JB0

Mmmm... I like seeing sprite/tile games in general on modern systems. They just have so much more raw power than the older ones in every respect. The Saturn was the last great sprite powerhouse in that it had signifigant work on the 2D graphics hardware, but the Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, and XBox are all at least as capable as the Saturn was, even with a smaller feature set and less optimization. And modern poly hardware is at the point where it can be used in combination with the sprites and tiles without a major quality variation being visible(see Viewtiful Joe for a modern sample. Try Xenogears or Strider 2 on the PS1 for an older example.).

It depends on what you're doing. It's also good for getting things quiet, notably. Anyways, run an electrically neutral substance through your liquid-cooling rig and don't worry about it. Some people do stuff like immerse their PC components in motor oil. I do not advocate going near this far, and think it's stupid. But most of the off-the-shelf water cooling components assume something with a viscosity of, well, water. So you're limited in your choice of fluids. Early Dreamcasts are DEBATABLY liquid-cooled. They use heat-pipes to move heat between the base on the components and the heatsink fins. Heatpipe coolers are usually filed as air cooling, though it's a gray area. Later Dreamcasts got rid of the heatpipe assembly and went with traditional heatsinks with fans on top of them, presumably as a cost-cutting measure(though Sega MAY have had trouble with supply). This makes 1st-run DCs far quieter, if for no other reason than there's 1 fan instead of 3. They also tend to run cooler, as most of the heat is at the exhaust fan instead of in a case that wasn't designed for the cooling solution in it.

Possibly. But food is going to be one of the scarcest resources around. You can drill for oil. You can mine for metal, or salvage it from crashed derelicts. You can train operators. But food has to be grown. That's somewhat traditional. Human society typically balks at the idea of putting women in combat positions. I suspect polygamy wouldn't be encouraged, but wouldn't be so strongly discouraged either. Nor would children outside of marriage. They pointed out a few times in the TV series that recruitment and promotion requirements on the Macross seemed to consists mainly of being alive. Watching Hikaru's team form shows that in action. We know Max has bad vision. Traditionally, that's an automatic disqualification for fighter pilots. Hikaru was of the opinion that both of them were somewhat new to be assigned to a combat team. Roy pointed out that they weren't much less experienced than Hikaru(Hikaru's civilian piloting experience shouldn't count as a mitigating factor for space combat). So Hikaru was promoted fast. Though he DID get his promotion due to the rescue of Misa from the Mars Base reactor overload, he only got the rescue mission in the first place because he was still squeamish about killing. Max was also promoted very rapidly, even though he was little more than a raw recruit, and both he and Hikaru felt it was too fast and that Max's subordinantes were way too inexperienced to be flying yet. I think at that point they explicitly stated that they were just stuffing people into planes as fast as possible. And Millia got a fighter with minimal formal training and no consideration for her background. Though this was liklely a political move as much as anything else. Max and Millia were hot stuff from a political standpoint, and Global was gonna make darn sure that if she wanted to fight alongside her husband she was going to get to, just as he made sure that every resource on the ship was spent making their wedding as big an event as possible. They weren't just a guy and a girl, they were 2 of the most accomplished warriors on each side's force and a symbol of human-zentradi peace. As for that affecting the gene pool post-war... well, on the Macross' side of the populace, you had 40,000 civilians and 20,000 military people at the end. Of the 20k military heads, only a fraction were in the thick of things(there were a little over 300 VF-1s at the end of the war, and a little under 600 destroids). Most of them were bridge crew, technicians, engineers, shield operators, and miscellaneous support roles. These are scattered all over the ship. Bridge crew and personnel near the core would fare best. The things that would most affect civilian survival aboard the Macross(they lost 18k of 'em), given the city's location near the ship's skin and in the middle of the transformation-affected region, would be distance from the exterior at attack start, proximity to a shelter at attack start, and the good sense to head for cover in a timely manner instead of wandering the streets. That and volunteering for military service, which was probably one of the fastest ways to die(unless you were in the wrong place during a transformation). So at best, there was breeding for precognition. Lacking evidence of psychic powers in the Macross universe, we'll call this as no genetic selection. Worst is breeding for cowardice and submissiveness, as your best chance for survival is to not join the military, and do what the military says when they say to. Except UN Spacey, not the Zentradi, were in charge of the cloning program. And the grunt zentradi aren't bred for long lifespans, and none are made for rapid reproduction. I think the zentradi have a caste system, with diffrent "breeds" assigned diffrent roles. This limits the degree that any one person can rise in the ranks(though if you can snapshot the brain and reflash it, it could be possible that your next body would be in a higher caste than your currrent one). The grunts are designed for killing. Cannon-fodder zentradi genetics would favor agressiveness, reflexes, subservience, and short-term durability. Long-term survival, independence, and intelligence would be more useful attributes for higher-ranking figures, as it increases the amount of experience a commander can have, as well as their strategic value. Excess agressiveness is just going to result in commanders jumping the gun and launching badly-planned assaults, and inbred subservience will result in excessive calls home for orders. And once you get to the archivists, like Exedol, memory is their most valuable asset. They need to remember a lot, and be able to recall it instantly. Exedol also served as an advisor, so they need to speak up when they have something to say instead of waiting for their superior to ask. Longevity would also be supremely useful here, as it increases experience. This all assumes limited mental transplant capacity. If they can take a perfect snapshot of a zentradi brain at will, and implant it similarly well, longevity is utterly useless. Retuning the genetic mix isn't worth considering, as there's no evidence the zentradi posess the technology to create new revisions, nor that humanity has generated it independently.

Heh heh... next time, myk. Mmm... liquid nitrogen cooled... 364642[/snapback] I'd like one of those too. I'd settle for somethign like this, though... http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=63 (unfortunately, the suopplied waterblock in that kit comes with a poor clip, and that's believed to be the primary cause of somewhat unimpressive performance)

It'd screw up all the games that use the 2 screens as one extra-large playfield. Speakers are also better in the top than the bottom. And some PDA functionality too? Acutally, a bit of SRAM and some basic PDA utilities WOULD be nice.

Such is the power of our favorite Governator worshipper.

Smaller: Good to a degree. It's 5.25" wide, which is just a hair narrower than the original GBA. Still comfortably large. Lighter: Good in everything but lightguns. This isn't a lightgun. Rearranged features: THEY MOVED THE MOTHERSNIFFING PAUSE KEY! DAMMIT! PUT IT BACK WHERE IT BELONGS!

I'll admit that you have a hot mom too. Although, admittedly I usually only see her from behind. 364553[/snapback] Dude, she is a beautiful woman, but she is also 70, so thats kinda nasty... Especially since you are like what, 20? 364583[/snapback] Older women, make beautiful lovers Older women, they understand I've been around some, and I have discovered That older women know just how to please a man.

Yah. Ya gotta watch them decimals, they're sneaky little suckers. Haw.

Close. A MILF is actually someone else's parent that you find sexually agreeable. Freud, of course, would just say she's a substitute for your own.

BAHAHAHAHAHA! "This is a 5.1 master! Why isn't the subwoofer active?" "Umm, you do realize that the show didn't have a lot to begin with, and it wasn't exactly designed for home theater usage? It's a MONO source for pete's sake!" "WE NEED MORE BASS! BASS IS GOOD! MAKE IT JUMP!" *sighs* "Okay boss."

There's a thread somewhere with analysis of the strategy map in the Grand Cannon. The conclusion is that while major population centers were largely blasted out of existence, the Earth as a whole fared somewhat better than is seen in the charbroiled terrain surrounding selected cities. One of Kamjin's vessels, notably, is imbedded in what looks to be part of a forest. So there's at least isolated patches of raw nature out there. Keep in mind that the first New Macross missions(of which the mainly-zentradi colony was one) was launched in 2030, 2 decades after Space War 1. The first generation of post-war children would be reaching adulthood at that point. But yah, the zentradi to human ratio would've been pretty high, especially on early colony missions. There's no way society could've afforded a Megaroad annually without a signifigant portion of the 80,000 people being zentradi defectors or full-grown clones(Megaroad 1 was in 2012, the Megaroad 2 and 3 are in 2014, and after Megaroad 13, they start with the New Macross 1 in 2030, which carry roughly a million people each). Full-grown clones are more likely to appease traditional zentradi that want to live among humans, but not to give up all of their old ways, than for human population growth, IMO. I'm betting it was the societal norm. The honeymoon was long over by the time Komillia's first sister was born. Millia COULD have just been crazy horny, but I suspect that the whole making babies thing was strongly pushed as everybody's patriotic duty.

But a modified Spartan or battroid could fill most of those requirements without eating more food than a 5-6 foot human. You never see it, but the odds are VERY good that construction mecha were around, particularly as full-size sentradi were considered a threat to society(an issue brought to the front in one of the reconstruction episodes(Can't recall the name. 'S the one where Hikaru's sent to take military posession of a micloning chamber, and Kaifun starts a riot. Then Kamjin steals the miclone chamber and kidnaps the Lynns.). If the SDF lacked the ability to produce heavy machinery, they never would've made it home. They were churning VF-1s, destroids(including custom-designed variants), and accessories as fast as they were being destroyed. They also couldn't have rebuilt Macross City without the ability to create construction equipment. Remember, the Macross' original mission was one of exploration. Sure it was packing some heavy artillery, and planned to carry much more, but under no circumstances was the crew to initiate hostilities with an alien race. It had to be self-sustaining, which included the ability to manufacture equipment, grow food, purify air and water, etc. While it wasn't planned, the inclusion of a city into the SDF-1 was actually a good idea, as there was more than enough space in the ship and it provided the crew with R&R facilities that would be quite valuable on a space exploration mission. On the downside, since it wasn't planned, the ship wasn't properly equipped to support the massive addition to the population, and supplies were being used up faster than they were produced(hence resupplies both at Mars and when they reached Earth). Indeed. Plant and animal cloning is actually mentioned in the compendium, too. This would be both for food and ecosystem restoration. You'd probably want to focus on smaller animals, though. Post-war, the raising of large herbivores like cows and sheep would be discouraged while the flora recovered. The initial strike was likely focused on civilized areas, so the oceans would be spared signifigant damage. Aquatic life was likely minimally impacted by the orbital bombardment. In conclusion... cloning or not, I hope you like fish, because it's gonna be really hard to get a hamburger for a while.

The people that attend those events are a lot diffrent than the average movie-goer. Check the toy aisle at your local store. I guarantee you that people like us aren't the ones buying flashlights with plastic tubes taped on the ends and Darth Vader voice changer masks. At best they're true family movies. At worst, they're giant toy commercials. Meesa beg you! Buy me friends!

Har har. You obviously haven't played any PS1 games in a while. I assumed he meant pre-rendered cutscenes. At which point system power is totally irrelevant. It's just a way to date the production value.

I believe it's a pseudonym for Darth Vader. 364274[/snapback] Really I thought that he was Hikaru's Retarded cousin. 364275[/snapback] That was Veers.

I believe it's a pseudonym for Darth Vader.

Check the "Macross TV Dub" thread. Or rather, Muh-cross.

Undoubtedly. Tax breaks for large families, at the very least. Hell, the government likely would foot the entire child-rearing bill, just because. There was undoubtedly also a huge propaganda campaign to persuade everyone that they needed younguns, and lots of 'em. Max and Millia were just doing their patriotic duty.

Brief shot of the SDF-3 making a distress call...MoonBase-Aluce. Vince Grant announcing the mission to find Admiral Hunter. Alpha-Beta landing by a Hive, Scott talking to Marlene. Cool battle between Alphas and Invid in space. Clamships and other REF Capital ships. Regis saying she's gonna win because good is dumb, either a reflex or synchro cannon attack, possibly on Earth, and a partridge in a pear tree. 364136[/snapback] So... crap, alpha-invid dogfight, more crap, and lunch if I can hit the damn bird.

Thank god.

The resequencing makes sense, but it's not likely given that the mass cloning program was discontinued in December 2030 as a cause of hereditary disease rise. http://macross.anime.net/story/chronology/2013/index.html I doubt the zentradi had resequencing technology. Since they didn't reproduce sexually, there was no concern about inbreeding. Besides, they probably had the "bad" genes removed from their samples anyways. Warriors don't need a hemophilia gene, even if it IS inactive.

It's also possible they made more modern destroids, but we've never seen them. The VF series is more interesting, so it gets all the screen time. Destroids have several advantages in that they have less parts, less joints, and they're easier to drive. They can also be built heavier(more ammo and armor), since they don't need to fly. So it doesn't make sense to abandon the non-variable paradigm totally, as it's a cheaper and more durable platform. Tangentally related, the X9 Ghost in MacPlus is also non-transformable, making it the fighter equivalent of a destroid. So the non-variable paradigm isn't TOTALLY abandoned. The existence of GBP packages implies destroids have fallen out of favor, as the GBP's sole purpose is to turn a battroid into a Spartan(with a bit of armor hollowed out for more missiles). But that could be an efficiency issue more than anything else. An exploratory or colony mission is going to see only space battles for a long time, so there's no reason to waste the fleet's limited amount of space carrying land equipment. But once they find a planet, ground defenses will be needed before they can tool up for destroid production. Even an uninhabited planet with no hostile forces for light years runs the risk of dinosaur analouges coming in for some Human McNuggets, or just to chew on the farms. GBPs are a good way to turn a squadron of VFs into durable and heavy-hitting ground weaponry to fill that roll until the first destroids roll into service. After that, you can put your VFs back in the air while destroids take over the ground work. And since GBPs take up so little space relative to a full mech, they're a much smaller impediment to the fleet while in space. They're also easier to tool up for in a hurry. The VB-6 is, in my eyes, a unique situation. A Monster shouldn't be on the front lines, as it is long-range artillery. Making it variable makes it easier to transport, and durability losses aren't a major concern since it won't be in the thick of things anyways. The Defender might also benefit from being made variable, though as an anti-aircraft weapon it would have to land outside of the deployment area and walk in, or risk being shot down. The Phalanx was a jury-rigged hackjob that existed to fix a unique problem of the original SDF-1 Macross after the fold accident(it had no escort vessels and minimal anti-space defenses, as they were all mounted on the ARMDs). Consequently it would be the most likely abandoned design. Spartans and Tomahawks are the destroid profiles that would most benefit from remaining non-transformable, as they exist to fill the rolls of existing tanks. They're front-line weaponry, so they'll be seeing the most combat of any ground offensive. Heavy armor with as few chinks as possible increases survivability.

That's what I'd assume, too. And they'd probably limit the influx of clones to preserve resources. Just because they had the facilities to pop out x poeple a month doesn't mean that the minimal society they had post-war was capable of supporting that rate of growth. The adopt-a-clone program is the most feasable from my point of view. With the actual workings of the program designed to encourage adoption by infertile couples. A fertile couple adopting a clone is reducing the number of natural children they can have, so it would logically be discouraged. Now that we've discussed that... How do they decide who gets cloned and who doesn't? The most logical solution would be to require everyone to submit a DNA sample, to maximize genetic diversity. Less opressively, you could tie them to certain "perks" such as driver's licenses. It could be a vonluntary donation, with heavy advertizing to persuade people to donate, possibly even a reward of some sort. "Join the Terrestrial Repopulation Program! Recieve 500 dollars every time you're born! Act now and you'll also get FREE exclusive backstage passes to the next Lynn Minmay concert!" ... But once the genes are in the bank, you could also make an argument for "weighting" certain samples. If you have inheritable diseases, your sample gets pulled less often than a healthier one would, or thrown out entirely, while a superior sample could get pulled more often. End result would be a gene pool weighted towards faster, stronger, people that are better suited to survive the harsh conditions of post-war Earth and the rigors of colonization on a marginal planet, as well as better able to repulse attacks from alien races such as the zentradi. And then there's the political angle. Do heroes get special treatment, and in which direction? Are there hundreds of thousands of Hikarus running around because he was deemed a superior specimen? Or(assuming mandatory registration) was he exempted from the program due to his distinguished service, thereby preserving his uniqueness unless he chose to submit a sample voluntarily?

Like I said, it's funnier with TREAD, since it's an english-word acronym.