SR4: Need Specifiec Rigger Help, New to 4e, but old 1e and 2e player. Options

[LG117]

Hello everyone. I've finally just found some forums for Shadowrun here and I am glad to see they look quite active!

I am new to 4th edition, but I played a lot of 1st and 2nd editions. I always loved playing a Rigger and am busily making one for 4th edition. A lot has changed, and it looks like a Technomancer may be better suited, but I am going to make an attempt anyways.

Now for the few questions that are holding me up:

1) Does a SmartlLink add to a Drone's attack pool when it is Autonomous or Remotely controlled? I assume it adds when Jumped in.

2) Does Fuzzy Logic (AR 136) add to the Autonomous (only?) attack pool when firing on Full Auto (a complex action).

3) Is the Smartlink cyberware nolonger required? I seemed to get this impression when searching for the above two answers here.


Thank you very much. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this character, then find a game!

[Neraph]

1) Only if the drone has a Smartlink on one of his cameras.

2) No, only to making decisions autonomously.

3) The cyberware is no longer required, but it has to be around in some form. Contacts, glasses, goggles, monocle, or cybereyes are all acceptable applications. The visual option is on page 324, SR4. The firearm still needs a smartgun system, found on page 311, SR4.

[LG117]

Thanks for the speedy response!

I see what you mean about the visual option. I'll add that to the Camera Sensor on my drones as soon as I can. It was really difficult to sort out sensors, but I think that I have it now.

This looks like a great forum, I'll definitely be checking back here frequently.

[MikeKozar]

I find myself in the same situation as LG117, so I'm going to take the liberty of continuing the 4e Rigger Q&A.

I'm having difficulty figuring out how to improve the Sensor Rating on my drones. The Sensor rating has come up a few times so far, most recently as I was trying to establish a Tacnet (Unwired, Pg 125). I can't find any drones except the quarter-million nuyen Akiyama murderbot that come stock with a rating 4 Sensor, so if I want to use a level 2 Tacnet with my drones I will need to figure out the upgrade rules.

The obvious choice is the Y1,000 Improved Sensor Array upgrade from Arsenal, Pg. 136 - however, the rules are mostly for installing specific custom sensor packages (e.g., You really want to fit a radar array in your hovercraft) as opposed to simply improving the Sensor Rating.

Arsenal, Pg. 105 expands on sensor ratings: "If a character improves the ratings of all of the individual components in a sensor package, the overall Sensor rating of the vehicle should also be improved accordingly. For the purpose of improvement, sensors that do not have a rating are considered to be automatically upgraded, when all the remaining sensors in a package are improved to a higher rating."

Earlier in that section, it says that a character may make an extended test to change one sensor for another.

The way I read this, spending a thousand nuyen on an Improved Sensor Upgrade doesn't necessarily upgrade my Sensor Rating at all, but slapping a Rating 6 Radio Signal Scanner in place of a laser rangefinder will bump me to Sensor 6 for Y150. Since standard audio and video upgrades like low-light and ultrasound don't have ratings, I only need one rated sensor to improve the whole package.

Now, as a player, this seems like a hell of a good deal - especially since the y150 Radio Signal Scanner does the same job as a y6000 R6 Sniffer Program. I just want someone to check me on this, because it's really too good to be true. What am I missing?

[Jaid]

it is scheduled for errata, if it hasn't gotten it yet. all equipment is scheduled to get a sensor rating, the workaround suggested was to multiply the sensor cost by the desired rating, and sensors that are by default included on drones/vehicles come with ratings equal to the drone's sensor rating.

[Machiavelli]

So many questions just to play an chaufeur?^^ �eah, i know...i´m an ass.^^

[MikeKozar]

Jaid: Thanks for the info, that should satisfy my GM and keep me honest. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



Machiavelli>So many questions just to play an chaufeur?

A medium flying drone with Armor-9, an AK-97 with a bolt-on smartlink and grade 3 autosoft, and the speed equivalent of Wired Reflexes 2 is under 7,000y. Slaving it to my level-1 TacNet is free. Flying on it's own, it should be attacking with a basic pool of 6, plus 2 for smartlink and 1 for TacNet for a very respectable pool of 8. If I jump into one of these guys hot-simmed to make the critical shot, I add 2 more for rigger control and 2 for hot-sim, giving it an attack pool of 13. The body rating counts as three points of built-in recoil compensation, so there should be no penalty for burst-firing twice in every initiative pass.

These guys present a very real threat to the opposition, and they are expendable. Hell, with the right contract I might even get reimbursed for lost drones. In the meantime, any Initiative Pass the opposition spends shooting at my drones is a Pass where they aren't shooting at my non-expendable teammates.

Don't get me wrong-I still managed to spend 100k on my van. But Combat Drones are awesome.