During a recent run where we had to infiltrate a security center of a mall and get some data, I got a idea to equip a drone with some Neurostun, have it crawl through the ventilation shafts and disperse the gas on the unsuspecting guards. Due to time constraints we had to abandon that plan, but that got me thinking on how to modify a drone to be a effective air duct crawler.

The drone should be able to do these things:
-deliver several doses of a gas based toxin
-be able to deal with security (laser trip beams, motion detectors, cameras)
-be able to deal with mundane hazards (fans, high temperatures, grates)
-and be relatively silent

is it possible to do these things with a drone, preferably a microdrone. A team of drones would work as well. I am not very experienced in modding drones, but would a smoke projector work to deliver the toxin?

A smoke projector will work if and only if the GM allows it. If the GM doesn't allow it, the Termination System (Enhanced) will freeze the drone up and release the gas, and then unfreeze the drone when another signal is sent.

Drones are also rather naturally relatively silent.

As for dealing with all the other stuff, though, you're pretty much out of luck. However, you could up the Response and System ratings of the microdrone to 5, put a level 5 agent on there with a number of hacking programs and let the agent take out the security. Mundane hazards you really have no chance.

I think you'll like C-12 Dragonflies. For 2500 nuyen you can fly them straight into a place wherever you want, get them right on target and then detonate them with the stats of a high explosive grenade. Expensive but you never know when you'll need one.

Is this a drone that you are hoping to operate autonomously, or will there be a rigger behind this thing?

Ferret with gecko tips and a mechanical arm( to open vents) and a mechanics toolkit(to unscrew stuff and mess with machinery)

Could you use a Bandit with a gas grenade and a raccoon size breather (or implant an airtank)?

Yes, a Rigger would be behind those things. My GM is pretty lenient about this stuff, and will approve most ideas as long as they make some sort of sense.

So far these are the ideas I have for modifications, aside from improving general drone attributes:

- gecko tips for getting around in ventilation shafts
- a grapple arm
- a ultrasound sensor for detecting motion sensors, may need improved sensor array
- welding laser (attached to the grapple arm)
- hardware tools
- smoke projector

I was thinking of using either a Kanmushi or a Ferret drone. Strangely enough I think I can fit all those modifications on the Kanmushi drone but not the Ferret. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I am nor familiar with a Bandit drone, or do you mean a animal?

The Bandit is an awakened raccoon, and way too expensive to buy trained.

With all those mods, you're best off using a Ferret. They have like 8-10 mod slots, compared with the Kanmushi's 4, even counting their packaged gecko tips.

Interestingly, I'm in the middle of prepping a post along the lines of my free spirit thread for drones - I've found very interesting things...

Here is what I got for the Kamunshi (4 slots) (1,000 ) :

- gecko tips (comes with those so they don't take up a mod slot)
- grapple arm (2 slots, 4000 , with welding laser attached 3000 )
- smoke projector (1 slot, 700 )
- for the last slot I needed some hardware tools. I decided for the special machinery upgrade to represent some basic hardware tools (toolkit size) for 1 slot and 1000 . According to the rules I could fit a workshop there at 1 slot and 10,000 but that seems kind of wrong.

Since it is a micro drone, as far as I understand it, it can be only equipped with a rating 1 camera, which means I can add only one upgrade to that, which will be ultrasound. That is a total of 1,100

I will go with the fact that it is a standard vehicle, so has device/software ratings all at 3. I decide to upgrade the Response and Signal to 5, costing 5000 . That will help me with infiltration.

There is a additional cost of 60 for a dose of Neurostun.

Total cost for the drone is 15,860

By my understanding of the somewhat arcane sensor rules, it works like this:

1) A vehicle needs 4+ sensors to maneuver. This is close to impossible for microdrones, and they do have locomotion, so ignore this rule.
2) A vehicle's unrated sensors have the same rating as the vehicle's Sensor rating. They upgrade for free if the Sensor rating upgrades.
3) A vehicle's Sensor rating is the lowest of it's rated sensors. (It rises is you improve all the sensors, which are assumed to start at the original Sensor rating)

So if you buy a rating 4 UWB, your Sensor rating becomes 4, and you camera too. All you need to do is buy the radar at 4, the camera upgrade is "free".

With drone/vehicle Sensor, it's not quantity that counts, just the quality of the weakest sensor. Strange but there you are.

Not quite - the Sensor Rating would be 3, and the Camera still Rating 1.

Getting improved Sensor array allows you to use Mini-sized Cameras on a Micro-Drone, though - and those are not restricted.

Hmm guess the sensors are really confusing. I went of page 334 SR4A, where it says that microdrones have a sensor capacity of 1 (so I think that means they can only have one sensor), and that microdrone sized cameras come only at rating 1 (meaning they can only have one upgrade).

Indeed. And Improved Sensor Array gets you up one package level.

Also, in case you're interested, I've done some work on speccing out a stealth microdrone before, I passed on Ultrasound on the microcamera. Why? Because its an active sensor - you emit ultrasound waves, which any other ultrasound device (including motion detectors) can detect... just looking around could set off alarms. Instead, giving the camera Vision Enhancement 3, or something, would offset most of the perception penalties to the point where they are comparable to ultrasound (but not in combat situations). A microdrone won't be doing a lot of combat, anyway - so, for me, this works out well.

It means that you have one Slot for the sensor. So a microdrone can only get a camera (if you want that to be its one sensor). And Microdrones can't take laser microphones because they take up to slots.

Well I would be Rigging this drone, and putting the ultrasound is just so I can keep it in passive. The rating 1 normal vision mode should be enough to maneuver around the air ducts. The ultrasound is just so I can detect the motion sensors (as I think those are most likely to be found in a air duct), and to know when to use infiltration to bypass them.

The main objective of this drone would be to get through the airducts to a central security location (or a securities spider nest) and dump the Stun Gas, thus knocking out the spider or security forces. I can have a microtapper drone following behind it with a spool of fiberoptic cable if I need to remotely jack into some matrix secure location. The microtapper bug can also proved a wireless link relay if some of the walls have anti wifi paint.

Gotcha. Yeah, keep in mind that the ducts are generally not well lit, so with normal vision, you'll have a hard time seeing anything in the ducts (assuming there is anything to see).

Also, you might want to double check the microtapper rules with your GM. As written, the microtapper has an optical tap attached. Look up optical tap in Unwired, and it appears to only let you perform the intercept traffic action - which probably isn't what you intend.

OK, here is my take on it. It is a tiny little drone, only twice the size of a grenade. It looks to be fairly RAW too (my weakness).

This drone is based off of the Toyota MK-Centipede (Search and Rescue Walker Drone).

Duct crawler Micro-Drone:


Stats:
Handling: +1
Accel: 2/10
Speed: 10
Pilot: 3
Body: 0
Armor:0
Sensor: 3
Cost: 3,750

Std. Upgrades:
Walker Mode
Improved Sensory Array
GecoTips
Smuggler’s Compartment (To hold grenade, capacity 1 grenade)
Special Equipment: (Miniwelder)

Sensors:
Camera
Directional Microphone
Radio Scanner (Rating 6)

How so?

SR4A so.

I don't have SR4A. Thanks for enlightening me.
</sarcasm>

Seriously, the drone Sensor rules are arcane and mysterious. If you can give me real information I'd appreciate it.

Basically the rules boil down to this:

1) Anything that can have sensors has a capacity and pg 325 of SR4 has the capacity. A vehicle has a capacity of 12, the standard that Arsenal mentioned.

2) Every sensor has a capacity it takes up, and like cyberware the rating and capacity are not related. A rating 6 camera and a rating 1 camera both take 1 capacity.

3) Each sensor can have a rating; when using a specific sensor use its rating. When using the general sensor suite, use the average rating.

3) If you want to cram in more sensors, you have to buy the Improved Sensor which moves you one up the chart on pg 325.


I hope that helps.

Sensors are not too hard to comprehend. Read the arenal errata. Read the core book. Note which sensors have ratings, and which do not. It goes like thus:


1) Vehicles come with certain sensors for free. the list is in arsenal, at the vehicles sensor rating.
2) Vehicles have a Sensor Capacity, and a Signal based on their size.
2a) Improved Sensor Array upgrade moves the vehicle size up one category, which affects capacity AND the range.
3) If you change the sensor loadout, you recalculate the Sensor rating by averating all the sensor ratings. Unrated sensors do not count.
3a) Sensors that have no rating, such as motion sensors, use the vehicle's Sensor rating. These get free upgrades.
5) You simultaneously have a sensor rating, and individual sensor ratings. You may always choose to use an individual sensor instead.
5a) Yes, this means that using ultrawideband radar, which is capped at rating 4, will bring down your average sensor rating.

A Practical Example:
C-D Dragonfly. Microdrone sensor package, capacity 3, signal 3. Starting sensor: 2. Arsenal 2nd print, 105, standard vehicle sensors: atmosphere, 2 cameras, 2 laser range finders, 2 motion sensors, radar. So it probably has a Camera, Laser range finder, Motion sensor at rating 2. Easy.
Note: The c-d's description says it uses an ultrasound sensor, which means that rating 2 cam has a free ultrasound mod. Ever wondered why they're so expensive? that's why.

Modding:
Buy a Camera 6
Now: Make a Hardware check to remove the camera 2(logic+hardware, 8, 1 hour.)
Then: Make a Hardware check to take the Ultrasound accessory off, and put it on the camera 6.
After: Make a Hardware check to install the new camera 6 with ultrasound (logic+hardware, 8, 1 hour.)
Recalculate sensor: Camera 6 + Motion Sensor(unrated)+Laser Range Finder(Unrated) = Sensor 6.
A More Advanced Example
Buy a rating 4 Radio Signal Scaner
Remove the Laser Range Finder
Install the Radio Signal Scanner.
Recalculate sensor: Camera 6 + Radio Signal Scanner 4 + motion sensor(unrated) = 6+4=10 / 2 = 5. Your new sensor is 5. However, when using the radio signal scanner as a Sniffer, it only adds 4 dice.

Hope that helps.

I read those. I'm not sure if SR4A has any changes since SR4, but I've got the Arsenal errata. It's stranger than you think..



Yes and no; you don't pay nuyen for the basic sensor package. It DOES take up Capacity:


Thus your example is incorrect:




A microdrone isn't a standard vehicle, and doesn't have 12 free capacity.




You can't. Cameras are unrated, which means they automatically upgrade if you improve the (rated) sensor package. It also means you can't upgrade a camera on it's own (!)




This isn't possible. The curious thing is, you can't improve the Sensor of a drone without any rated sensors at all, since the unrated sensors only improve if all the rated Sensors improve, not on their own.




To summarize my beef with the drone Sensor rules:

* The base Sensor ratings of most drones are completely arbitrary
* You can improve only rated Sensors on their own, the unrated sensors can only follow
* Adding more sensors tends to drive down the Sensor rating, not drive it up
* Adding a Sensor with a lower maximum rating will drive down the Sensor rating
* The rule text has several contradictions:





Which means that many drones can't come up with the required 4+ sensors, since they only have [1] or [3] Capacity.

Also:


So which is it? An average - where improving a single sensor can improve the Sensor ring, or does the lowest sensor count (because you must improve all the sensors to raise Sensor). In both cases, sensors with a maximum of rating 3 are pretty sucky.

As per SR4A, cameras, glasses, contacts, microphones, goggles, and probably something else I'm forgetting are rated, and have a number of "slots" for visual enhancements equal to their rating. Also, the rating of cameras and microphones are used when determining the new rating for a drone.

This. Cameras come in ratings 1-6, and cost rating times 100 nuyen. Microphones are half that. Amusingly, you can stick them in RFID tags, now.

Ascalaphus: I am not getting in a 'quote the littlest details to nitpick it' war with you. Under the newest rules I have access to (4A and arsenal second printing), it works. If you want to complain about rules that are out of date, be my guest.

I'm sorry, I honestly didn't know that. I've got Arsenal 1st ed, and the errata on the CGL website don't list those changes you tell me about.

They should clean up the rules for the drones/vehicles and sensors. I have to look at 3 different places just to get all my facts straight.


Anyway my sneaky little drone is almost complete, just the problem is that it has a normal rating 1 camera with ultrasound. As I want the ultrasound in passive as not to trip the motion sensor, how would installing a small light (I was thinking a small LED) work? Is there a official mod for that? It doesn't have to be bright at all, just enough for the drone to see a meter or two in front of itself in the tunnel.

Yeah. That's one thing I'm seriously annoyed with about Shadowrun. The errata files are seriously horrible. Usually they're there to bring everyone up to the same page, but there's differing printings, localizations with different rules, incomplete changelogs.... its like the devs aren't even on the same page, and don't give a shit.

Complain all you want about d20, but all their stuff has easy-to-find, 'this is broken/dump/incomprehensible and should work this way instead of how its printed'.

Speaking of errata stuff, i need someone with Street Magic's Second Printing to look at page 31, and tell me what it has to say about Geas(a). Apparently the rule that lets it make up for magic loss DID make it into 4th, and its been a pain in the ass finding out where.

That's pretty much where the "Special Machinery" mod comes in to play, though for something the size of an LED that'll be used like a flashlight I'd probably 0 slots unless the drone is Small or smaller, which then I'd say 1 slot.

hehehe-AHahahaha!

I had the mental image of a micro drone with a Spotlight.

One thing you might want to remember. When infiltrating with a microdrone it is important to put it in hidden mode. Or the little bug gets caught by the spider, and you can be along with it.

Maybe one way to fix the Sensor rules would be to state:

A vehicle's Sensor rating is the average of it's 5 best rated sensors. If the vehicle has less than five rated sensors, any lacking sensors are treated as being rated 0.

Example: a car has a rating 2, a rating 3 and two rating 5 sensors. The average is (2+3+5+5+0)/5 = 3

With this change, you no longer get shafted for
- Sensors with a more limited range of ratings
- Adding more sensors, which normally makes raising Sensor harder

Why 5 sensors? It's an arbitrary choice, but..
- Humans have five "classic" senses (and some more that get less attention, like balance)
- It means small drones have a harder time getting a high Sensor than bigger drones, which is good

Why ignore unrated sensors? Because they're annoying. Any important sensors should be rated. You can add ratings to sensors to include them; radar seems a logical candidate.

Also, this rule would supersede the "a vehicle needs 4+ sensors" rule, which wasn't working anyway.



Of course, it's possible that Arsenal 2 or SR4A already fixes these issues, but I'm not psychic...

I'm not sure what point you're getting at, but the way they work is you take all the Rated sensors and average them out, rounding up. Unrated sensors are ignored. This is actually a very nice method, as all you need to do is put in one R6 Camera for 600 nuyen and you have a R6 Sensor for that drone. ANd I believe if you do two R6 Cameras with all the possible visual aids, a R6 Microphone with the important ones, and R4 Ultrawideband Radar, you end up with 5 sensor, IIRC.

I'm almost finished with my super-post about drones and the Matrix, along the same vein of the Ally Spirit one in my signature. It may be ready for posting tonight.

As you round up, with Camera (6), Microphone (6) and a UWBR (4), you get Sensor 6.

Yes, but your Sensor stat would go down if you added a sensor that capped at 3. I think it's wrong if Sensor goes down when you add more sensors.