The Newbie and Short Questions thread

[Lorindor]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

BattleTech/MechWarrior and Transformers get a legal threat or actual lawsuit from You-Know-Who at least once every few years whenever a product they put out is felt by You-Know-Who to look too reminiscent of the SDF Macross designs they have the merchandising rights for.  It mostly never goes anywhere, because it's either obviously spurious or just You-Know-Who flexing nuts to remind people they still exist.

Are you sure about, "once every few years"? As far as I know, in recent years they have only sent a C&D for a Mechwarrior game trailer because it featured a barely-updated Destroid Tomahawk and they sued Hasbro for the Transformers/GI Joe toy since the package contained a picture of an actual VF-1 (in Jetfire colors). What other instances are there then, do you mean?

[Seto Kaiba]

21 minutes ago, Lorindor said:

Are you sure about, "once every few years"? As far as I know, in recent years they have only sent a C&D for a Mechwarrior game trailer because it featured a barely-updated Destroid Tomahawk and they sued Hasbro for the Transformers/GI Joe toy since the package contained a picture of an actual VF-1 (in Jetfire colors). What other instances are there then, do you mean?

Pretty sure, yes.  This is, IIRC, the third time BattleTech and MechWarrior have been targeted by them in the last eight years.  Once for Catalyst's plans to include "Unseen" designs in an artbook being developed for some anniversary, once for the video game trailer you mentioned, and their current beef with the replacement designs ("Reseen").

They've had at least one against Transformers over the Jetfire toy, but IIRC that case is officially listed as dismissed with prejudice by the court.

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Tatsunoko licensed their rights to You-Know-Who... a license we're told will expire in 2022.

Truly something to look forward to.

OT: Is it confirmed in lineart or some shot in Delta that the VF-31A's default pod arrangement is gunpod+missile launcher? I've only ever seen that arrangement on customized model kits, so it'd be nice to know for certain.

[Seto Kaiba]

50 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

OT: Is it confirmed in lineart or some shot in Delta that the VF-31A's default pod arrangement is gunpod+missile launcher? I've only ever seen that arrangement on customized model kits, so it'd be nice to know for certain.

An excellent question... I wish I had a solid, reliable answer.  We don't often see the VF-31As at all in the Macross Delta series, and even less often in a mode other than Fighter.  The one time that I recall seeing Alpha One in GERWALK mode (IIRC in Episode 6) it appeared to have the same set of gear in its ordinance container as the Delta Flight Siegfrieds, though it was very hard to tell since a lot of the container was hidden behind the body.

The official art of the VF-31A doesn't have the container deployed, and Arad's VF-31A didn't have the container deployed either in the flashback episode.  Master File ignores the VF-31A for much of its content.  The only semi-reliable source I've seen are model kits, which appear to show some manner of micro-missile launcher/sensor combo unit opposite the gunpod on the container of the VF-31A.

I'll check in the Blu-ray liner notes once I get home.

[Lorindor]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Pretty sure, yes.  This is, IIRC, the third time BattleTech and MechWarrior have been targeted by them in the last eight years.  Once for Catalyst's plans to include "Unseen" designs in an artbook being developed for some anniversary, once for the video game trailer you mentioned, and their current beef with the replacement designs ("Reseen").

They've had at least one against Transformers over the Jetfire toy, but IIRC that case is officially listed as dismissed with prejudice by the court.

I have not found anything about the art book thing actually leading to any legal action. Even if it did, this is hardly as frequent as you say it is, especially with regards to the Transformers franchise which has been only one occurrence. Please try to refrain from exaggerations. 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Lorindor

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Lorindor said:

I have not found anything about the art book thing actually leading to any legal action. Even if it did, this is hardly as frequent as you say it is, especially with regards to the Transformers franchise which has been only one occurrence. Please try to refrain from exaggerations. 

You might want to re-read what I wrote.  You'll notice that the scope of the statement in question was not limited to just filed lawsuits... it also included threats of legal action (e.g. cease and desist notices).  The situation was Catalyst's artbook first came to light over a cease and desist they received from Harmony Gold, which prompted the discussion that led to Catalyst learning about FASA's out-of-court settlement and scrubbing their plans. 

(Catalyst, to their credit, handled it with genuine class and professionalism.  They seem like an alright bunch, so I'm hoping they come out on top in this latest legal scuffle with HG.)

Edited July 24, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[Lorindor]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

You might want to re-read what I wrote.  You'll notice that the scope of the statement in question was not limited to just filed lawsuits... it also included threats of legal action (e.g. cease and desist notices).  

I did count them too, if you re-read what I wrote. Three instances for Battletech over eight years you say, but if you were meant to be fair you probably should count from around year 2000 when HG started "manning the store" again, or otherwise you exclude that long time period when they didn't perform any legal action "every other year".

You don't need to be dishonest or exaggerating when criticizing HG. There is plenty enough to criticize as it is.

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, kajnrig said:

OT: Is it confirmed in lineart or some shot in Delta that the VF-31A's default pod arrangement is gunpod+missile launcher? I've only ever seen that arrangement on customized model kits, so it'd be nice to know for certain.

As promised, I went through the Blu-ray liner notes... the spec section in Volume 9's booklet doesn't talk about ordnance container variations.  The VF-31A writeup in Volume 3's has a good, clear screen capture that shows the ones used by Alpha Flight in the series were outfitted with the same ordnance container that Delta Flight used, with the multidrone charger and gunpod rack.

Variable Fighter Master File doesn't show the configuration from the model kits, it shows a couple that are more in line with the YF-30's with the round vs. triangular missile thing that the Master File artists are so fond of.  

Still a gorgeous plane tho... same with the white-and-gold Sv-262Hs. 

 

 

44 minutes ago, Lorindor said:

I did count them too, if you re-read what I wrote. Three instances for Battletech over eight years you say, but if you were meant to be fair you probably should count from around year 2000 when HG started "manning the store" again, or otherwise you exclude that long time period when they didn't perform any legal action "every other year".

That's what I was doing... who was honestly going to count the unmentionable franchise's coma when life was good because even they'd stopped caring?  

Edited July 24, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[TehPW]

2022 you say (about the Macross IP license). Is it possible that HG might actually lose it (finally?). How does that figure into Sony's part (the still in production R-film)?

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, TehPW said:

2022 you say (about the Macross IP license). Is it possible that HG might actually lose it (finally?). How does that figure into Sony's part (the still in production R-film)?

Yes, 2022... that is allegedly the expiration date on their Macross license from Tatsunoko per their comments from their last renewal.

No idea what the odds are on Tatsunoko potentially declining to offer them a renewal.  I can't imagine what Tatsunoko's reasons are for having bothered to renew it the last time.  The tiny trickle of royalty revenue for the other two titles on the license can't possibly be enough to justify a call like that, even if they are essentially worthless monetarily otherwise.  It hardly seems worth it just to spite Big West for not giving them the percentage of the profits from Macross sequels the courts ruled they weren't entitled to anyway.  There has to be a reason, but whatever it is it isn't a business case that's clear from observation alone.

From what we know of the legalities involved in what parts of the R-word are legally separate and distinct from Macross, losing the Tatsunoko license for Macross's original series shouldn't actually be any impediment to their plans with Sony.  The copyright they have on the R-word is on a derivative work (adaptation/dub), meaning they only own the stuff that wasn't already part of the original.  The parts that are their property amounts to little more than some names, some miscellaneous biographical and chronological factoids, their version's macguffin, and some badly-recorded audio tracks.  Story-wise, Sony would only be able to use the broadest of the broad strokes and everything else, from the details to the designs, would have to be created from scratch to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit.  The title would be about the only thing left over from the (secondhand) source material.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[kajnrig]

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

As promised, I went through the Blu-ray liner notes... the spec section in Volume 9's booklet doesn't talk about ordnance container variations.  The VF-31A writeup in Volume 3's has a good, clear screen capture that shows the ones used by Alpha Flight in the series were outfitted with the same ordnance container that Delta Flight used, with the multidrone charger and gunpod rack.

Variable Fighter Master File doesn't show the configuration from the model kits, it shows a couple that are more in line with the YF-30's with the round vs. triangular missile thing that the Master File artists are so fond of.  

Still a gorgeous plane tho... same with the white-and-gold Sv-262Hs. 

Yeah, I thought I saw as much in the show, but the custom ones made me doubt myself. Thanks so much. I suppose the studio was already super thin on the budget, so they just reused the models. Shame, though, but I'm sure the eventual movie retelling will show the 31As in their proper glory.

[Lorindor]

4 hours ago, TehPW said:

2022 you say (about the Macross IP license). Is it possible that HG might actually lose it (finally?). How does that figure into Sony's part (the still in production R-film)?

Very low possibility. HG has already renewed the license several times before and there's nothing to suggest anything would chang this time. Even if it's a relatively small revenue for Tatsunoko, it's still a revenue. And any counter-bidder would only be interested in the Macross license, whereas HG buys the whole package. Plus, HG has already proven that they can make a profit of the property whereas other companies would likely be less certain in the eyes of Tatsunoko. 

[kajnrig]

While we're on the subject of HG and frivolous lawsuits:

(EDIT: I know that HG talk is generally frowned upon, so if any mod feels this is crossing the line, feel free to delete.)

 

Edited July 25, 2017 by kajnrig

[TehPW]

Pretty much why I'm even discussing this is because of the current course case...

 

[TheLoneWolf]

On 7/24/2017 at 9:23 PM, TehPW said:

2022 you say (about the Macross IP license). Is it possible that HG might actually lose it (finally?).

There's little chance that Harmony Gold will lose their license. Tatsunoko Production has renewed it three times already, so it's safe to say that they'll renew it a fourth time, if they haven't already.

On 7/24/2017 at 9:23 PM, TehPW said:

How does that figure into Sony's part (the still in production R-film)?

Even if Tatsunoko Production were to drop Harmony Gold, it probably wouldn't affect Sony's contract. Sony's contract was most likely with Harmony Gold and Tatsunoko. If HG drops off, then the contract would carry on through Sony and Tatsunoko.

[TehPW]

and that would mean that they could go do a live action Macross...? Well, one can hope for miracles...

[Seto Kaiba]

2 minutes ago, TehPW said:

and that would mean that they could go do a live action Macross...? Well, one can hope for miracles...

Based on the available information (some of which comes from Harmony Gold's staff), Tatsunoko is not involved... it's set to be a reimagined version of the R-word plot that ditches all but the broadest strokes unique to the R-word version.  (The goal being to separate itself from all of the Macross legal problems.)

(Of course, the info from HG is like five or six years old by now...)

Edited July 27, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[TheLoneWolf]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Based on the available information (some of which comes from Harmony Gold's staff), Tatsunoko is not involved...

Do you have any links for that info? I never expected Tatsunoko to be actively involved with the LAM, but I'd be shocked if they weren't even a signatory to the contract.

[Sandman]

On 7/25/2017 at 9:21 AM, kajnrig said:

While we're on the subject of HG and frivolous lawsuits:

(EDIT: I know that HG talk is generally frowned upon, so if any mod feels this is crossing the line, feel free to delete.)

 

On snap... I backed this kickstarter. Frikin HG looking to start crap again.

[Seto Kaiba]

14 hours ago, TheLoneWolf said:

Do you have any links for that info? I never expected Tatsunoko to be actively involved with the LAM, but I'd be shocked if they weren't even a signatory to the contract.

Not anymore, I'm afraid.  The conversation I had about it with members of The Show That Must Not Be Named's creative staff was on their old official forums, and has probably been lost as a consequence.  (It was one of several discussions I wish I'd thought to  save before the site went down.)

The intention they had expressed - and this was back when the license was still held by WB - was to have the proposed film be a reboot/reimagining that drew only on those aspects of their show which were not covered by copyrights held by other parties.  In short, the intention for that new property's development was to be free and clear of potential litigious entanglements that naturally occur as the result of building a franchise on secondhand source material.  (At the time, the man who is now the company's VP of Marketing had expressed considerable frustration that the chain of approvals which ran through their legal counsel made it all but impossible to respond in a timely fashion to proposals for new products or even news posts for the official site's front page.)

 

[Lorindor]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Not anymore, I'm afraid.  The conversation I had about it with members of The Show That Must Not Be Named's creative staff was on their old official forums, and has probably been lost as a consequence.  (It was one of several discussions I wish I'd thought to  save before the site went down.)

Haven't you heard? The forums are up again and all (or at least most) of the old posts are still there. You should probably be able to find it.

[Seto Kaiba]

7 minutes ago, Lorindor said:

Haven't you heard? The forums are up again and all (or at least most) of the old posts are still there. You should probably be able to find it.

No, I hadn't heard that they'd restored the old content... I'll wade into that wretched hive of scum and villainy later in search of those old topics.

 

Edit: Ave deus mechanicus... this means all my old Macross II translations are back in the wild again.  Here's hoping nobody digs them up, or I'll be back to getting ten e-mails a week asking how Macross's sequels all fit together.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Seto Kaiba

[Sildani]

Old M2 translations? Do tell. (Might as well get your typing fingers limber)

[Seto Kaiba]

19 hours ago, Sildani said:

Old M2 translations? Do tell. (Might as well get your typing fingers limber)

Eh... y'know how artists are sometimes embarrassed of their early works?  

That's how I feel about those early translations of mine from ~2002.  My grasp of the language was still pretty basic, I'd only managed to lay hands on a few Japanese publications, and the effort was mainly a bid to correct the more obvious errors in the Macross II RPG series published by Palladium Books.  It made for great practice, though, since the more I learned the more the errors became obvious ones, necessitating more research.  By the time I was done I'd moved on to my first self-run site, the ratio of red ink to original text in those books was probably four or five to one, and my players were about ready to wring my neck for constantly fiddling with the stats to make them more accurate.

Most of the questions that I spent weeks working on answers for back then would barely merit asking in this thread these days.

[Sir Galahad®]

On 7/28/2017 at 2:17 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Not anymore, I'm afraid.  The conversation I had about it with members of The Show That Must Not Be Named's creative staff was on their old official forums, and has probably been lost as a consequence.  (It was one of several discussions I wish I'd thought to  save before the site went down.)

The intention they had expressed - and this was back when the license was still held by WB - was to have the proposed film be a reboot/reimagining that drew only on those aspects of their show which were not covered by copyrights held by other parties.  In short, the intention for that new property's development was to be free and clear of potential litigious entanglements that naturally occur as the result of building a franchise on secondhand source material.  (At the time, the man who is now the company's VP of Marketing had expressed considerable frustration that the chain of approvals which ran through their legal counsel made it all but impossible to respond in a timely fashion to proposals for new products or even news posts for the official site's front page.)

 

But would a movie about transforming fighters against a race of humanoid giants bred for warfare already refers to Macross. I mean, what other series had those?

If I remember correctly, the Shadow Chronicles killed off the Zentradi so they won't be able to include them. Not to mention they never used that word in the first place.

How would the reimagining look like then? Hmmmmm...

[Sir Galahad®]

Didn't they say there were a lot of Zentradi Fleets scattered around. Did Chlore's Fleet have the same size as Bodolza's or was it reduced because of DYRL. As I recall the fleet in the First TV series was really massive. 4 million ships in all.

Would doing a new series with a macross colony given their advanced tech encounter a fleet out there would interest watchers?

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Sir Galahad® said:

But would a movie about transforming fighters against a race of humanoid giants bred for warfare already refers to Macross. I mean, what other series had those?

How would the reimagining look like then? Hmmmmm...

That's one reason among many that You-Know-Who's proposal for a live-action film will almost certainly never be actioned for production... it's practically begging for a copyright infringement lawsuit by any standard, and it's damn near impossible to determine how far is "far enough" in distancing a project like that from source material they can't legally use.

(That's not to say studios don't sometimes do dumb things like proceeding with films that will obviously get them sued... e.g. Halle Berry's Catwoman... but it is a relative rarity.)

 

1 hour ago, Sir Galahad® said:

If I remember correctly, the Shadow Chronicles killed off the Zentradi so they won't be able to include them. Not to mention they never used that word in the first place.

The Show That Must Not Be Named did it well before then, in actual fact.  It was implied back in their adaptation of MOSPEADA, but in the first episode of their canceled OVA they avoided even using the word "Zentradi".  They're very much aware of the limitations on what they can use, legally speaking, and it has dominated their creative process since the very beginning (per the remarks of Mr. Macek at a convention in 1995.)

 

1 hour ago, Sir Galahad® said:

Didn't they say there were a lot of Zentradi Fleets scattered around. Did Chlore's Fleet have the same size as Bodolza's or was it reduced because of DYRL. As I recall the fleet in the First TV series was really massive. 4 million ships in all.

Would doing a new series with a macross colony given their advanced tech encounter a fleet out there would interest watchers?

Several thousand, yes.  According to Records Officer Exsedol Folmo, there are somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 Main Fleets operating in the Milky Way.  There were, according to Macross Chronicle, once approximately 5,000 such fleets.  They vary somewhat in size, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of ships per Macross Chronicle.  Chlore's fleet was, IIRC, only tens of thousands of ships in Macross 7.  She was likely a Direct Defense Fleet commander, since the Macross 7 series treats the SDF Macross version of the war as the more accurate one WRT factions and continuity.

Available setting materials suggest that encounters with rogue Zentradi branch fleets occur fairly often and even the occasional skirmish with main fleet-scale forces isn't unheard-of.  The rogue fleets don't seem to be regarded as a significant threat, and are generally either destroyed through superior firepower or exposed to Earth culture.  It's suggested that main fleets are avoided at all costs, since the amount of firepower necessary to repel one is outside the scope of what an emigrant fleet can provide.  (This is probably one of the things that keeps the Federal New UN Forces too busy to intervene in inter-colony squabbles.)

It wouldn't really be a new development, story-wise... the Macross II: Lovers Again chronology has it happen with distressing regularity, and by 2092 the UN Spacy there had repelled at least four more main fleets after the Boddole Zer and Laplamiz ones in 2009-2010.  They'd gotten VERY good at it, which is one of the reasons they had become so complacent by the time the Mardook showed up.  I think a main continuity emigrant fleet encountering a main fleet wouldn't be much of a fight, regardless.  If they were armed with 5th Generation VFs the Zentradi don't have anything that can really rival that, and the fleet would get wiped out if it tried to go head-to-head with anything much larger than a branch fleet.  (This is why, in Master File's accounts, the military will sacrifice and even self-destruct ships to avoid having main fleets discover the location of emigrant fleets.)

[Master Dex]

9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Several thousand, yes.  According to Records Officer Exsedol Folmo, there are somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 Main Fleets operating in the Milky Way.  There were, according to Macross Chronicle, once approximately 5,000 such fleets.  They vary somewhat in size, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of ships per Macross Chronicle.  Chlore's fleet was, IIRC, only tens of thousands of ships in Macross 7.  She was likely a Direct Defense Fleet commander, since the Macross 7 series treats the SDF Macross version of the war as the more accurate one WRT factions and continuity.

Available setting materials suggest that encounters with rogue Zentradi branch fleets occur fairly often and even the occasional skirmish with main fleet-scale forces isn't unheard-of.  The rogue fleets don't seem to be regarded as a significant threat, and are generally either destroyed through superior firepower or exposed to Earth culture.  It's suggested that main fleets are avoided at all costs, since the amount of firepower necessary to repel one is outside the scope of what an emigrant fleet can provide.  (This is probably one of the things that keeps the Federal New UN Forces too busy to intervene in inter-colony squabbles.)

It wouldn't really be a new development, story-wise... the Macross II: Lovers Again chronology has it happen with distressing regularity, and by 2092 the UN Spacy there had repelled at least four more main fleets after the Boddole Zer and Laplamiz ones in 2009-2010.  They'd gotten VERY good at it, which is one of the reasons they had become so complacent by the time the Mardook showed up.  I think a main continuity emigrant fleet encountering a main fleet wouldn't be much of a fight, regardless.  If they were armed with 5th Generation VFs the Zentradi don't have anything that can really rival that, and the fleet would get wiped out if it tried to go head-to-head with anything much larger than a branch fleet.  (This is why, in Master File's accounts, the military will sacrifice and even self-destruct ships to avoid having main fleets discover the location of emigrant fleets.)

Sounds like you are both saying an emigrant fleet can handle a Zentradi main fleet be using 5th generation VFs but it also can't due to the numbers... I likely misunderstood something in that last paragraph. It is clear though you are saying anything bigger than a branch fleet, like Chlore's, is a big problem for an emigrant fleet and to be avoided. The Federal forces are likely the ones deployed to near areas with main fleets to either pacify, destroy, or just keep them from making trouble for New UN fleets using their overpowered VF-24s and whatever else they have now.

So.... can we PLEASE get a show or OVA about that awesome crap!?

Edited July 31, 2017 by Master Dex

[Seto Kaiba]

18 minutes ago, Master Dex said:

Sounds like you are both saying an emigrant fleet can handle a Zentradi main fleet be using 5th generation VFs but it also can't due to the numbers... I likely misunderstood something in that last paragraph. It is clear though you are saying anything bigger than a branch fleet, like Chlore's, is a big problem for an emigrant fleet and to be avoided. The Federal forces are likely the ones deployed to near areas with main fleets to either pacify, destroy, or just keep them from making trouble for New UN fleets using their overpowered VF-24s and whatever else they have now.

Whoops, sorry... the way I phrased that is hideously unclear.  I really shouldn't write when I'm three sheets to the wind on antihistamines.  

What I meant is that, individually, the Zentradi don't have any mecha able to rival a 5th Generation VF and an emigrant fleet has the firepower to handle anything up to about the branch fleet level via superweapons like the Battle-class's Macross Cannon and their arsenals of thermonuclear reaction weapons... but a Zentradi Army main fleet has such an overwhelming advantage of numbers that those individual advantages are all but meaningless and the only real option an emigrant fleet has is to avoid detection.  In short, if it came to a fight between an emigrant fleet with 5th Generation VFs and a Zentradi Main Fleet, the New UN Spacy would reap a fearful talley from the Zentradi before being overwhelmed in short order because the Zentradi outnumber them by several orders of magnitude.  A fleet like Chlore's, which has over ten thousand ships, is a bit big for a fleet as small as the 37th Large-Scale Emigrant Fleet to tackle... but probably wouldn't be as big a threat for one of the larger emigrant fleets like Macross Frontier or Macross Valiant, the latter of which allegedly has over 900 ships on its own.

The (New) UN Spacy's defenses seem to be largely structured around the expectation of fighting a Zentradi force of roughly branch fleet scale (~1,100 ships).  The former Varauta system defense flagship (Gepernich's ship) was built to table a branch fleet more or less singlehandedly through overwhelming firepower.

[Master Dex]

Sounds like I got the gist of it though.

 

Seriously though, I would love a show or OVA dedicated to the tasks of the Federal New UN Forces tackling problems like that.

[JB0]

On 7/31/2017 at 1:55 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

(This is why, in Master File's accounts, the military will sacrifice and even self-destruct ships to avoid having main fleets discover the location of emigrant fleets.)

Quite understandable. Protection of colony fleets and planets should be a very high priority.

There's no sense in leading an antagonistic force with the firepower to glass an entire planet in seconds to your front door, even if the chance to wipe all humanity out of the universe has long passed. 

Though.... it seems a fleet with a suitably tactical commander could go on a good-sized rampage if they gained access to the galaxy network broadcasts. I admit that falls in the realm of Clarke's sufficiently advanced technology, but it is hard to imagine that one can't extract or extrapolate broadcast locations from the GN datastreams and generate a hit list of cultured planets, making the potential damage FAR greater than a single lost fleet or planet. Another good reason to keep non-assimilated  zentradi in the dark.

(Aaaand now I'm trying to work out how one would obscure spatial origins while operating a reliable and maintainable network infrastructure. I think I just nerd-sniped myself.)

 

 

On 7/31/2017 at 1:28 PM, Master Dex said:

Seriously though, I would love a show or OVA dedicated to the tasks of the Federal New UN Forces tackling problems like that.

I second this.

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

Quite understandable. Protection of colony fleets and planets should be a very high priority.

There's no sense in leading an antagonistic force with the firepower to glass an entire planet in seconds to your front door, even if the chance to wipe all humanity out of the universe has long passed. 

Even letting them stumble across a relatively small population like an emigrant fleet would be an enormous problem, hence the drastic measures taken in securing the advance of emigrant fleets using stealth vessels.

(Master File alleges that there are still cases where rogue Zentradi elements stumble onto and overwhelm colonies.  Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur gives an example in a planet named Supika III, which was settled by an early emigrant fleet mission and was overwhelmed swiftly by a small Zentradi fleet that chanced upon them despite the best efforts of their eighty or so ships and ~600 3rd Generation VFs.)

 

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

Though.... it seems a fleet with a suitably tactical commander could go on a good-sized rampage if they gained access to the galaxy network broadcasts. I admit that falls in the realm of Clarke's sufficiently advanced technology, but it is hard to imagine that one can't extract or extrapolate broadcast locations from the GN datastreams and generate a hit list of cultured planets, making the potential damage FAR greater than a single lost fleet or planet. Another good reason to keep non-assimilated  zentradi in the dark.

From what we've been told by Kawamori and co. in interviews (it may have been Otona Anime #9), the Zentradi Army doesn't exactly encourage curiosity among the troops... and that's probably a big part of why encounters with the Zentradi are so infrequent.  The example given was fold faults... as the Zentradi are aware of them in a rudimentary sense, but because they don't fall into the category of "ally" or "enemy" they're ignored.

The Vrlitwhai branch fleet only found the Sol system because they were on search and destroy ops and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to detect the residual gravity waves the defolding Supervision Army gun destroyer had made ten years previously.  They only bothered with the Sol system because they saw evidence of an enemy ship.

I'm torn between three potential theories as to why the Zentradi Army doesn't seem to notice that there's a galaxy-spanning communications network in place:

1. The Galaxy Network is using fold communications frequencies that are unmonitored by the Zentradi Army...
   a. ... because those frequencies are not supported by Zentradi communications hardware.
   b. ... because those frequencies are not military frequencies monitored by the Zentradi.
   c. ... because those frequencies are ones the ancient Protoculture formerly reserved for their own military or civilian communications networks, and the Zentradi were given orders not to monitor or interfere with them.
    
2. The Galaxy Network is using some kind of fold wave beamforming technology to provide a tight-beam transmission channel instead of an all-around broadcast, making itself harder to detect outside of the path of the beam.
    
3. The Galaxy Network is using Zentradi frequencies, so the network traffic is simply missed by the Zentradi comms officers...
   a. ... because the transmission formats are not supported by Zentradi Army communications hardware, meaning it's unintelligible gibberish to them and is thus mistaken for malfunctions or interference.
   b. ... because the transmissions are encrypted, and are being mistaken for normal Zentradi Army strategic communications traffic.

I suspect the truth is somewhere between 1b and 1c, possibly with a little bit of 2 and 3a thrown in.

 

 

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

(Aaaand now I'm trying to work out how one would obscure spatial origins while operating a reliable and maintainable network infrastructure. I think I just nerd-sniped myself.)

Believe me, you aren't alone... I may have it worse here, since I'm a network engineer. 

[aurance]

So... an answer for this probably doesn't exist, other than it looks cool, but:

Why do Battle class and Quarter class Macross ships use gunpods ("gun ships") instead of integrated main guns like SDF-1? I would assume having an integrated gun allows a lot more of the main reactor energy to channel to the gun.

Also - why do those ships transform?

Edited August 3, 2017 by aurance

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, aurance said:

So... an answer for this probably doesn't exist, other than it looks cool, but:

Oh ye of little faith...

 

 

1 hour ago, aurance said:

Why do Battle class and Quarter class Macross ships use gunpods ("gun ships") instead of integrated main guns like SDF-1? I would assume having an integrated gun allows a lot more of the main reactor energy to channel to the gun.

There are several reasonably practical reasons given for the move from integrated "main gun" scale beam cannons to a separate "gunship".  Some of these reasons tie into the answers to your second question as well:

1. Improved Modularity
   Having the Gunship-type Macross Cannon as a separate modular warship component that is docked to the Battle-class or Macross Quarter-class ship offers a few benefits.  It ties into a decentralized power system, so the gunship can receive power from the other modules that make up the ship to supplement the output of its own reactors (e.g. for charging the actual gun) or it can divert some or all of its reactor output to the ship's other modules if there's a need to (e.g. a fold jump, reactor shutdown, etc.).  It also makes it easier for to upgrade or repair/replace the cannon since it's a separate module.  (It also offers the theoretical, crazy possibility of dual wielding if they have a second gunship to hand for some reason.)
    
2. Capability for Independent Action
   Being a separate, modular warship, the Gunship is capable of operating independently of the ship it's nominally a part of.  It's noted that it's even capable of discharging the main gun on its own, though it can't sustain a continuous discharge without the external reactor power of the mothership.  (This means it's technically possible to let the gunship continue to fire on an enemy while the main ship wades in to deliver a knuckle sandwich.)  Like the other modular components, it's capable of independent gravity control flight and fold jumps, so it can even function as an ad hoc lifeboat if something goes REALLY badly wrong, or be jettisoned if it's having problems without compromising the rest of the ship.
    
3. Increased Arc of Fire
   Being handheld, rather than part of the superstructure of the ship it's attached to, it can more readily be brought to bear on new targets without having to turn the whole ship.  This means it's also easier to "sweep" the beam across a group of targets.

 

 

1 hour ago, aurance said:

Also - why do those ships transform?

Three main reasons:

1. Modularity
   Being made up of a number of independently operable modular warships, the power systems are decentralized.  So if one module is damaged or lost, or needs to shut down its reactors to carry out repairs or maintenance, the reactors in other modules can pick up the slack.  It also makes repairs and upgrades easier, since irreparably damaged modules can simply be taken off and replaced, or obsolete ones kept in place to keep the ship in service while new modules are being built.  (Unfortunately it adds complexity, which is why we don't see more of them.)
    
2. Maneuverability
   Unsurprisingly, having high-powered engine systems distributed all over the place makes the transformable warship a good bit more agile than your average warship.  "Thrust vectoring rules the skies" and all that...
    
3. Combat Versatility
   The humanoid Storming Attack form offers the option to do several things a normal ship can't do.  It permits much greater freedom with the modular Macross Cannon gunships, enables a more "hands on" approach to ship to ship combat (by which I mean punching things), and it allows the ship to carry out unusual maneuvers like dodging by twisting to the side and can help implement things like boarding attacks (e.g. the Daedalus Attack).

[aurance]

Well I'm schooled