Gyro Link, Page 137 Arsenal Options

[AndyZ]

I'm not seeing any real use for this with the remote control option. What kind of modifiers would you actually get from vehicles' movement? I don't see anything in the rules, although I see rules for unmounted weapons.

[DireRadiant]

Vehicles have walk and Run accelerations. Walking and Running have modifiers in Combat.

[SpellBinder]

A Gyro Mount keeps a turret pointed in the same direction despite the vehicle's movement. Think of the turret stabilization on an M1A1 Abrams tank, how it can fly down the desert at 60mph and still keep that 120mm cannon pointed off to the side with almost no jiggling.

Certain actions of the pilot program/driver can make it difficult to keep your target under the cross hairs. Especially if you get rammed (like in a P.I.T. maneuver), or the driver starts taking evasive maneuvers (think 'serpentine, serpentine'). Also, the threshold modifiers on the Terrain Test table (SR4a, page 169) could be used as a pool penalty to shooting even from a vehicle mounted weapon. Kinda hard to keep that LMG steady while swerving around trees, thick traffic, or plowing through white cap waves. While there's no hard set rules, a GM can impose these kind of penalties.

[Udoshi]

Gyrolinks would be more useful if they were cheaper.

But yes, they are rather nice for what they do. Attacker Running forces a -2 attack dice pool. Defender Running gives a +2 defense against ranged attacks.

A drone, such as a doberman or steel lynx, can run around full tilt blasting away with no penalty, and claim the defensive one. When you think about it, even a max rating pilot+autosoft+smartlink rolls only around 12 dice. When you think about it, 5 grand and one slot for changing 4 dice in your favor - its not a bad deal.

[AndyZ]

This brings me to a question I've had about vehicles for a while.

In regards to the acceleration and speed, do you just keep track of the current Kliks Per Combat Turn (kpct) and increase or decrease that amount by either the walking or running rate?

Example: Last combat turn the Doberman was going at speed 40 and has an acceleration of 10/25. Walking would change the doberman's kpct to as much as 30 or 50, and running would change the doberman's kpct to as much as 15 or 65.