Let's say I'm building a rigger who specializes in remote-control. He's going to want a LOT of Command dice. Does he need the Computer skill for that? If not, how useful is it to him?

Computer skill is not helpful in Command test - you need Command program and proper Pilot skills. I think Computer is not really useful skill for a rigger - actions like Edit or Track are mostly hacker's/technomancer's part of the game.

computer + analyse is your matrix perception. i expect you'll want it sooner or later.

That is, assuming that the rigger's going to be logging on to deal with hacking attempts directly. If the rigger's slaving the drone to his commlink, and loading IC on the commlink to handle any intruding hackers, the IC will be the one making matrix perception tests, not the rigger. For perceving the real world through the drones sensors, it's sensor + perception.

you know, i suppose there may be faster ways to lose your drones (and severely cripple your rigger to the point where you'd be better off making a new character) than having your IC taken over and turned against you, but that isn't likely to matter when that happens to you.

if you have a substantial investment which can be easily taken away from you, it behooves you to do everything you can to provide protection which cannot just be taken away from you easily. IC is a handy tool, but i for one would not trust it with hundreds of thousands of nuyen worth of carefully selected, modified drones.

now, if you're just picking up 2-3 basic 'drone with a gun' packages, then go nuts, that's no big deal to lose (relatively speaking) and is *much* easier to replace since those kind of drones are all over the place and can be stolen rather than custom-ordered. but if you're talking about a rigger character, i'm expecting to see at least 100k nuyen invested, quite possibly more, in high-end, heavily-modified, difficult-to-replace drones. or at least that much invested in lightly modified, disposable drones, which you'd still rather not lose because it's a lot easier to cover up the theft of 1 doberman with an AK-97 than it is to cover up 20 dobermans with ares alphas that go missing from a secured site (largely because if there's 100k nuyen worth of replacements for the company, it's worth 75k for them to recover it... if there's 5k nuyen to replace the drone, it's probably easier, cheaper, and faster to just buy yourself a new drone in most cases)

Per the Unwired Errata 1.0, "For security reasons, agents (or IC) loaded onto a persona may not be subscribed or commanded by other any other persona." Load the IC onto your commlink's persona, and it can protect that commlink (and any drones slaved to it) just as easily as if it were loaded independently on the commlink itself.

Of course, if you're worried about drone theft, it's easier for an opponent to snag your Access ID and spoof commands to the drone directly than it is to try to hack in through the commlink, regardless whether or not you've got the proper skills to respond to a hacking attempt. And of the countermeasures that can slow down and/or prevent spoofing attempts (Operating your Commlink and Drone in Hidden Mode, Encrypting the Signal, Capturing Wireless Traffic directed at your drone to monitor for rogue commands, switching off the wireless link and instead using laser/microwave links, skinlink or even hardwire fiberoptic cable to issue commands), none require matrix perception tests.

What IC would you recommend I put on my commlink? Matrix stuff is not my forte; use small words and speak slowly ^_^

To answer you orginal post, sort of. Vital no, useful yes. you can then program your drones to do specific things and run around on remote with specific actoins or give a simple command for a complex manuever. All with a piece of code. You can also fix things computer soft ware wise...useful with drones.

If you have Unwired, something simple like Rumplestiltskin (agent w/attack and armor) from the Sample IC section would probably be plenty. Since it doesn't have it's own analyze program, you'll want to have one running on the commlink configured so that the IC can use it. Put the IC on a patrol, scanning for icons of accounts logged in that are other than the persona that the IC is loaded on. If it finds anyone else other than your persona, attack it and alert you.

This advice would more or less work for any non-matrix specialist's commlink, for a basic level of security for the commlink that's the PAN hub. Of course, if you have need to have teammates logged into your PAN, you'll have to instruct your IC that they're ok too, but be mindful that with every extra logon comes extra risks.


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In the rules as written, software skill does not come into play for scripted commands. The drone rolls Pilot + Response against a GM determined threshold to see if it's smart enough to figure out how to interpert the script in light of the drone's current situation.

Of course, if the GM were to use the scriptwriter's software skill as a guideline to where to set the threshold, that would be an excellent houserule.

so you don't consider being able to get the AID of your target to spoof to be useful when it comes to fighting for your drones? because without any matrix skills, odds are good that by the time you know someone is trying to take over your drones, they've probably already taken over your drones. all it takes for the enemy hacker to take over your IC is one spoof command to load it elsewhere.

How would you define which drones are "normal" (device rating 3), "security" (4) or "military" (5)? I'm looking at "Device/Software Ratings", Arsenal 102.

in general, most drones will be normal. if it has a weapon mount, it's probably security. unless it explicitly mentions military, i would assume it is not (i would reserve military for the big, expensive items personally. in general, the military stuff is going to be the sort of stuff where you look at it and can't imagine using it in a situation where you care about the budget.

This sounds about right to me...

If you're trying to steal back a drone that's already been stolen from you, then yes, being able to obtain the Access ID of the opponent who took it from you would be handy. The best solution though, is to to have effective measures in place to prevent the initial theft.


If an Agent/IC is loaded directly into a persona, it can not be spoofed. Period. Here is a link to the relevant Unwired errata (in particular, the relevant entry is under p.55, Subscriptions).



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While there are always exceptions, the following rules of thumb will cover most drones when the answer is not otherwise obvious:

• Does the drone have a gun on it? If no, then the drone is "normal".
• Does the drone have a BIG FUCKING GUN on it? If yes, then it's "military".
• Everything else is "Security".

Very good to know. Thank you very much.



Well said!

yes. it says other personas cannot command it. as far as the agent or IC is concerned, if someone spoofs your AID, then *you* gave it that order. as such, it *can* be spoofed.

So the agent/IC can not tell the difference between a command comming from the persona it's loaded onto (even though those commands are coming to it in a special way that requires no subscription slot on the part of that persona) and a command comming from another icon, simply because that command has the proper Access ID stamped on it? This is me being hardheaded, I suppose, but I'm considering "subscribed to or commanded" as a single logical unit and will continue to treat agents/IC that are loaded on a persona as if they only are listening to their special non-subscription -based channel that they share with the specific persona icon they've been loaded into. Maybe the developers didn't intend for that relationship to be as special as I'm treating it at my table, but it's worked for me so far.