I accidently posted the following question to the Welcome to the Shadows Forum here . . . if any of you have further input, I'd welcome it!

Is there any way to design a Vector Thrust Aircraft that is the size of a car or truck? I'm thinking like a Body 4 or 5 along the lines of the Harrier fighter craft. From what I see in Rigger 3, there is only a body 7 chasis that is WAY expensive. I considered using the Drone UAV with a body of 3 and increasing it's cargo to the max of 25 and then putting in seats and controls - but I'm not sure that's an adequate solution becuase I'm sure other things like canopy etc are not included in the rules. . . which also brings up the point of how exactly does one "convert" a drone into a vehicle which can carry passengers?

Deja Vu...

To give a vehicle a cabin, you basically only need to add Entry Points. Otherwise, it's considered Open if the Entry category reads --.

Hovercar Version (See the cover of New Seattle)
Chassis: Large Vector-Thrust UAV
Power Plant: Electric Fuel Cell (Fan-Driven)

Minimal Design Requirements:

Increased Cargo Space +12 (Total CF of 14)
Increased Load +200kg (Total Load of 210kg)
Added Manual Controls (-2 CF, -10kg Load)
Added Seats (2 Bucket) (-12 CF, -200kg Load)

Total Cost: 390 DP (0.60 Mark-Up) = 23,400 nuyen


Hoverbike Version
Chassis: Mediuml Vector-Thrust UAV
Power Plant: Electric Fuel Cell (Fan-Driven)

Minimal Design Requirements:

Increased Cargo Space 7 (Total CF of 8)
Increased Load 100 (Total Load of 110kg)
Added Manual Controls (-2 CF, -10kg Load)
Added Seat (1 Bucket) (-6 CF, -100kg Load)

Total Cost: 163 DP (0.60 Mark-Up) = 9,780 nuyen

I would think that if you made it a passenger vehicle it would automatically lose the Drone markup. Otherwise I can just build my sprts cars off of drone chassis at absolutely no penalty for a fraction of the cost, all automakers could, same for all other vehicles.

Sure could.

Unfortunately, there are no Body 3 Car drones let alone a "sports car drone," so I don't really see how you'd be able to modify one into a cheaper sports car.

About your only option is a 'cheaper" Sand Buggy (Body 2) using a Medium Wheeled Crawler. Of course then your CF is limited to 12 (35 with the Sand Buggy) -- which is just barely enough for two seats leaving you with no space for manual controls. Your off-road Handling would suck in comparison (6 vs. 4), and the chassis cost would actually be more expensive (40 w/ 0.40 Mark-Up for the Sand Buggy vs. 120 and 0.25 Mark-Up for the Crawler).

So, uhm, yeah. Okay. Good deal there. I can see why the megacorporations are flocking to that trend now.

But then again, maybe I don't understand what you mean by "lose their drone Mark-Up." Drones have their own chassis. Any standard vehicle is turned into a drone just by adding Sensors 1 or higher and an Advanced Drone Pilot -- it doesn't affect their Mark-Up whatsoever. There is no "Drone" Quality Factor either, with Quality Factors being about the only things that do affect the Mark-Up of a vehicle.

What exactly is that (0.60 Markup)?

Basically it's how you determine the cost of a vehicle, multiply it's design points by the markup, then multiply that by 100. So for instance with a .6 markup a car with 100 design points would cost 6,000 .

Makes you wonder why the Mark-Up values don't vary from 10 to 250 instead of 0.1 to 2.5, eh?

Ya know, that is an excellent idea.

Probably because of the rounding that goes on somewhere in there, IIRC.

~J