If I upgrade a smartgun with a Pilot Upgrade, it becomes a drone in all respects except immobility. Can it fire on its own and use its own autosoft for shooting instead of my firearms rating if I use Issue Command?

I figure that I can point it and maybe wave it around a bit and it can fire when it aligns properly, or maybe it can twist a bit on its own, but I can't find any rules one way or the other on this.

[Edit] Also, do the drones benefit from the smartgun system? Do I need to have a smartlink to tell them to shoot at stuff or will a subscription be enough?

Yes.


Again, you've got it.


Nope, no self-twisting without some method of propulsion, even if it's just an internal gyro of some sort. Without it, it can't move one iota.


I see no reason as to why they wouldn't. It's assisted targeting by a dedicated program. The question becomes whether it's built into the drone (thereby giving all drones +2 to shoot at stuff), or if it needs to be a separate program and if so how that's handled. So I don't have an answer for your last question.

I'm not buying it.
The best that the gun could do, is if it were pre-aimed, it might be able to fire on that one location, sort of like the machine gun system in Aliens. The machinegun system, however, had the ability to traverse on it's own. I would however allow the gun to perform suppressive fire, I might take away dice because of limited mobility. I would also give the player distraction dice when the gun fired equal to the uncompensated recoil, or perhaps a bit more.

I allow this with a smartgun platform accessory. Then the character can set down the gun and it can fire on it's own accord, the platform giving it the mobility needed to fire in at least a limited arc (45 or 90 degrees perhaps).

Merely holding a gun with a firing autosoft won't let it fire more accurately or with it's own software, as it has no means of moving itself. If you wanted a gun that fired more accurately while you waved it around, you'd need some sort of self-propelled targeting missile ammonition with it's own drone brain, which seems like a rather complicated and expensive way of solving a simpler challenge.

My GM isn't allowing it by itself either.

I can understand allowing it from a Smart Firing Platform, but a non-drone Smartgun can be fired from a Platform just as easily since the Platform has its own Pilot rating.

I can certainly understand it not being usable, but my real question is what good is a Pilot program on a gun all by itself?

Think less 'doing' and more 'thinking/noticing'. AI can notice foes, suggest alternate targets, perform Sensor/Targeting tests fed to the shooter as "information guided targeting" (Arsenal) which can wind up granting a better bonus than smartlink. It can also be equipped with vr-combat programs so it can defend itself and the user's PAN. "You want me to eject my magazine eh? Well go eject yourself you wanker."

Yeah, i'm pretty sure the Propulsion Upgrade weapon mod was made just for this purpose - so pilot upgraded drones could actually move and shoot at people on their own.
Possibly an Internal Bipod(with a small motor) would work too, if you didn't want it to move on its own.


I've been looking at the idea for a game of my own, in which our combat-inept hacker quick-fumbles(Its like quick drawing, except where you don't get 3 hits) a pair of automatic pistols or machine pistols, and then promptly puts his hands up and surrenders - while they right themselves, boot up and start shooting people.