Hello everyone!

I've already Neraph's thread about it, but it focuses in an idea different to my own, and I can't find the answers to my questions.

First of all, the general concept is being the groups "mini-tank" and also get-away car. I'd like to go around most of the time on a flying drone, VTOL if possible. For the getaways, my guess is that a comfy van would do the trick, so I'm less worried about that.

My first question is regarding AI characters with the piloting origin at 10 BP. It says that you can use autosofts like they where you're skills when you use a drone... does that mean that I don't actually have to take piloting/ gunnery skills at all and I can just buy the programs and be done with it?

Another one, on the rigging table on the main manual (20th anniversary edition), it mentions a couple of rolls when "jumped into" a drone that are agility+skill, AI's don't have agility so I guess I use my Response trait instead, right?

Do drones using autofire weapons suffer recoil? I can't seem to find an straight answer, but I've missed lot's of things before o_O

The rest is just asking for suggestions in regards to which drone/s to pick and pimp for my concept... from the main manual the Dalmatian seems a good choice... but would it be too large? Anyway, suggest to your hearts content!

And Thanks!

I'm not sure you can get specializations with autosofts like you can with skills, so thats one reason to get skills at least.
I was trying to build an AI rigger as well and ran into similar problems when trying to figure out what to roll.

Huh? Not have my books at hand right now, but I can't remember anything mentioning agility there


According to the BBB they don't. Arsenal introduces the optional and widely used rule of Recoil Comp = drone's Body, plus whatever RC the isntalled weapon might have.


My standard setup is A FlySpy with an R6 Camera, R6 Microphone, and Radio signal scanner for recon, and a Doberman with White Knight LMG and additional Armor for the fun stuff. Many people seem to prefer that Ford police drone from Arsenal over the Doberman, but I just can't bring myself to imagine this thing flying into closed rooms

Look up the Ford LEBD from Arsenal. It's a great general purpose flying drone, decently small, comes with a gun mount and mechanical arm as standard equipment. I prefer slapping chameleon coating on them so they're less obtrusive. I envision them kinda like the eyebots from the Fallout video games. Having a "cloud" of 3-5 FlySpy drones around you is also great, as they can be sent to scout, and serve as additional members of a TacNet.

You can save on skill BP by buying Autosofts, but remember that Autosofts are limited to Rating 4 and cannot have specializations, aside from the built-in ones (like Targeting MUST be specialized to a particular class of weapons). So they're not really great for "primary" skills but work wonders to fill out secondary skills you wouldn't have put more than four ranks into anyhow.

I think yes you would substitute Response for Agility. Makes sense to me.

By default drones, like all vehicles, do not suffer recoil penalties. There is an optional rule (Arsenal page 105) that instead applies the recoil modifiers to vehicles, but has the vehicle's Body count as Recoil Compensation.




-k

Thanks!

I'll check that drone you both mention...

One thing... autosofts have a max rating of 4?, where does it say that?

The price table for software has prices up to rating 6 if I remember correctly, though I don't have the book in front of me...

That's the one I meant

IMO the rotor blades are simply too big...but handwaving can always solve that. Oh, another nice one is the Stormcould- your personal eye in the sky, and nobody notices another advertisement blimp.

They are listed as "Autosofts (Rating 1–4)" in the gear tables. They have an entry in the "Ratings 4 to 6" cost column because of the possible Rating 4, not because they can actually go up to Rating 6.




-k

I'll check that later, but drat!

There goes my dreams of having decent starting dice pools!!
(Honestly I'm going the IA way because I love the concept, cost wise a technomancer or a hacker is waaaaaay better)

Still, thanks!

Any more answers? suggestions?

What about the general build? (skills, stats, etc...)

From my archives...

This one still has 55 BP for skills/contacts and 158,750 for additional gear.

Thanks for the character example!

A few questions though:

Addiction (Moderate, Alcohol) [+10]
Addiction (Moderate, Push) [+10]
Addiction (Moderate, Stimulants) [+10

Aren't those addictions well... silly for an AI? Or is there some way for it to ingest alcohol that I don't know o_O

Also, 55 pts for skills ain't a bit low? Just a skill group at 4 would be 40 of those!

Thanks again! Keep'em coming!

I would throw a heavy book at a player if i was the gm and they brought me those... then again, im not entirely sure i'd let in an AI anything, as a character, so.

Grab cracking group 4, electronics 1, and tell the group to do its own datasearching
Autosofts for all the physical stuff.
Only way I see an AI satisfying those addictions is by rigging a biodrone, probably with simsense unit.

That's an idea...

Another question that pops up...

Why having the main stats so high?

Sure, you have a massive rating, but what's the rating per se good for in a rigged drone?

Also, which matrix skills are absolutely "vital" for a rigger? First time dealing with matrix also on my side of things... (I usually play Street Samurais or Adepts).

Sorry if I'm bumping this prematurely.

Can somebody answer my previous questions?

Thanks!

my AI has an addiction(knowsofts). he wants and needs to know everything about metahumanity for his conquer-the-world plans.

a rigger should have Electronic warfare. hacking and data search a hacker connection can do, and for cybercombat, just log off.

That is a terrible addiction. My PC has addictions to shadowrunning, getting money, and karma. ;P