So Dumpshock, I come here looking for ideas on a little project my character has undergone. Essentially, the goal is to create a high rating agent and then combine it with the AR pet personality setup. My character basically wants to make a pet agent that can hop from drone to drone or even do a little back up hacking. I've been debating between just buying a decent agent or coding my own, and of course how exactly I should set up the doggie agent (whiom shall be known as woofwoof) to run.

Really, I was just hoping I could brainstorm a bit here on Dumpshock and get your thoughts while I work on this. In the meantime, I will continue making jokes with my GM about my doberman drone humping peoples legs, or my Steel Lynx making panting sounds as it pumps people full of lead. Lord only knows what the Dalmation will do....it can fly.

Well, you definitely want the Optimization program option, so that it won't be limited by the system of whatever drone it's in (usually 3 or 4). Fuzzy logic modules and the Adaptability autosoft are also good ideas.

I enjoy in-game stuff like this. I tend to do this sort of thing with most of my characters.

For you, I'd suggest writing your own agent and giving it the Replicate option so that it can produce copies of itself. Adaptability is a nice option to use, too, since this agent will be particularly crafty. Next, use your Virtual Pet AR to sculpt it so that it looks like Stripe from The Gremlins, maybe buying a few copies of Virtual Pet to apply to the copies so that they all look/act a little different. Now, whenever you want him to replicate and take over your drones, you just splash him with some virtual water (maybe using the Virtual Weather AR) and have at it.

Not exactly a dog like you were after, but a fun option to consider nonetheless. Even if you sculpt it into another form, the Replicate and Adaptability route is the way to go.

Unwired p114


unwired p119


At least using a programming environment can drop that interval down to 1.5 months...

These aren't the program options you're referring to, they're Agent Autosofts. Unwired, p. 112, Agent Autosofts: "Agent autosofts are expert programs designed to augment Matrix agents and IC; they are not compatible with drone Pilots."

I never noticed that they weren't compatible with drone Pilots, though. That's kind of odd in and of itself. But it really just gets rid of the Replicate option. Adapatability is still valid as a drone autosoft option, however. I bet your GM would let you slide on Replicate, too, especially if you give him a cool description for it. I don't see how it's any worse for a Matrix Agent as it is a Drone Pilot.

Thanks for the responses, both of you. I'm definitely going to look in to everything I can do here with autosoft. My main reason for hesitating on coding it myself was the massive thresh hold. Three months or more is a bit to wait on my doggie comrade, since we only seem to advance one month every two sessions. But worse comes to worse I can ask my GM for a short timeskip. I got the money for my lifestyle no sweat.

As for his appearance in the Matrix, he's actually going to come with the stock virtual pet doggie avatar. Because seeing a cute AR pet, then getting matrix raped by him just seems like a funny idea. Especially since my current hacker is sort of a rough russian ork character, seeing him go on about woof woof is going to be a hoot for the whole team.

Maybe you could install a Software Autosoft in it and have it code you better and better versions of itself?

That would be a fun experiment. Drones with Adaptability, Hardware and Software Autosofts all building better and better drones.

....I think I saw a movie that started like that once

And Rushing the Job, further reduces the interval to 3 weeks time... of course, you got to worry about those "2's" as well... oh well...

Keep the Faith

You just saved me chummer. I was about to have to dump the project because it would have taken around six months and our runs are only in intervals of two month apart.

Oh well, that's why you have Edge.

Whoops, double post!

So in three months Jargon managed to set up a rating 6 agent with an adaptability autosoft of 2 and combined with the Virtual Pet program ware.

My GM says that's a few sessions away, so until the program is finished it's just a normal AR pet.

Frankly, at our table, you'd be just allowed to modify your existing agent - I modded a dogbrain this way when I played a hacker, and I'd let it slide as a GM.