Rigger Buddy v0.9

Rigger Buddy is now up!

http://rigbud.valos.dk/files/RiggerBuddy.9.xls

As stated above, Rigger Buddy is now up. As of now, it's only got the vehicle builder, but I'm working on the drone section right now. Thankfully it's just changing names and references in the formulas, so it shouldn't take TOO long.

The sections are as follows:

Vehicle Selection: Fairly self explanatory. You have 8 slots for your vehicles.

Vehicle Computer Upgrades: Upgrade your vehicle's hard-and-software. I also included the Sensor attribute, using the following rules: the cost is Ratingx500, a number which I gleaned from the Missile stat block on page 314. It uses the same Availability as Agents/IC/Pilot, which is Ratingx3. If you don't want to use this rule, leave the field blank, and you'll keep the vehicle's base rating.

Vehicle Sensors: Self explanatory. You can equip sensors and sensor accessories here. The commas are there to separate the names in the Vehicle final Stats section.

Vehicle Weapon Mounts: Because you wouldn't be using this builder if you didn't want to make an angry, angry car. I mentioned a house rule that lets you use two weapon mounts for an MMG, 3 weapon mounts for a HMG, and 4 for an assault cannon, but that's going to have to wait.

Vehicle Final Stats: Arranged to be printer-friendly, with two vehicles to a page. There is also a handy-dandy Grand Total on the top of the page to let you know how much you've been set back all together.

Autosofts: I placed the Autosofts page at the end because when RB is complete, this will be the middle, with Drones coming after Autosofts. You only buy them once, then you can equip them accordingly. I didn't account for autosofts included with a vehicle, so keep that in mind.


What I hope to put in future versions: A weapon-accessory page. The Weapon-Mount House Rule. I'm running into trouble there with the conditional formatting, but I hope to get it down eventually. No more unnecessary commas. I’d also like to replace the “Equip/Unequipped” drop-down menus with real check boxes.

So please enjoy and let me know where I screwed up (because I'm bound to have done so :P), and how I can make it prettier/more ergonomic.

Your sheet looks great. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

As for your questions,

1. My gut says no although I don't think it's written any where. My thought is this: one mediocre sensor suite + a second mediocre sensor suite = a third mediocre sensor suite

2. That sounds reasonable. I can see someone wanting to mount a Sakura Fubuki or a Taser on a small drone.

3. That sounds reasonable.

4. For vehicles and bigger drones, that sounds reasonable. I'm not sure about smaller flying drones though.

5. I would limit mounts according to the weapon type.

6. I would go by the table on 214 where it says Security Vehicles have a rating of 4 and Military vehicles have a rating of 5. It does seem that most Security type vehicles are Restricted while Military Vehicles are mostly Forbidden. It does seem odd that most drones are fully legal however. I would think that a Doberman would be Restricted and a Security Vehicle while a Steel Lynx would be Military and Forbidden.

7. Yeah, it does seem odd. It's been discussed here before.

8. I would rule that certain autosofts are drone (or perhaps class) specific (such as Defense or Maneuver). Others (like Clearsight) could probably be shared. Of course, the copy protection would need to be broken.

9. Would if I could...

2. I don't see any reason for a minimum waepon size. Yeah, it would be silly as hell to have a steel lynx with a Raecor Sting mounted on it, but I don't see any reason you couldn't. Personally, I think it would be a waste to mount anything smaller than a SMG/assault rifle though.

3. Yeah, I agree. You'd need an autosoft for each different weapon skill, but yeah, I think that's enough.

4. Tripod recoil compensation is probably a good house rule. Since you have to have 3 points of body to add a weapon mount, this necessarily means you're looking at a largish drone and I can't imagine the recoil from a SMG would effect it much.

6. I've been playing all drones as Rating 3. *shrug*

7. Yeah, it's screwy. I read that as 'comes with one weapon mount (LMG or smaller.) Otherwise, I'd buy the Doberman with a Walther MA-2100 Sniper Rifle and get a 5000 :nuyen: weapon and a drone for only 3000 :nuyen:.

8. That's the way I've been playing it. Cracking the copy protection should be easy (a few hours) for a character with decent electronics skills (which most riggers have.) If you feel like being really mean, you might require a different autosoft for each piloting skill group (ground, aircraft, anthroform, exotic, etc.)

1. I see additional sensors as assisting as per teamwork rules at best than directly adding. If you have a MAD scanner on your drone then you can use the scanner to detect weapons, something the normal Drone's Sensor's don't, or having a Signal Scanner on the drone you could use both the Drone Scan program as well as the sensors sweet to look. Other sensors would give the drone a different view of its surroundings.

2. When your opponents :rotfl: the weapon is to small.

3. Yup.

4. Not sue but some may view the drone as being turreted, so it can fire on targets that it is racing against. If this is the case I would say no tripod recoil comp. One could fix the firing arc to the front, add a tripod mount, and turn the drone. Roto drones should be able to fly in any direction like a helicopter, although I don't know if there would be a reduction in speed.

5. Depends on the weapon. Pistols can not have Gass Venting added, LMG can not be further modified save for adding a tri or bipod.

6. What Jklst14 said

7. From what I understand the Doberman comes equipped with a weapon but that is not included in the price. Can't think of any non-restricted weapons. Unless you want consider a Popperazzi controlled drone then, I Guess you could count the Cameras.

8. The Autosoft sold with a drone would probably be streamlined so that it only works with that type of drone. You could copy the Program to another drone of that type, but those normally come with that type of program. Transferring that progran to another drone could require a more extensive modification of the program. Say like to raise it to a higher program level.

1. I assume you are talking about adding in seperate sensors systems, per SR4 rules? Otherwise I think it would just be a matter of buying up the Sensor rating, as per SR3. IMO, I think this would be one of two things: A) Two seperate rolls (simple actions maybe?) one for each system, or B) use the simplistic 'only the highest rating applies' rule that seems to be so prevalent in SR4.

2. Too small would depend on the drone size. A mini drone should be able to pack a taser, for example, but it may lack the Body rating to hold one unless you beef that up. The only reason I could see for having a small weapon would be for a small drone to cause mischief with. Relative uselss, but good for a tactical distraction, especially a taser that just might be able to drop someone (of beef up his penalty mods). A squirt gun/dart gun has possibilities too. Perhaps a 'micro weapon mount' option for small weapons on small drones?

3. Agreed, simplest ruling until some book mucks it up. SR3 had endless rules on turrets and spaces. I think the simple answer rules.

4. You could use the older SR rules as reference. I think they traditionally provided 2 points or some such?

5. Based on the slots available on the weapon, like in SR3 Cannon Companion. 1 barrel mount, one top mount, one bottom mount, one stock modification, etc. Internal goodies like smartlinks, airbusrt links, etc, would take up no effective space. Also you have the drone's capabilities to factor in. I'd say any top or bottom mount item (laser sight etc) could be incorporated into the drone body, so no limits there, but that barrel mounts like GV and siliencers are 1 only.

6. No help here. Will have to research that myself.

7. Probably a misprint on the availability.

8. The autosoft applies to one task alone, like a skill. I *think* if I recall right it's Autosoft + Pilot rating for the dice pool (in SR4), unless you're rigging live. So it'd be used for all tasks covered by that skill. So I think Defense works for Dodge tasks, and so on.

S'all I got off top. :-)

Thanks for the input folks. Rigger Buddy is taking a bit longer than I had expected, and the number of sheets is getting larger. Looks like we'll have a seperate sheet for every catagorie aside from the Autosoft and Sensor sheets. So basicly, there'll be a Vehicle Section and a Drone section.

I've finished most of what I can do on the sheets, and all I have left is to do finish the two Weapons sheets. Then I'm sending it off to a friend who has the kind of brain that doesn't explode when it encounters Visual Basic to do those pesky check-boxes. After that it's just some cosmetic stuff, and it'll be ready for public consumtion.

I'm also adding in an optional House Rule for the weapons that lets you increase the size limit of your weapons for every extra weapon mount you use. So a MMG would use two weapon mounts, and a HMG/Panther would use three. This'll be factored into the price, and will take up the apropriate number of mounts.

Also, I may or may not be including some little safty features in the way of Autosofts and weapon mounts that are included in the vehicle/drones' text. It all depends on how fried I want my brain :P

Thanks for the update. Can't wait to see this!

I may be obtuse, but I am missing a link to download this.

me to, there appears to be no link.

I believe that Zeitgeist is polishing Rigger Buddy before posting a link. The only reason I've seen it is because we're in the same real life gaming group.

The last version I saw (a few weeks back) looked good and hopefully he'll be posting it soon.

lucky ... grrrrrrr.

Anything happening here yet? Im really looking foreward to see the result!

Sorry for the delay folks. Right now I'm very close to done with the entire vehicle section, which means that I'll be basically done with the drone section. Once I'm done with the two sections, I'll be sending it off to a friend to do some check-boxes, as Visual Basic makes me weep.

EDIT:

Well, it seems that I was very pessimistic in my estimation of it being sent off in a week. I sent it off today, and I'll be fine-tuning everything that doesn't involve the check-boxes.

Also, I've made an executive decision:

I'm including option to upgrade a given vehicle/drone's Sensor attribute. On page 314 of SR4, the missile has a cost for its Sensor attribute, saying that its the Sensor Rating*500. Since I believe the lack of a Sensor upgrade limit to be a MASSIVE oversight on Fanpro's part, I'm taking matters into my own hands. Don't worry, if you leave that section blank, then it'll just keep the original Sensor attribute. That way, if you don't agree with me you can keep it your way.

Sorry for the huge delay. My computer desided that it'd be fun to drive the read/write needle into its hard drive. Thankfuly the guys at my shop were able to recover Rigger Buddy. I'm going to need a place to host it for me, though, and if anyone knows anything about Visual Basic, please let me know. I haven't heard back from my code-monkey friend yet, and I sent it to him almost a month ago.

It should be done by the Fall, at the latest.

Ok guys, I'm back on track and am all but done with the Vehicles section. I need a few beta testers to use and abuse said section, bearing in mind that the VBasic stuff isn't done. I'm hunting for a host, so beta-testers will get it emailed to them. Let me know who wants to toy around with it, and I'll send it along when it's ready (no more than a few days from now).

Hi

I'll battle test it for you.

Ash

I would also like to checkit out/abuse it.

johnsonda@hotmail.com please.

my e-mail is:

ashley.greenall@virgin.net

But if you have problems e-mailling large attachments to this address please try

ash@sal9000.demon.co.uk

Cheers

When do you think you'll send it out to be tested.

If you have already tried to send it to, and it was bounced back please try again, i had a little e-mail problem that has now been sorted.

is this broken?
I am very interested in this program for any edition.

Still in beta. I haven't heard back from my testers, but I've hit a few problems of my own, which have been fixed. I'm hitting a slow period due to life getting in the way of my nerdy fun, but it should be out mighty soon. Or at least before Arsonal makes it obsolete :P

oh, one more thing:

CAN ANYONE HOST IT FOR ME!?

I have pm'ed you.

thanks for the intel. do you plan on updating when arsenal comes out?

@ Valos: Thanks a million! I'll send it to you when I'm done.

@Kronk2: Of course, although I'm fairly sure I'll die in the process ;)

I'll add my name to both the Test list and to mirror a host for you if you'd like.

PM me if you need me