If a Sprite either Jumps into a Drone to rig it or uses Command to control it, is it limited by the System or Response of the Drone? (Ex. a Rating 12 Sprite jumps into a 6/6 Drone, does it get 24 Dice to do something or 12?)

page 240, SR4A



I believe this is the relevant portion.

DOH! Thanks I had some confusion between Sprite and Agent rules

I am unaware of any drone actually being able to function as a Pilot program per the rules. The Machine sprite certainly seems like it should, but there is no actual rule allowing it to.

All the Sprite would need is pilot (craft type). IIRC the machine sprite gets one of those skills.

So no he can't get pilot LAV, and gunnery.

It Can if it is high enough Rating (A Rating 6 gets 2 optional CF's, of which an Autosoft is applicable, IIRC)

But do Autosofts include Vehicle skills? I didn't think they did.

Away from Books currently, so I do not remember. But the fact is that the only vehicle skills that you cannot default on, that a Drone uses often, is Aircraft. SO give him Aircraft as his base pilot skill, and then you can default on Cars and Boats as well.

That I know for a fact that they do on pg. 246 SR4A, it's called Maneuver, but it functions as the Vehicle Skill.

That's not really the question, I think. The question is if a sprite can Jump In at all. This has come up before.

It sounds to me that if a sprite can have an autosoft as a CF or skill than it could drive a vehicle or drone.

As for Jumping In...

There is no mention of special hardware, or software. The only thing that a Sprite would need is a subscription to the drone, vehicle or device and take a simple action to jump in.

It's not clear to me that a sprite is in 'full VR'. It's a digital entity, so it 'acts at VR speeds' (IIRC that's how agents are described anyway). However, I believe there's some evidence from metasapients that the default is *not* to be able to jump in; they require a special quality, etc. Sprites are something like metasapients and agents, but also unlike both of them. I'd like to know.

Obviously, at least one variety of sprite *should* have this ability; I'm not arguing that it shouldn't exist. Most of the sprites are poorly-written and/or worthless, so that'd even be nice.

Maneuver covers this

I'm pretty sure that is false, because Pilots DO benefit from the Vehicle Threshold Test -1 bonus for driving with VR. If you can claim that bonus, then you almost certainly can jump in.

I would also say that a sprite could use normal manual control for a vehicle - not command, not jumped in, just the regular actions table.

For what its worth, sprites DO have a Pilot rating. Lately I've been wondering if this means they have to take dogbrain tests

But the question *is* if sprites are like vehicle Pilots. A rule about vehicle Pilots doesn't tell us anything.

Definitely they take dogbrain tests, I'd say. Spirits have to do the same thing, right? Anything that limits summonables is A Good Thing.

Well if sprites have the same limitations as pilots, because they are pilots only without a Payload, then they have the came capabilities as pilots.
If you get the downsides then you get the upsides too.

But really, sprites running autosofts, which only pilots can use should have been a tipoff.

But Agents have a Pilot rating and Autosofts, as well; yet they're not *drone* Pilots. AFAIK, they can't Jump In. Sprites also are *not* OS, which drone Pilots are. …But sprites get both agent and drone autosofts, right? So we're clearly dealing with a number of distinct things, and I'm just saying it'd be nice to get it all straight. AFAIK, the rules don't explain this.

So:
Hackers can Jump In (hardware-mediated VR; simsense).
Technomancers can Jump In (wetware-mediated VR; simsense).
Metasapients with Piloting Origin can Jump In ('natural').
Vehicles Pilots are 'naturally' Jumped In? (In a sense, this is identical to a Piloting Origin metasapient, except they're device-specific).
Agents cannot Jump In (AFAIK); can they Command? I feel like we've have debates about this, and it was 'no'.
Sprites ?

I think the very best possible answer is that *some* Sprites can Jump In, while others can't. Sprites are different and special, and their abilities should (but don't really) express that.

I find the suggestion that something (maybe Sprites) can drive a vehicle on 'manual' (non-VR driving) very interesting, but we'd want some theory to integrate that option. I've never liked that Command does everything for everything. :/

Jump in or act as the new Pilot OS.

Yes, those are both questions raised earlier. Are you giving an opinion?

Sprites should not have to make dogbrain tests.

Machines sprites ought to be able to jump in, but I don't know if RAW supports that sentiment.

Sprites behave like Agents from a rules-standpoint.
Pilots are Agents made to work in vehicles.
Therefore, it makes sense that Sprites in vehicles behave like Pilots.

But that already contradicts itself: agents *aren't* (and can't be) vehicle Pilots.

Good rules catch there, bobbaganoosh, thanks.