drones, skillwires, and you, hacking your own brain! Options

[mfb]

some background. i'm playing an otaku in a fairly successful otaku tribe--lots of rebuilt junk hardware, very tech-savvy. recently, my otaku acquired two LS-9 surveillance drones. my original plan was to slap a laserlink and a satellite uplink on one of 'em and have it follow my otaku around; the otaku'd have a level 1 RCD in his backpack and a rating 2 signal amp, and would be able to deck from anywhere by connecting a laser to the RCD, pointing it at the drone, and uplinking through it to any satellite constellation he can get a beam on (probably Angel SatCom, as they're the easiest pickin's in the sky). a remote control complex form and a Rigger Protocol Emu Module in the RCD will let me control the drone while i'm hacking.

however, that doesn't quite satisfy me. like a rich man's nagging wife, i want more. it occurs to me that, with a little work, i can have my drone network keep my otaku mobile while he's decking.

first, i'd need a set of skillwires implanted--rating 2, 8Mp. that's enough for an Athletics (Skating) skillsoft rating 2, as my boy's a rollerblader. with a chipjack and expert driver 2, that's 4 dice for blading--plenty for basic go-around-the-block stuff.

next, i'd need a drone pilot and an autonav. the second LS-9 will provide a drone pilot, once we rip it down for parts, and autonavs are cheap. without too much trouble, i can probably rig these up to just run off of the RCD's power supply, which will be beefed up to handle the extra load.

now, for the part where i'm a genius. i route my skillwires to my datajack (datjacks act as cyberware routers with 5 ports). then, i connect to the RCD through my datajack, connecting through the laser to the drone to the sat uplink to a satellite. there, i fire up my remote control complex form, where i find 2 drones on my network: the LS-9, and the drone brain jury-rigged (heh) to my RCD.

the drone brain, by means of some modifications, is linked via external router to my datajack, and from that to my skillwires. from my lofty position in the Angel SatCon, i command the spare drone brain to take my body around the block. the drone brain ponders this, then checks with the autonav--which i've helpfully loaded with a map of Seattle--to plot a route, then relays these instructions to my skillwires. the skillwires, with their 4 dice of goodness, move my body in a manner which allows it to skate with better-than average skill around the block. meanwhile, through the wonders of RAS, my otaku is busy robbing electronic banks to fund his next crazy scheme.

flaws i can see offhand: drones have no real way to interface with skillwires. however, i don't see this as a problem, because the same drone brain can pilot anything from an LS-9 to a car to a fighter jet, with no additional hardware or software required. it shouldn't be a huge problem, to me, for the drone to just tell the skillwires "move", and let the skillwires handle the rest.

[Eyeless Blond]

Only problem I see here is that drone pilots can only "drive" things that are rigger-adapted, so you'll have to rigger-adapt your skillwires. :D This could have... odd consequences if another rigger comes by and takes over your RCD. :eek: :rotfl:

[Lilt]

I suggested something a while back that was a bit like this. What you do is to 'rigger-adapt' your body by using the snakeyes system (P93-95, R3). I was suggesting creating a pilot program, but using a real drone pilot might work too.

[Eyeless Blond]

Ah, that's right, you need Sensors too, don't you? I suppose that means some sort of simrig/simlink, although I suppose you can make this external to save on Essence.

And revise the rigger adaptation to remote control interface (p 130 r3), which, unfortunately, costs *more*. If I were house-ruling it, I'd say you are basically customizing your skillwires as if they were a vehicle, and use the skillwires's rating in place of Body for this customization job.

Should the remost control customization cost Essence though? Eh, I'm not sure; a lot of the system other than the skillwires can be made external (and thus removable) with no problems; this might be too. Either way though, this guy's gonna look like a freak. :D

[Eyeless Blond]

[Lilt]

[randomthoughts]
This might not be relevant or possible for your character, but could you create a backpack drone? That is: A small walker drone with enough load to carry you. The drone itself is normally concealed as a backpack, but when ordered to can extend long limbs which could aid when climbing and other activities.

This robot could mount the gear that you need (RCD, Laser link, ETC) and, when you are decking, pilot you through a direct link making it nigh impossible to hack you. Give it a good pilot rating (maybe even a robotic advanced pilot?) and it could help you out when doing other stuff (such-as telling you who is behind you).

The one problem is that it'd probably be quite heavy unless your GM was kind with the weights. Even at close to minimum weight you'd be moving around with weight equivalent to 3-4 2-litre bottles of soda in your backpack.

[mfb]

it says it by not saying that you have to purchase different drones for different vehicles. remote-control adaption isn't necessary; if you've got a drone brain, you already require a remote-control interface. sensors are a good point; i'll probably just rig the drone to my goggles (magnification, IR, low-light, ultrasound) and call it Sensor 1 or 2. rigger adaption... damn, that thing's heavy. i bet i could strap it to the Strato-9, and connect via another laserlink. no reason it has to be implanted, especially since it's specifically called a 'black box'. that would allow me to translate the neurological data provided/required by the skillwires into machine code.

[Eyeless Blond]

[A Clockwork Lime]

The hardwire for the drone is what needs to be drone-specific, really. The software -- the drone pilot -- just requires slotting a chip and connecting the hardware interfaces. The drone just has to say "turn right" and its up to the hardware to handle turning to the right, not the drone itself. Installing a drone pilot is a Computers B/R test, not a Vehicle B/R test, using the Handling of the vehicle as the target number. It's basically the same as installing Sensors, which is just an Electronics B/R test because it's only a matter of hooking all the sensors to the onboard systems. They're no more vehicle-specific than the drone is.

There's nothing vehicle-specific about the rules. The Remote-Control Interface, however, is the one that requires both a Vehicle B/R and Electronics B/R Test, and even that isn't vehicle specific -- you just have to set the hardware up so that it controls everything on the vehicle just right.

Now the Profile Performance autosoft is vehicle-specific. It's the fine tuning to the drone pilot that allows it to use a specific vehicle with expert handling. Without it, it's just a glorified smart-frame program designed for telling hardware what to do instead of running the Matrix.

[Eyeless Blond]

I'm still not quite sure I follow. Just because installing a more advanced drone pilot doesn't require significant alterations to the vehicle doesn't mean the drone pilot itself isn't vehicle-specific; one doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the other. Both knowsofts and activesofts plug into the same chipjack, but that doesn't mean that they are run by the same systems. Or, to use a more contemporary example, many cars and airplanes today both have onboard computers. These computers run on the same general principles; indeed, some companies make chips for both types of vehicle. But I wouldn't expect a car's onboard computer to be compatible with an airplane, nor would I expect an airplane's onboard computer to be compatible with a car.

Or are you saying that, for instance, driving a car is so precisely the same as flying a vector-thrust aircraft that the same system can do it? If that's the case then I wonder at all the different vehicle skills there are, and why they aren't all wrapped into a single "Pilot" skill if they're all essentially the same.

I don't see how the rules back you up here. On the other hand, if you look at page 43-44, under "Pilot Ratings:

[mfb]

ugh. see, a while back, i tried creating rules for drone and robot programming. i stopped when i realized that the base price for a robot-4 was cheaper than the base price for a drone-4.

on the other hand, while a drone for a car and a drone for a jet plane might not be directly interchangeable, they do cost the same, which indicates that it's probably not too difficult to reprogram one for the other.

i was going to use the rigger adaption because it says that the black box translates between neurological impulses--like what you'd get from a set of skillwires--and machine language. this seems like the easiest way, to me, to allow a drone pilot to send and recieve data from the skillwires.

[Eyeless Blond]

[Eyeless Blond]

Ooooh, I think I see what you're trying to do with the rigger module. You want to wire it backwards, having the controller side plug into the skillwires and the various inputs and outputs for a vehicle be plugged into a drone pilot. That... sound really reall wierd to me. First off you're wiring the module backwards, which doesn't work for the same reason you can't display data on a keyboard. Secondly, the skillwires aren't at all equipped to handle a VCR's I/O stream, so you're kinda boned there too. Finally, the drone is going to be completely confused, because the rigger module is going to be looking for sensory output from it and expecting it to handle machine-level vehicle commands, which is what the drone is supposed to output, rather than input.

[mfb]

when you stat out the actual nuyen cost for a robot-4, it's less than the parts cost of a drone-4.

validate-8 and attack S-8 perform different functions. a drone pilot, no matter what vehicle, performs the same function: driving the vehicle. piloting a jet is much more complex than driving a car; if a drone-4 for a jet performed its task differently than a drone-4 for a car, then the jet's drone-4 would cost more because its job would be more complex. however, drone-4s cost the same no matter what vehicle they're installed in, ergo the task they perform must be very similar, ergo they must be fairly interchangeable.

a keyboard does not, as its basic function, enable two-way communication. a rigger module does--it transmits instructions from the rigger to the vehicle, and transmits data from the vehicle to the rigger. the module will have to be modified, of course; basically, i'll rip out the neuro/machine translator thingy and build the ports i need into it. the drone brain will send "go here" as machine language to the module; the module will convert "go here" into neurological impulses similar to a human brain's, and send that to the skillwires.

[A Clockwork Lime]

The problem is that robots aren't available as a customization option. It *has* to be built into the vehicle or even swapped from one to another.

But yes, you're dead on with the Drone Pilot as far as I'm concerned. Like I said earlier, it's just a smart-frame that responds to Sensor input, then sends the data for what it wants to do to the vehicle. What limited programming there is in installing one is going to be little more than putting in the vehicle specs so that it knows what it can and cannot do [which doesn't even require a Computer (Programming) Test].

Regardless, I think you're approaching this all wrong. I only browsed through most of the earlier posts, but if your goal is to basically make your body "riggable" so that while you're off in the Matrix or whatnot, it should be pretty simple to do.

Skillwires, maybe a Snake Eyes suite, and a Customized ActiveSoft (taking the place of the Remote Control Interface) specifically programmed to handle input and output from a Drone Pilot (which has no Load requirement, hinting that it's little more than a couple of chips) instead of a brain is all you really need. The ActiveSoft would be the hard part, almost definitely requiring its own unique code and a rather large multiplier. I'd put the multiplier at 7 (the standard ActiveSoft multiplier plus the Performance Profile autosoft multiplier). The rating has to meet or beat the Drone Pilot's rating; if lower, that's the max rating the Drone Pilot functions at. The Snake Eyes suite would likewise function as its Sensors.

That's where I'd start at least. No need for a Rigger Encryption Module or anything unless you wanted the meat body to be a true drone -- a very bad idea all around.

[mfb]

well, the protocol emu module is necessary for using my remote control complex form to control the drone(s). the snake eyes thing is probably workable, but... i dunno, not sure i could justify getting it installed in a 12-yr old kid.

the customized activesoft idea has merit, though. as it stands, i'm translating the instructions to my body three times: from mental impulse to matrix code to machine code to mental impulse. i still need some way to incorporate sensor data, since i don't want to install a snake eyes. maybe an autonav?

[A Clockwork Lime]

Nah, an Autonav really needs a Sensor system, too. It's just so low-grade that it doesn't even warrant a rating by the standard rules (especially since most of the input is usually coming from the GridGuide anyway)... and if you want your body to be riggable, you're going to want some decent Sensors so you know exactly what's going on around you.

About the only other option would be a pair of Cybereyes and/or Cyberears routed to the Skillwires. Maybe getting enough memory for the Skillwires to handle a variant of the Clearsight autosoft (just add another +3 Multiplier) and use its Rating in place of the Sensors? I dunno.

[mfb]

i was thinking about one of those cybernetically-controlled cameras from Shadowbeat.

[Eyeless Blond]

[mfb]

the module doesn't have to do that, though. it just has to tell the skillwires to do it.

translation is necessarily two-way. if a=b, then b=a.

it's not that flying a plane and driving a car are similar. it's that the tasks a drone pilot performs are similar, when flying a plane or driving a car. collatting sensory data, calculating current speed, determining the optimal path between obstacles--stuff like that doesn't vary. what varies is how the vehicle is controlled; for a non-rigger, that means learning how much to turn the steering wheel on your car, or what the function of each button is in a jet's cockpit. for a rigger, or a drone, it's simply a matter of doing it. this is supported by the fact that a rigger can default to Rea on any vehicle with, at worst, a total modifier (before outside factors) of +0 (+2 TN for defaulting, -2 TN for VCR-1).

[Eyeless Blond]

Well, first off translation is not necessarily two-way (ever play with Babblefish?). If it were then RSA encryption would be impossible. Secondly, rigger adaptation hardware isn't equipped to deal with motor nerves at all, or even deal with nerves at all. It deals with simsense, which is entirely different. Thirdly, you are forgetting that a rigger adaptation module relies on the VCR to do most of this translation; without a VCR (and a person's midbrain hooked up *to* the VCR) you're transmitting the rigger-equivalent of ASSIST signals, which is closer to simsense shorthand. No way are skillwires going to be able to interpret that, even assuming it were possible to derive an inverse function from a black-box function by running the current backwards.

Familiarity with a particular vehicle's controls is covered by a +1 modifier; defaulting to Reaction is something else entirely. Indeed, the drone does *not* tell the car to "just go". It has to control the vehicle and tell it precisely *how* to go, just like any normal driver. The only difference between a drone's command of the vehicle and a metahuman's is that the drone has much more precise controls; they can regulate the fuel/oxygen mixture going into the combustion chamber or the degree of rotation of the tires/wings muh more accurately than the guy pushing on a pedal. But this doesn't make it any easier to determine how much gas to give the engine, or how fast or slow to turn, or anything else.

Riggers get their +2 when defaulting exactly because of their VCR implant. The VCR does some wierd magic in the midbrain which allows the sensory data from the vehicle to process faster, allowing the rigger easier control over the vehicle. Airplane drones don't have VCRs, so they can't default to Reaction to drive a car more easily. They don't have Reaction either, so it doesn't matter either way.

Besides, we all know the real reason a rigger can default so easily with vehicle skills is because making a drone rigger would be a pain in the ass if he couldn't, and that has nothing at all to do with the drone. :D

[Eyeless Blond]

This is all of course all beside the fact that, as per canon rules, drone pilots are tailored to their specific vehicle type (see above quote), which kinda makes this discussion irrelevant unless we're talking about a house rule.

[mfb]

bah. the system is ridiculous, no matter how you look at it. the rigger module is described as a black box which translates neurological impulses to machine language--yet, mysteriously, you still need a VCR to use it. a drone for a jet plane is no more complex than a drone for a car--yet, mysteriously, you can't flop one out for the other. defaulting from the Car skill to the Bike skill offers the same TN penalty as default from either to the Fixed-Wing Aircraft skill. all of it, from start to finish, is insane.

back to the subject at hand. i route my skillwires--with their custom-progged athletics (rollerblade) skillsoft/performance profile autosoft hybrid--to my datajack, which is linked via external router to the drone in my backpack, which is linked to my external simrig. the drone is controlled, through my rigger protocol emu module (also linked to my datajack; external routers are non-canon but great) by my remote control complex form. the drone uses my sensorium as its sensor input, and directs my body's movements via the hybrid skill/autosoft. workable?

[BitBasher]

There's some real bad logic here, which I will address.

[mfb]

i'm assuming you meant "translate it back into neurological data". this is redundant, though; you've already got a machine that translates from neuro to machine; why not just use the same machine to translate from machine to neuro?

pilots go to school for months or years, and retrain constantly. i'm not sure how to answer your claim that planes and cars are equally complex, except to say that it's pretty silly. it's also a moot point: drones don't need to be reprogrammed if your vehicle is modified. if i slap a gun onto my vehicle and wire it to the drone, the drone can fire the gun with no problem; if i update the sensors, the drone uses them just fine; if i replace the engine with a customized, supercharged hybrid, add enviroseal, attach three arms, and turn my Porsche into a submersible, the drone pilot functions just as effectively as it ever did, and magically gains the functionality needed to control its new features. given the high level of adaptability inherent in drone pilot programming, i have a hard time imagining that it's very difficult to re-program one to pilot a different vehicle.

as for creating new autosofts, *shrug*. i'm extrapolating, here; there are rules for creating programs and skillsofts, there are rules for programming new copies of existing autosofts, ergo it's possible to create new autosofts.