Drones va piloted Vehicles Options

[Sargasso]

Ok, I admit I'm a sucker for comming up with pecuilar settings for my shadowrun games. I was designing a slightly larger and much more expensive version of the JIM, (The powered deep diving suit) for a game of mine. There was a snafu however, there's no published stats for piloted walker vehicles. Gundams aside, there are some limited aplications for such vehicles. The Rigger 3 vehicle design rules have no entry for how much CF and desgin points it costs to put a cockpit in a drone. I emailed the Fanpro peeps about it a week ago, no word. Does anyone have any suggestions for the cockpit Cf and cost?

[Kagetenshi]

Stick a canopy opening and a bucket seat in. Voila.

~J

[Sargasso]

Ah, but the weight of the chair, crash webbing the flux of the controls and diplays, it adds up. Contemporary boat and car controls are pricey.

[Moon-Hawk]

Add a bucket seat. That takes care of the weight of the passenger, the volume they take up, all the necessary reinforcing, etc.
I know there are rules for removing maual controls (simply reverse them) or adding secondary controls, although I doubt you'd need much of either, 'cause you're obviously planning on using a VCR, right?

[Sargasso]

Well, the dive suit would probably be equiped for VCR use, yes, though there would be models for non-rigger pilots. There's always the occasional marine biologist who wants to deep dive or something.

[Moon-Hawk]

True. Although I would think the vast majority of powered armor (call it what you want, and use it however you want, that's what it is) would be used by riggers. Remember, a level 1 VCR is, what, 15k? That's nothin'. Probably costs a lot less than this new, improved JIM. With how affordable low end VCRs are, I sort of assume that one of the largest demographics to actually have more 'ware than a datajack are people like construction workers (machinery operators) and professional drivers. The performance boost for a VCR1 is dramatic. Safety improves, speed of performance improves, and by a lot!
An airline investing 15k into each pilot (only a few ticket sales each) can cut their chances of crash in half. (made up number warning) And they can advertize that and more than make up their losses. Most of a heavy machine operator's time is done doing precise work. For example a back-hoe operator spends 80% of their time avoiding buried power lines, getting edges right, etc and maybe 20% of their time digging the bulk of the stupid hole.
Some people might not want the essence impact, but plenty of people would gladly take it for the higher pay they could get, and plenty of corporations would be willing to pay for it as part of a five year contract.
I'm not saying they come out of vending machines or anything, and I'm not saying that non-cybered pilots and machine operators don't exist, I'm just saying: VCRs, they're not just for runners anymore.
Boy, I sure got off topic on that one!

[Sargasso]

Oh, I entirely agree with the benefits to a company and indiviual of rigging. Power armor's impracticle to stick a rigger into in most circumstances bcause a Rigger's pricey to train and replace. Almost anything a rigger can pilot a walker/power armor to do, a drone piloted remotely can do better. However, in very deep water, drone rigging requires cables and wrise. I was going to base the game around a Caribean salvage diving team. At 600 meters, if salvagers wants to loot the interior of a sunken vessel, sending in a drone attached to a sub by a cable is impracticle, divers and riggers are a better option. the odd marine biologist, or awakened member of the team (shark shaman anyone?) would abhor a VCR.

[Kagetenshi]

Isn't it 60k? Still less than a year's salary for a highly-paid profession.

~J

[Sargasso]

Eh, the Rigger 3 book notes that legitimate, (not shadowrunner) riggers get their VCR financed, and work long and hard to pay them off and things. Riggers are the quintessential highly skilled blue collar workers. Even in a shaodwrunning team, a Rigger is overworked and underapreciated. :-P

[Moon-Hawk]

[UpSyndrome]

60k is for a level 2. Of course, with the Essence impact of a VCR, most people would probably go alpha given the relatively low ratio of cost to Essence (60k/3E compared to, say, a rating 2 encephalon at 115k/1.5E)

-Joe