Best Drone Configurations, to fufill optimum roles such as scout... Options

[mrlost]

Cross posted on RPG.net (but I haven't got much in the way of a response there)

Monday night I played through the best session yet of our Shadowrun campaign. Neither of the magic users showed up which was cool because we didn't have any of that annoying magic.

Anyway, my rigger/hacker really got to shine with his Humanis Policlub contacts, his spamming our Elf Fixer PCs com (which led to the best quote of the session: Gah! Turn off your eyes! in response to the Troll Porn ads during a short but funny comic relief bit), and during the really awesome run itself against a very scary LoneStar security rigger, and a very well outfitted Megacorp security force couple with Aerodynes (I think that was the term, military hover craft) and a really cool chase though the Arcology that we were hired to sabotage.

Great session. I blew through nearly 60,000¥ worth of gear including two drones (one of which was our ride, which I had to crash through a mall to escape two heavily armed hovercraft before we reached the relative safety of the NY barrens). Combined with the drone I had to sacrifice in Tehran in the session before this, I'm in need of some new gear.

Anyway, I was wondering about the load limits on the various drones. I can't seem to figure out from the SR4 corebook if I can mount anything heavier than a LMG on a drone such as a Doberman or Steel Lynx, because I was thinking of putting an Assault Cannon on a Steel Lynx, or an Aztechnology Striker single shot rocket launcher since I've got the connections and the cash (130,000¥).

For that matter I can't figure out which is heavier an Assault Cannon or a Light Machine Gun.

Also what would be the limits for flying drones such as the MCT-Nissan Rotodrone? I see that the pregen Dwarf Rigger™ has submachine guns mounted on his rotodrones so I was thinking of doing something similar only loading them with Stick'n'Shock darts since the less killing my character has to do the better, and because I'm under the impression that taser darts can hamper other drones.

Lastly we've been joking around the table of loading some explosives or perhaps poison on to a microdrone and flying it into someones mouth or nose like in Aeon Flux. Any idea as to how feasible that would be based on previous editions?

Basically we're nearing the end of the campaign, less than a month left, and I want to know what some optimal drone configurations are. As it is I've been loading up on Ultrasound and thermographic sensors, and using Ares Antioch grenade launchers or a LMG on my Dobermans.


One suggestion I've been given is to put a sniper rifle on a weather balloon drone, which sounds okay but our group doesn't accept assassination jobs so its kinda useless.