In Rigger 3 there is a brief spattering on pre-programing drone commands. The rules refer to the standard target numbers for skill checks. The problem I have with that is there are no examples on what is considered a simple test, or challenging test.

I am sure many GM's would give different rulings on if a command for a drone to return to the launch bay if it takes moderate damage is a moderate test, or a hard test. This is just an example I pulled off my head, not the question specifically.

Do you all use preprogrammed drone commands? Can you give examples on your rulings on what commands get what target number?

I know the rl information and do not want to confuse the issue, I program robots in C as a hobby and hope to make it a career. I realize when people have all the rl information, they tend to make the game mechanics as complicated as the rl mechanics. I game to relax, I don't want to have to run space and time complexity analysis on a fictional program

Therefore I will wash my hands of it (to the great pleasure of my GM), and ask you all what you have done with the same situation. Higher target numbers are not that hard to hit with my characters skill, but the program size is impacted greatly by the target number and result of the test.

Thanks,
Saven

the standard difficulty number table is on pg 92 of SR3.

edit: er, oh. misread. um... not sure. guess a good rule of thumb might be +1 TN per additional instruction.

ok let me give some specific examples.
Lets say I have a drone with a cyber arm (Search and Rescue drone), and a flat bed part for extracting wounded from a hostile situation. I want to have pre-programed commands to load an disabled team member up and go to the point it launched from (home, the trailer for the truck). I would have one pre-programed command for each team member so the sensors would know exactly what person to grab, and the trailer already set up as the extraction point.
so it would be locate the member, load the member and move to the trailer.

From the book this would be 3 different programs, thats ok because its still a free action to execute one.
so ideas for target numbers for :

Locate a team member, given vocal scans, ret scans, palm print, heat sig, MAD scans, etc. (this drone would be running a cleareyes autosoft)

Load team member onto the gurney

and move back to the home position (stored in the RC deck as a global var.)

So I need to figure out how complex to label each of the three actions and make 3 different programs, then store all three in the memory of the deck. All of that is no big deal except the classification of the challenge rating of the task.

From the feedback so far, I am guessing no one uses this feature that reads these boards

Saven

when the tech fails the Electronics B/R to open the door, just send a guardian through the door to open it, Ares - expensive can openers.

Hmm, your command script is fairly long and complicated, with lots of pilot decision-making involved - the TN for the pilot's comprehension test should be pretty high.

I tend to keep my preprogrammed commands fairly simple - sort of a hotkeyed macro.

Things like (And sorry, I don't have my TN's with me... I know it'd be more helpful with them handy.)

1) Drone #2, Circle RC transmitter at a distance of 2M and kill anything that moves that doesn't have the right IFF.

2) Drone #5, Attack any airborn targets within 300m of RC transmitter.

3) Drones #2 and #4 (lynxes), attack target locked-on by Drone #1 (ferret) (for a network with BTac)

4) Drones #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, backtrack path, load onto Drone #6 (the van) in order.

5) Drones #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, home in on and follow Drone #6 (the van).

The advantage of the preprogrammed commands _isn't_ the ability to give more complex instructions - its the ability to give instructions _quickly_ (as a free action).

The weakness is that the TN for complexity is totally up to the GM's estimation. I tend to restrict my programmed commands to very specific maneuvers, and simple commands given to multiple drones at once. Drones have tiny, tiny brains, so I try not to overtax them.

EDIT: Ah, I see you have separated them out, after all. My mistake. Looking at your three tasks... TN4 TN6 TN4 - I personally would help out the poor drone by having my team-mates carry individual IFF transponders - Then the drone doesn't have to do so much thinking to match its perception data (with clear-eyes) to its stored parameters- you just need a "Home in on Runner #2 beacon" program - thus, Tn4 across the board. Bear in mind that if Runner #2 is hard to get to, the poor pilot may still get confused - but that's a situational problem that doesn't apply to the programming test.

i would assume that the locating of a team member would be a hard test as it requires movement, preception, and adjustment. this could be simplyfied by battletack or GPS data from the victim or complicated by size of the search pattern or terrain. loading would be a moderate test beacuse it movement of a foreign object, and the return command should be simple because the drone should already know where home is and have a working knowledge of the return course. but that's just my oppinion.