My Dronomancer Build Idea, Putting it all together: Options

[2XS]

So I have this build idea:

I take a dozen or so Shiawase Kanmushis and cluster them to make kind of a super-commlink. Upgrade the crap out their Response, Pilot, and Firewall, then add Chameleon Coating and a Satellite Link. This gives me a *massive* potential payload of Agents and Programs, as well as subscription slots for drones, that are damn near impossible to track down and destroy. I then Register a Machine Sprite and have it sustain its Diagnostics power on the cluster, providing its bonus dice to every action taken on the cluster. I then acquire a few Renraku Manservants, upgrade their armor, hand them a weapon, slave them to the cluster and have an Agent remotely pilot the drone from the cluster, giving him the benefits from the Machine Sprite. This would also negate the need to upgrade the Manservant any further, keeping its cost down and making it damn near disposable. I don't have to upgrade its Pilot, because its being operated remotely. I don't have to upgrade its Firewall, because it's slaved to my cluster.

I was originally thinking I would need a bunch of Sprites for my Dronomancer, so I could assign one to each drone and really rock 'n roll. I was thinking I could have them move from drone to drone as needed, but that would take a lot of tasks. This way, I only need *1* Sprite, and *1* Service to provide an impressive bonus to a large number of drones.

What do you think?

[Neraph]

1) Clustering does not increase the number of programs the clustered node can have running very much.

The processor limit is determined by adding the respective limits of the nodes composing the cluster and halving them.

2) Remote piloting the Manservants would only work one at a time. You would have to cluster multiple of them under the same subscription in order to have them all function as you intend.

3) There's no reason to make the Kanmushi-link - especially as a TM. Just use your biological node. The Kanmushi-link is designed for AI survivability. Honestly you could do basically the exact same thing using just your biological node and a Machine Sprite.

[2XS]

Sorry, I meant to have Agents remotely pilot the drones, not do it myself...

[Neraph]

Again, you can do that using your biological node. There's literally no reason to have the Kanmushi-link.

EDIT: I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the idea and I'm flattered that you appreciate the tactical benefit of my creation, but it simply doesn't seem efficient for what you're trying to do.

[2XS]

I can run a dozen agents with autosofts to remotely pilot a dozen drones from my Bionode?

The idea began as a backpack full of commlinks, then grew into your Kanmushinet. Aren't there limits on the number of programs a bionode can run? I was also under the impression you couldn't run standard (non-CF) programs (like Agents) from your bionode.

[Neraph]

You can't, but if you're just using drones what you can do is cluster those and run the autosofts in that cluster, then have that cluster slaved to your bio-node.

[2XS]

Ah, I see what you mean now. I could add as many drones as I like to the cluster, and they'd all still benefit from the Sprite *that* way as well.

That means I'd have to upgrade the drones more than I was planning, but I'd still end up spending less than I would building that network. Brilliant.

How hackable would I be, then? Since they're slaved to my bionode, any attempt to hack them would lead them there, and I'm not familiar with the rules for hacking bionodes. Is it even possible to patrol my brain with IC and Agents, or would I have to use Sprites?

I need to go bury myself in Unwired for a while. And to think, I used to say deckers should be NPCs...

[Neraph]

You'd have to use Sprites, as Agents and regular programs can't be in your bio-node. Unwired, however, tells us that a bio-node is unhackable except by another TM, so you're good against the vast majority of hacks.