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Drone as party armourer

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Kurrel

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« on: <07-08-13/0722:20> »
Hi everyone,

We're starting to get deeper into a Shadowrun campaign, where we have a little cash to spend and a lot of things we need doing.

I was looking at sinking points into armourer, but it's logic / armourer sink for karma points I can only really spare if I have to.  I was looking at droids and it struck me they would make cool, tireless workers.

Is there any rule that stops me slapping a rating 6 pilot program into a drone, adding a mechanical arm, armourer 6 skill soft and letting it use the facility?  For that matter, setting up the same bot (or several) to do the same for automobiles, cyberware and just about any sort of mod?

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #1 on: <07-08-13/0743:09> »
You can't go beyond Rating 4 Profession Autosofts, while Response 6 is expensive as hell, but if you take about 4~5 autosofts for the drone it can mod the weapons and vehicles and repair them too. Just run the math whether Pilot+Response+System 6 and Autosofts 2 is cheaper than P+R+S 4 and Autosofts 4 (the softs are 3k more each then, the P+R+S is... 11k less? I forget), get the cheaper one, let it buy hits at 8 dice and it scores 8 hits per 24h on Vehicle Modifications/Repairs and 24 hits per 24h on Weapon Modifications. NPC Mechanics also just buy hits, so no difference there except that a drone works 24/7 rather than 8 hours per day.

By the way: Don't buy a mechanical arm. Get a Mr Fix-It, it comes with a rating-3 profession autosoft and mechanical arms.
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Novocrane

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« Reply #2 on: <07-08-13/0828:56> »
Use a main drone that you clock to the nines, and a number of assistant drones for teamwork tests. This also works for first aid.

Kurrel

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« Reply #3 on: <07-08-13/0840:58> »
Ah, I hadn't seen any limit on Profession Autosofts.  I'll see if I can find that!

Thank you very much.

Would a drone benefit from Fuzzy Logic or AR plans?
Does a Facility count as superior tools for a job requiring a shop, and would a drone benefit from this?

Novocrane; I need to go read teamwork as well!  There's a lot that can be done and I feel I'm only just scratching the surface.

Is it possible to mod a small drone into a backpack?

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #4 on: <07-08-13/0907:49> »
I think Arsenal has a section on how big drones of different sizes are.

Fuzzy Logic: That is a really tricky one. I think it depends on the GM.

AR Plans: Sure, why not?

Facility: Yes, dem's the rules. Superior/Inferior tools are pretty much strictly about the size of the tools (kit/shop/fac). I should note that a Facility is nearly never required so you're going to end up with that bonus quite a bit. :) If you score AR Plans and superior tools you might even want to go for a 6/4 drone with +2 bonuses for 12 dice, 3 autohits. Or just add a single cheap teamwork drone that buys 1 hit and thus lets the main drone buy that third hit.

Doesn't a Mr Fix-It have Pilot 3? Wouldn't autosofts rating 1 suffice for a teamwork drone then?
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Kurrel

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« Reply #5 on: <07-08-13/0917:52> »
Arsenal indicates small drones are cat sized, but wasn't sure about 'wearing' drones... is there any mechanic for that?

A quick search of the forum indicates the drone you mentioned is in Runners Companion.  I don't have that handy, but will check on it ASAP.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

RiggerBob

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« Reply #6 on: <07-08-13/0952:55> »
Mr. Fix-It brings pilot 3 , mechanical arms (str 4), (any build/repair) autosoft 3 and a toolkit....  :D

Kurrel

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« Reply #7 on: <07-08-13/1006:07> »
A toolkit for what?  From my understanding, toolkits are related to skill, aren't they (which does make getting an automotive facility and a armourer facility VERY expensive) ?

firebug

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« Reply #8 on: <07-08-13/1355:02> »
I'm not 100% on the rules for it, but keep in mind that the drone works like a commlink does in terms of autosoft and other such things.  Mainly in that loading too many will affect its System and Response.  If you load Armorer and, say, Automotive and Aeronautic Mechanics into it you'd still have some space (assuming you've increased its Response at all).  I'd suggest using the extra processing power (if you have the money) for something like Cybertechnology or First Aid.  If you're already getting it to repair your gear and vehicles, may as well make it able to repair your 'ware and your bodies, too!
I'm Madpath Moth on reddit (and other sites).  Feel free to PM me errata questions!
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BlackJaw

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« Reply #9 on: <07-08-13/1553:48> »
This sounds like a fun little project.  Let's see what we can do.

A GM Mr. Fix It 2071 ($6,000, Runners Companion p152) has plug-n-play toolkits that include Automotive by default, among a few others.  It would seem you could get other toolkits for it by buying them.  It also comes with one Auto-soft of your choice at rating 3.  It's got Pilot and Device rating of 3 too.  Note that it doesn't have rigging capabilities by default.

Let's go ahead and make some upgrades.  I'll price this whole Drone out for Automotive as the example, but I'll also include the price for upgrading it's abilities for other applicable skills.

Basic Automotive: First of all, we are going to upgrade the drone's Response.  We can't push it up to Rating 6 without installing modular electronics first (SR4a Errata)  so that's $1000 and 1 slot already. Response Chip 6: $8,000, availability 16. We should also go ahead and improve the Pilot Program, which counts as a special System software.  With response 6 in the drone we can push that up to Pilot 6.  That's $12,500 at availability 15, and 0 slots. Next I recommend taking Fuzzy Logic.  Fuzzy Logic aids drones in decision making where time isn't a big factor, and we can assume that includes repairs because the Lockhead Vulcan aircraft repair drone (Arsenal) has it built-in for aircraft maintenance.  On long tasks, like repairs or building things, it probably gains the full +3 bonus from the fuzzy logic hardware, so it's a worthwhile investment at just $2,500, and 1 slot. Ok, let's get some software.  Autosofts are $4000 each at max ratting 4.  That's one rating higher then the built in autosoft.  Next up we need tools.  The Drone comes with an Automotive toolkit already.
At this point you have a Drone able to work on wheeled vehicles/drones and similar.  It has a Pilot 6, +4 Autosoft, +3 Fuzzy Logic  = 13 dicepool before considering tool requirements/options.
Total Price Tag: $34,000, Availability 16 (2 of 4 slots used)

Adding Technical Skills: You can easily expand this drone into other skills.  Aeronautics Mechanic for flying drones, Armorer for weapons and armor, Chemistry for drugs and toxins, Demolitions for explosives, Hardware for electronics/links/etc, Industrial Mechanic, Nautical Mechanic, etc.  Each upgrade, including plug-n-play tools, and autosoft is another $4,500, but doesn't use up any more slots on the drone.  Don't worry about getting more skills than the pilot is able to handle at once (6) because it doesn't need to have all the skills loaded at the same time.  It will just need to have the correct autosofts for any given task, and with fuzzy logic and pilot 6, it shouldn't have too much trouble loading those skills on it's own, or you can simply alter it's load-out yourself.
Upgrade cost per skill: $4,500

Autodoc Plus: If you want it to handle medical situations you need to tweak things a bit more, but it's still cheaper than buying a new medical drone and kitting it out for Pilot 6!  Start with getting it a Valkyrie Module, which auto-stablizes anyone put into it, and is expressly able to handle surgery.  That's $2,000 and the drone's last 2 slots.  It also includes Medkit rating 4.  You'll also need some Autosofts.  First Aid, Medicine, and Cybertechnology all at rating 4 is another $12,000. If it can't handle the medical situation itself, the valkery module is able to accept telepresence medical assistance from any street doc you happen to have as a contact too (they take a -2 vr surgery penalty, but they can also gain VR and even Control Rig boosts to their skill, according got Augmentation).   It's dicepool for First Aid is 14 (Pilot+Autosoft+Medkit) and it's at 13 (Pilot +autosoft +fuzzy Logic) for cybertech and medicine.
Upgrade Costs: $14,000
If you group makes regular use of animals (for magic, biodrones, etc) you'll also want to get a VetTech Auotsoft for another $4,000.

Better Tools: Of course you can benefit from improved tools on almost all the above.  A shop is a mere $5,000 for most skills, and may actually be required for some uses of skills, and may provide a bonus on situations where it doesn't.  A medical shop is $10,000, but counts as a rating 8 medical "kit."

More Drones: As noted by other posters, you can also have multiple drones using teamwork rules (SR4A p65), but remember you need Autosofts and tools for each extra drone.  That's an extra $4,500 for each drone for each non-medical skill.  Extra medical drones could be a bit more complicated.  Consider getting Evo Orderlys instead of Mr. Handy drones if you decide you want drone teamwork for that.

Black Market Software: Software piracy actually makes this concept a lot more cost effective.
Base price for the drone with black market cracked software: $8,650, with a patch price of $350 every two months.
Each add-on technical skill becomes $900, with a Patch price increase of $100 every two months.
The medical upgrade becomes $3,200 and increases the patch price by $300.
Adding VetTech to that is $400, and another $100 to the patch price price.

As an added advantage to the hacked software option, if you buy more (basic off the shelf) Mr. Handy Drones, you can share the cracked autosofts between all of them (capped at 3 by their pilot/response), so you'd only need buy more toolkits, not autosofts, for each of them to be able to use teamwork rules on any given technical skill.
« Last Edit: <07-09-13/1544:24> by BlackJaw »

ZeConster

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« Reply #10 on: <07-08-13/1555:29> »
Response is only affected by how many programs are running at the same time, though, not how many are installed - and even with modifications that require 2 (or in the case of Concealed Weapon Mounts, 3) skills, you split it into seperate Extended Tests for each skill, so it'll only need to have 1 autosoft active at the same time for the job, which means with Response 4+ (needed to buy 2 hits at a time without any die pool bonuses), you'll still have 2 room for, say, Fuzzy Logic and Adaptability. So you only need a single drone.

Kurrel

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« Reply #11 on: <07-09-13/0519:41> »
Wow, thank you very much everyone.

That's pretty much everything I wanted to know and a lot of stuff I didn't know I needed to.  Awesome!

Novocrane

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« Reply #12 on: <07-09-13/2109:57> »
You can also get the drones second hand. (up to 50% off the cost price) If this isn't your first repair drone, the other(s) can fix it up for you when it breaks. If you've pirated the software, (or your GM allows freeware) you can get that free, too.

Mantis

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« Reply #13 on: <07-11-13/0948:28> »
@ Novocrane - Free? Pirated software still costs something in SR (10% of purchase price with an upkeep cost of 10% of the difference in ratings every 1 or 2 months, depending on type). If you meant free in the case of freeware, well it still needs to be updated and has limits on max rating as well, though I guess the limits don't matter in this case.

@Blackjaw, I'm not sure the price difference between rating 3 and 4 autosofts is worth it for the single extra dice it gives you. Rating 3 autosofts are 1500¥. Maybe 4000¥ for a single autosoft isn't that big a deal but since you usually need 3 or 4 to make these drones viable  that price difference adds up pretty quick. This is worse if you use pirated autosofts. Maintenace costs for rating 3 is 50¥/ 2months whereas rating 4 is 250¥/2 months. You can compensate for the single lost dice by adding Fuzzy Logic mod (+2 or +3 to tests, you can buy this mod with the difference in cost of a single autosoft), AR plans (+2 to tests), Feng Shui (+3 to tests, if you don't already have this on the shop why not?) quality for the shop, and team work tests (up to +3 for autosoft 3 or +4 for autosoft 4, pretty sure factories do this already) for the drones easily enough. Using rating 3 autosofts with the ergonomic option also means the hardware requirements for the drone aren't so bad. You can get away with the basic system and response most drones come with (rating 3) rather than having to upgrade to higher. Overall that single extra dice adds a significant cost to the drone and if you plan to get multiple drones, then the cost multiplies. Not worth it in my opinion.

DWC

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« Reply #14 on: <07-11-13/1131:16> »
Or you find a friendly Hougan and have an anthroform drone posessed by a high force Task Spirit.  BAM!