A while back Synner mentioned a drone/vehicle modification that was cut from the Arsenal book - Structural Reinforcement. Structural Reinforcement was stated to increase Body by 1 and decrease Speed by 10%, and could be taken a maximum of three times.

I was wondering if Synner or anyone else had any suggestions on how much this modification would cost, and how many modification slots it would use, even if the answer is unofficial.

-thanks

Been wondering since I've read that myself about cost and what not.

2000x Rating / 1 slot per rating pnt? Sound reasonable?

From my unedited notes (remember this should be considered unofficial until you see it published):

Awesome. Thank you Synner. More love for the full 'borgs! That's actually a pretty sweet enhancement for any vehicle. Do you think we will see this published at some point, or will I have to keep this a house rule indefinitely? (Just curious, it's official enough for me already)

Thanks Synner, that's going to really fill in a missing piece of the customization rules for me

..so everyone can put a weaponmount with LMG on a micro drone.

Which would, because size category depends on body, be an expensive large or medium drone.

Could also be a strict body mod not effecting anything else other then damage resistance checks? Mentions reinforcing or replacing materials not enlarging or increasing vehicle size.

as written, doesn't that let you use 1 slot to gain 3? (for a net gain of 2)

not that i consider that to be bad, just noticing =P

Not exactly - it's one slot per additional point of Body. (each time this modification is taken)

But indeed it means that for vehicles with body 4+, it costs no slots.

the table synner posted appears to have rating 1-3 all using the same line, and having 1 slot as the requirement. this would indicate 1 slot gets you 1-3 body.

Ah, now this is useful. I can make some decently powerful walker drones at last.

Well, the table is wrong as it doesn't match the written rules.

I did say this was from my unedited notes (the table was meant to reflect the range of levels available 1 to 3 available and has been adjusted now to avoid confusion).

Stuctural Reinforcement increases the Body of the vehicle by 1 every time it is taken (note this may increase the Drone's size class) and each modification takes up a slot. The max number of times the modification can be taken for a specific vehicle is 3 (thus increasing a Body 1 to 4 or Body 9 to 12).

thanks!

Max

For some of the other modifications that require body less than or more than a specific value, would the structural reinforcement still work if it breaks the original requirement of that modification?

As it increases body (and thus even adds slots) - no, once you are past the requirements, the other mods don't really work anymore.

One of the reasons this modification was subject to some discussion and we ended up not including it was because we were undecided on whether it should add slots or not. If we do decide to publish this in the future and it does increase slots (in the interest of keeping things streamlined), I would expect the cost to go up or otherwise play off Body.

Well, as long as it changes Body, it will have all the implications.

Limiting it to Standard instead of All would fix the oddities for microdrones, though.

I don't think this modification should increase drone size. Note that the information about Body and drone sizes in Arsenal (page 102) are guidelines. Also, many of the drones in the actual listings ignore the guidelines.

My main reason for this is to be able to get a medium walker drone - the Otomo - the ability to gain a Body and Strength of 9, which is the augmented maximum for a human. Not being able to have a drone possess equal strength to a human of the same size would seem a bit silly to me.

However, I do agree that the cost should possibly be more. Factoring in the original Body of the vehicle/drone seems to be the way to go. It should be more expensive to modify the vehicle the bigger it is, that only sounds natural.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the modification not increasing the modification slots for the vehicle, but I think it should go ahead and rise with the increase of body to keep things simple. Since that effectively means you don't loose any slots in this modification, I think this is another reason to increase the cost.

I agree with the school of thought that there should not be a slot increase or maybe even size increase. I'm understanding this screws up the stream lined effect which really is working for 4th edtion but think its workable as an optional tweak without too much stress.

I am in agreement about the body increase not raising the size of the drone. And I do believe that the increase in body should increase the slots. Albeit the price of the modification should be a little higher, say 5,000 per rating. My reasoning behind this is the listings in arsenal. Both Mitsuhama drones have higher Body rating and are still listed as medium drones.

Physically I can see this going two ways. Either the modification increased the physical size of the drone, and thus the slots as well, by making it bulkier and generally larger. Or it's just a material replacement, plastic for steel and such, that and there isn't any more "space" for slots than there was before, but yet the physiczl size isn't any larger.

Based off the name I see the second option being the direction things were leaning, but I understand that goes against the streamline feel of SR4. However I know I'll be adding this in my game and letting players decide which direction the modification takes when using it. Sort of ask, did you bolt on a rollcage, or did you replace the body panels?