[Wolfeyes]

I started into the 5th edition core rulebook recently and I'm looking to make an infiltrator with some drone backup. I have a few ideas that I need help getting rounded out.

Here is what I'm going with. He has a rotodrone with two Ares Alphas attached. That means burst fire and grenade launchers. Can even have different rounds in each gun. Regular ammo and frag grenades in one, APDS and smoke grendes in the other. How hard is it to switch out the weapons on a drone? Can he grab one off if he needs a gun? Can he switch guns between missions if he say needs a sniper rifle?

I have not been able to figure out if I should get a RCC. He is not much of a sit in the van type. Instead, I want to use it kind of as a wireless repeater/router to give his drone and car a better firewall and let them share autosofts. Would that actually work?

Aside from the above he has some microdrones and some MCT Flys to do spying.

[Jack_Spade]

It's as hard as the GM wants it to be - at least as long as Rigger 5 isn't out with specific rules.

But you'll have problems getting a sniper rifle on. Everything bigger than an assault rifle needs a heavy mount, of which you can only mount one on a standard rotordrone.
You might want to look into a drum fed weapon. Hard Targets has brought back ammo select.

You only need the RCC if you have a lot of identical drones who can share the same autosoft. For firewall usually a good commlink is the better choice.
Also, by fluff a RCC is as large as a briefcase, so you might have trouble carrying that around as an infiltrator. 

[falar]

Jack_Spade is right on the money.

Rotodrone with a pair of Ares Alphas is pretty much all the firepower you could want, but I think you're better off going with two Rotodrones with an Ares Alpha apiece. Drones are fragile. Conversely, you could get a FB-Bumblebee (from Nothing Personal) which comes with a Stoner-Ares M202 instead, which is the toughest drone known to man and god at this time. If you load it up with APDS rounds, it's doing 10P with AP -7. The thing's a beast - but it costs a cool 24,000nuyen. It's illegal as hell though - but so are aftermarket weapon mounts and Ares Alphas. However, since it comes with a Heavy Weapon Mount for the Stoner-Ares M202, you could swap in a sniper rifle.

RCC is basically - do I have a lot of one type of drone or do I need noise reduction? Then it's useful. Otherwise, like the man said, just go for a high-level commlink and call it good. If you need the noise reduction, get a reciever dongle and attach a vectored signal doodad for 4 noise reduction. I do recommend stacking on drone types - Fly-Spys and Rotodrones are my goto.

[Wolfeyes]

Thanks for the advice. I only have the core book right now, which is sorely lacking. I'll skip the RCC. I'm almost tempted to skip the control rig. I want it more for driving the car than the drones. Can't trust the dogbrain to pick you up in the middle of a firefight.

[falar]

I'd keep the Control Rig if you want to expand into better Rigger stuff as time goes on. +1 to Vehicle skills, -1 to Vehicle Test thresholds, +1 to Speed/Handling are all great benefits, and that's just Rating 1. Rigger 5.0 will probably be out this month or early next and it will come with a ton of good stuff *fingers crossed*.

[Whiskeyjack]

RCCs are great for giving the same command to multiple drones with one action, and sharing softs.

There's little value in jumping into a non sniping drone because drones are fragile. Rigs are great for vehicles though.

[Marcus]

Simple rule of the thumb: Guns are Cheap. Drones are not.

[Csjarrat]

Cheap rcc is fine if all you're doing is running a small recon drone fleet. Stick toolbox and encryption programs on it and a decent clearsight autosoft and it's all gravy. For running a combat or mixed drone fleet, you'll want something with better ratings

[Poindexter]

I'll often run a starting rigger with no RCC, especially, if he's only got one or two drones/vehicles. For a getaway driver with a roto-drone for backup, you'll be fine with just your comm.

[Wolfeyes]

Would an RCC let me run more Autosofts on a drone than normal?  I think you can only have 2 at once because of their device rating (rating 2 I think). I can't remember where in the book that is. Any clarity would be appreciated on the issue.

[gradivus]

The device rating on an RCC is split between noise reduction and running programs.
So a DR2 is 2 programs or 2 Noise reduction or 1 each.

The main benefit of running an autosoft from the RCC vs the drone itself is that the RCC program rating can be higher than the DR of the drone. So a drone with pilot 2 can normally only run Clearsight [2] but if run from the RCC it could be clearsight[6]. The second benefit of the RCC is the drone benefits from all the autosofts running on the RCC that's applicable to that drone.

And my 2 nuyens: stick with the control rig. Use Electronic Warfare in place of Perception since it's a necessary skill for Riggers anyway. Place a Sniper Rifle on the Drone with the camera on the smartgun system modified w/vision magnification (Staying beyond most people's firing range while using Gunnery+LOG+ControlRig Bonus+SnartlinkBonus is the way to use a drone in combat). Last but not least, pop up turret on your van when Rigger 5 comes out.

[Csjarrat]

By RAW you can't mount a sniper rifle into a s mall l weapon mount, you'd need the heavy one and it's avail is too high for standard chargen. Assault rifle with vision mag or improved rangefinder is best you can do iirc

[DigitalZombie]

The main benefit of running an autosoft from the RCC vs the drone itself is that the RCC program rating can be higher than the DR of the drone. So a drone with pilot 2 can normally only run Clearsight [2] but if run from the RCC it could be clearsight[6]. The second benefit of the RCC is the drone benefits from all the autosofts running on the RCC that's applicable to that drone.

Wait, Im pretty sure that a drone can  run any rating of autosoft. So the drone could easily run clearsight 6. But would still benefit from the increased options of the RCC.

[gradivus]

In 4th every drone that came w/autosofts, the autosoft equaled the sensor so I assumed that the sensor limited the rating of the autosoft. However,that was 4th, and going over the 5th rules it seems that, yes, you can put an autosoft[6] on any drone.

As far as the sniper rifles: yup you need a heavy mount and, yup, a heavy mount is availability above 12. t\That does not mean you can't get one in chargen: restricted gear, or steel lynx, or my personal favorite, the Bumblebee. That machine gun you take off the Bumblebee can go in the van's Pop-up Turret  whenever we get pop-up turrets again.

[Wolfeyes]

Does the device rating limit the rating of the autosoft? For instance, most have rating of 3, so does that mean I can only run a rating 3 autosoft on them?