How to make a Good Wheel Man, Builds Options

[Beetle]

Don't forget the morphing license plate. It's a great compliment to a chameleon paint job.

To better fit the "Chulo Ricer" theme, you may find a better use of your money going to the Hyundai Shin-Hyung out of Arsenal (pg109) vs the Eurotrash Westwind. It's description pretty much pegs the theme your player is going for and it's only $17k. Plus it has 4 additional modification slots for 14 total. You can tweak it to your hearts content and have something similar, if not better than the Westwind and it's a lot cheaper to upgrade. Acceleration and handling is where it really counts when it comes to chases. Sure you may have to dump a lot of money to get top end speed to that of the westwind, but let's be real who the hell has enough room on city streets or even the highways to get a car to maximum speed? In the end it's not necessarily who has the fastest car in a straight line , it's who can take the corners and come out at a higher speed. This fact is why the old JC Mini Cooper would often trounce Z/28's, Cobras and Chargers in the old Trans Am circuit races.

Also that Westwind wouldn't last 5 minutes in the barrens without it being stripped to the frame and left on blocks.

[CoyoteNZ]

Okay, I was wrong on the armor bit, if that's the case does armor stack with already existant armor since one doesn't take up slots? How do they interact?

Nope.

Note that the rating of the armor upgrade is not cumulative with the basic armor value that most off-the-rack vehicles are already equipped with. Instead, the modification assumes that the original armor is being stripped and replaced with the new armor.

But 10 Armor concealed is still pretty good, and maybe he needs a second car for times when he is going to go somewhere where he is needing more than that level of protection, but the second car having more armor, and not being concealed will just stick out a little more.

Don't forget to also throw Passenger Protection incase he crashes, and some levels of Personal Armor (Arsenal 141) for the Passengers.

You may also wish to throw in a few Gun Ports (Arsenal 137) for your passengers to fire from safety with their own personal weapons.


Max,
Dunedin, NZ

[Falconer]

Also remember the Arsenal errata.

As soon as your armor exceeds your Body rating... reduce speed and acceleration by 20%. So if you have a body of 8... the best armor you can get is 8 regular plus 8 smart on top of it. Or you could go with 8 concealed. At this point you might start looking at added personal armor. This also makes me wonder if we strip/reduce the armor off a drone (many drones armor exceeds their body)... do we get a 20% increase in speed and acceleration.....


Now you'll have to describe what the term 'cholo ricer' means... never heard that one.


Also characterwise... if you do go with modding your pimped out ride during gameplay rather than just starting with it. You face the very real problem that your wheels might be in the shop mid-mod when you need them (this is good for roleplay, and a good reason to have a high skill for short repair/upgrade times even if you can make the repair w/ time on an extended test) and you may find yourself using stolen cars and such when you can't use your pimped ride (good thing, not a bad thing).

[damaleon]

Don't forget that having an armor rating (concealed or standard) above the vehicles Body Rating reduces the acceleration and top speed by 20% (rounded up). You would need both Engine Customizations (eating up 4 slots in addition to the armor slot(s)) to off set the lost performance. {Edit: Beaten by 2 minutes}
Concealed armor on the Eurocar or Hyundai (and most cars other than subcompacts) would not be a problem, but standard armor at 11 and above would be.

You could drop about 61,600 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) (13BP) for a Hyundai Shin-Hyung with the following specs:
Handling +2
Accel 30/65
Speed 195
Pilot 2
Body 10
Armor 10 (Concealed)
Sensor 1
Mods - Chameleon Coating, Manual Override (DbW), Oil Slick Sprayer, Road Strip Ejector, Engine Customization (Speed), Turbocharger 2 (book lists you can get this up to 4 times), Concealed Armor 10
Remaining Slots - 4
Toss in the morphing license plate, spoof chip, and run-flat tires for another 2,500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) (64,100 total) and the cost of any desired road strips (200 or 2k each depending on type)

This has better acceleration but lower top speed than the Westwind (+10/+5, -55 respectively) and lacks the integrated anti-theft, crash protection, and a little handling (+2 instead of +3), but costs over 20k less even after 44k in modifications. If you're looking to squeek the most out of your 400 BP at generation, this can save you 12 BP from a similarly modded Westwind. (This all assumes you can buy the Turbocharger at 2 without having to pay for the 'charger 1 seperately. If not, it's an extra 11k/3BP)

[Thadeus Bearpaw]

Now you'll have to describe what the term 'cholo ricer' means... never heard that one.

The player for whom I'm making this is a Mexican guy originally from Mexico City DF and he finds the whole American Mexican gangsta thing. Latinos born in this country tend to be very culturally different than Mexicans born in Mexico (at least so I have observed and my buddy agrees with me). Now I say this not to flame Mexican Americans or Native Mexicans or whatever I'm just saying this is benchmark around which my friend wants to make his character. He wants to make the "chulo" Latino Gangsta with the pimped out street racer or "rice burner" type car. Think Nissan Skylines and the like. I agree with going with Shin-Hyun, I went with that car (to stay under cost limit) and modded it with turbocharacgers, concealed armor (I fixed it from earlier having no realized my ignorance with vehicle armor rules), a reinforced weapon mount with an autocannon, smart tires, engine customization for acceleration and speed, gridlink override, autospoofer, morphing license plate, and probably more I don't have the sheet handy. I might add personal protection for my buddy's character given the new armor rules, I'll have to give it a once over.

Also the best movie to see lots and lots of different kids of "ricers" is Tokyo Drift. I know, I know its awful but there's lots of pretty cars.