The Newbie and Short Questions thread

[Master Dex]

23 minutes ago, VF-27_driver said:

HI all,

Then Walkure isn't german?

The name is German. I'd venture the members of the group are multinational in universe. We never hear exactly where Makina and Reina are from, but we know Freyja of course is Windermerian, Kaname is from Divide (a planet named, apparently, specifically because it is in constant civil war, but still somehow part of the NUNG?), and Mikumo is from a test tube, lol. There are hints that Makina's family goes back to Earth though (what with the Nakajima name and the mechanic in Macross Zero) but as far as I know Word of God has not confirmed that.

Still by the names we can gather most of them have at least some Japanese in them (except for Freyja), which is not surprising, it seems to be implied that large portion of humanity that survived Space War I is Asian, with most of them being from Macross City on South Ataria Island before the war. It isn't clear if the genetic manipulation and cloning that followed later restored other ethnicities to pre-war levels though. I think in a post-Space-War world though such things probably just weren't considered a big deal anymore though. The real world reason though of course is because it is a Japanese show.

Finally, the real life version of Walküre, with all the singing voices from the show, is of course all Japanese.

[no3Ljm]

50 minutes ago, VF-27_driver said:

HI all,

Then Walkure isn't german?

Actually it is. It's german for Valkyrie.

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

17 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

Not to mention the SV-262 being a reference to the Me 262.

That one's not exactly obvious... it had to be explained by Kawamori in an interview, while the rest of the Sv-262 is a pretty blatant love letter to Saab and the J 35.

 

 

11 hours ago, NightmarePlus said:

Wouldn't Mirage's name be a reference to the Mirage series of aircraft developed by Dassault?

Possibly... though it's nothing like as blatant as the rest of Delta Flight's:

• Arado Molders 
  Named for German aircraft manufacturer Arado Flugzeugwerke and German fighter pilot Werner Molders.
   
• Messer Ihlefeld
  Named for German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt and German fighter pilot Herbert Ihlefeld.
   
• Chuck Mustang
  Named for American fighter pilot Chuck Yeager and the fighter he flew during wartime, the North American P-51 Mustang.
   
• Hayate Immelmann
  Named for the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate fighter and German fighter pilot Max Immelmann.

I suppose Mirage might count as a paired reference like the others if you consider her family name a reference to the famous Jenius flying aces of the First Space War.

 

 

2 hours ago, VF-27_driver said:

HI all,

Then Walkure isn't german?

Walkure is a German word, yes... though it's so innocuous that it never occurred to me you were referring to that.

 

 

2 hours ago, Master Dex said:

The name is German. I'd venture the members of the group are multinational in universe. We never hear exactly where Makina and Reina are from, but we know Freyja of course is Windermerian, Kaname is from Divide (a planet named, apparently, specifically because it is in constant civil war, but still somehow part of the NUNG?), and Mikumo is from a test tube, lol. There are hints that Makina's family goes back to Earth though (what with the Nakajima name and the mechanic in Macross Zero) but as far as I know Word of God has not confirmed that.

Still by the names we can gather most of them have at least some Japanese in them (except for Freyja), which is not surprising, it seems to be implied that large portion of humanity that survived Space War I is Asian, with most of them being from Macross City on South Ataria Island before the war. It isn't clear if the genetic manipulation and cloning that followed later restored other ethnicities to pre-war levels though. I think in a post-Space-War world though such things probably just weren't considered a big deal anymore though. The real world reason though of course is because it is a Japanese show.

Finally, the real life version of Walküre, with all the singing voices from the show, is of course all Japanese.

It's a relatively safe bet that most, if not all, of the Human cast is of mixed ancestry and national heritage... not that national origin in terms we would recognize counts for much with characters who were born and raised decades after all modern nations ceased to exist.

The Macross Delta series is a bit unusual in that we have more than just the usual one or two characters who are at least part-Japanese in the name of giving the audience a protagonist who falls into "but not too foreign".  They're typically the exception in a cast that's otherwise mostly either western or of unidentifiable ethnicity... which you'd expect considering the main areas where humans survived the orbital bombardment were the subterranean UN Forces bases in South America and Africa, the UN Forces base on the moon, and space colonies.  The survivors on the Macross itself were a mixed lot and they only made up about 5-6% of the total survivors of the war.  Until Frontier, we saw almost nothing when it came to written Japanese (almost all onscreen text was English), and in Frontier it's implied this is because the fleet has an atypically large Japanese population and several districts that are replicas of Japan.  The series dialog is presented in Japanese for the convenience of the audience, but they're implied to be speaking English most, if not all, of the time.  (The one really jarring exeption being Fire Bomber, which was explicitly indicated to be a Japanese language group, though even their in-universe album packaging and promotional material is written in English.)

[sketchley]

38 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That one's not exactly obvious... it had to be explained by Kawamori in an interview, while the rest of the Sv-262 is a pretty blatant love letter to Saab and the J 35.

This interview, right?  http://monkeybacon.mywebcommunity.org/OTgreatMechanics/GMg2016sprng.php#08

(specifically Pg 009, when the interviewer asks about the Me 262 connection).

[RedWolf]

On 1/21/2017 at 5:57 AM, Master Dex said:

 Kaname is from Divide (a planet named, apparently, specifically because it is in constant civil war, but still somehow part of the NUNG?),

Planet Cashew in Macross the Ride had a civil war between NUNS and UN Forces loyal to Lactence. You can see in Isamu's service record he has been quite a number of wars.

 

[Mazinger]

1 hour ago, RedWolf said:

Planet Cashew in Macross the Ride had a civil war between NUNS and UN Forces loyal to Lactence. You can see in Isamu's service record he has been quite a number of wars.

Damn, that's a lot of wars. Are those on any of the official timelines posted around the internet?

[Seto Kaiba]

2 minutes ago, Mazinger said:

Damn, that's a lot of wars. Are those on any of the official timelines posted around the internet?

The Compendium's timeline mentions the ones on Isamu's bio... but we have no in-universe details about those conflicts, so it's basically just repetition of the same information in the screen capture.  It also mentions some of the brushfire conflicts that were depicted in Macross M3 and Macross VF-X2 in slightly more detail.

[Sandman]

7 hours ago, RedWolf said:

Planet Cashew in Macross the Ride had a civil war between NUNS and UN Forces loyal to Lactence. You can see in Isamu's service record he has been quite a number of wars.

 

Wow there's a lot info on that screenshot. He's won the Roy Fokker prize numerous times, was assigned to the Enterprise and fought in the Delta(!) wars 1 and 2.

[barurutor]

The Interest and Special Ability fields made me chuckle.

[Sildani]

Say, did General Galaxy and Shinsei Industries ever have corporate logos appear anywhere?

[sketchley]

10 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Say, did General Galaxy and Shinsei Industries ever have corporate logos appear anywhere?

Yes.  If memory serves, they showed up in Macross Frontier (if not the show, then the lineart).

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Sildani said:

Say, did General Galaxy and Shinsei Industries ever have corporate logos appear anywhere?

They've appeared on a number of transfer sheets for various Macross model kits... 

Different versions of the Shinsei Industry logo have appeared in Variable Fighter Master File, on page 119 of the VF-19 book and page 122 of the VF-0 book.  The General Galaxy logo appears on page 24 of the VF-22 book.

[Hiriyu]

How do I sign up for the Outer-Spase Speial Sience Force?

[Seto Kaiba]

15 minutes ago, Hiriyu said:

How do I sign up for the Outer-Spase Speial Sience Force?

Considering Isamu served there... you'd probably have to be enough of a frequent flier to the stockade that your CO wants to get rid of you by sending you to Space Siberia.

[Sildani]

Thanks Seto. Unfortunately, of those, I have none. 

[Hiriyu]

57 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Considering Isamu served there... you'd probably have to be enough of a frequent flier to the stockade that your CO wants to get rid of you by sending you to Space Siberia.

Well, I've already had a Deprivation Of All My Prises, so I think I'm well on my way to Spase Siberia!

[RedWolf]

Nobody wants Isamu as according to his CO he is a trouble maker. Also he has been coincidentally in one too many conflicts and he isn't even Special Forces like Dancing Skull or VF-X.

Edited February 4, 2017 by RedWolf
grammar check

[Devil 505]

On 1/20/2017 at 8:02 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

That one's not exactly obvious... it had to be explained by Kawamori in an interview, while the rest of the Sv-262 is a pretty blatant love letter to Saab and the J 35.

It seemed obvious to me.  An enemy fighter with the number "262" definitely invokes the Messerschmitt to anyone who knows their aircraft.

[JB0]

On 2/4/2017 at 5:40 PM, RedWolf said:

Nobody wants Isamu as according to his CO he is a trouble maker. Also he has been coincidentally in one too many conflicts and he isn't even Special Forces like Dancing Skull or VF-X.

So are you saying Isamu's presence CAUSES wars to break out? Because I would totally believe that.

Edited February 8, 2017 by JB0

[RedWolf]

Any info on Windermere firearm and vehicles?

Edited February 12, 2017 by RedWolf
Adding attachment

[mickyg]

Never noticed that APC in detail before but it almost looks like it could transform.  I guess that would be really cheesy though...

[Nazareno2012]

That looks more like a MRAP rather than an APC to me:

As for the Windermerian rifles, they resemble the Bofors Ak 5 with a G36 carrying handle/top Picatinny rail and stock:

Edited February 13, 2017 by Nazareno2012

[mickyg]

It does indeed!  I meant APC generically though, as in "Armored Personel Carrier"

[no3Ljm]

On 2/11/2017 at 4:14 PM, RedWolf said:

Any info on Windermere firearm and vehicles?

18 hours ago, mickyg said:

Never noticed that APC in detail before but it almost looks like it could transform.  I guess that would be really cheesy though...

Reminds me of Bulkhead from Transformers Animated. In a realistic fashion. 

 

[wmkjr]

On 2/11/2017 at 2:14 PM, RedWolf said:

Any info on Windermere firearm and vehicles?

*snip*

Reminds me of a larger PARS 4x4:

[Seto Kaiba]

On 2/11/2017 at 7:14 PM, RedWolf said:

Any info on Windermere firearm and vehicles?

Nothing official yet, though IIRC the Windermerean forces are using the same H&K G36 knockoff that the New UN Forces used in Frontier.

[kajnrig]

Quick question since I don't have the episodes on hand atm: Where (as in planet) does the first episode take place again? And correct me if I'm wrong:

Episode 1: Freyja arrives on above planet to audition for Walkure, where she runs into Hayate and finds out she stowed away on the wrong ship. He helps her escape the authorities, and they run into Mirage, who's currently on a mission to find Var activity. Var happens and Windermere attacks (to find out Walkure/Delta's capabilities). Hayate, having lost his job, and Freyja decide (independent of each other?) to go to Ragna and join Kaos (Delta specifically)/Walkure, respectively.

Episode 2: They both arrive in Ragna, the mercat/Lovecraft planet. Hayate eventually convinces Arad to bring him onto Delta, and Freyja auditions by way of simulated life or death situation in the railcar.

[Seto Kaiba]

39 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Quick question since I don't have the episodes on hand atm: Where (as in planet) does the first episode take place again? And correct me if I'm wrong:

The planet in question was Al Shahal.

[Nazareno2012]

23 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nothing official yet, though IIRC the Windermerean forces are using the same H&K G36 knockoff that the New UN Forces used in Frontier.

Upon closer inspection, the "G36" rifles used by the NUN forces and Windermere have similarities with the Pindad SS2 rifle, which is based on the FN FNC like the Ak 5 I mentioned earlier. The similarities include the stock and the position of the charging handle.

[kajnrig]

This is more about planes in general, but it does have relevance to VFs.

Why is the cockpit located at the nose? What issues would arise from placing it in the middle or rear of an aircraft?

Given the growing prominence of coffin/camera cockpit systems in VFs, what would preclude a middle- or rear-situated cockpit?

Switching up cockpit placement could lead to some interesting VF designs, at any rate.

[Graham]

The cockpit is traditionally located in the nose (forward fuselage) because it gives the pilot a larger field of view and generally better all-round visibility (depending on canopy design), which is important so the pilot has good visibility for landings and also good situational awareness in air combat.

If a traditional cockpit was located towards  the middle of rear of the plane, the pilot would find the structure of the plane blocked large parts of his/her field of view.

However, as you mentioned, with virtual cockpits that rely on multiple external cameras and other sensors to provide the pilot with his view, the cockpit location doesn't really matter too much.

[Devil 505]

Here's another question.  Why are there separate "cannon fodder" and "elite" variants of a VF?  Wouldn't it be more cost effective to stick to a particular variant?

Edited February 21, 2017 by Devil 505

[Seto Kaiba]

16 hours ago, kajnrig said:

This is more about planes in general, but it does have relevance to VFs.

Why is the cockpit located at the nose? What issues would arise from placing it in the middle or rear of an aircraft?

Given the growing prominence of coffin/camera cockpit systems in VFs, what would preclude a middle- or rear-situated cockpit?

Switching up cockpit placement could lead to some interesting VF designs, at any rate.

Apart from the obvious field-of-view problems that would crop up from having a flipping great chunk of the airframe in your eyeline, the biggest issue would be survivability.  It wouldn't be especially helpful to put the pilot closer to the bits of the airframe that are most prone to attracting enemy missiles, producing large amounts of waste heat, catching fire, or even exploding.

Even with a wraparound monitor-type cockpit, it's sensible to maintain the forward position for the cockpit in the event that the monitors fail and you need to go back to the ever-reliable Mk.1 Eyeball, as happened with Brera's VF-27 in the Frontier movies and happened whenever the Draken IIIs sustained damage in Macross Delta.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Devil 505 said:

Here's another question.  Why are there separate "cannon fodder" and "elite" variants of a VF?  Wouldn't it be more cost effective to stick to on particular variant?

Increasingly often, there isn't a "cannon fodder" and "elite" setup.

As to why they started in the first place... there are a number of different reasons.  Part of it was to give experienced pilots an aircraft with a little more oomph since they had the skills to use it to the fullest, esp. while shepherding the less experienced pilots in their platoons.  Part could be argued to be using those same experienced pilots as guinea pigs to test potential upgrades slated for future production blocks of the grunt model (e.g. improvements that went into the VF-1B and VF-1A late blocks).  Some variants started out as alternative mass production models that didn't shake out quite right (e.g. the VF-1J) or were built for a specific specialized role (the VF-1J again, being the only one that was natively compatible with the GBP-1S).

Eventually it settled down such that the "elite" variant is a fake elite variant that doesn't actually differ from the regular model in performance, but offers better communications capabilities so squadron or platoon leaders can better coordinate the troops, as on the VF-25 and VF-31 Custom.

 

EDIT: To clarify that first remark, the only main variable fighter generation to have that ace/grunt dichotomy which was actually expressed in performance was the 1st Generation (VF-1).  The 2nd Gen VF-4 and VF-5000 didn't have command variants at all, and neither did the 3rd Gen VF-11 and VF-14.  Of the three 4th Gen main VF candidates, none of them had a command model initially and the VF-19 only got one after the fact when Shinsei added one in their space-optimized second mass production type.  The 5th Generation is a split between not having command variants (e.g. the VF-31 Kairos) and having a "fake" ace model that doesn't actually differ in performance from the grunt model (e.g. VF-25, VF-31 Siegfried Custom).

Edited February 21, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[mickyg]

Possibly a question for a more Delta specific thread but does anyone have a screen grab, or recall the scene where Chuck's VF-31E pops both arms out in fighter mode, and shoots his way through some swarm of bad guys?  I'm trying to remember which episode it was in but I loved that scene.  Not only because it was different to what we usually see in a "not quite gerwalk" mode (we've seen lots of legs only configurations) but also because it showed an ELINT role Valk using its weaponry to great effect!  In fact, Chuck did that a lot.  Wish they'd developed his character a bit more.  And the rest of the cast, for that matter...

[Master Dex]

Don't have time right this moment to get a screen, but I think that was episode 6 during the space battle. One of the only times we saw the 31s with super parts on as well.