But... this is WFC discussion. WFC isn't pre-Earth in general, it's the specific game. You should've posted that in General discussion then, since in WFC (the game this forum is all about) they don't have cockpits. It's the "real G1 game" thread thing all over again.
Cockpit - a space, usually enclosed, in the forward fuselage of an airplane containing the flyi controls, instrument panel, and seats for the pilot and copilot or flight crew. They don't have cockpits. They have colored areas of the fusalage that resemble the shapes normally associated with cockpits or windows.
No, it's not. Those are cockpits, and I thought of the question because I was looking at the new wallpapers, which are from the game. A game that (regardless of whether it's G1 or not) takes place prior to earth, which the developers themselves have stated. The question was derived from the images of WFC, but spans any iteration that involves the Transformers prior to their Earth visits. Seems like you are the only one that seems to think they are not. It also seems like your "If I don't see em" argument is simply to argue, since you know that the light blue on prime represents a window, and the blue on Silverbolt does as well. It always has, and when the artists to this game developed the textures for these characters, they made a choice to maintain that look. Anyway, since this has been derailed for ridiculous reasons, I'll go with "They drive the quints around" since that makes sense. Oh crap, I need to go paint that area of my car, to let everyone know where it is
Uh, you don't have to paint your windows because they ARE windows. People can see through them and hence know that they are windows. I love how people make all these assumptions about things like cockpits on vehicles that have no need for such concepts when it's all just a design decision to give the vehicles familiarity and break up the colors in alt mode. If you want to argue it, you could make the point that there is no need for faction symbols and faction colors as anyone could be identified by the oft mentioned energy signatures or IFF. There isn't any big reason for the existance of these things other than making a character recognizable.
Oh you mean this is the first time someone in these boards debates the mythology aspect of our hobby? I apologize, since I didn't realize I was the first to question something that I myself acknowledged as a design choice, but also one that begs the question, "Why would Transformers need a place for a smaller being to sit in, if they are the only species on the planet?" You're forcing the conversation into a different direction. It's obvious it's a design choice. You know what else is obvious? Transformers exist to make a toy company a lot of Money, and repaints are made for sucker collectors to buy more of from the same mold. If we are going to discuss this from that standpoint, then by all means, keep this conversation going in that direction. I was moving away from Hasbro/HighMoon's logical reasons and asking why in MTMTE Wheeljack had windows, as well as the Triangle Seekers. Are those what their eyes morph into, or as someone suggested, is that where the quints would hook up with chicks.
Start a new topic is that tickles your stuff. My guess it that with a head, a Transformer can be imposing and recognizable. Since they are sentient, they do need some sort of recognition. Why do they need to talk, when an advanced civilization like that could simple Wi-Fi things to eachother? Why do they need an element in their bodies that have no basis to their planet, or the inhabitants of it?
If you want to craft a canonical reason for the existance of any of the design choices, then by all means. All I said was the logical reason why they have cockpit-like structures on Cybertron. Since I don't believe they are actually cockpits, it's all the explanation I need. If you want to entertain the idea that they are cockpits, then that's fine to. Differing oppinions don't automatically mean someone is taking an agressive stance against your oppinion.
To clarify, I don't much care for the explanations and details behind questions like "why do transformers on cybertron have cockpits?" Digging too deeply for those answers tends to create more arguements and problems than they are worth since they don't really affect how the universe works or how characters interact. Things like that just are. I'd much prefer to have background and story about characters or core social aspects. So, when someone asks "why do transformers have cockpits?" I imeadiately think "why is that important?" If that's a question that you care about and want to dig into, then by all means, go for it.
No but certain phrases can be taken as aggressive, such as "I love how people etc etc." is an indication that said "people" are doing something that is irrational; this in a website and message board where we some folks are discussing the logistics in the storyline to the Michael Bay film. Remember the Barricade debates? Any one person can say, he was cut out for budget or time, but of course fans will have fun and debate why in the story-scheme of things Barricade disappeared from the rest of the movie. What is so wrong with asking about something that is shown from the inside in More Than Meets the Eye as being obviously a cockpit to a hover vehicle? If I remember correctly, Wheeljack even had a steering wheel. Bumblbee fit inside Wheeljack, but Wheeljack wasn't engineered for the purpose of fitting a smaller Transformer. So you can believe that they are not cockpits (even if they are shown in one of the series with heads-up displays and steering units), but in the event that they ARE, I don't see how it cannot be discussed from the standpoint of storyline, in a message board where we discuss, why Barricade vanished without a trace.
I got my fun answer to my (intended to be fun) question. Why do they have cockpits? Because they were made by quintesons for various reasons, and despite their ability to Transform coming after the Quints were ran off the planet, maybe they inherited the ability to carry smaller beings into their persona. Question answered.
Until there is some actual WFC canonically-approved confirmation that they ARE indeed pilot compartments for tiny pilots, I think we have to assume that they are NOT cockpits. So far, we have not been provided with any background information that indicates the presence of small humanoid passengers, Quintessons, Minicons or any other contrivance that would require a cockpit. We do know that the Bots and Cons are autonomous beings that are generally all of a certain general scale, so "pilot compartments" would be a bit out of place. The fact that in the Seeker and Autobot jet designs we've seen so far, the "cockpit" is rather pointedly rendered as an opaque surface, to me suggests that these parts of the design are merely there so that, as fans, we still identify the alt-modes as "vehicles" even if in the strictest sense they are not. So yeah. Not cockpits, until we see little seats with controls, or a Highmoon source says otherwise. My vote, if we really NEED an explanation besides the extra-diegetic aesthetic concerns, is sensor hub. A cockpit is by definition a pilot compartment and a change in surface colouration does not, under any definition, indicate a cockpit. Your query is entirely legitimate, but your explanation and justification in this case is a fail. Right. Because that's a big priority for an alien race. "Look, we've met little people! Let's build little holes in our bodies so we can give them rides!" Uh-huh. Duh. Dude... we are conditioned to interpret objects with cockpit-like structures as "vehicles". Without them, our brains naturally tend to cast doubt... our notions of scale, purpose, utility... all become ambiguous, especially in this case where the alt-modes are not necessarily familiar Earth forms. Placing sections that resemble cockpits give us an instant reference point and recognition factor. And yes, WFC Megatron, for example, DOES look like a hunk of junk. He looks like a microchip with a tube on top. However most of the Bots and Cons, despite being made of abstract forms, still read as vehicles due to being 4-wheeled or having a nose cone and wings. The cockpit shapes still help though. Exactly! Absolutely. That is precisely what we are saying. Yes, well... turns out you were wrong on that count. You absolutely cannot make that promise. In fact, I suspect you may be dead wrong. And the simplest answer is "They DON'T." Wrong again. If you bothered to actually read the responses in this thread, you'd see that many of us disagree with the notion that these portions of the design are, with certainty, actual functional cockpits. You seem to paint your arguments as an absolute truth, which is the problem. You simply don't have the information to reach that conclusion safely. You can speculate on what purpose cockpits might serve, but so far we don't have any reason to believe that they are anything more than superficial symbolic aesthetic touches. Yes, when people disagree with you, it must be ridiculous. Good thing you can cut through all the bull and make authoritative statements like "It's for Quintessons to sit in." despite the fact that so far Quintessons do not even play a role in this setting. Bravo. I think we should all be able to agree on one thing: We don't even know whether those things ARE cockpits of any kind... so we certainly can't do anything more than speculate at what possible purpose those elements serve... besides the obvious symbolic visual effect they have. zmog
That's a good point... they claim to be the creators of the robot servants that would -become- Transformers. It is unknown whether this is true, especially for all continuities. However, even within the G1 Season 3 origin, it is clear that the Autobots and Decepticons develop the ability to transform themselves into vehicles long after they rebelled against the Quintessons... so it wouldn't make any sense for them to have built-in cockpits to accommodate their former slave masters. zmog
They are not. The cockpit is the internal compartment that houses the seating and means to control or drive the vehicle. What you see would merely be the opaque window, which in WFC are made of metal. Except for SMOG, Sidewayz, Mechafire and all the other peopel who were vocal about thinking they don't ahve cockpits. :/ It is not. That's like saying any discussion, ever, is simply to argue. What you're asking is for people to agree with you, without giving facts to support your claims. I'm offering my rebuttal to what I see as a relatively baseless and, in my opinion, unsupported claim that the WFC TFs have "cockpits" despite having any indication of them. This is what discussion is. I'm not trying getting on your case, I merely stating my opinion based on what I've seen. In fact, I take a bit of offense to that remark. No, it homages a window, specifically his iconic chest-window design. And by the way, represents a window doesn't mean it is a window. Again, homaging the design. Not actually a window, and certainly not a cockpit. Again, just because it homages doesn't mean it's exactly the same. RID Prime, for example, has obviously fake "chest windows" despite them not being windows and serving no purpose at all other than to visually homage the iconic Prime look. Whatever floats your boat. And I suppose it wouldn't do much to point out Quints aren't technically part of this continuity. (as far as I know) Nice, man.
I think the main problem was that the initial question is a bit vague as to what you were actually looking for. I'd have probably gone with something along the lines of:
