JB0

And even if they DID have access to the main engine's reaction mass, that doesn't mean they don't need fuel, just that they don't have a dedicated tank. It would be, shall we say, difficult to produce thrust without some kind of mass to eject. As Macross stays on the more "realistic" side of sci-fi, I think it's safe to assume they haven't figured out a way around the laws of motion yet.

Which doesn't change the fact that the Vf-1 has to supply every last bit of reaction mass it uses, while the vast majority of the VF-0's reaction mass is external. Thrust vectoring only takes you so far. The VF-1 HAS to fire verniers for a good bit of everything it does. And the VF-1 IS supplying forward thrust every time it does anything. The propulsion thrusters are essentially in a fixed orientation. The foot nozzles don't pivot enough to prevent that. Certainly going to GERWALK mode can change this, but that's rarely used except for emergency deceleration, likely due to the fact that the thrust in that mode is off-axis with the center of mass and could easily send the robot-plane-thing spinning out of control very rapidly. The verniers are most likely limited to changing orientation for practical purposes(small and far out of line with the center of mass). I don't deny that the VF-0 has to keep it's engines running all the time. I just don't see how the inequities of combustion efficiency versus fusion efficiency and atmospheric drag versus vacuum counterbalance all the free reaction mass and aerodynamic effects an atmospheric fighter has at it's disposal. Shaka_Z: I approve of your sig.

I was thinking weaponized maneuvering thrusters. Every fighter's in constant deathblossom mode. You COULD get away with very low reaction masses if you used very very high-velocity thrusters. But you'd have, effectively, particle beams for maneuvering thrusters. Yah. They do crazy stuff.

But the propellant for the VF-0 ISN'T solely the jet fuel. The propellant is the air around it. The jet fuel's primary purpose is to supply heat to expand air. A VF-0 needs to supply enough energy to heat the air going into the engines. As does a VF-1 in atmosphere(something it's fusion power plant should excel at). But in space, a VF-1 needs to supply the "atmosphere" too. And a jet engine uses HUGE amounts of air. You're also ignoring the other half of the equation. To stop, a VF-0 has to do... nothing. A VF-1 in space has to expend an equal amount of propellant in the opposite direction. To turn, climb, dive, roll, etc, a VF-0 has merely to adjust the control surfaces and let airflow and gravity do the work. A VF-1 in space will have to expend reaction mass for any of these actions. In fact, to mimic a terrestrial climb, a space gandam Valkyrie will actually have to expend thrust in multiple axes at once. There's the thrusters fired to reorient the main thrust axis, the thrust needed to grant the plane an "upward" motion, AND an additional thrust to shed forward velocity. Certainly, there's more practical maneuvers, but any way you slice it...

Read what you just said. ANY change in velocity or orientation will require a release of propellant. Unless the Valkyrie is functioning as a very expensive clay pigeon, it will be constantly expelling propellant. Check the animation. A variable fighter is rarely in a stable velocity and orientation. It's simple newtonian physics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Any change requires an expenditure of propellant. And if you raise your thruster velocities too high, you weaponize your exhaust, which will be highly hazardous to your allies(that and the thrusters are animated as gas releases, not particle beams). With thruster velocity low by necessity, the only option is to expel large amounts of mass.

http://ggkthx.org/Scripts/Macross%20F/

Actually, that's only a problem for SOME anuetronic fusion reactions. He3-He3 fusion produces no neutrons ever(assuming your fuel is pure). And protons are easy to trap. There's also free proton + B11. And some others. Maybe that's what they mean when they say overtech thermonuclear reactors use non-nuclear materials. An overtech neutron trap! And the VF-1 should have LARGER propellant tanks than the VF-0. Certainly, the Phoenix has to carry jet fuel, which supplies far less energy than fusion reactants, but since it can't run in space, it can safely assume air is available for propulsion and maneuvering. The Valkyrie doesn't have that luxury, and has to have large delta-v tanks because of it.

I just realized the Konig is on the list. I vote it be stricken, as it's clearly not a variable FIGHTER. I furthermore vote that all votes cast for the Konig between now and when it's removed be reassigned to the One True Plane, AKA the YF-21.

The YF-21, of course! What can I say? Between the QRau styling of the battroid and the forward-looking technology, it's just awesome. That and the fighter mode looks positively deadly. (I've come to the conclusion I just don't like how forward-swept wings look. I demand the VF-171 be given a chance to shine in Frontier!)

And change Hikaru's first kill to a vending machine because he wouldn't kill a person, even on accident.

I grabbed Grimlock today. The decision to basically use the original transformation is interesting. You can really point to it and say "G1... with joints!" ... Engineering-wise, anyways. Though he also has the fat and clumsy 80s-dinosaur look, which warms my heart.

Stampede, please! I honestly don't know why I like the Stampede Valk so much. It's like the bastard child of a Gundam and the VF-1.

And we've made Insert Credit. http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/002414.html "This amount of content pretty much dwarfs SEGA's last effort and even From Software's monolithic Another Century's Episode games and it's only on a handheld!" That kind of statement gives me warm fuzzies(even if I'm pretty sure a lot of the mechs are VF-1 repaints).

That certainly helped, but I think you're selling the Lynns short. They were also *the first restaurant to open on the Macross(making them an early social hub by default), *instrumental in getting the city rebuilt(the Lynns were among the first people to stop acting like refugees and start rebuilding their lives, and they were the ones that initially proposed reallocating supplies to create a semblance of normalcy inside the ship), *one of the few dining establishments to survive Space War 1(if I seem a bit focused on Macross City, well, it's because Macross City WAS the civilized world immediately after the war), *... and their menu was killer(ask Kakizaki). They were uniquely well-equipped to begin forging a chinese restaurant empire the likes of which the world has never seen, and it wasn't ALL thanks to Minmay living there.

And the Super FamiCom. And the PCEngine(TurboGrafX 16) SuperCD expansion. And the Dreamcast. And the Wonderswan. And the Saturn. And the Arcadia. The ARCADIA, for Pete's sake! Really, it's hard to NOT get a Macross game if your system has any sort of marketshare at all in Japan. The 'Cube and Sega 8-bits seem to be the only exceptions to the rule. (Genesis/Megadrive was never a success in Japan, and the NeoGeo Pocket didn't last long enough. And how the ARCADIA got a game and not the SG-1000/Mark III/Master System, I'll never know... unless it's because Bandai made the Arcadia in Japan. That might explain it.)

'S more Saitek's or Thrustmaster's field, really. Logitech isn't known for their flight sim controllers. Thrustmaster's been teh historical standard, and Saitek's been trying to open some room for themselves. http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/x52pro.htm would look at home in a Valk, IMO. Not a flip-throttle(YET!), but... Edit: I didn't realize Thrustmaster no longer had the Top Gun license. It's the end of an era.

Indeed. As with all portable game systems to date, there's no region encoding on any PSP games. Now, PSP MOVIES are a different story. But no one cares about them anyways.

You forgot the Facade SWAG-piercing nosecone.

Buildings cut into the sky, turning it into cages for the land-dwellers. Ask Alto.

It's interesting how many discussions start in the newbie thread. Guess it just shows how many seemingly basic questions have rather complex answers.

I demand Roller! Voyager class at the minimum! Okay, seriously... I want another Shockwave. And Dinobots(which we're actually getting). I ALMOST got Prowl the other day, and I'm very glad I didn't now that I know there's a revision coming. Anything else is gonna be highly dependent on how it looks on the shelf.

"And by the way... the part where I peed my pants is off the record. You publish it and you will NEVER eat at my chain again!" But consider that the song is from before the resolution of the triangle. For most of the series, Minmay was the one with access to Hikaru. Misa was the "old lady" on the bridge, and he rarely socialized with her. He's not entirely indifferent to Misa either. Starting all the way back at Bye-Bye Mars, shortly after he enlists, he has a long list of rescues, often at great risk to his own health. He charges into an exploding base on Mars, launches the untested FAST pack prototype, flies into a collapsing Grand Cannon, charges into an alien spaceship and engages in 1-on-1 combat with the enemy commander after her recon mission goes wrong... and most dramatically(IMO) during their escape from captivity, when he gets a rack of zentradi rifles dumped on him, then crawls out from under the pile and fires one to save her from recapture. They even make reference to this proud history when he picks up her radio broadcast from the Grand Cannon. His protection of Minmay is, by comparison, usually far less personal. Excepting the post-war rescue from Kamjin and a handful of pre-enlistment accidents, she's just a face in the crowd, while he defends the entire population. He nearly gets her killed a few times too, which he NEVER does with Misa. And for most of the series, Misa is the one on the outside. He's protecting her, while seeing Minmay(in the public eye anyways, no doubt helped along by "My Boyfriend's a Pilot"). I can more easily see it from Misa's angle. It could be a mish-mash of both of them, though. Or the fictional drama it's allegedly written for might be so out in left field that we can't make any meaningful comparison. It could be Kakizaki singing. Think about THAT for a minute.

Or abbreviating it further, depending on context. I've seen it abbreviated all the way down to J in some emulation forums. Usually when discussing game regions.

Oh. Never mind then. Shoulda seen that the first time. Bad day for Skull?

Me Grimlock no bozo. Me Grimlock king! ... What?