So, I'm probably just going blind, but I could have sworn I saw someplace a method of upgrading a vehicle or drone's sensor rating, but now I can't find it for the life of me. Am I just crazy or if not, anyone know where I can find it? I know that you can replace sensor packages and improve the capacity, etc., but I was looking for improving the actual sensor rating so as to improve on attacks when "jumped in" or on vehicle perception tests, etc. As always, thanks in advance for any help!

I think, it's the Arsenal errata. You choose a sensible original combination os sensors, which - if they have ratings - start at the vehicle's/drone's sensor rating. The rest is just increasing the rating of the rated sensors with Nuyen, so their average rises.

Sensor Rating is whatever is listed for unmodified stock vehicles, or the average of all individual Sensors otherwise. Arsenal age 105.

The Errata alters this slightly to indicate that sensors that have no actual individual rating effectively are not included in this calculation.




-k

You may also notice that nearly every vehicle's stock Sensor is totally inadequate for even normal tasks. Good times.

It is in arsenal where the vehicle customization rules are. Also to go down this rabbit hole again regarding sensors you can have a rating 6 camera and have a sensor rating of 6. But throw in a a rating 2 ultrawide band radar is drops to 4. For ease of logic, just go with the highest applicable sensor.

A device’s hardware ratings may only be upgraded by +2 [sr4a, pg222]

Unless you have the Modular Electronics add-on, at which point you can modify to your heart's content.




-k

Which is ridiculous for sensors, alas. Sigh, good ol' SR4 rules. There's a special Modular vehicle mod that's not in any published books, I think (I wanna say it's in errata, of all places?), which addresses that rule (whether it applies to sensors or not).

Curse you, NinjaInferno.

It's in the SR4A Changes document, actually. And for some reason it was NOT in the errata put out just recently.

Then again, there's tons of stuff that should have been in that errata document that were not.

Like, y'know. Actual errata.



-k

I made a house-rule for upgrading sensors - maybe you have to tweak the aviability
Sensor Upgrade Modification

Personally, I would like to stay in RAW so that upgrades are applicable to my Missions characters.

By the way, Redjack, the section you quoted is specifically discussing improving the hardware MATRIX attributes.

The quote is in the chapter discussing Matrix Attributes, under the sub-heading Upgrading Devices, that starts out with "If you are looking for more power in your device, you can upgrade its Matrix attributes."

Sensor is not a Matrix Attribute.




-k

Hey All,

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate them.

@Yera: Yeah I noticed the relatively crappy sensors on the vehicles which is why I was asking about them. Oh well, I guess I can start upgrading and for the time being just remote control them since that seems to be the way to go. Not wanting to "jump in" to the vehicle/drone does kind of fit with my character a bit so I can deal with that for now.

@Nil: Thanks for the link. I like your system. Sadly, I too want to keep it to RAW for a variety of reasons. That being said, its worth noting for me because sometime in the future it may be useful.

Ironically, so far my rigger/smuggler specc'ed character has been doing more straight up hacking, so in the end it may be a moot issue anyhow. Can't complain though because I'm having a blast so far. Plus, if I ever get my Rover into combat, it will be plenty deadly with its high-velocity weapons and all.

So THAT's where it's been hiding!!!

I knew I wasn't crazy...my rigger player will thank you =)

Response and Signal both being hardware attributes, this seems a reasonable extrapolation and limitation to extend this to the sensor attribute.

I tend to fall back on the original FAQ for sensor upgrades:

That's FAQ? I thought that was literally the normal sensor rules. You upgrade the specific units, and the average goes up.

I had never noticed, until now, that that first sentence was put, word for word, into Arsenal.