I'm trying to put together my first concept rigger as a NPC / back up character for a game I'm taking part in and I would appreciate some help with building

Starting with a Doberman as a base I have the following ideas / parts of the build


The Drone itself
Base cost of 3,000
Armour upgrade (9) cost of 1,800
Chameleon Coating cost of 3,000
Gecko Tips cost of 300
Satellite Communication cost of 500
Ingram White Knight with Smartlink modification + chameleon coating cost of 5,000

Total Cost so far 13,600

Sensor Upgrade (R6)
Two R6 Camera (front and back) with the following addons
Front = Lowlight, Flare Comp, Smartlink, Thermographic and Ultrasound R3 Cost of 1,650
Rear = Lowlight, Flare Comp, Thermographic and Ultrasound R3 Cost of 1,150
Two Motion Sensors (Sides) cost of 100
Microphone R6 with Spatial Recognizer, Select Sound Filter R3 cost of 1,000
Radio Signal Scanner R6 cost of 150

Total Cost so far 17,650

Hardware and software upgrades
Response upgrade R6 cost of 8000
Additional software of
Defence R4 with Ergonomic enhancement cost of 4,100
Manoeuvre R4 with Ergonomic enhancement cost of 4,100
Covert Ops R4 with Ergonomic Enhancement cost of 4,100

Total Cost so far 37,950

With final stats for the drone being
H 0
AC 10 / 25
Sp 75
P 3
B 3
A 9
Se 6

And Matrix attributes of
R 6
Si 4
Sy 4
F 4

My main questions are have I got the right idea with the sensors now being a rating 6?
Do you think the response upgrade is worth it? (From my understanding most tests when jumped in are based on response)
What about software have I missed anything blatant?
Have I gone overboard for what is basically a medium drone?

Ergonomic isn't available to Autosoft, though.

And of course, if armor is above body, speed and acc suffer.

Uhmmmm... This has all sorts of issues. Lets take a look at the basics.

Its a medium drone so it has 4 slots available for modification at the start.
- 1 slot for the normal turret it comes with standard.
Lets see your add ons:
2 slots for the coating
1 slot for the armor
1 slot for the Gecko
1 slot for the uplink.
1 slot for the improved sensors (There is a capacity for those too you know. You went over the capacity of 5. You need to upgrade to get the sensors crammed in there.)


So you are cramming 7 slots worth of stuff into 4 slots of space. Ok there are rules for overmodding, basically double the cost. And add in some other stuff like it steers like a brick.

So revist the rules on pages 105 and 129 of Arsenal on how to get it at its true cost and handling.

Nah, the coating is just 1 slot. So as long as you ditch the pretty much useless motion sensors, the even more useless radio scanner and a camera, then get an UWBR, you should be fine - you even could get an olfactory sensor.

Uhmmm.... Pg 133 of Arsenal.
Chameleon Coating: 2 slots, 10 threshhold, Facility, body*1000

And yes if he ditches a motion sensor he would be fine on the sensor capacity. That would let him get rid of improved sensor array and drop the total down to 6 slots (still 2 more slots then he is allowed). However if he gets UWBR that takes up 5 capacity and will completely fill the entire sensor array. (per pg 105 of Arsenal)

I spend WAYYYYYYY to much time looking at drone rules for my stating hobby.

What version of Arsenal? My PDF, corresponding to the corrected second printing, has it at 1 slot on both p. 133 and p. 196.

Not to ruin you day, but UWBR is just 2 slots here (both p. 59/ p. 186) - Radar is 5 slots.

Off-the-rack mods don't count towards the slot limit, and medium drones have 6 Sensor capacity

So just one mod slot needs to be freed...the sat uplink maybe? And what's the point of a smartlink in a camera anyway?

It get's the SmartGun bonus.

Arggee. I have the first printing. Just looked up the errata and looks like I need to go get the updated pdf.

And looks like I'm eating crow on the second one too. I forget that UWBR and radar are two separate things.

When shooting pictures? ^^

And a quick glance at the Arsenal Erratra confirms it:


The mods are perfectly legal, just the smartlink in the cam is pointless.

Ok, going off old information. In SR4 it was 5 for small and 8 for Large drones so I tended to use the 5 for capacity. Looks like they uped that in SR4a (still not used to it yet. Used to not be this difficult).

As for the OTR, I tend to remove them as I make original stuff.

OK, I need to start making drones more so I can get the rules down pat.

When attacking with a SmartGun-modified weapon.

It's a system, it uses different parts.

The weapon has to have a smartgun system attached. p. 322 SR4A. Whatever is firing the system needs a smartlink. p. 33 SR4A

Two pieces, each useless by themselves, together, they give a +2 bonus.

Hm, you mean a smartlink for the dogbrain?

yes.

So that it can turn visual data into digital data with the smartgun system, then into visual data with the smartlink display screen so that it can transform it back into digital data again from the sensor? V->D->V->D?

Smartlink on a sensor is wacky.

Also, a R6 response upgrade is restricted gear if we're looking at this bot from a startbuild. Not to mention that the thing would have to be a "security level" rating 4 device or modular to be upgradable to 6 anyway. In my games that means it has to come with an availability listed with an R to do that upgrade without paying for the slot and nuYen cost to make it modular, but that's just a personal thing.

OK, a few other considerations.
1) UWB Radar and Ultrasound both work in 3D so you won't need redundant ones on the back side.
2) Ares MP-LMG is cheaper. Doubly so when you add in a smartgun system. The Ingram is better for handheld, but weapon mounts don't have recoil problems.

its not that different then getting it put into a cyber eye which for all intents and purposes is just a glorified sensor, my understanding is cameras have access to all the visual mods and particularly the smartlink one if you want to use it at all, putting a smartlink in a camera might be wacky but putting a smartlink enabled pair of glasses on a drone would be even stranger.

One thing about the response upgrade, I know its alot of bp really to do it (money plus restricted gear) but it does seem to be the most logical as from what I can tell the native cap for rigging the drone (not including bonuses for hotsim and rigger control) is 12 six from program six from response. I had thought that the drone would be security rated as it was able to carry a machine gun which seems abit over kill for a civilian model but I guess that assumption is not set in stone and would be a gm approval thing

You mean like patrol a drone with a turret for guns?

Personally, I go with: Every vehicle with R availability is "security" and if it's F, it "military" when it comes to device rating.

Has anyone tried modeling a Tachikoma?

numerous times. usually it starts with a steel lynx.