitely a soldier in the UN Forces. We see his bio in both versions of Macross Plus, which marks him out as a First Lieutenant in the UN Forces and a perpetual troublemaker (his record has a LOT of disciplinary actions on it). The Macross Plus OVA opens on Isamu's last battle as a frontline soldier in the UN Spacy, before he's informed that he's going to be transferred to the New Edwards Test Flight Center because of his record of insubordination, reckless flying, etc. Isamu's involvement in Project Super Nova is as a military-supplied test pilot... Guld, on the other hand, is a civilian on the General Galaxy payroll. Per Macross Chronicle's mechanic sheet for Isamu's VF-19ADVANCE [VF-19EF/A], Isamu left the New UN Forces in 2059 because he'd been promoted and he wasn't at all thrilled with the the additional "Desk job" work he'd landed as a result. He wanted to fly, and SMS was apparently willing to accommodate him.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    21 June 1987.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    They're not using inert gas... they're using plasma bled off the thermonuclear reaction as propellant in a MHD plasma ion engine, so if one really wanted to aggressively pick nits, it's actually an impulse engine ala Star Trek in space. 's supposed to be coming out of the high-thrust verniers on the outside of the engine intakes. (There's actually an error in that .gif diagram, the other two high-thrust verniers are on the wingtips... the blister on the nose is the FLIR sensors.) Pulsed output could easily be used for simulating "throttling down" for VTOL landing using the verniers.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    Would it cheer you any if I told you the limited/trial production New UN Forces version of the YF-29 slapped a bayonet on the quantum beam gun pod?
  19. Seto Kaiba
    Not really, no... the progressive knives in Neon Genesis Evangelion weren't energy-shielded, they were just high-frequency blades. If you wanted to draw a parallel (and I don't advise it) it'd probably be to Full Metal Panic!'s monomolecular cutters, which Sousuke and others enhance with the lambda driver, which (in most ways) is kind of a force-field system. There's no official word on it directly associated with the VF-27 or YF-30, AFAIK... though in light of the twin-engine YF-27-5 having an external dedicated energy module with its own reaction power system to power and counterbalance the gun pod*, and knowing that a dimension weapon is a fairly energy-intensive thing, the logical conclusion would be that the heavy quantum beam gun pods on the YF/VF-27, YF-29, and YF-30 (and probably the MDE beam gun on the VF-171EX) are powered externally by the fighter's engines. It would explain why the YF/VF-27 needed four engines. * See Macross the Ride Part 6, YF-27-5 Shaher Femail
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Well, the physical shield is not necessarily a stipulation of the advanced variable fighter generations... but almost all of them have it, and the few that don't have a dedicated armor shield (YF-30, VF-171) tend to use their stabilizer as a shield. The pinpoint barrier IS, on the other hand, a distinguishing feature of the advanced variable fighter generations (so much so it's specifically called out on the VF family tree in Chronicle). The combat knife is only present on a few AVF designs... pretty much exclusively the ones intended to fight the Vajra. Most lack it, and don't seem to actually need it when they can just resort to pinpoint barrier-supported fisticuffs if things get up close and personal. I always thought the knife was kind of silly, since VFs are generally involved in high speed aerial combat, which is not at all conducive to stabbing or slashing with a knife. Giant robots with KaBARs worked much better in Full Metal Panic!, where everyone was confined to footslogging (except that <CENSORED> Leonard Testarossa, the godmodding <CENSORED>) and many fights ended up at arm's length or closer. Of course, the AS's in that series had only the one close combat blade, and the others they threw were actually shaped charges.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    Maybe, then again maybe not... after all, the girls were even asking out Exsedol in Fleet of the Strongest Women, and at that point he was old enough to be their grandfather and looked like broccoli.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Huh. So it does... though the way it's presented makes it sound like they're talking about gravity control and inertia capacitor tech like they're the same thing. I'm going to check that against the source it claims to be from (Macross Chronicle Tech sheet 01P). I shall return, armed with a definitive answer. From other Macross Chronicle sheets, the IVCS and ISC are the same basic technology but at two different levels of advancement (or capability). The Q-Rhea spec has it mentioned the improved IVCS is good for about 18G maximum, while the fold quartz-based ISC is good for 27.5G. Yeah... if you've still got your 1E Chronicle copy, check the old Macross Zero UN Mechanic sheet 04A against 2E's. The old one was QF-2001 Ghost / QF-2200D Ghost, while the new one is QF-2200D-A Ghost / QF-2200D-B Ghost. The D-A is the fighter variant that we saw as a stand-alone aircraft, the D-B is the recon variant that was modified into a booster for the VF-0.
  23. Seto Kaiba
    I'm pretty sure there's a good diagram of the VF-22's engine vents in the VF-22 Master File... I'll see about posting it a pic tonight. As far as VTOL goes... don't underestimate the power of those little rockets. The big ones in the VF-1's backpack are good for at least 8,000kgf apiece, so I'd imagine the verniers have a fair amount of grunt to them as well. Particularly since they're designed specifically to confer high maneuverability in space. That's what the old Sky Angels book says... 20kg warhead equiv. to 200kg TNT on the AMM-1A, and it's not a reaction warhead. (The exact nature of the OTM thermonuclear reaction is a wee bit vague, but the only time I've seen any mention of anything like annihilation mentioned in connection with them is in the old VF Aero Report in This is Animation Special: Macross Plus. Reaction weapons are described in Macross Chronicle as being essentially a gravitationally-triggered pure fusion warhead, so they don't produce residual radiation.) It's from the Sky Angels book, bottom half of page 41.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Apparently I have failed you... but the official answer as to how the VF-22 does VTOL in GERWALK mode is that there are two banks of pivoting under-fuselage slits that act as the main nozzles for hovering, which would appear to refer to that expansion joint sketchley was talking about earlier.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    The first VF equipped with an inertia capacitor system was the YF-21, which used the same model (inertia vector control system) on the Queadluun-Rau. The Inertia Store Converter technology used on the Macross Frontier VFs was first developed for the YF-24, and completed for the YF-24 Evolution prototype. If the New UN Forces adopted the VF-24 the way Master File seems to suggest, that would probably be the first fighter with ISC. Otherwise, chronologically speaking, it would probably be the VF-27, which was ahead of the VF-25 in its production schedule. Great Mechanics.DX 9 mentions that the ISC technology IS compatible with certain first-gen AVFs like the VF-19 though, but things moved forward with a new AVF generation for a variety of reasons. Yeah, it appears that Macross Chronicle has overturned that particular designation, and now it's QF-2200D-A, while the old QF-2200D is now QF-2200D-B. Theoretically, I suppose any QF-4000/AIF-7S could be upgraded with the same autonomous AI combat package that was present in Luca's three Ghosts (Simon, John, and Peter). As far as Macross Chronicle has indicated*, the modification was an "informal" off-the-books arrangement, doubtless because that technology was prohibited by the New UN Forces, and only present on Luca's three Ghosts. * See Macross Frontier mechanic sheet SMS 05A "RVF-25 Messiah" and Glossary 09A "Kim Saintlaurent" to "Queadluun-Rau". ... the Compendium says nothing of the sort. The Queadluun-Rau with its inertia vector control system were introduced near the end of the Stellar Republic's dissolution conflict, it's the only pre-human airframe mentioned to possess the technology. Nor does it say anything like this... the inertia vector control system in the YF-21 and VF-22 is explicitly said to be an improved and revised version of the Queadluun-Rau's. 'bout that... that designation was correct as of Chronicle's first edition, but changed in the second to both being QF-2200.
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