is it me, or is this item not in the book? the Drone Rigger has AR goggles, but there is no such itim in the equipment chapter.

there are Goggles, that can have low light etc put on them. Are stock goggles AR goggles?

semi-related question, if you upgrade your hardware per page 240, do you have to pay for each step?

i mean, if you have an item with signal 2, and you want signal 5, is it 150+500+1000 to go from 2 to 3 to 4 to 5?

My assumption was that you needed something with an image display hooked to a commlink and there was your AR. So, I'd say get goggs with an image link attached to the commlink....

They're just regular goggles with an image link modification.

Yes, it's like a kit computer you put together yourself. Of course the GM should likely have you go through an Extended Hardware Test of some sort to make sure you don't Glitch putting it together. But the rules don't explicitly mention that particular test, much less numbers that test should use.

EDIT: I'd guess something like (10, 1 hour). Or even (10+Rating, 1 hour). Maybe a bit smaller interval time than that? *shrug*

easy enough to start with it already done

Hell, why buy the metalink to begin with? my view is that if you are making a custom commlink, you just buy the hardware as listed in the book and bam, you are good to go. I mean, what do you need a base commink for, anyway? A case?

Yeah, but that isn't stricktly required. I figure that all the peripheral junk like batteries and wires are included in the upgrade cost. And cases should be too. If you want to make it look like a metalink, sure, get a metalink. I usually get mine implanted, so it's not an issue.

several (well, the Drone rigger at least, I haven't checked the others ) have custom commlinks with higher ratings.

I was recreating the Drone Rigger, plannin on modding him later, and I didn't know what to bill for the custom commlink

so if an archtype can start with a custom commlink, I think a custom char could as well

another rigger question, if you buy a copy of FIrewall 5, can you put it on all your drones?

yeah, i suppose i should clarify:

if you have a cracked copy of a firewall program, you can install it on whatever you like.

kinda like real life. for example, if someone has a cracked copy of a game, they could share that with their friends and have a LAN party. is it legal? no. does it happen? you better believe it.

alternatively, if you have the software skill, you can have it written into your background that you wrote your own firewall program, and thus you would actually have the legal right to put it on whatever you want (provided you own it, or have the owner's permission, naturally).

Most hacker programs are custom jobs in my universe. Sure it may only use 100 MP of storage, but that is about one zillion pages of 'text' storage.

So Joe the hacker goes to "Hacker-House" to buy a killer 6 attack program.. He wants it to look like a samurai sword, neon-chrome, that goes "ShwanG!!!" when it is swung.

The hacker house makes his program and he spends credits on it, deal is done...

Now.. included in that code is about 10 zillion refferences (encrypted of course) of lines like "Customer: 0000202028984092H@s7 bought this."

Since it is such a tiny bit of information, encrypted to high heaven, in 10 billion lines of code... there is a pretty good chance it could not be removed from the application without re-writing the entire application.

If a few month's down the road a sysop of Hacker-house finds a neon-chrome sword program on the "free warz" sites, he can download it, run it through his encrypted tag reader and look up the reference...

Hmm.. looks like Joe the hacker thinks its OK to share our stuff... Maybe one of our hundreds of Hacker clients would be happy to teach Joe the error of his ways for a 10% discount on their next purchase.

...

well, yes... if you try to sell it, then you're gonna be screwed. or put it up for general availability, then once again, you'll have problems.

but if you (and possibly even your team) use that program, i doubt they'll be able to find it. and the team's hacker (or technomancer) should be able to find that line of code, if only by using an agent or sprite to search through the entire program 1 line at a time to find it... sure, it might take a while, but it could be done.