Super Macross Mecha Fun Time Discussion Thread!

[pengbuzz]

9 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The most likely (in-universe) reason that countermeasures aren't used more often is that many types of missiles used in the series have multiple guidance systems.  Especially the long-ranged missiles, which often have three separate guidance systems working in concert... usually radar (bolstered by powerful ECCM to overcome active stealth), infrared, and TV.  

Flares would be the most useful countermeasure, since micro-missiles tend to be exclusively infrared-guided.

Not to mention that countermeasures take up space (however little) and mass that could probably go for other things if they aren't producing results.

[Bolt]

12 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Zero also showed the more direct countermeasures with the VF-0's head turret gunning down incoming missiles.

That was a spectacular sequence! 

 

13 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The most likely (in-universe) reason that countermeasures aren't used more often is that many types of missiles used in the series have multiple guidance systems.  Especially the long-ranged missiles, which often have three separate guidance systems working in concert... usually radar (bolstered by powerful ECCM to overcome active stealth), infrared, and TV.  

Flares would be the most useful countermeasure, since micro-missiles tend to be exclusively infrared-guided.

I figure there's a possibility most missiles wouldn't be fooled by basic countermeasures. It's just weird, they're not prominent. But then the hyper action sequences of Delta would be incomprehensible. Lol. 

[cheemingwan1234]

I wonder what music genres that Macross does not cover. I think the idea for an classical /symphonic metal style orchestra for the idols would sound good for a future series. 

Edited December 2, 2022 by cheemingwan1234

[pengbuzz]

2 hours ago, cheemingwan1234 said:

I wonder what music genres that Macross does not cover. I think the idea for an classical /symphonic metal style orchestra for the idols would sound good for a future series. 

Polka, for one.

[cheemingwan1234]

25 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Polka, for one.

Good for Oktoberfests...now with Variable Fighters

[JB0]

Imagine Weird Al in the Macrossverse.

"Sir, he's broadcasting on all genres! We don't know how to stop him!"

[Bolt]

7 hours ago, JB0 said:

Imagine Weird Al in the Macrossverse.

"Sir, he's broadcasting on all genres! We don't know how to stop him!"

Lol, yes! 
whatever the next Macross music style will be, it will involve an idol. Just follow the music trends in Japan, for what's coming next. I doubt they're going to take big chances and surprise anyone. 

[SebastianP]

On 11/27/2022 at 8:51 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

I can imagine that Macross's creators would want to avoid reaching for that particular low-hanging fruit, and instead went for creating a fictional exoplanet orbiting a real but rather obscure star Groombridge 1816.  I'm not sure why they picked that particular star, I'd have to reach out to an actual astronomer to figure out if there were anything special about it.

I couldn't find a Groombridge 1816, so I'm presuming you (or someone else) typoed Groombridge 1618, which is *very* interesting.

Groombridge 1618 has been suspected of having a planet with a 122.5 day year since 1989, and the orbital period puts the planet (if it exists) right in the middle of the star's habitable zone. That the planet would have a mass about four times that of Jupiter is a later discovery. Some of the astronomers working on it have said that it sits in one of the sweet spots for possible evolved life, though that was kind of recently (2019). It's also close to earth relatively speaking (15.88 lightyears), and of course it's *not* any of the stars making up Alpha Centauri or any of the other overused "first colony" stars.

Not that there's anything wrong with using those, because they are spectacularly interesting given that Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Centauri A) is the same spectral class as Sol, and Proxima Centauri has a confirmed earth-sized planet in its habitable zone.... but since Proxima Centaruri is tiny, the orbital period of the planet is 11.5 days. 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

34 minutes ago, SebastianP said:

I couldn't find a Groombridge 1816, so I'm presuming you (or someone else) typoed Groombridge 1618, which is *very* interesting.

No, it's not a typo.  It is Groombridge 1816 not 1618.

You won't find much about it on Google or Wikipedia because it is a relatively obscure star, but it is a real star noted/codified on page 53 of Stephen Groombridge's A Catalog of Circumpolar Stars (1838).

 

EDIT: It should be noted that only a tiny handful of Groombridge catalog numbers are well-documented under their original catalog numbers.  Groombridge's catalog covers 4,243 different stars. Exactly two of them have Wikipedia pages.  

Edited December 3, 2022 by Seto Kaiba

[SebastianP]

24 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

No, it's not a typo.  It is Groombridge 1816 not 1618.

You won't find much about it on Google or Wikipedia because it is a relatively obscure star, but it is a real star noted/codified on page 53 of Stephen Groombridge's A Catalog of Circumpolar Stars (1838).

It would really help if I had table headings for that so I could see what each column meant and could track it down by its characteristics. 

The only search result on google mentioning 1816 says this:

g Macross Plus, OVA anime television series and compilation film. Groombridge 34 is a possible location of the fictitious "Groombridge 1816" (Helios) system, stated to be 11.7 light years from the Solar System, about the same distance as Groombridge 34 (11.62 ly). Planet Eden, located within the Groombridge 1816 system, is the location of the New Edwards Test Flight Center and its major city, Eden City. The name Groombridge 1816 may be an alteration of the name of the real star Groombridge 1618.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by SebastianP

[Seto Kaiba]

8 minutes ago, SebastianP said:

It would help a lot if I had the table headings for that.

Bear in mind, those measurements were taken in 1806-1816 using purely analog equipment so they're not going to align well with modern digital measurements taken two centuries later.  

 

8 minutes ago, SebastianP said:

The only result on Google mentioning it says that "Groombridge 34 AB is a probable candidate for the fictional Groombridge 1816 system said to be 11.7 lightyears from earth" in the Alliance-Union universe."

Like I said, obscure... that one fan blog assumed, like you did, that the star didn't exist based on mainstream search engine results and nothing else.

Eden's not in a binary system, so it's definitely not Groombridge 34AB.

[Seto Kaiba]

Granted, I have not yet gone any farther with that investigation than confirming that Groombridge 1816 is a real star described in Stephen Groombridge's A Catalog of Circumpolar Stars.

I'm planning to refer the matter out to the Astronomy department at one of the state universities I have ties to, though I haven't had an opportunity to do so yet due to some work complications.

 

 

[SebastianP]

46 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Bear in mind, those measurements were taken in 1806-1816 using purely analog equipment so they're not going to align well with modern digital measurements taken two centuries later.  

 

Like I said, obscure... that one fan blog assumed, like you did, that the star didn't exist based on mainstream search engine results and nothing else.

Eden's not in a binary system, so it's definitely not Groombridge 34AB.

Well, finding the thing in modern catalogues is beyond me because the one catalogue that allows you to search by historical information (i.e. I can enter 1810 as a date) requires more info than I have (the hell is an LST?) so I can't figure out what it's called today. 

Immensely frustrating that the astronomical databases have such arcane search interfaces. 

Also.... there are no stars matching Groombridge 1816's apparent magnitude of 6.7 at the distance given from Sol in the OVA (11.7 LY). 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by SebastianP

[Seto Kaiba]

17 minutes ago, SebastianP said:

Immensely frustrating that the astronomical databases have such arcane search interfaces. 

And so, you understand my struggle... and why I'm shelving my pride and going to ask someone on the astronomy faculty at MSU or U-M.

[Seto Kaiba]

Since the sudden change in the weather has me feeling too cruddy to do the work I'd planned to, I decided to poke around a bit at the Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur on the off-chance it might provide more information about Groombridge 1816 since it was also curiously specific about other planets e.g. Spica.  No such luck, but I did turn up some fun details I thought I'd pass along.

Master File's take on the backstory of Macross Plus is interesting, and a bit different from what the OVA would lead one to expect.

It presents an order of events where the Macross Concern's Ghost X-9 was already almost complete when the Zentradi destroyed the surface of Spica III in the Alpha Virginis system in 2037.  Project Super Nova was, according to this history, green-lit in large part because the New UN Forces top brass were highly skeptical of the Ghost X-9's ability to make the highly situational judgement calls needed to capitalize on enemy weaknesses in an offensive.  The requirements for the Project Super Nova Valkyries were based on benchmarking the Ghost X-9's capabilities with a number of extra concessions to survivability and operational flexibility.  The upper management at both Shinsei Industry and General Galaxy were aware of the Ghost X-9 program, but kept the dev teams in the dark about the true nature of the program because there was some concern (on both sides) that one project or the other was really just a stalking horse there to justify the other.

(Also interesting is that Dr. Jan Neumann's biographical extract suggests someone re-founded both Purdue and MIT after the First Space War.  Jan's definitely a kid genius, noted to be a graduate of Neo Purdue and MIT with degrees in quantum mechanics at age 10 before joining the Aeronautical Institute of Technology on Eden and then taking a position as a lead design engineer with Shinsei Industry at age 15.  Another interesting mention is that Toran 825 AKA Dr. Algus Selzer was personally scouted for General Galaxy by Alexei Kurakin, who co-founded General Galaxy and founded the SV Works.)

They also put a round number estimate to the number of VF-11s that were produced during its mass production run.  THIRTY THOUSAND.  That's enough to equip all seven emigrant fleets with New Macross-class ships and leave over 17,000 left.

[Bolt]

Some interesting details you've translated. And wow, that's a LOT of VF-11's. Certainly more than enough to replace the VF-1 as the hot new mainstay.

I'm still keen to learn the details of Operation "Phantom Sword"..!

[SebastianP]

52 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

They also put a round number estimate to the number of VF-11s that were produced during its mass production run.  THIRTY THOUSAND.  That's enough to equip all seven emigrant fleets with New Macross-class ships and leave over 17,000 left.

The VF-11 is deserving of its own Master File book. It has everything: Massive production run; flown by a main character (if only briefly on screen, in a flashback); in service for a long time as the primary fighter; multiple *logical* variants (B, C, D, Thunderseeker; none of this "give it different heads for different characters" stuff); *loads* of pre-existing FAST-pack type additions including an actual Armored pack; and its service introduction is during one of the "gaps" in the Macross timeline (between M3 and Seven). 

Also, consider how many fighters you'd need to defend a planet; and how many of those 30,000 may have been attrition replacements.

 

[Bolt]

1 minute ago, SebastianP said:

The VF-11 is deserving of its own Master File book.

Agreed ! And , one would hope, that volume would be packed with goodies. And not with fluff. 

[Seto Kaiba]

3 minutes ago, SebastianP said:

The VF-11 is deserving of its own Master File book.

1 minute ago, Bolt said:

Agreed ! And , one would hope, that volume would be packed with goodies. And not with fluff. 

It has one.  It was released back in March of '19.

For bonus points, it was the 11th book in the series... and while informative, was not quite up to the exceptionally high water mark set by the first five books, the Battroid Valkyrie book, or the VF-1S book.

Backordered, but apparently still available, via CDJapan: https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2323838

 

There are currently twelve Master File books for Variable Fighters:

• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.1 "Stratospheric Wing"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur "Trail of the Holy Sword"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Vol.2 "Space Wing"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-25 Messiah "New Messiah"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix "Phoenix of the Beginning"
• Variable Fighter Master File: SDF-1 Macross VF-1 Air Corps
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-22 Sturmvogel II "Invisible Bird"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-4 Lightning III "The Start of the Revival"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried "The Dragon-Hunting Knight"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Battroid Valkyrie "Soaring Giant"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-11 Thunderbolt "Galactic Lightning"
• Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1S Roy Focker Special "Hero's Trail"

Book 13, Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31AX Kairos Plus, is currently slated for a late December release after being delayed... I wanna say twice so far?  It was originally positioned for a release alongside the home video release of Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!! but got delayed to "early December" and then again to "late December".  

(I've got multiple copies on preorder, naturally... that's just how the Historica Project rolls.)

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Since the sudden change in the weather has me feeling too cruddy to do the work I'd planned to, I decided to poke around a bit at the Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur on the off-chance it might provide more information about Groombridge 1816 since it was also curiously specific about other planets e.g. Spica.  No such luck, but I did turn up some fun details I thought I'd pass along.

Master File's take on the backstory of Macross Plus is interesting, and a bit different from what the OVA would lead one to expect.

It presents an order of events where the Macross Concern's Ghost X-9 was already almost complete when the Zentradi destroyed the surface of Spica III in the Alpha Virginis system in 2037.  Project Super Nova was, according to this history, green-lit in large part because the New UN Forces top brass were highly skeptical of the Ghost X-9's ability to make the highly situational judgement calls needed to capitalize on enemy weaknesses in an offensive.  The requirements for the Project Super Nova Valkyries were based on benchmarking the Ghost X-9's capabilities with a number of extra concessions to survivability and operational flexibility.  The upper management at both Shinsei Industry and General Galaxy were aware of the Ghost X-9 program, but kept the dev teams in the dark about the true nature of the program because there was some concern (on both sides) that one project or the other was really just a stalking horse there to justify the other.

(Also interesting is that Dr. Jan Neumann's biographical extract suggests someone re-founded both Purdue and MIT after the First Space War.  Jan's definitely a kid genius, noted to be a graduate of Neo Purdue and MIT with degrees in quantum mechanics at age 10 before joining the Aeronautical Institute of Technology on Eden and then taking a position as a lead design engineer with Shinsei Industry at age 15.  Another interesting mention is that Toran 825 AKA Dr. Algus Selzer was personally scouted for General Galaxy by Alexei Kurakin, who co-founded General Galaxy and founded the SV Works.)

They also put a round number estimate to the number of VF-11s that were produced during its mass production run.  THIRTY THOUSAND.  That's enough to equip all seven emigrant fleets with New Macross-class ships and leave over 17,000 left.

That is interesting; now, is all this just somethign they came up with, or is it sourced in any way from "word of god" (i.e. Macross creators) resources/ canon material?

[Seto Kaiba]

2 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

That is interesting; now, is all this just somethign they came up with, or is it sourced in any way from "word of god" (i.e. Macross creators) resources/ canon material?

As with all of the Master File books, they're not official setting material and carry a disclaimer to that effect but they are written under Kawamori's supervision and with the involvement of Macross mechanical setting coordinator Masahiro Chiba.  

Every now and again, the official setting materials pillage a detail here or there from 'em.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Bolt said:

I'm still keen to learn the details of Operation "Phantom Sword"..!

I'm just skimming for now, but it's tipped as arguably the first official combat operation the VF-19 was used in. 

Long story short, in December 2041 a ferry carrying Zentradi workers from a resource asteroid in the Parkington system went missing.  Four days later, the system's fourth planet Roger (yes that's the name of the planet) was attacked by a rogue Zentradi branch fleet that employed unusual tactics specifically targeting weak spots in the New UN Spacy's defenses.  The prevailing theory for why being that the Zentradi workers who had gone missing had defected to the branch fleet attacking the system.  The enemy fleet employed an extremely odd and unconventional strategem of dividing itself into three and rotating fresh forces onto and off of the front lines constantly.  The defense fleet called for help from Earth as soon as the enemy were first sighted, and fearing another Spica incident the central NUNS dispatched forces immediately.  The force dispatched included four VF-19As from the SVF-440 Dullahans fresh out of model conversion training aboard the Uraga-class carrier Grand Forks.

Arriving 4 hours and 20 minutes after the battle started (nice?) the Grand Forks deployed the four VF-19s via fold boosters under active stealth concealment to fold into the midst of the three different enemy taskforces and destroy their command ships with reaction weapon strikes to sever the enemy's chain of command.  Within nine minutes of deploying, the pilots from the Dullahans had identified the enemy command ships and the order was given to attack.  Once the enemy command ships were downed, reinforcements folded into the battle area and a decisive fleet action resulted in the Zentradi branch fleet being decimated and eventually surrendering.  The crews of the Zentradi ships that surrendered reported that they failed to detect the VF-19s attacking them until after the opening salvo (of reaction weapons) had been fired.

 

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'm just skimming for now, but it's tipped as arguably the first official combat operation the VF-19 was used in. 

Long story short, in December 2041 a ferry carrying Zentradi workers from a resource asteroid in the Parkington system went missing.  Four days later, the system's fourth planet Roger (yes that's the name of the planet) was attacked by a rogue Zentradi branch fleet that employed unusual tactics specifically targeting weak spots in the New UN Spacy's defenses.  The prevailing theory for why being that the Zentradi workers who had gone missing had defected to the branch fleet attacking the system.  The enemy fleet employed an extremely odd and unconventional strategem of dividing itself into three and rotating fresh forces onto and off of the front lines constantly.  The defense fleet called for help from Earth as soon as the enemy were first sighted, and fearing another Spica incident the central NUNS dispatched forces immediately.  The force dispatched included four VF-19As from the SVF-440 Dullahans fresh out of model conversion training aboard the Uraga-class carrier Grand Forks.

Arriving 4 hours and 20 minutes after the battle started (nice?) the Grand Forks deployed the four VF-19s via fold boosters under active stealth concealment to fold into the midst of the three different enemy taskforces and destroy their command ships with reaction weapon strikes to sever the enemy's chain of command.  Within nine minutes of deploying, the pilots from the Dullahans had identified the enemy command ships and the order was given to attack.  Once the enemy command ships were downed, reinforcements folded into the battle area and a decisive fleet action resulted in the Zentradi branch fleet being decimated and eventually surrendering.  The crews of the Zentradi ships that surrendered reported that they failed to detect the VF-19s attacking them until after the opening salvo (of reaction weapons) had been fired.

 

Were any of the 19's painted like clown cars  or ice cream trucks?

(from previous discussion about stealth in space)

[Seto Kaiba]

1 minute ago, pengbuzz said:

Were any of the 19's painted like clown cars  or ice cream trucks?

(from previous discussion about stealth in space)

One of them (YF-19-4) is day-glo orange?

The rest are fairly subdued, with various camo patterns, mattes with bright trim, black-and-whites, and a few canonical paintjobs like Emerald Force and Basara's VF-19 Kai.

[Bolt]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Arriving 4 hours and 20 minutes after the battle started (nice?)

Yup
Just add a little love triangle and an idol , and we have a good Macross story!

Many , many thanks @Seto Kaiba   Those VF -19's seemed to pull off the intended purpose of project Super Nova. 

[TG Remix]

 

On 12/3/2022 at 9:19 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

(Also interesting is that Dr. Jan Neumann's biographical extract suggests someone re-founded both Purdue and MIT after the First Space War.  Jan's definitely a kid genius, noted to be a graduate of Neo Purdue and MIT with degrees in quantum mechanics at age 10 before joining the Aeronautical Institute of Technology on Eden and then taking a position as a lead design engineer with Shinsei Industry at age 15.  Another interesting mention is that Toran 825 AKA Dr. Algus Selzer was personally scouted for General Galaxy by Alexei Kurakin, who co-founded General Galaxy and founded the SV Works.)

I believe the Plus prequel novel also says something about Neumann being a child prodidgy, or at the very least working on the YF-19's development when the friendship between Isamu, Guld, and Myung broke apart.

 

And speaking of Selzer's previous name, it seemed that some modern material (like The Ride) seems to suggest the DYRL naming scheme for Zentradi is leaning towards the """true""" names of uncultured Zentradi, and the "full" names they have like they did in the TV series seems to be after being enlightened of sorts.

 

On 12/3/2022 at 9:19 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

They also put a round number estimate to the number of VF-11s that were produced during its mass production run.  THIRTY THOUSAND.  That's enough to equip all seven emigrant fleets with New Macross-class ships and leave over 17,000 left.

Oh wow, that's a lot. Unsurprising considering their role, but it's nice even up to Frontier they still go strong in such high amount of numbers. There's other factors to consider how widespread they are (overall fleet amount on planets and other colonies, coexisting with other variable craft, etc.) Does make me curious about how any planets or other astronomical bodies the UN has colonized.

 

On 12/3/2022 at 11:51 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

The force dispatched included four VF-19As from the SVF-440 Dullahans fresh out of model conversion training aboard the Uraga-class carrier Grand Forks.

So I was curious and looked if the Master File got that from somewhere, or made it up (like the all-Zentradi pilot VF-19 fleet iirc.) Apparently it was in a kit, and man do they look stylish in black and grey.

 

Was going through the Macross Technical Manual, and I was curious about the research about the Fleet count of the NUN military and the population of the New UN, but even with Internet Archive they seem to be eternally 404'd. Does anyone recount the info there, or is there new information about that since?

 

On 12/4/2022 at 1:09 AM, Bolt said:

Yup
Just add a little love triangle and an idol , and we have a good Macross story!

Master File seems to be ripped with short, but great Macross stories all over the timeline. Official or not, I like how it makes the world in the franchise even bigger then the pockets or insight we see in the series.

[Bolt]

32 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

So I was curious and looked if the Master File got that from somewhere, or made it up (like the all-Zentradi pilot VF-19 fleet iirc.) Apparently it was in a kit, and man do they look stylish in black and grey.

The kit came out more recently, like a year or two ago. Following the VF-19 Master file. It's a bit rare and expensive now. Good luck to those of us looking for one. 

[Seto Kaiba]

54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

I believe the Plus prequel novel also says something about Neumann being a child prodidgy, or at the very least working on the YF-19's development when the friendship between Isamu, Guld, and Myung broke apart.

Even in the OVA, it was clear from the outset that Jan Neumann was a prodigy... he's sixteen and has a PhD.  

 

54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

And speaking of Selzer's previous name, it seemed that some modern material (like The Ride) seems to suggest the DYRL naming scheme for Zentradi is leaning towards the """true""" names of uncultured Zentradi, and the "full" names they have like they did in the TV series seems to be after being enlightened of sorts.

As I've said in other topics, the DYRL? designs and conventions seem to have largely retroactively replaced the TV series versions for no apparent reason other than that Kawamori et. al. seem to like them more.

The idea that there are a bunch of Zentradi who are such Earth-culture otaku they change their names is a bit funny in the abstract. 

 

54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

Oh wow, that's a lot. Unsurprising considering their role, but it's nice even up to Frontier they still go strong in such high amount of numbers. There's other factors to consider how widespread they are (overall fleet amount on planets and other colonies, coexisting with other variable craft, etc.) Does make me curious about how any planets or other astronomical bodies the UN has colonized.

Quite a lot, the last time I compiled a list it ran to at least three dozen places explicitly mentioned in-series and that was before Delta added something like two dozen more.

 

54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

So I was curious and looked if the Master File got that from somewhere, or made it up (like the all-Zentradi pilot VF-19 fleet iirc.) Apparently it was in a kit, and man do they look stylish in black and grey.

Eh... other way 'round.

That kit is one of at least thirteen that I'm aware of that are based on Master File original squadrons or color schemes and profiles Master File picked up from other, older works like Model Graphix and This is Animation Special: Macross Plus.

That kit's from 2021.  Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur is from 2010.

 

54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

Was going through the Macross Technical Manual, and I was curious about the research about the Fleet count of the NUN military and the population of the New UN, but even with Internet Archive they seem to be eternally 404'd. Does anyone recount the info there, or is there new information about that since?

The what now?

There've never been definite numbers posted for any of that, so that sounds like it was probably fan fiction.

All we've had on that front is an approximate population of postwar Earth of 1 million humans and 8 million Zentradi c.2010, some approximate numbers for the populations of a few of the emigrant fleets seen onscreen (really only Megaroad-01, Macross 7, and Macross Frontier), and a statement that the Brisingr globular cluster is home to 8 billion people circa 2067.  Fleet-wise, it's a similar situation.  We have little notion of the strengths of planets like Earth or Eden, but we know there have been ~100 short-distance emigrant fleet launches and at least 59 long-distance ones based on the highest sequentially-numbered fleet to appear in a story thus far (Macross 29 in the stage play Macross the Musiculture).  There should be more than that, but we don't know if the pace of launches slowed down, sped up, etc. in the 2040s.

There's never been anywhere near enough information to even get close to a reasonable estimate of the total human population or the size of the New UN Forces.

 

54 minutes ago, TG Remix said:

Master File seems to be ripped with short, but great Macross stories all over the timeline. Official or not, I like how it makes the world in the franchise even bigger then the pockets or insight we see in the series.

I'm particularly fond of how many nods it makes to obscure bits of trivia from previous decades.

My favorites are terribly subtle ones in the VF-25 Master File.

There's one image that shows a YF-29 with a white-and-green paintjob that is a nod to its inspiration, the SW-XA II Schneegans from Kawamori's VF-Experiment article in Model Graphix magazine.  The other is Sheryl's version of the Minmay Guard, the Queen's Knights, who have MODEX numbers assigned that correspond to Sheryl and Alto's birthdays.

[twich]

So here is a question, does the group Heimdall come from, or are supplied from earth? The reason that I ask is that we have discussed that due to restrictions, a redacted and downgraded spec of the VF-24 was sent out to Emigrant fleets for use as a Variable Fighter. We have supposed that the stats for an Earth Spec VF-24 exceed even that of the prototype YF-29 Durandal. Would it be reasonable to expect that the stats for the SV-303 used by Heimdall would come close to that of the Earth Spec VF-24?

What are people’s thoughts,since it seems we will never get the stats of any VF from the second Macross Delta movie.

Twich

[Bolt]

As far as I thought, the SV-303 is an unmanned fighter. So probably not strictly based off the VF-24. More like the upper scale of ghost fighters. If the YF-29 exceeds the VF-24 (probably does) it hardly matters as there's literally only a handful in the Galaxy. IMO, the VF-24 is still top dog. Especially if we're talking about production VF's and not one off's.  Or ultra rare and experimental VF's/YF's. 

[Master Dex]

I think the Sv-303 is probably not that powerful really. It's good some built in advantages. Being unmanned makes it able to do a lot of things manned systems can't even with the ISC (which it doesn't need, so energy savings) and it clearly has some type of fold wave system installed to interact that is being boosted by the Siren system. We don't know if it's the proper fold wave system the Durandal uses (which doesn't actually require a musical helper to resonate with super dimension space if I recall) or a budget version like Xaos uses (which does need extra help, hence Walkure in part) but the tech regardless improves capability.

More importantly... They were fighting Xaos and Windermere who are... Kinda bad at this... We never saw Max having trouble with them cause he's like, ya know, good. Yeah he has a better VF but it's Max he could do this with less. 

I think the Sv-303 is one of the most advanced Ghost systems to date maybe, but not Uber powered VF-24 level stuff probably. 

[twich]

I’m sorry, I guess that I didn’t complete my thought well enough with my statement. I was meaning that the tech level was earth level, meaning full spec reaction engines and materials that keep those emigrants from rising up against earth because earth has the full spec tech. I was hoping that by knowing what the stats are for this, we could reasonably understand just how much more powerful the earth spec VF-24 is, or whatever has replaced it for Earth main variable fighter.

Twich

[Bolt]

Well. We don't know the full specs of either the VF-24. Or the SV-303. But based on what we do know. The same above applies. Monkey models and redacted spec versions are pretty much what the emigrant fleets get. Now, these  hombres playing bad guys , in the the latest Delta installment , do have some interesting new fold wave song tech. But the SV's and VF's alone aren't superior, IMO. 
And I'm pretty sure the VF-24 is still the mainstay fighter for Earth.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Bolt

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, twich said:

So here is a question, does the group Heimdall come from, or are supplied from earth? The reason that I ask is that we have discussed that due to restrictions, a redacted and downgraded spec of the VF-24 was sent out to Emigrant fleets for use as a Variable Fighter. We have supposed that the stats for an Earth Spec VF-24 exceed even that of the prototype YF-29 Durandal. Would it be reasonable to expect that the stats for the SV-303 used by Heimdall would come close to that of the Earth Spec VF-24?

What are people’s thoughts,since it seems we will never get the stats of any VF from the second Macross Delta movie.

Twich

12 minutes ago, twich said:

I’m sorry, I guess that I didn’t complete my thought well enough with my statement. I was meaning that the tech level was earth level, meaning full spec reaction engines and materials that keep those emigrants from rising up against earth because earth has the full spec tech. I was hoping that by knowing what the stats are for this, we could reasonably understand just how much more powerful the earth spec VF-24 is, or whatever has replaced it for Earth main variable fighter.

Twich

Like most things in Macross Delta: Absolute Live!!!!!! the situation is rather vague, underdeveloped, and poorly described both in-story and in supplemental publications.

Heimdall could probably best be described as "from all over".  Like Vindirance in the Second Unification War, Heimdall is a nominally anti-government paramilitary force which was established to root out and destroy a source of corruption in the New UN Government and New UN Forces with the covert (and occasionally overt) backing of interested parties in the government, the armed forces, and private enterprise.  Of course, where Vindirance was set against a fascist organization's attempted coup d'état, Heimdall aims to remove the incredibly ill-defined "Lady M" from her alleged role as a shadowy oligarch[1] ruling the galaxy in secret.

The core of the organization - its founder and his flagship - originally belonged to the New UN Spacy's 7th Fleet and were therefore probably central New UN Spacy soldiers.  That said, a lot of their support seems to come from emigrant governments and a mega-conglomerate that does most of its business selling to emigrant governments out on in remote areas like the Brisingr globular cluster.  That's the price of "going off the grid", I guess.  Battle Astraea was upgraded with a lot of bleeding-edge and/or illegal technology after the ship "disappeared" and was written off as lost, but in the absence of official specs for any of the new designs in the movie it's very difficult to say.  

If I had to guess, I would say that the Sv-303 Vivasvat is probably not Earth-level tech.  Yeah, it outclasses the Aerial Knights in their Sv-262s and Delta Flight in their custom VF-31s but those are both confirmed bush league outfits.  It's like testing out your new .50 cal sniper rifle by taking potshots at a cardboard box.  Heimdall absolutely rolls them and takes over the Brisingr cluster in something like an afternoon instead of the multiple months Windermere needed.  Of course, the Sv-303 is definitely outclassed by the YF-29 but seems about on par with a halfhearted upgrade to the Siegfried... which was not exactly an exceptional fighter even by the standards of production Valkyries.  Of course, there is also the valid counterargument that the film also explicitly establishes that the protagonists are actually rather mediocre pilots... which has some pretty strong implications given that even the previous film and Macross Delta TV anime demonstrated that the quality of pilots can even overcome generation gaps in technology.  It's possible that the Sv-303 simply looks like an unstoppable force because the protagonists lack the talent, skill, and experience to bring out the most in their custom 5th Generation VFs 

 

[1] Or, given how badly this story meshes with the rest of the setting, possibly a kakistocrat... most of the alleged bans on advanced technology can be demonstrated not to exist in the rest of the setting.

[RedWolf]

4 hours ago, twich said:

So here is a question, does the group Heimdall come from, or are supplied from earth?

It was supplied by Epsilon Foundation the same Megacorp that supplied Windermere. After another intergalactic crisis thanks to them I can see NUNG want to break up this corporation.