All right... so as I'm redesigning some characters, I got back to looking at the drone rules. In order for a jumped-in rigger to fire a drone's guns, they make a Sensor + Gunnery test. Not liking the Sensor 3 that most drones come equipped with, I went about trying to figure out how to upgrade a drone's sensors and came up with this puzzler:



So, in order to come up with the Sensor rating of the sensor package for a package with Camera 6, Microphone, and Radio Signal Scanner 6, one would have to add up 6+6+Sensor package rating. This seems kind of... circular to me, since in order to determine the value, you need to already know the value, which is clearly impossible. I get the feeling that I'm missing something here, so could someone shed some light on this for me? I'd really like to be able to not suck at shooting as a jumped-in rigger =P

My second question is also pertinent to shooting as a rigger, but should be considerably simpler. Can guns on a drone's turrets be Smartlinked and, if so, does a jumped-in rigger who has a smartlink on their person (e.g. in cybereyes) gain the +2 benefit from the smartlinked gun when firing their drone's guns? Thanks in advance, folks!

First question: Follow my step-by-step instructions, and you'll do ok.
1. Rip every sensor off your drone.
2. Install a rating 6 camera with whatever add-ons you like (consider adding more than one camera to cover different angles)
3. Install other sensors; if rated, get them rated 6, if not, just install them.
4. When firing with a weapon targeted by only one sensor, use that sensor's rating; otherwise, use the average of all rated sensors on the drone.
This way, all Sensor tests will be made with 6 dice, and, unless you're getting some bitchin' sensors, you don't even have to pay much for the upgrade.

Allow me to attempt to clarify the part that seems circular; some sensors are rated (like cameras and microphones) and some are not (like geiger counters and motion sensors). Every RATED sensor always uses its rating IF YOU ARE USING ONLY THAT SENSOR. UNRATED sensors pretend to have a rating equal to the average of all RATED sensors on the same drone/vehicle. Also, since most tests incorporate more than one sensor, the Sensor attribute you will usually be using is the average of all sensors on the drone/vehicle; since the unrated sensors pick up the average of the rated sensors, you are, again, basically taking the average of the rated sensors. Clear? I hope so, but if it isn't, just follow the above directions.

Second question; unless I've bungled my reading of RAW, that is allowed.

What McAllister said. To calculate a sensor package rating, just ignore the unrated sensors completely; you'll get the correct results, just with less confusing verbiage. Because sensor package ratings are calculated as averages, you can ignore any individual rating which is equal to the average without affecting the math at all. Unrated sensors are considered to have a rating defined to be equal to the average, so they can be safely ignored.