Mass production Vs. Commander unit

[einbreaker]

i was just wondering... why do they build commander units or flagship units like strike and impulse in the first place. I mean I'm not complaining, but why build only one strike and then build one hundred sub par dagger units.

i know im not getting the question across straight, so i'll try again. what is the purpose of the development of strike and the other gax models when production costs to manufacture multiples of strike and the other GAXs would drive thier military bankrupt.

and then the reverse side, whats the purpose of having inferior dagger models when one strike can take down 20 or so daggers without recieving much damage at all.

Note: earlier on the enemy proportions were even only in the last quarter did anything truly awkward like 20 plus daggers being eliminated by one GAX model happen.

[jing]

I don't quiet get what your saying, but usually the pilot of Gundams are super elite. Just how Athrun piloted a zaku at the first episode and was able to piss off the girl.

[PSJ]

the gat-x units were prototypes of suits that would be even with a coordinator piloted suit but since coordinators are piloting the units that were supposed to be piloted by naturals they are much much stronger than if they were to be piloted by a natural. so in reality the strike daggers are as strong as the prototpye.

[Guardian_2000]

Prototypes are usually just that. Testbeds for new technologies. They get the weapons, the armor and the gimmicks and usually the top notch pilots to test their capabilities.

Its not cost effective to give everyone a gundam. Its expensive and the skills of the pilot aren't as impressive. Its also believed that with enough numbers even a small attack can be great. Overwhelm with numbers. They take what data they like from the prototypes and make the mass produced suits making them more cost effective. In a fight a mp suit is generally gonna be at the disadvantage. The prototypes have better armor "phase shift", better weapon arrangements. And you get the capable pilots.
Even thou Athrun was in the Zaku he managed to atleast mount some defense but he was little more than a nuisance inflicting practically zero damage. Then you see the offensive capabilities of the prototypes over powering the Zaku. Abyss's chest cannon ripping through the weak shield and armor.

Now if the three pilots hadn't retreated when they did the mp suits and Shinn would have overpowered them. The limited power supply of the batteries and constant drain via the Phase Shift would of left them helpless. So all the suits have a purpose. I hope that was alil helpful. Thats my whole 2 cents on that but to get specific.

The original five Gundams were as ^^ said. To give a suit to the naturals capable of competing with the coordinators. The suit's capabilities making up for the pilot's. These prototypes would provide the data on what worked best then they would design the massproduced. They seemed to like Strike's and Duel's data and fashioned the Daggers from that. Similiar to what was done in MSG. With the newer OS enabling naturals to pilot the MP suits just as well as a coordinator pilot they had an effective defense atleast against the MP suits. New prototypes would be needed for fighting more advanced suits. Its all basically a matter a cost versus combat effectiveness.

[Lefty]

Um yeah all the new gundams ar Nuclear(I know it's not spelled right.) driven. thats what the ND in g.u.n.d.a.m means so they chould have battled till the day they died. the older units like strike where batt powered. but yeah your assment is rather correct.

[hitokiriender]

actually your half right and half wrong. it the early episodes of gundam seed, the 5 prototypes, strike, blitz, buster, etc., were not nuclear driven. only freedom and justice are nuclear driven because they were able to effectively create jammers so they can use nuclear power. then they changed the meaning of n.d. in gundam to nuclear driven.

[DeathscytheVII]

Mass production usually happens once the bugs and defects (like the requirement that the pilot needed superhuman endurance) are kinked out of the prototypes, or when sufficient testing was done. I don't think they had time to really do all that with the GATs.

[Guardian_2000]

Well you're correct but then there is more to it. My original statement was about the latest of the gundams.

Abyss, Chaos, Gaia, Impulse, Savior are not powered by nuclear reactors. Nuclear powered mobile suits were banned in the treaty. Well N-Jammer Canceller technologies were banned. Like how the Mirage Colloid was supposedly banned. Guess they didn't care in the Girty Lue's design stages.

While the OS boots up in Freedom, Justice, Providence, and some other MSV suits before the end of the war and treaty signing would of had G.U.N.D.A.M.

Generation
Unsubdued
Nuclear
Drive
Assault
Module

In Destiny the new Gundams while booting up display this initial screen but then the OS changes the U&N.

Generation
Unrestricted
Network
Drive
Assault
Module

[Reita]

you are wrong Guardian, *if you look at the OS before it starts* to show everything it says Unsubdued and Nuclear. Take a closer look in the first episode before you write...

*what i tried to say was: the Unsubdued and Nuclear change to Unrestricted and Network.

[PSJ]

then reita why didnt you just say what you tried to say instead of writing it in that weird way.... i bet they will use n jammer cancellers in the future anyway. if impusle is gonna fight on equal ground with freedom i think it needs nuclear power.

[PSJ]

okaty im confused here the g.u.n.d.a.m means something blaha blaha and when it shows up ate the screen it says something nuclear driven and is changed to something else, that should mean that the suits arent nuclear driven or am i completly wrong?

[Reita]

Jiraiya Im more confused. I read like a fucking idiot and fogot what things mean. I take back everything i said in this topic, except that the new suits are nuclear powerd

[NomoZ]

lol i think i can help, it first looks like this...



Then the letters change to...




EDIT: oh and impulse had the same screen too

[jing]

Even the Impulse? it seemed like it was running out of battery.

[PSJ]

so what does that mean? i mean its stupid to have nuclear showing up on the screen if it isnt nuclear powered.

[Guardian_2000]

Its showing that they use Zafts latest OS from SEED but its slightly tweaked to use something other than nuclear power. I am almost wondering if Impulse gets its power from not only a battery but another way. Network Drive? Sounds like it might be getting its power remotely. Maybe hints from the name Impulse. Maybe we'll get a better explanation as time passes.

[einbreaker]

im not sure but didnt they say in the first two episodes somewhere that impulse got it's power from the ship?

[Barumonk]

Edit: Nevermind, I see whats going on, I was confused. >.< I didn't realize that it was displaying both "GUNDAM" screens one right after the other for the same gundam.