Chronocidal

Maybe near completion in the sense that they're approaching a kind of climax in the story, but there is still a ton left unresolved. The author has already been reported to be working on book 12. I may have to come up with a massive infographic type thing to show the timelines soon. The timeline in this story has so many loops and twists it's starting to look like someone's knitting a temporal sweater. If the whole masquerade of hiding Haruhi's powers from herself comes crashing down at the end of these books, then the end is likely pretty near. I can't see the story going on much longer without that as the motivating factor. I just can't see it working if she learns how to use her own power at will, because the series dynamic would be ruined. Gah, so much speculation. I wish they'd finish those translations already, it's been a month since the books came out. Edit: Random stupid crazy crossover aneurism moment. I keep finding more things like this. The dub voice for Emiri Kimidori? Hynden Walch, who also does the voice for Starfire, was in the movie Groundhog Day.

Ok, so I read book 9 and a translated portion of 10 last night. Hoo boy. Seems like books 9, 10, and 11 can be treated as one continuous story. Once the alpha/beta numbering in book 9 starts, it continues in sequence in book 10. Book 9 leaves off at a-6/b-6, and 10 starts with a-7/b-7. Not sure if it's entirely consistent, but it looks like each labeled section is about a single day (though the length of the sections vary based on what occurs.. one alpha section is about a paragraph long, and just tells about how Kyon wasted his sunday doing nothing in particular). Now the fun stuff. Anyway.. so yeah. My brain hurts, and I can't wait to read more of this one.

Well, the setup I keep expecting has a lot to do with the 9th novel. Anywho, I'll re-read book 9 tonight, and then go hunting for bits of 10 and 11 to see what happens.

Heheh. I bet half the wishes on that website tree are for her to get better. The site I saw didn't read anything like a rumor; apparently she announced she has a tumor on her pituitary gland, and won't be taking any more voice roles, and is halting her singing career. Now, whether "any more voice roles" means "no more than I already have" or "no more voice work at all" is up for grabs. It could potentially be rumor, but it seems rather specific. Anyway, I guess I should rephrase what I mean.. If the announcement is that the series will be ending, I hope they use Disappearance as the last hurrah, just because of what the plot does after that point. To continue for some amount of time, then just have the series die off mid-plot would be sad. On the other hand, why would they ask for fans to submit wishes just to announce the ending? Considering Disappearance ends on a sort of causality-induced cliffhanger, they can't very well leave it unresolved. The problem is, bringing about the final conclusion for Disappearance involves a story that is arguably a bigger mess than Disappearance, and introduces the overarching plot for the entire rest of the novels. Once they open the can of worms that is the it's going to be a long and crazy ride.

This gave me such a huge grin when I read it. Honestly, this finally says to me that they know exactly what they're doing this time around. The fact that the legs are in that position normally on this one says two things to me. First, they've already planned ahead for the VF-25 so it will be able to properly mount leg packs. Second, if this thing can already mount that huge gunpod while on the ground (with extra arm armor even), there should be plenty of room for even Michael's sniper pod on the new one, even with super packs mounted. I almost wouldn't be surprised if they even manage to pull it off with the armor pack.

Interesting news. I'm not sure what to think, but something is going on again. Another website has appeared, saying there will be an announcement on July 7th this year regarding the series. Rumors Abound for Haruhi Season 3 Sad news about Aya Hirano's statement about her health, I have my doubts a good replacement could be found for a third season. I kind of hope they decide to go out on a high note, and call Disappearance the end of the animated material, but I'll also be sad to never see the rest of the books animated. Either way, the books have been announced to be continuing, so the story isn't over yet. I've been rewatching the series from the start with a friend recently, and went to check out the progress on the novels. Apparently, novel #10 is in the process of translation by fans, and can be found in chapter sized snippets around the internet, though not necessarily all of the chapters are complete. From what I have read... yes, there is a good reason #10 is called "The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya." I'm trying not to spoil myself until I can read a complete version, so I'm going to re-read all the fan translations of the later novels to lead into it. Really glad I saved those somewhere before they were taken down. Speaking of the novels though, Amazon has books 1-5 available in hardcover for about $10 each, so I'm going to be making an order shortly. By the way.. Just a random thought I had looking at this topic.. how come it didn't get called "The Thread of Haruhi Suzumiya" to start with? Should we change it? Edit: Just noticed the link there, taking you to a site for posting tweet-wishes on a virtual bamboo tree. New Haruhi Website

Makes me wonder if Gilliam's VF-25 was an entirely different model, rigged for different animation types. Technically they're the same plane, but Gilliam's never had to go into battroid mode at all, so it could have been a dedicated model to use in gerwalk mode scenes, and possibly rigged to break up / smoke / burn. Now I'm tempted to go look and see if the head was unpainted any time Alto went into gerwalk. It probably is a goof, but not painting the head stripes does remove one rather difficult step from the process of painting the kit.

Oh, sure, it's all fun and games until someone's soul gets sucked into one of the symbiotic mechs.

Better than mine, I'm pretty sure Michael's gunpod was so heavy it made my hips collapse. (ok, not really... I never put it in battroid to begin with. ) But yeah, ball jointed hands.. not so great, especially when you have to be able to remove them. It's basically building a point of failure into your design.

Oh, as far as shared parts go.. I can easily see them reusing a good portion of the lower leg for the v.2 VF-25. I think the feet are identical, and the inner, upper, and lower portions of the lower leg look just about the same. Since those missile pods on the legs move, they could probably just replace those with a VF-25 accurate panel, and call it a VF-25 leg. Now, whether the leg would transform at the correct angles and attach high enough in fighter mode to look right on a VF-25 is another story.

If they pull this off well, I might very well buy them all this time. I bought the movie release Alto because it was so cheap, and a Michael because his colors are just awesome, but all the web exclusive crap just turned me off to most of the others. Honestly? The movie Alto and Michael are the only two valks I saw as coming with a reasonably complete set of accessories. Armor packs deserve the reaction missiles, and Luca is weak without his ghosts. I don't count the speaker set as necessary, because I have a personal vendetta against clip on weapons (after so many Yamato valks came with actual hardpoints, I wanted to slap Bandai for thinking over-wing clips were a viable option). Luca I may not bother with, but I want a good looking Armored Ozma at the very least, and probably a new Super Alto and Super Michael. Plus, I wish Bandai would figure out how popular custom schemes can be, and make a few this time... though... unless they get past their obsession with pasting idiotic stickers of characters on aircraft, forget it. I wish they could understand that Macross has a decently large portion of the fanbase who are only really interested in the aircraft, and give them some realistic military styled schemes instead of these stupid character art billboard ones. Given they've got a VF-25 Master File coming out, I hope they have the sense to collaborate with the publishers and come up with some decent custom schemes like they did in the VF-19 book.

Think the insides of the intake are yellow too, so if you feel like painting more, have at it. I think it looks good that way, but I always leave the intake covers on anyway. Looks less goofy than compressor blades that close to the front.

I don't see them reusing ANY of the armor or super parts.. or, at least I really hope they don't, because the designs for those were bad to begin with. If they took the time to look over the models, and see all the things that could be improved, they'll know they have to start from the ground up. I really do want to see a redone armor pack, one that fits properly, and doesn't put stress on the entire backplate just by attaching it. That's what's kept me from buying one all along. The lack of engineering thought Bandai showed in how they implemented the super and armor packs to begin with is one of the primary things I want to see fixed.

Wow, ok, color me very impressed with the changes they made. The new arms can actually raise at the shoulders! I'm also loving the way the leg mechanism looks like it works, using the actual hip bar to hook into the waist and hold the crotch parts together. I'll have to order one of these soon.

Sweeet, my day has just been made. Assuming they can manufacture some decent super and armor packs, and the quality starts staying on the non-facepalm side of the scale, I WILL be collecting these. I've been aching for an armored Ozma a long time, but could never stand paying for something with that many inherent structural problems. I'll probably still get a YF-29 too eventually, once I get back to my own apartment and have room for it, and hopefully once it goes on sale. As much as I wish they'd just made the VF-25s well from the start, I don't feel too bad about getting two of the originals. Having those will mean that somewhere down the road, when my kids see all the cool toys I have, I'll have a pair I don't feel bad letting them play with. Hopefully they take a hint from Yamato this time around though, and milk those molds for all they're worth (without making every freaking bonus feature web a exclusive). I want to see some of the tribute schemes people have come up with, especially that Klan VF-25S.

No, no, wait.. The dialogue screens will be written by randomly selecting a tweet from the audience! Every time a scene plays it will ask for suggestions to be tweeted to a specific number, and (not so) randomly pick one to display. At the end of the movie, everyone will get to vote on their favorite lines, and the most popular tweeter gets to direct the film for next week.

I do remember many discussions of the decals for the 1/72 kits having problems, either by way of not being the right shape, or just refusing to conform to the surfaces of the model. Some types of decal setting solutions also refused to work at all, while others had better success. Searching through the old 1/72 kit topics should bring up those discussions, and help you know what works ahead of time. As for the printing quality.. I'd put the decals on the lower end of Bandai's ability really. Granted, I haven't built a lot of other Bandai kits, but I've never seen decals printed that way in any model I have ever bought. I think I remember people with experience in building Gundam kits chiming in that the printing for decals in those kits was much better, without any of that speckled look.

Indeed, good to hear. While the missile bays would have been fancy, I can't see them doing justice to them without taking away from the other things the leg has to do, so I'm glad they're focusing on landing gear instead. Looks like I'll have to save up extra this year around Christmas time.

Ouch. That area shouldn't even be under stress, unless someone tried to pry the intake assembly apart. Really makes me question the plastic the YF-19 is made from though, it's not the first time people have had random parts just crack. Frankly, what scares me is how much the texture of the YF-19's plastic reminds me of the shattertastic explodium they used in many of the VF-0's components.

I'm actually not familiar with what the screen printing process is exactly. I just remembered them being labeled as such, and realized it's very appropriate, since it looks like they were printed through a screen door.

If the stickers are anything like the 1/72 kits, they'll be screen-printed.

Bleh, playing catch-up since I haven't been able to indulge my nerf hobby due to limited space. The recon should've had a priming handle to begin with. Having a sliding acessory rail on that upper slide always made me scratch my head in confusion. I've seen a few good mods make use of the barrel extension to mount a pump action handle, though unless you do extensive internal mods, those barrel extensions don't help anything. As far as the new guns go.. yeah, I can't see the discs catching on. Yes, the disc ammo will travel farther, but I seriously doubt it will ever be in a straight line. You're talking about a gun shooting tiny frisbees, and those tend to drift a lot due to the spin necessary to keep them stable. Maybe they'll figure out how to account for that, but I get the distinct impression the only way you'll ever be able to aim them is by pointing the gun a good amount to the side of your target, and hoping the disc drifts sideways enough to hit.

Judging by the tracking number, my pair should be delivered some time today. I kind of wish I'd ordered a couple of the 1/100 VF-25/YF-29 kits with them now, though I don't know if the pre-orders would have overlapped enough to get them at the same time.

Glad to hear I might be worried about nothing then. Having a more detailed cockpit sounds like a very nice thing, though cockpits in AC games have only ever been superficial, with the HUD being a screen overlay. If they actually tried to paste the displays into the real cockpit, I'll be very impressed, though I don't know if that'll be a good thing or not gameplay-wise. Would be a nice option to be able to turn on and off though. I really hope they manage to fill out the hangar a bit more this time around though. Though they were mostly crappy, horribly inaccurate models, the wide variety of aircraft was the one thing hawx managed to do right. How they could be so dedicated as to include the YF-17 Cobra and then neglect to understand how aircraft even fly continues to make me scratch my head. Right now, I'd really love to see a retro AC, set in either Vietnam, or an alternate world version of a similar conflict. I really just want an excuse to make a game where you can fly everything from the 1950's up through about 1970 or so. I was originally hopeful AC0 would use more older aircraft like the A-4, F-8, F-4, etc. So many beautiful planes came from that period in history, and have really gotten the short end of the stick in games. Plus, it gives you the possibility of having the F-14 be the end game superfighter, and wallop everything.

The problem isn't in the execution.. It might be interesting to try, but I'm honestly sick of the focus on blood and gore in so many games, even if it is realistic. Just because we have the graphics to render it well now doesn't mean we have to go into slow motion to see all the different parts of enemies flying everywhere. The novelty wears off really fast, and if they've rebuilt much of the game to revolve around it, I don't know what'll be left when people get tired of it. Really, the Ace Combat series is already an incredibly niche franchise. Unless someone is already a fan of this type of game, the odds are heavily against attracting any new players in significant numbers. Changing things that drastically to try attracting a larger playerbase is a huge risk, because you stand to lose a lot more than you could potentially gain. In my experience, the type of people who like aircraft games are incredibly picky about what they like, and changing anything that was previously enjoyed brings with it the risk of turning a lot of fans of the genre away from the game entirely.