What about the drone having the actual lifting capability to take off with a metahuman passenger?

RFID Tagged Balloon with a ring on it, and some poor schmoe attached at the other end in a straightjacket? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif)

Yup, Xahn, carrying capacity is another tidbit we lost from SR3 (IIRC?). I guess the game uses something like Body=Strength for vehicles (at least, for vehicle robot arms), but that seems very rough (for the same reasons Sengir just mentioned).

I remember some rule somewhere saying that Body/2 was Passenger capacity? Or was it Body/3 or 4?

Sounds sort of familiar, but that's still just a rule of thumb (one which doesn't really work for most cars, either), and wouldn't apply at all to drones.

The Otomo has a bod of 6 and is a medium drone.

Large drones are bod 4 and are "the size of a motorcycle or small car" while motorcycles and even the smallest cars have far more body.


Bots are weird.



If anything is really problematic I'd say it's that there's no distinction between armor for groundcraft and aircraft.

It seems more appropriate to have 3x body for wheeled drones and 2x body for flying drones while passenger vehicles should be 2x body for ground craft and 1x body for aircraft.

I use Arsenal, p102 as a guideline, and thus would allow an "Ares Air-Supply" [or Aeroquip Redball Express, (Rigger 2, p101, and Rigger 3, p177, which lists the "Ares Air Supply" as a Similar Model)] to carry passengers. The Lockheed Sparrow [Arsenal, p112] has a Body of 4 and manages it okay.

'Potentially could' carry an adult (but not a troll).

Still, we'd all be happier with actual rules, instead of incredible vagueness. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I guess we should find Peter's info and try to get the info out of him before I pull out the duct tape... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

*Sighs*

I would say it's probably not that big. If you're judging its size on the "minigun" mounted to the front of it, take ease: the original art in Rigger 2 is much bigger, and whatever that thing might be, it's certainly not a minigun. So now we're left only with Body to go on for size.


There's no hard limit, nor even a soft limit. The distinction between drone and vehicle has always been tenuous, but rest assured size plays no part in it. [Technically, in SR4, "The key difference that sets drones apart from ordinary vehicles is that they are intended to be independent units, either acting autonomously or controlled remotely by the rigger." But, as they say, "Nearly any kind of vehicle—matchbox-sized cars, miniature rotorcraft, ground patrol vehicles the size of a large dog, even modified sports cars—may serve as drones." SR4a, p244.] In truth, in SR4, any modern vehicle is [or can be] a "drone," inasmuch as it can be remote-controlled and act autonomously, so a drone with a Body of 6 is no big deal; a very light jet with a body of 18 can be a drone, too.


The Body rating of the Ares Air Supply [This Old Drone, p7] is a 6, yes, but that's the same Body rating as the Moonlight Aerospace Phoenix, a "powered glider," [Arsenal, p112], and the Indian Pathfinder [Arsenal, p107], a racing hog. So the Air Supply probably isn't intended to be very large; yes, I would say its hold could probably fit a metahuman, sure, but remember that a Very Light Jet like the Piper Brat [Arsenal, p113] has a Body of 18; an actual transport, like the Hawker Ridley Skytrain [Arsenal, p113], has a Body of 30!


The Kull [Arsenal, p120] is 10,000, and comparing the stats, and factoring in Obsolescent, 8,500 for the Air Supply is not completely absurd, but other valuations would also be reasonable.

I'm not sure if your looking at the artwork from "This Old Drone" or the artwork from "The Runners Black Book" but they're different, and in RBB, unless you can mount itty bitty tinny paintball guns onto a drones, your judgement of scale is a bit skewed to put it lightly.

As for comparing it to the Kull, if you don't think having the opportunity to mount 18 Vehicle Armor onto a Drone is absurd while costing only a fraction of the price most military grade Drones go for, then theirs probably not much rationalizing I can do for ya to help show ya that this seems broken. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif)

Besides, the Kull is *also* too cheap. Many things are, in the books.

Ah, no. I'm looking in This Old Drone. My advice, with Shadowrun vehicles, is to go stats first, then description, then art. The art very often doesn't have anything at all to do with the vehicle the rules or text describe, I'm afraid. If it were my table, I'd base my assessment of its size roughly on its Body, and not on weapons size in artwork; if nothing else, the fact that two books have different artwork for the same vehicle should speak to the utility of that measure! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) [Or maybe it's a very small minigun.]


Well, let's assume I'm not beyond the reach of reason just yet. As I said, I think other valuations would be reasonable: what would you suggest? We have the Kull on one hand to compare it to - keeping in mind the differences in stats and Std Upgrades - but that's only one point. You seem keen on comparisons with military craft whose armor can't be as high: did you have any of those you feel are a particularly powerful comparison to the Air Supply, which we might use to calibrate the price to? Or were you thinking perhaps to ordinate the price from first principles based on its utility, irrespective of any pre-existing valuations? [Like, "SR4 pricing is whack, so let's not even start there?"]

I was thinking of just adding another "0" to the cost (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Sounds good to me. Aircraft simply aren't cheap, not cheaper than cars.

Regarding price, as someone (3278) mentioned, in Rigger 3 (pg 177), there are stats for the "Redball Express" with a Similar Model listing for the Ares Air-Supply. Body was only 3, with 16cf and 155kg load, but the cost was 80,500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) . Either the age gives you a 90% discount or the cost is indeed missing a 0.

Pretty small load, too. Meaning, reasonable. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Good old Rigger 3.

Good reference! Thanks for the find

DO you really want to know why this drone is sized, built, & specc'd the way it is??? This drone is to make sure "you're never all out of..."

.... Huh? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/indifferent.gif)

Look at the name of the drone, name of the band, name of the song, conversation about how much the drone can carry...etc, etc.

Hehe. It's the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thank you. It was also the 1st thing that popped into my head when I saw the OP topic. I guess my joke is a rather dated one.

I'm more for this kind of hauling. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That's like the devaluation of laser weapons, except without the logic that it's no longer cutting edge tech. In fact it's the opposite logic, specifically that it's obsolete (well, obsolescent) tech. Not the same kind of devaluation, but it's kinda similar.

If I had to think of a reason, I'd say the end of the Chicago quarantine. No more food drops means that Ares has a whole lot of these things sitting in storage.