[DroneRanger]

I'm new to the game and playing a Rigger. Our group has just finished a run and has time and nuyen to burn so I want to improve my Bulldog and drones. But I don't know how.

In SR5 Sir-Rigs-Alot upgraded one of his drones sensor rating (pg. 184). My question is can I upgrade the other stats as well and how to do that?

[Michael Chandra]

Sensor Upgrades are described in the SR5 core. Anything else you'd have to wait for Rigger V, or temporarily houserule something from Arsenal and hope it will be in Rigger V.

Pilot upgrades you can forget about, the SR4 mechanic wouldn't work in the different SR5 system for devices. Speed upgrades and acceleration upgrades were based on the SR4 system, since Speed and Accel changed significantly they wouldn't translate well to SR5. Handling also was different in SR4 than in SR5, back then it was a dicepool modifier, now it's a limit, but the SR4 mods could still be houseruled. Seating can easily be converted (Squatter doubles the size). Body cannot be upgraded. Armor upgrades can easily be houserule-converted for now.

So sensors already exists, handling, seating and armor you could convert with houserules, Stolen Souls has some other stuff in it, but all the other vehicle attributes you can forget about for now.

[Csjarrat]

Pilot rating and agent ratings always costed the same under last edition so GM could use that as a Base for a house rule

[Michael Chandra]

Wouldn't work. In SR4 you had to upgrade the Response first, one of four device attributes, then also get a System upgrade, but in SR5 we only got Device Rating, and there's no telling how much upgrading that would cost within the new system. Especially since DR no longer limits the rating of the programs on it, including Agents. Simply using the Pilot cost wouldn't work since it was roughly 6x that in total costs in SR4, mostly due to the very expensive Response upgrade.

[Csjarrat]

That's why I said "use it as a BASE"

[Michael Chandra]

I'm sorry but the capital B fails to function as a picture and showcase all these additional details that someone not familair with 4th should keep in mind. Stating to use it as a base without providing extra intel translates to 'make it cost like agents but maybe a bit more', not to 'there's a lot of extra complications'. Further emphasizing the word doesn't make the original statement any more clear either, as such the emphasis has no actual response value here.

[Sendaz]

Also, rather than sinking everything into upgrades, maybe adding some more units to your herd is not a bad idea.

Drones get broken eventually, if everything is tied up in just one or two drones and they get lost your sort of stuck whereas having a few extras that maybe are not all tricked out to the max may be an option.

[Michael Chandra]

Another problem, by the way, is copying software. This was somewhat possible with Pilots in SR4, and since a lot of the costs went into hardware upgrades it didn't have too big an impact. Without a hardware cost per drone, Pilot programs costs would become irrelevant far too easily.

What you want is an Armor houserule conversion from Arsenal for now, since that will make the drone less squishy.