[Djinnocide]

It'd reboot. You'd have to first change it with a command I forget so that it won't start up again.

Of course a smart system has the chopper run non-wireless and only run the pilot's gear wireless.

If I recall correctly, you get to designate how long the reboot cycle last, right? Granted, anyone near a rebooting device can simply override that and force a reboot immediately, so I don't think it would work in this particular scenario.

I certainly didn't think about this at the time, but would a successful format device roll work in the case of a Combat Chopper? If so, what's keeping a decker from doing that with pretty much any device he feels like being hostile towards? I realize the device would get a Device Rating x2 dice pool to resist, or in the case of the combat chopper and pilot, Willpower + Firewall if he's got the chopper slaved to a cyberdeck/commlink (or would it be Willpower + Device Rating if he doesn't?), but that doesn't seem too difficult with the right decker/gear combo.

Do you guys have any other thoughts pertaining to stopping a enemy vehicle? What do you feel is the most efficient way (least amount of separate rolls) to topple something like a combat chopper if it's piloted by a human and stats aren't a concern?

[Michael Chandra]

Blow it out of the sky with a missile.

[RHat]

They can force a reboot, but that still keeps it offline until the end of the next Combat Turn - which, for a vehicle in motion (a helicopter especially) is an eternity.  Otherwise, the cycle is as long as you want it to be.

As for Format Device, it would work, but if it's locally piloted (the only time it wouldn't be easier to just go for Reboot Device, since you have to do that for Format to work anyways) it wouldn't matter - it can't be accessed from the Matrix, but it can still be used through normal physical means.  So, what's keeping a decker from doing that is the fact that it actually has somewhat limited usefulness overall. 

And are we talking about a human manually piloting it, piloting via AR locally or remotely, or being jumped in locally or remotely?

[Djinnocide]

I see that the Reboot Device action says it last a Combat Turn in the rulebook, but it also goes on to say that you can set a delay for a non-specified amount of time. I suppose that doesn't matter since anyone with access to the device can force that reboot to happen immediately, putting it back on the 1 Combat Turn time frame, but still.

As for the details of our encounter, In this particular instance, it appears to be a pilot operating the helicopter locally. I was running the Hopping The Fence mission from the Elven Blood Missions pack (converted for 5th edition). There wasn't a ton of info provided aside from pilot/helicopter stats and a small amount of plot info as it pertains to the scene.

[RHat]

Reboot is probably the best option at that point - the amount of time the copter would be offline for would almost certainly cause a crash.

[Djinnocide]

I believe this was covered somewhere on this forum but I haven't been able to find it - which Matrix Action is used for "Turning Something Off"? Reboot is obviously different than Power Off, right? A PC, for instance, typically has a mechanical button that powers it down, but there's also the Shutdown option as well, so you'd think "Turn Off" would be a Matrix Action. Would you use something like Control Device or Spoof Command in a situation like that? I realize that you'd have to consider the same variables as you would with the helicopter example in that anyone with access could just turn it back on, but I could see a "Turn Off" action being useful for any sort of device that's not being closely monitored.

[RHat]

Reboot device, duration indefinite?

[Djinnocide]

That's how we've been playing it up to this point, but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks again for all the help.

[RHat]

It's not explicitly stated, but it's the closest thing I can see - and the rules don't prohibit you from setting the amount of time to "infinite", or at least the highest value the relevant register will permit (which, with how memory in Shadowrun is, would be functionally indistinct from infinite in this context).

[Kanly]

"Autorotation" is mentioned rebooting your rotodrones as a defense against hacking. I'm not sure if it can be done with normal helicopters as well (in Shadowrun / when "rebooting" whatever that means for a helicopter - it's not definite which systems are rebooting and which ones can still be used, maybe b/c they have a non-electronic backup). Anyway here is a picture about what autorotation means in a situation like this:



(sorry if this is offtopic, I thought it might be useful for figuring out the whole how-to-take-down-rotary issue)

[Djinnocide]

I appreciate the visual aid. Thanks Kanly.