Small Vector Thrust Craft Design? Options

[Fu-Man Chu]

I accidently posted the following question to the Welcome to the Shadows Forum here . . . if any of you have further input, I'd welcome it!

Is there any way to design a Vector Thrust Aircraft that is the size of a car or truck? I'm thinking like a Body 4 or 5 along the lines of the Harrier fighter craft. From what I see in Rigger 3, there is only a body 7 chasis that is WAY expensive. I considered using the Drone UAV with a body of 3 and increasing it's cargo to the max of 25 and then putting in seats and controls - but I'm not sure that's an adequate solution becuase I'm sure other things like canopy etc are not included in the rules. . . which also brings up the point of how exactly does one "convert" a drone into a vehicle which can carry passengers?

[A Clockwork Lime]

Deja Vu...

To give a vehicle a cabin, you basically only need to add Entry Points. Otherwise, it's considered Open if the Entry category reads --.

Hovercar Version (See the cover of New Seattle)
Chassis: Large Vector-Thrust UAV
Power Plant: Electric Fuel Cell (Fan-Driven)

Minimal Design Requirements:

Increased Cargo Space +12 (Total CF of 14)
Increased Load +200kg (Total Load of 210kg)
Added Manual Controls (-2 CF, -10kg Load)
Added Seats (2 Bucket) (-12 CF, -200kg Load)

Total Cost: 390 DP (0.60 Mark-Up) = 23,400 nuyen


Hoverbike Version
Chassis: Mediuml Vector-Thrust UAV
Power Plant: Electric Fuel Cell (Fan-Driven)

Minimal Design Requirements:

Increased Cargo Space 7 (Total CF of 8)
Increased Load 100 (Total Load of 110kg)
Added Manual Controls (-2 CF, -10kg Load)
Added Seat (1 Bucket) (-6 CF, -100kg Load)

Total Cost: 163 DP (0.60 Mark-Up) = 9,780 nuyen

[BitBasher]

I would think that if you made it a passenger vehicle it would automatically lose the Drone markup. Otherwise I can just build my sprts cars off of drone chassis at absolutely no penalty for a fraction of the cost, all automakers could, same for all other vehicles.

[A Clockwork Lime]

Sure could.

Unfortunately, there are no Body 3 Car drones let alone a "sports car drone," so I don't really see how you'd be able to modify one into a cheaper sports car.

About your only option is a 'cheaper" Sand Buggy (Body 2) using a Medium Wheeled Crawler. Of course then your CF is limited to 12 (35 with the Sand Buggy) -- which is just barely enough for two seats leaving you with no space for manual controls. Your off-road Handling would suck in comparison (6 vs. 4), and the chassis cost would actually be more expensive (40 w/ 0.40 Mark-Up for the Sand Buggy vs. 120 and 0.25 Mark-Up for the Crawler).

So, uhm, yeah. Okay. Good deal there. I can see why the megacorporations are flocking to that trend now.

But then again, maybe I don't understand what you mean by "lose their drone Mark-Up." Drones have their own chassis. Any standard vehicle is turned into a drone just by adding Sensors 1 or higher and an Advanced Drone Pilot -- it doesn't affect their Mark-Up whatsoever. There is no "Drone" Quality Factor either, with Quality Factors being about the only things that do affect the Mark-Up of a vehicle.

[Fu-Man Chu]

What exactly is that (0.60 Markup)?

[Moonstone Spider]

Basically it's how you determine the cost of a vehicle, multiply it's design points by the markup, then multiply that by 100. So for instance with a .6 markup a car with 100 design points would cost 6,000 :nuyen:.

[Austere Emancipa...]

Makes you wonder why the Mark-Up values don't vary from 10 to 250 instead of 0.1 to 2.5, eh?

[Moonstone Spider]

Ya know, that is an excellent idea.

[Kagetenshi]

Probably because of the rounding that goes on somewhere in there, IIRC.

~J