I was wondering if it was recommended if my team should have a pet drone.

My team is a small group of runners (3, including myself, though 2 more players have recently joined. So this maybe moot.). As such, since the team was so small, not all portions were covered. There's a physad sniper, a mage (who specializes in casting utility spells & summong spirits), & myself, a street samurai. We have no rigger or hacker. As a result, many of us had to learn to adapt around some issues.

While the mage has been using spirits to help with extra fire support & other stuff, i feel if having a pet drone wouold help.

Question... if you had to design a pet drone to use as a spy/scout/wireless hotspot... how would you do it? The main purpose of the drone is to be the samurai's (ie: me) extra eyes & ears.

I'm thinking of getting a small drone with a high rated Agent controlling it & taking orders from me. Sort of like how some folks have a Agent controlling their commlink & safeguarding it & doing minor hacking for them, I was thinking of having the same for a drone. Pet drone that flies around, spies & sends image data back to me. The drone can also help maintain our commlink channels so when my teammates go far out of range, the drone can help carry the signals.

I prefer the Doberman. Though you really have to be careful, potty training them is a bitch...

The small Lockheed Optix X drone from core sounds like it would work great for that. Throw on a Chameleon Coating, a Retrans unit and tinker with the sensors a bit and you've got a decent extra set of eyes that can move pretty quick. If you have a bit more money and don't need as much speed the same extras on a Cyberspace Designs Dragonfly Mini Drone is even stealthier.

Edit: Make sure your Agent has ECCM, Infiltration, and Shadowing autosofts, or get their equilievents for dronesofts (Covert Ops and Chaser). The drone pilot can do the sneaking about/following with the agent residing in the node and then takeover when more detailed direction is needed.

It's a little old, but if you have This Old Drone, the Aztechnology Hedgehog Signal Interceptor with a Retransmission Unit on it and some software and sensor upgrades might be exactly what you're looking for. If your group lacks a Hacker, hope they have one as a decent-loyalty contact.

In Arsenal, the Ferret RPD-1X is another option. The adaptability (Mod slots) of this drone is perfect, especially if your character has the skills to swap out equipment to make it mission specific.

Why do you not at least have a half dozen FlySpys. Even if you occasionally lose some the remote scouting capability is just damn useful.




-k

I was never really any good at understanding the hacking/rigging rules in SR4, so all of this advice & personal opinions really help. I appreciate it. I was thinking the fly-spy with all the upgraded autosofts & pilot programming would be good, along with ECCM, Stealth, & other toys/tricks to make sure it doesn't get hacked/taken over.

I have some nuyen saved up from the runs we have had & am hoping to be able to get this pet spy-drone soon. We have no hacker & have been paying an NPC one to do all our hacking legwork and stuff when needed. it's been expensive & we don't always get the best info or rewards from it. however, that's what we have to deal with for now.

You should read my guide on this subject.

Hoorah for a double-post!