The Newbie and Short Questions thread

[Seto Kaiba]

3 hours ago, Scream Man said:

By the time of macross Delta, I think the Valks are using a kind of SMart Paint on their fighters. In Episode 7, right at the start as Delta are going onto their mission on the cat planet, The Valks (And Walkures carrier ship) all black shift to this stealth camo. Do we have any idea if this is actually a thing?

I ask because suddenly custom colors on a fighter seem like they'd be relatively easy to do. You just program the scheme and the planes smart paint system changes it for you. 

Unfortunately, Macross Delta's creators declined to give a decent explanation of it beyond calling it an "optical camouflage system".  That said, both the YF-27-5 and Sv-262's optical camo were both described as hiding the fighter's markings and paintjob rather than altering them, which suggests it was achieved by some means independent of the paint itself.  I'd assume it's holographic in nature, projecting a matte stealth surface over the paintjob.

(Given that the paint itself is an ablative anti-beam material, I'd imagine they'd want to keep its cost and complexity down as much as possible.  Unfortunately we never see the fighters suffer damage while operating in that stealth mode, which would tell us for certain if it was paint or a projection on top of the paint.)

 

 

30 minutes ago, Nazareno2012 said:

It could also be a holographic projection like the Walkure outfits.

That is the most likely explanation, IMO.

 

 

[Nazareno2012]

Does anyone have starboard view images of the CVN-99 Asuka II from M0? There is a port view here though. This thread could have had one, as it is about a CG model of the ship, though the pictures of the CG model can't be seen. I will use the images as references for a Shipbucket drawing of the CVN-99 that I am working on.

[kajnrig]

So I'm looking up reference pictures (I finally know what I want to do with my YF-29!), and during the final cast shot at the end of The Wings of Goodbye, there are some seemingly random characters. Anyone know if they have names?

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, kajnrig said:

So I'm looking up reference pictures (I finally know what I want to do with my YF-29!), and during the final cast shot at the end of The Wings of Goodbye, there are some seemingly random characters. Anyone know if they have names?

None that I can find... from their uniforms the trio on the left seem to be hangar deck crew from the SMS Macross Quarter and the ones on the right are a boy from Mihoshi Academy and a girl from St. Maria's.

[frothymug]

 

12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

None that I can find... from their uniforms the trio on the left seem to be hangar deck crew from the SMS Macross Quarter and the ones on the right are a boy from Mihoshi Academy and a girl from St. Maria's.

The girl is in a Mihoshi uniform, unless this was changed for the movies. IIRC, St. Maria's was white with red trim.

[aurance]

What Is the advantage of having the VF-31 gunpod be attachable as a turret, instead of just being held like other valk models? Seems like a lot of wasted space in the weapon container.

[Seto Kaiba]

On 9/3/2017 at 2:59 AM, frothymug said:

The girl is in a Mihoshi uniform, unless this was changed for the movies. IIRC, St. Maria's was white with red trim.

Ah, you're right.  My bad.

 

11 minutes ago, aurance said:

What Is the advantage of having the VF-31 gunpod be attachable as a turret, instead of just being held like other valk models? Seems like a lot of wasted space in the weapon container.

Greater field of fire while it's attached to the ordnance container... effectively letting it work like the beam gun turret on the VF-25/TW1 and YF-29.  The VF-31 can engage with both railguns AND the beam gunpod simultaneously while it's mounted like that.

[aurance]

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Ah, you're right.  My bad.

 

Greater field of fire while it's attached to the ordnance container... effectively letting it work like the beam gun turret on the VF-25/TW1 and YF-29.  The VF-31 can engage with both railguns AND the beam gunpod simultaneously while it's mounted like that.

Interesting, but then for what purpose would you want to detach it from the mount?

[kajnrig]

1 hour ago, aurance said:

Interesting, but then for what purpose would you want to detach it from the mount?

Probably to serve as a traditional gunpod when necessary. A redundancy feature, like the continued existence of a tow bar.

[Sildani]

Say, I'm going to be painting up some of the AMM-101 missiles Xigfrid made. Does the Master File give any indications as to paint color and markings? Thanks Seto!

[AN/ALQ128]

How did Sharon project her hologram inside the YF-19's cockpit? From all that I can gather from the internet and watching M+ (both the movie and the OVA), the YF-19 doesn't seem to have holographic projectors.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Sildani said:

Say, I'm going to be painting up some of the AMM-101 missiles Xigfrid made. Does the Master File give any indications as to paint color and markings? Thanks Seto!

My scanner is a coprolitic clunker from the bad old days of Windows XP, so the res isn't what I'd hoped... but this should be fairly sound color reference if nothing else.

Looks like a gloss black nosecone over the seeker head, a reflective white body coat with a red stripe for indicating a live warhead, and a "cool" grey exposed section between the body of the missile and the engine nozzle.
 

5 minutes ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

How did Sharon project her hologram inside the YF-19's cockpit? From all that I can gather from the internet and watching M+ (both the movie and the OVA), the YF-19 doesn't seem to have holographic projectors.

VFs have been using holographic technology for three-dimensional on-canopy HUD projection since the VF-1's Block 6 (movie) upgrade and some of the later models of VF used a three-dimensional holographic setup for their in-cockpit monitors as well.  It's evident from the manner of her entry that Sharon coopted the existing holographic systems running the HUD to get to Dr. Neumann, and then the main display to get to Isamu.

[kajnrig]

2 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

reflective white body coat with a red stripe for indicating a live warhead

Never realized this was the reason. I never paid it much mind when looking at IRL ordnance, and figured it was always just there for kicks on sci-fi stuffs.

[mickyg]

Except IRL it's a yellow band instead of red.  Any ideas why Macross does red instead?  I'm guessing it's more to do with visual pop than anything else.

[Seto Kaiba]

19 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Never realized this was the reason. I never paid it much mind when looking at IRL ordnance, and figured it was always just there for kicks on sci-fi stuffs.

Oh yeah, the military never does anything like that without an insanely bureaucratic reason and a cheat sheet roughly the length of a CVS receipt.  In this case, the cheat sheet's name is MIL-STD-709C MILITARY STANDARD AMMUNITION COLOR CODING.

Macross's tech manuals apply a skewed version of it, but don't apply it or a system inspired by it on a consistent basis and the show all but ignores it.  For instance, the LPP-14 laser pod has markings for an illumination round, while many others are inexplicably marked up as  if they contained armor-piercing incendiary instead of HE.  Quite a few of the bombs and missiles found in the VF-1 and VF-0 books are plainly copied from photos of display ordnance, since they carry blue stripes denoting inert practice ammunition.

 

2 minutes ago, mickyg said:

Except IRL it's a yellow band instead of red.  Any ideas why Macross does red instead?  I'm guessing it's more to do with visual pop than anything else.

The nosecone color isn't a part of the color code system... I suspect that choice of red or yellow is mainly for "visual pop" in most Macross shows.

 

[Sir Galahad®]

Is the VAR syndrome fatal? This is the same fold bacteria that gave Sheryl a terminal illness. If it is spread out around the universe after the Vajra left, why aren't there reports of people sick with fold bacteria in their body?

[Seto Kaiba]

10 minutes ago, Sir Galahad® said:

Is the VAR syndrome fatal? This is the same fold bacteria that gave Sheryl a terminal illness. If it is spread out around the universe after the Vajra left, why aren't there reports of people sick with fold bacteria in their body?

Berger Stone's claim that the fold bacteria that cause Var syndrome migrated into humanoids from the Vajra doesn't hold water for a couple different reasons... then again, most of what he says has similar problems.

His claim that the Vajra left the universe doesn't hold water because we know that the Vajra hives were still present in multiple regions of the galaxy even after the events of Macross Frontier, as seen in Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy and the Macross Delta gaiden manga Macross E.  It also doesn't work on the level of what we know regarding the effects of the V-type bacterium the Vajra carry.  Macross Delta tells the audience that everyone has fold bacteria living in their brains and that they're not dangerous in and of themselves.  But in Macross Frontier it's a major plot point that a V-type bacteria infection in the brain is an incurable lethal illness that'll end you in a matter of at most a few years without treatment and treatment just delays the inevitable.  

Given that the Vajra are still around and even present on several New UN Government-settled worlds in the 2060s, and that the galaxy's population rather visibly hasn't been wiped out by an incurable fatal disease or even incurred the V-type bacteria's signature Incurable Cough of Doom, it seems fairly safe to say Berger Stone is either spinning a yarn or he's suffering from author-induced stupidity.

[RedWolf]

On 9/16/2017 at 11:06 AM, Sir Galahad® said:

Is the VAR syndrome fatal? This is the same fold bacteria that gave Sheryl a terminal illness. If it is spread out around the universe after the Vajra left, why aren't there reports of people sick with fold bacteria in their body?

No it isn't. Ranka's magic over Sheryl reprogrammed Fold Bacteria to go for the guts. When the Vajra left leaving the bacteria these critters folded themselves to the next suitable hosts Sub-Protoculture races. Here is the thing Vajra are a hivemind because of these things as they look to have minute traces of Fold Quartz. Sub-Protoculture species weren't engineered to be telepathic like that, except for the Windies. Hence Var Syndrome triggered by excessive amounts of Fold Bacteria inside the body and by Fold Waves. The chemical Seidznole causes an explosion of Fold Bacteria. Now in most cases Fold Receptors are immune to Var syndrome.

Roid's whole scheme wouldn't work on other races if it weren't for Fold Bacteria. The Song of the Star Singer was meant for the Windermereans as they all have Fold Quartz in their Runes.

 

[Sir Galahad®]

1 hour ago, RedWolf said:

No it isn't. Ranka's magic over Sheryl reprogrammed Fold Bacteria to go for the guts. When the Vajra left leaving the bacteria these critters folded themselves to the next suitable hosts Sub-Protoculture races. Here is the thing Vajra are a hivemind because of these things as they look to have minute traces of Fold Quartz. Sub-Protoculture species weren't engineered to be telepathic like that, except for the Windies. Hence Var Syndrome triggered by excessive amounts of Fold Bacteria inside the body and by Fold Waves. The chemical Seidznole causes an explosion of Fold Bacteria. Now in most cases Fold Receptors are immune to Var syndrome.

Roid's whole scheme wouldn't work on other races if it weren't for Fold Bacteria. The Song of the Star Singer was meant for the Windermereans as they all have Fold Quartz in their Runes.

 

Yeah, but we were discussing that this is the same bacteria that almost killed Sheryl until she was saved by Ranka (magic or by blood transfusion in the movie). So only the bacteria inside Sheryl were stabilized. But did it influence the other bacteria that remained? I don't think Ranka was that powerful. So when the fold bacteria occupied other bodies it would be fatal to them as it was to Sheryl, unless it was magically programmed to stay in the guts.

Also yeah, I looked that there were other Vajra Colonies other than the one that frontier encountered, because the song was actually meant for inter colony communication/breeding.

[Sir Galahad®]

Here is another I was wondering about, 

When the Protodeviln were frozen, who was commanding the Supervision Army? I would assume directives based on the mind control. But without the leaders, the objective of the army becomes useless. And if there are still remnants of them, then there are still surviving protoculture right?

[Master Dex]

I think the SA had brainwashed Zentradi and other species from the former Protoculture empire too but it isn't that clear. With the mass cloning it is likely no original Protoculture are left due to age/battle though, just warrior copies. Much like the Zentradi are following old orders for millennia, so is the SA remnants. Plus there was war going on even before the Protodeviln happened, they just hijacked the latest weapon (Evil series) on one side and basically took over what became the Supervision Army.

[RedWolf]

As far as we know the current Supervision Army are made up of giants like the Zentradi. In Macross 7 Exsedol somehow found the Varauta machines familiar but dismissed the thought as they were for Miclones. In the original context of SDF Macross the Supervision Army was the other side of the Protoculture civil war similar to the Zentradi-Meltrandi conflict in DYRL. This was somewhat retconned in Macross 7 as the Protoculture civil war became more complicated with the Protodevlin becoming a common threat.

But here is something strange going by the official timeline. It was after 127 cycles sealing the Protodevlin and with the dissolving of the Stellar Republic/Galactic Empire that opposition between the Zentradi Army and Supervision Army began.  With the chain of command gone and the Protoculture network smashed the Zentradi ran wild. Roid in Macross Delta speculated the Ruin Network was meant for the Zentradi.

PC 2873

• Approximately one year after the emergence of Protodeviln, their power begins to rapidly decline.
• "Protodeviln sealing operation." People (known as Anima Spiritia) who are significant in the war against the Protodeviln are determined to have influential powers over the Protodeviln. Protodeviln faction are completely sealed in special chambers through the efforts of Anima Spiritia.

PC 2875

• Protoculture population continues to decrease even through the Protodeviln are sealed.
• The network among each colonized planet disintegrates. Control of the Zentradi faction is lost and the reissuing of the prime directive "Do not interfere with Protoculture" becomes ineffective.

PC 3000

• Dissolution of Stellar Republic.
• Opposition between the Supervision and Zentradi factions begins.

 

Now lets assume the Supervision Army has similar retreat protocols as the Zentradi. Loss of the Commander in this case the Protodevlin the SA is to fold out, scatter and regroup. We do know fighting continued but in a less conventional manner as Zentradi supply lines were targeted and booby traps became standard practice.

 

 

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, Sir Galahad® said:

Here is another I was wondering about, 

When the Protodeviln were frozen, who was commanding the Supervision Army? I would assume directives based on the mind control. But without the leaders, the objective of the army becomes useless. And if there are still remnants of them, then there are still surviving protoculture right?

Given that the Supervision Army was made up of spiritia-drained and brainwashed Protoculture and Zentradi - and from an advanced arsenal world no less - it seems likely that the Supervision Army is using brainwashing broadly similar to the Zentradi Army's brainwashing/indoctrination.  Losing their highest tier in the chain of command wouldn't mean much, since only the most senior commanders would have had any interaction with them at all and standard strategy would've seen them regroup after retreating from the loss of their leaders.  Once they finished falling back and regrouping, they would have gone back to business as usual without a thought for the fact that their mission was an incredibly pointless one.

 

It's not clear how the Supervision Army keeps its numbers up... whether it's cloning troops or it's "recruiting" from worlds it finds and from captured Zentradi.

[Valkyrie Driver]

At what point did the UN Spacy become the New UN Spacy? Somewhere between M7 and MF I know but is there a date given for the hard switch? And why?

[nanoplasm]

Was there new voice acting recorded of Minmay for the Pachiko machine?  And who was the CV?

[Master Dex]

I don't know for sure but Mari Ijima is still around (and doing great) so she likely would do it. The songs are using the original versions probably. 

[nanoplasm]

I seem to recall there was some Macross work that had Minmay that wasn't voiced by Iijima.  I am guessing it's the Pachinko, or maybe the SDFM console shooter?

[RedWolf]

8 hours ago, Valkyrie Driver said:

At what point did the UN Spacy become the New UN Spacy? Somewhere between M7 and MF I know but is there a date given for the hard switch? And why?

There are two theories about that.

1. After the Lactence debacle where essentially the Earth supremacist conspiracy that tried to sabotage decentralization was defeated by the pro-decentralization faction of UN Spacy Vindirance they changed labels. (Macross VF-X2) On some planets there are still pro-Lactene remnants that wears the old UN Spacy kite like on planet Cashew where there is a civil war with the local NUNS and the Zentradi chapter Fasces whose leader has links to Varauta colony hence Varauta VF in the Macross the Ride light novel.

2. The other theory is that it has always been New UN Spacy after Zentradi integration. Earth and some fleets and colonies are just slow in updating the flag. In Macross Outside Story: The Lost Two Years by Shoji Kawamori New UN Spacy was mentioned.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, Valkyrie Driver said:

At what point did the UN Spacy become the New UN Spacy? Somewhere between M7 and MF I know but is there a date given for the hard switch? And why?

Based on Macross Chronicle, the reorganization of the surviving UN Forces into the New UN Forces began in May 2010 and ended at an unspecified point in 2011.  That's when the military's areas of responsibility expanded to include the operation and defense of emigrant fleets.

 

1 hour ago, RedWolf said:

2. The other theory is that it has always been New UN Spacy after Zentradi integration. Earth and some fleets and colonies are just slow in updating the flag. In Macross Outside Story: The Lost Two Years by Shoji Kawamori New UN Spacy was mentioned.

Macross Chronicle supports this interpretation.

Kawamori has commented briefly that the reason the "New UN Government" is mentioned in SDF Macross but doesn't appear again until Macross Frontier is a simple error on the staff's part.  They essentially forgot about the "New" they'd tacked on after the timeskip when they were making the Macross Plus and Macross 7 series.

[Valkyrie Driver]

So when did the insignia change? At the same time, or was that relatively new?

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Valkyrie Driver said:

So when did the insignia change? At the same time, or was that relatively new?

Presumably at some point in the mid-to-late 2040s, when the New UN Government began to devolve more authority to the individual emigrant fleets and planets.  I'd imagine that they'd want a different insignia than the one that had historically been exclusively Earth's.

[kajnrig]

10 hours ago, nanoplasm said:

I seem to recall there was some Macross work that had Minmay that wasn't voiced by Iijima.  I am guessing it's the Pachinko, or maybe the SDFM console shooter?

You might be thinking of Mylene, who's now voiced (and sung?) by Aya Hirano due to the original VA retiring.

[Master Dex]

8 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

You might be thinking of Mylene, who's now voiced (and sung?) by Aya Hirano due to the original VA retiring.

Mylene's singing voice was never Tomo Sakurai (despite that she can sing rather well), but Chei Kajiura who has continued to sing those songs to today.

[RedWolf]

16 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Based on Macross Chronicle, the reorganization of the surviving UN Forces into the New UN Forces began in May 2010 and ended at an unspecified point in 2011.  That's when the military's areas of responsibility expanded to include the operation and defense of emigrant fleets.

 

Macross Chronicle supports this interpretation.

Kawamori has commented briefly that the reason the "New UN Government" is mentioned in SDF Macross but doesn't appear again until Macross Frontier is a simple error on the staff's part.  They essentially forgot about the "New" they'd tacked on after the timeskip when they were making the Macross Plus and Macross 7 series.

Heck Macross 7 mentions it as Earth United Forces.

[ManhattanProject972]

Its been a little while since I last watched SDFM, Which episode does Max get his VF-1J? 

And do they ever mention anywhere how he or anyone else got to have his/her VF painted their own personal colors or is it just a sort of its always been that way sort of thing?