Electric kangaroo panther thing!, How to re-create the infamous arcology dron in SR4 Options

[Jhaiisiin]

So I was wanting to try and re-create the 6-limbed drone from Deus' collection, and I'm not exactly sure how to make something so ridiculously agile/fast/deadly. I'm willing to forgo the electric skin and such.

Ideas?

For the record, this all spawned from a discussion of how a "Steel Lynx" doesn't look anything like one. Up until now, I was perfectly content forgetting about such dangerous things.

[kjones]

Steel Lynx.

/thread

(I have the Renraku Arcology: Shutdown module. Would it be OK for me to post the stats on this thing so that those who know the rules but don't have the book could take a crack at it?)

[Jhaiisiin]

Generally it's okay for small reproductions like that. I've long since misplaced my own Arcology book.

EDIT: And I have every intention of modifying the Steel Lynx for the purpose of this drone

[kjones]

Is it bad that I keep this book next to my bed?

[ Spoiler ]

Medusa

Handling 2/2
Speed 60
Accel 10
B/A 3/4 (8) **Two points of ablative armor
Sig. 8
Pilot Rating 4
Sensor Rating 5
Learning Pool 4
Robot Pool 4
ED -
Initiative 9 + 4D6

The Medusa is Deus' primary killing machine. Built with smart materials, drive-by-wire, structural agility, and ydraulic leg jacks, it is a frightening sight. Medusae are programmed with Clearsight 5 and Implant Weaponry 4 autosofts. The drone's structural agility adds 2 to its Pilot Rating for Handling Tests.

The Medusa's two mechanical arms have Strength Ratings of 9 and fineblade claws that can inflict 9M damage at +1 reach. The Medusa can use its tail to make a grappling attack. If it succeeds in an Attack Test, make an Open Test using 6D6. The result is the target number for a trapped opponent to break free, using a Strength Test (Complex Action).

In addition to standard armor, some Medusae sport 2 points of ablative armor (adding 4 to their armor ratings). Any attack with a Power three times the modified Armor Rating that strikes a Medusa removes 1 point of ablative armor. Medusae are also equipped with contingency maneuver controls that allow them to ignore up to 6 boxes of wound penalties (p. 124, Rigger 2). If the Medusa takes more than 6 boxes of damage, all wound penalties apply.

The Medusa is also wired with an electric-shock anti-theft system. Triggering it is an Simple Action, delivering 10S Stun damage against half the target character's Impact Armor and disorienting as a taser does (p. 124, SR3). This shock attack is particularly effective against cyberware and electrical devices; any attack with this system that does Moderate or better damage affects 1d6 devices/cyber-systems. Some Medusae have an implanted taser system as well, with the same effects, and an Sharpshooter 3 autosoft to use with it.

The hydraulic jacks in its legs allow the Medusa to make incredible leaps - each success on a Handling Test allows it to jump 3 meters.

Go to town.

[Jhaiisiin]

Right, so without GM allowance, this is not even remotely possible under current SR4 mod rules.

[Jhaiisiin]

So looking at it quickly, this is what I'm thinking....

It needs, at a minimum, the following mods:
Walker mode (with all limbs being treated as cyberlimbs, which requires GM discretion)
-- Hydraulic jacks in both rear legs
-- likely strength/agility upgrades to get the unarmed damage to be even remotely viable
If no GM discretion, then need walker mode for 2 legs, plus 2 mechanical arms tricked out like normal cyberlimbs
Extra armor
Anti-theft shock system
Drive by wire, smart materials and structural agility no longer exist, so not sure how to replicate those. I could put in Body Stabilization to replace the agility, as it sorta kinda makes sense. Other than that, no clue.

So that's anywhere between 6 and 12 mod slots at initial estimation. That's way beyond even reasonable gm allowance.

Any better ideas?

[Draco18s]

Right, so without GM allowance, this is not even remotely possible under current SR4 mod rules.

There are three very good reasons to ignore the mod rules:

1) Its Deus

2) Its in the control of the GM (the GM disallows the GM from using this drone?)

3) Because.

[Jhaiisiin]

K, better background needed I guess.

I want an anthroform drone that is more worthy of the name, Steel Lynx. Puma-esque, with some of the deadliness that would come from a big metal clawed thing attacking you.

Unfortunately, I'm not Deus or the GM, so I can't just use handwavium. I'm looking to see how close I can get RAW, and how far beyond RAW I need to go to get even a remotely close representation of a large cat drone thing.

[Draco18s]

Oh, I see. You're trying to make a Rat Thing as a player. Good luck!

[kjones]

Come on, you've gotta do something! I typed my fingers to the bone on that last post.

[Emy]

Oh, I see. You're trying to make a Rat Thing as a player. Good luck!

I always thought a Doberman was supposed to be the poor man's imitation of the Rat Things.

[Udoshi]

K, better background needed I guess.

I want an anthroform drone that is more worthy of the name, Steel Lynx. Puma-esque, with some of the deadliness that would come from a big metal clawed thing attacking you.

is that SO.

Mechanical Grapples let you claw and bite people, and also open doors to sneak around, but at a strength of half body, so its not very good.
Full mechanical Limbs, as an optional rule, may take Cyberlimb accessories and Capacity. So its not hard to slap a cyberspur and a strength enhancement in there.

What you are looking for is (and i'm seriously not shitting you here. It has a gun and one limb already!) a Ford LEBD-1. Add anotherFull Mechanical Limb, and walker mode. Explain away the Flight speed as Huge Hopping, or make that a penalty/change/LossOfRotors for Overmodding the walker mode.

Standard Metahuman running rates are 25 for humans, 20 for dwarves, and 30 for trolls. An LEBD-1 after walkermode(yes, i'm ignoring that its groundcraft only) has an Accel of 2/10 and a Speed of 40.

There are now two ways to figure out how fast it may go during combat. Speed is a reasonable top-end speed for a vehicle - in this case, a humanoidish runner robot. So we simply use its speed for its movement, and voila, its able to run down trolls. The way Cyborgs are handled, in augmentation, seems to support this(p159). In this case, spend the last 2 modslots on Engine Customization(speed, its the cheap one ) or give it a flexi-mount

Or you can use the Acceleration values for Walking/Running, like everyone else goes, in which case you cram it full of Turbochargers to get the velocity back.

It ain't perfect, but there you go.

[Mongoose]

It looks like you've got a decent start. IIRC, what Structural Agility and Drive by Wire did was improve handling; anything that gives extra dice on piloting tests would fill the same role. They don't really feature any more because Drive by Wire is pretty much built into everything, and Structural Agility is simply a vehicular application of smart materials. If you can mimic the basic physical stats, you just need a really good pilot and lots of high rating autosofts. I wouldn't worry to much about the strength; Heavy pistols did 9M in SR3, just like the Medusas claws, so if you can do as much as a heavy pistol, your good.
Body Stabilization doesn't really seem appropriate- to me, it seems like the sort of thing a lumbering behemoth would have, though I suppose it can be used for super-agile "lands on its feet" type drones. An alternate option would be to take a limb that acts as a cyber-tail, improving balance.

BTW- The closest analog for the Medusa in published SR4 material (that I've seen) is the Cyber Tooth Tiger from Augmentation. If Deus had had access to zoological cloning tech, he might have made those instead... and then slapped a custom armor suit loaded with shock frills and nanotech nasties on them.

And no, the Mudusa isn't a Rat Thing. Its way to slow, and much more heavily armed.

[Jhaiisiin]

One critique about the arms... They're body x 10 cm in length. So even on a large drone, they're a mighty 16 inches long in total, which is proportionaloly wrong. I hate annoying hitches like this. Thanks for the suggestions so far!

[Valashar]

Unstable Structural Agility (Arsenal, pg 146) seems to be the bastard offspring of drive-by-wire and such from SR3. By RAW it's only for aircraft, but that's not so hard to overlook.

[Ophis]

Lynx drone.

Take a lynx (the animal) add stirrup and and some bioware/cyberware. Bingo one lynx drone.