how to handle a rigger, in-game limitations Options

[mielikki]

We've been playing SR4/A for seven months. Most of the group are SR novices alltogether, some have played SR2 before, but SR4 is new to us all. We have been slowly getting the grasp of wireless matrix, but up till now we haven't really dealt with riggers and rigging at all.

We've had a new player join the game a couple weeks ago (also new to SR4, but familiar with SR3), who he has a min-maxed TM rigger with plenty of drones, and remembers only the rules that are in favour of his character (don't all players?).

I, as the GM, am really struggling with it at the moment. The game is turning into "the rigger has drones all over the place, they hear everything and see everything and follow everyone through the crowdiest places, and are untraceable", which is taking the fun away from the other players and from me as well.

When this was voiced, the rigger player told me that I am free to tell him the drones don't see/hear/follow the person in question whenever I feel like it, and that he is OK with it. Well, I am not. I don't really like screwing the PC's options because I cannot handle the situation, and I do believe in predictability of the world.

But at the moment, I am not really sure what are the limitations of a rigger using drones. I am looking both for in-game options and rules mechanics that I might have missed. I don't have a copy of Unwired, can't get hold of the SR3 rulebook Rigger (or how it was called - I've seen several people mentioning it on DS as good source for riggers even in SR4), so if there is something there that would greatly help us, please paraphrase instead of pointing me to a page number.

For a starter, after last game (when the rigger was trying to use a drone with facial recognition program to spot the target entering an office building in the very center of Downtown, with his drone 5 kilometers above ground so he'd avoid the KE routine check of drones in air), I've come with the following:

1) weather limitations - can't see through clouds, so if it is cloudy, drones need to keep low
2) signal - at 5,000 meters, the only way to communicate with the drone is satelite up-link, which costs extra
3) angle - if you want the drone to be able to recognize faces, it needs to be low, because otherwise you will get a nice view of everybody's hats
4) sensors - to recognize anybody, the drone must make a Sensor + Clearsight (vs. possibly Infiltration + Agility) test, so even at lvl3 sensors the drone has little chance to spot somebody who is evading it? Does distance factor in that?

Any input is welcome. I need to get the feel what the drones can and cannot do - I don't want to screw the rigger, but I don't want him to dominate the game just because I am not familiar with the rules and the players sees them in his favour.