Zinjo

"Reactive" Armor is similar to the idea of ablative armor where the armor destroys itself in order to defeat the kinetic or explosive energy of a projectile or missile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_armour The reactive armor on Roy's Zero really wasn't activated before he discarded the armor in combat. The GBP was the VF-1 version but I don't believe it had reactive armor properties in the design, only additional bolt on armor and missile magazines.

However, we are not discussing Valkyries exclusively are we? They never came with PPB or primary DEWs. Sigh, OK, if the only argument is a semantic one then let me re-phrase "Thrust". Speed IS a factor in space battles as there are greater distances to be traversed as opposed to atmospheric engagements. "Deficiency in the original design" or "unanticipated enemy capabilities and numbers"? As already stated, they fared quite well after the Pluto jump, however combat experience showed that their weapons systems fell short in dealing with the volume of enemy aircraft they were facing. It is fair to reasonably assume that they were out numbered at least 10 to 1 in a dogfight situation. In a fleet situation, the need for FAST packs may not have been seen as critically necessary as the Macross found out they were relatively early on. Then please explain the design of the VF-11 FAST packs? The VF-11, a much more advanced fighter, post VF-4 (energy based primary weapons system), yet the FAST pack basic design relatively unchanged. That's a mighty large assumption. A rail gun may not require the same amount of power as a DEWs, but it would require more than what a "battery" could provide. It isn't a clock radio... As far as I am aware that is the only unit with such capability. If you recall it utilized a large battery of missiles as a secondary weapons system. Why, if it's DEWs were so much more efficient as you are proposing? On the Zero and possibly the VF-1, however later generations could have benefited from the SWAG system in all modes.... Math meet physics... All those stats are fine..."in an atmosphere..." what are those same stats in space without the affects of gravity and friction? Those questions need answering before dismissing any kinetic weapons' effectiveness in space? Now there is another aspect that this academic, theoretical debate that has yet to address, "actual combat situations". In a perfect world the pilot would have ample time to track and fire his primary Energy Weapon and strike an enemy aircraft or missile at the speed of light for a long enough period of time to destroy it as proposed, however in a dogfight situation where a pilot has a reaction time of approximatey 200 - 225 milliseconds (measured reaction time of topgun pilots), that doesn't leave a lot of time to line up a shot and get that one shot kill. Especially when they are being fired upon by multiple enemys. This often results in wasted / missed shots due to pilot error, enemy evasive manuevers, etc... With DEWs this kind of behavior will deplete energy reserves quite quickly if not burn out the emitter units or worst case, disable the power systems of the fighter even temporarily. However, with kinetic weaponry the cost is less and coupled with secondary fire and forget missiles allows the pilots more flexibility in combat furballs. Adding DEWs to fighters only adds to the available weaponry at the pilots disposal. As a secondary weapons system in combat, the DEWs would serve quite well and would most likely be responsible for allowing the pilot to get back to base for rearming in one piece. I would suspect that is why the VF-17, 19 & 22 are all equipped with DEWs, to enhance the survivability of the fighters in combat.

Macross energy weapons would be better described as DEW's or Directed Energy Weapons. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread36894/pg1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_Energy_Weapons With how the DEW's are portrayed in Macross it is difficult to ascribe what actual DEW was employed by the Zentreadi and later by Spacy.

Actually Macross has been fairly conservative on it's evolution of the kentic projectile weaponry. There are caseless rounds, "smart" rounds that could alter their course, non-chemical propellants (i.e rail-guns), etc... The Laser or energy weapons are a bit more restrictive in their evolutionary potential. I disagree. Kinetic weapons and missiles are more economical and as effective (if not more) as energy based weapons, so why fix what isn't broken? The FAST packs are combat augmentation that allowed the fighter to carry larger amounts of "missiles" and greater afterburner speeds.. the Valk was holding it's own quite well in the beginning of SDFM. Not so. Unless the gunpods are rail-guns, they have self contained propellant in the rounds and can shoot at greater rate of fire compared to the Zentreadi energy weapons, which do require an energy source. Essentially all the excess power can be channeled into the SWAG system as opposed to sharing the output with weaponry. All energy dissipates, just at different rates in different enviroments. A kinetic weapon will keep its inertial energy much longer than an energy beem will keep it's potency over the same distance. If you read what I posted you'd realized that "missiles" course correct. However in time projectiles could evolve into "smart" bullets that course correct to a certain degree. When a laser will hit a target is not the issue, it's the cost benefit ratio that matters. How much resource is needed to hit and destroy that target at lightspeed with an energy weapon as opposed to how much is needed to hit it at a slower kinetic speed with a projectile to get the same result? Did you ever see them use both systems simultaneously? I haven't, which is what my later point was, that possibly in the 2040's both systems could not be used at the same time, eventhough they were available to most modern fighters of the day.

Yes it's a "LASER"

Dude I am loving that paint finish. It is realistic!!! How did you achieve it? Do you have any hi-res pix of this fighter, I'd love to see it all up close! Worth the wait, to be sure!

The US anime industry also doesn't have what the japanese studios have in terms of sponsors to carry some of the cost burden. Even HG had sponsors for RT which allowed them to bring the show to Syndicated TV. There are ways and means by which the US anime industry can exploit the internet, but trying to use traditional methods to achieve this will not be successful. I.e. pay per download services...

This is precisely the method employed by Bandai Visual in Japan with the "Limited Edition" DVD Macross sets. All the Macross Plus LE sets are sold out, yet they were priced on the higher end of the scale. The LE of DYRL is also about 4000 Yen higher than the regular edition and will likely sell out too. Ironically the more "value added" content they present, the higher a price they can command and the greater the likelyhood they will sell out their production run. It is entirely possible that the smaller anime distributors are also using that sales model, thus their products are priced much higher compared other distributors. Bandai Visual prolly is using this model for their releases. It is working against them in the market, but they are firmly commited to the idea for the moment.

True, but the beam weapons were not it's main armament, the gunpod and missiles still were and I don't recall the PPB and the beam weapons being used at the same time, however, I could be wrong since it's been a while since I've seen "Mac 7". If they were used simultaneously, then I wouldn't dismiss the possibility that any issues could have been solved by the time the VF-22 came into production, being the latest state of the art fighter deployed. It is also possible that beam weapons have progressed to the point of being regularly used armaments in the "Mac Frontier" era, which is beginning to look like the case from what we've seen.

They spell it Sheryl in the anime, or the trailer anyway...

It has just occured to me that your argument is based on a "fictional" movie in the Macross universe. "Movie magic" anyone? Technically I don't recall that instance happening in SDFM. However, with Azreal's point about the SWAG coming into play in Battroid mode, is a lot more palatable and consistent with the produced anime than if fighter mode was included. Not really. We are talking not only about recoil, but weight. A 55mm shell is about 2.5 lbs per, do the math and that gun becomes quite a heavy beast! A 55mm cannon has only ever been deployed on ships on a limited basis and often replaced with smaller caliber guns that were just as effective. The Germans had a protoype jet with 55mm cannons, but I don't believe the weapons were ever fired or even fitted to the aircraft. Kinetic weapons, particularly missiles are the best weapons for space combat. They require the least amount of resources to fire and in the case of missiles are self correcting. Beam weapons are line of sight weapons that require a substantial amount of resources to fire. They are faster than conventional weapons, however at distance their stopping power disipates and they cannot adjust their tragectory for evasive maneuvers of the target. The cost / benefit ratio is not the best with energy weaponry in a dog fight situation. It is also a possibility that it was determined that you cannot have a barrier generator and beam weapons on the same fighter. Thus Spacy opted for the defensive barrier as opposed to the energy weaponry. None of the Zentreadi weaponry had barrier systems, only the directly PC built gear did (PD & AFOS).

Yes, it's been remastered from HD stock (essentially the 35mm film). I would assume they are going to keep the remastered audio they did from the Perfect Edition a few years back. I'd love to see a picture of the 1987 LD release box!

*BUMP* Will post my two cents hopefully tomorrow night. Too interesting a discussion to just leave alone...

From the front the VF-25 strongly reminds me of the F-18 with the smaller rounded intakes tucked underneath the forward part of the wing and the long nose cone.

Yep, those are the one's I was referring to.

I expect they will as they've invested extensively in the project along with other countries. The F-18 will finish it's life cycle in less then 20 years. Let's not and say we did, m'Kay?

Whether HDDVD stays region free is debatable, since the studios are demanding they adopt some sort of region coding system and research is ongoing on the issue. However if such a system is implemented it will probably be similar to Bluray's regions.

Pray Hurin get's a copy so he can re-time his subs from the "Perfect Edition" release and release them to us. Then we can create our own versions, with subs...

You mean the bayonette???

Well let's see a new alloy developed from the remnants of super advanced technology wouldn't have the durability to smash through concrete or carry it's own weight without an energy boost? It worked plenty fine for me for years... Considering the craft the technology was gleened from was largely intact after it's crash landing and not a trough of scattered metal peices on South Ataria Island... However, since the 55mm gunpod is in itself science fiction on a practical level, I suppose SWAG is up there with it, although I never felt an energy boost was ever necessary.

Try linking the videos from Stage 6. It has the trailer in Dvix format. Unfortunately the new ""Commercial" hasn't shown up yet. http://stage6.divx.com/

I suspect the the "Pill" ships are the new class. If there is a City class ship bringing up the rear as it appears it may be for support or administrative purposes. Oh GAWD I hope they abandon the stupid "Milky Road" nonsense from Macross 7!

That too will come with patience young padawan...

Thanks Graham. The thread move messed up all the forum links to the images, so even if we were to review the thread in the Hall of Superthreads, we'd have no images to go with them...

Of all the retcon to come out of Zero I have to say I only hate SWAG! It is described to be able to give a fighter the armor of a tank, yet the aircraft are easily taken down with a 55mm gun pod and missiles! IMO it would have made more sense to leave us with the idea that the Valk's skin was an OTEC alloy that was stronger and lighter than typical alloys, yet still conventional in its application. SWAG opens up the pandora's box of energy barriers and such that the early days of Spacy would not know about yet. Remember they only had 10 years to reverse engineer the technology and then use it to design and build defenses against a possible attack by giants... They stumbled upon the pin point barrier application of fold energy months after they left Earth. That retcon raised more questions than any other IMHO...