[Jack_Spade]

Warning: The following is a thought exercise, not something I'd play (although it is build with Availability max.12 only)

So, Rigger 5 freed the anthropomorphic drones from a few of their worst constraints:

-p.145 gives us their health monitor as 8+Bod/2. I assume this is due to two fully functional cyberarms
-they can wear clothes and therefore armor
-their pilot rating can be increased
-smartguns are now fully functional

So lets build our own personal terminators:

The MCT KENCHIKU-KIKAI is great - Strength 8 limbs out of the gate an Body 5 = 20.000¥
HANDL 2
SPEED 4G
ACCEL 1
BODY 5(0)
ARM 12(30)
PILOT 1(5)
SENS 3
Ini 10+5d6

Upgrading Speed from 2 to 4 costs 2 MP and 4x5x2x200¥=8.000¥
Downgrading Pilot to 1 for an extra mod point
Upgrading Armor from to 12 costs 4 MP and 12x5x200¥=12.000¥
Upgrading Sensors from 2 to 3 costs 1 MP and 3.000¥
The drone gets a cyberdeck module hardwired on: Multidimensional Coprocessor for 1.400¥ and 500¥ worth in parts

One arm receives a cyber spur for 5000¥

Now we want a RCC for our new servant: The Vulcan Liegelord is 66.000¥ with DR 5, D5 F6
This too gets a cyberdeck module hardwired on: Program Carrier (Electronic Warfare 6) 900¥ and 500¥ worth in parts
Virtual Machine increases program slots to 6 for 80¥
-Swarm 600¥
-Smartsoft 1500¥
-Cyberspur Soft 6 3000¥
-Ares Alpha Targeting Soft 6 3000¥
-KIKAI Maneuvering Soft 6 3000¥
-KIKAI Stealth Soft 6 3000¥
-Agent 4 8000¥

Equipment:
Helmet  w/ Area Jammer 4 900¥
Ares Victory Big Game Hunter w/gel packs, non-conductivity 6, chemical protection 6, thermal protection 6 10.000¥
Ares Alpha w/ Gas Vent III, Shock Pad, Fore Grip, Extended Clip, Personalized Grip, 3.535¥
2x
Total: 125.915¥

So what do you get?

An autonomous soldier with defense 11 (Pilot 5+Autosoft 6),
soak 35 (5 BOD+12 Base Armor +18 Clothing Armor),
INI 10+5d6 (~27)
Attack ranged: 13 (5 Pilot + 6 Autosoft + 2 Smartsoft) 11 P AP -2 + up to 5 bonus dice from Target Device action 11 (Pilot 5+EW Soft 6) (Costs one complex action per round)
Attack melee: 11 (5 Pilot + 6 Autosoft) 11 P AP -2
Perception: 11 (5 Pilot + 6 EW Autosoft)
Autonomous Matrix Perception (Agent 4): 8 (Reboots system or shuts down wireless if necessary, detects marks and devices w/ Matrix Perception)
Autonomous Matrix Defense (Agent 4): 14 (Agent on full defense + Firewall 6) and 4 noise
Sneaking: 11 (5 Pilot + 6 Autosoft)

The terminator carries the RCC with him and is directly connected to it.

For only 10.000¥ more you get 5 NOIZQUITO drones to reduce your enemies dice pools by 20 and increase your attack ratings by 5

In other words: Hail Skynet

[falar]

Upgrading Armor 15 costs 5 MP and 15x5x200¥=12.000¥

*blows whistle*

FLAG ON THE PLAY. INAPPROPRIATE COST CALCULATION. PENALTY: INDETERMINITE, BUT FIRST DOWN NOW GOES TO THE METAHUMANS.

15x5x200 = 15,000 nuyen.

Also, the first 3 points of increased armor don't cost any MP, so not 5MP for sure.

If you're increasing by 15 to 27, you'll be taking a -2 Acceleration Penalty and -4 Handling/Speed Penalties, which brings all three of those below 0, even if you paid the appropriate cost (which is 27,000 nuyen).

I think you ended up not increasing the armor at all, but you left the note in about it.

[Rooks]

or because its an anthro you throw on an armored jacket

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

He used big game hunter for 14, not counting helmet/or gel packs.

[Jack_Spade]

Damn it,
yeah I had 15 in there originally, until I saw that it would be above availability 12.

I'll edit that.

Regarding MP:

You get one freebie MP and you can downgrade one attribute for another. That should give me on a Bod 5 drone 7 MP to play with.
4 MP for Armor 12
1 MP for sensor upgrade
2 MP for speed upgrade

I assumed you have to replace stats from the ground up: Armor 3 is removed and armor 12 gets tacked on in its place. But now rereading I realize that it should be only 3 MP.
So I could leave the original pilot intact or get a bit more acceleration.

I've added the Big Game Hunter (14) Gel Packs (2) Helmet (2) for a total of 18 clothing armor (I had PPP armor on legs and arms until I remembered that those don't contribute to overall armor value. That's how I got to 32 instead of 30)

Edit to the Edit:
I just read in the errata threat that every category gets a freebee point, before it costs MP!
I'll have to redo the calculations with that in mind.

[Malevolence]

Just to mention, but with the DR 5 RCC, you can slave up to 15 devices, which means you can get 14 other cheap drones (including the suggested Noizquitos) to add to the swarm for a total of +14 to all actions for your "Terminator". It's cheese, but it's RAW. You mention this trick when you call out the Noisquitos, but I just wanted to point out that the cap for that is obscenely large.


Counting the days until Swarm gets nerfed errata'd ...

[Jack_Spade]

Yeah, I neither had time nor inclination to break the system just yet so hard. Also I don't have the prices for the micro weapon mounts yet, that would be necessary to tun the Noizequitos into little shooters.

[Wakshaani]

Also, don't forget that you can dress an Anthro drone in armor and it will then use *eiher* the armor *or* it's own... they don't stack. (Sorry!) ... that one's called out specifically in their section.

(Also also, having an area jammer is going to combine badly with either using an RCC to command it, rather than the onboard Pilot, or using an RCC to control the drones nearby, like the Noizquito cloud!)

[Jack_Spade]

Ah, didn't read that. But makes the whole thing a lot cheaper 

Area Jammer works twofold: The RCC is carried by the drone and directly connected and also Area Jammers have that handy function that you can exempt your own gear if you have their wireless turned on.

The idea is to have the agent monitor the matrix and start jamming / turning wireless off if he notices a mark / attack.

I'll retune the whole thing once I get home from work 

[Jack_Spade]

@Wakshaani
I'm looking for that rule on combining armor. Could you point me to the right page?

[gradivus]

He can use the RCC to perform EW to effectively reduce his own and any slaved device's noise penalty from the jammer...

And I don't think he is using all the program slots so there's a base noise reduction there even without an EW test.

[Jack_Spade]

Ok, now with the clarification, that every attribute has one free upgrade MP, here the recalculated and rethought build.

First, we spend Restricted Gear to get the best possible RCC: A Triox UberMensch for 140.000¥
This too gets a cyberdeck module hardwired on: Program Carrier (Electronic Warfare 6) 900¥ and 500¥ worth in parts
Virtual Machine increases program slots to 7 for 80¥

As chassis we keep the MCT KENCHIKU-KIKAI for 20.000¥
HANDL 5
SPEED 4G
ACCEL 2
BODY 5
ARM 0 (23)
PILOT 3
SENS 6

Upgrading Handling from 2 to 5 costs 2 MP and 5x5x200¥=5.000¥
Upgrading Speed from 2 to 4 costs 1 MP and 4x5x2x200¥=8.000¥
Upgrading Acceleration from 1 to 2 costs 0 MP and 2x5x200¥=2.000¥
Upgrading Pilot to from 2 to 3 costs 0 MP and 1.800¥
Upgrading Sensors from 2 to 6 costs 3 MP and 6.000¥
Downgrading Armor from 3 to 0 for 1 additional MP
The drone gets a cyberdeck module hardwired on: Multidimensional Coprocessor for 1.400¥ and 500¥ worth in parts

One arm receives a cyber spur for 5000¥

Autosoft: (7 places free)
-Swarm 600¥
-Smartsoft 1500¥
-Cyberspur Soft 6 3000¥
-Ares Alpha Targeting Soft 6 3000¥
-KIKAI Maneuvering Soft 6 3000¥
-KIKAI Stealth Soft 6 3000¥
-Agent 4 8000¥

Equipment:
Helmet  w/ Area Jammer 4 900¥, ballistic mask +150¥
Ares Victory Big Game Hunter w/gel packs, non-conductivity 6, chemical protection 6, thermal protection 6 10.000¥
PPP Vitals and Leg Protectors: 650¥
Forearm Guards: 300¥

Ares Alpha w/ Gas Vent III, Shock Pad, Extended Clip, Personalized Grip, 3.435¥


Total: 225.715¥

So what do you get?

An autonomous soldier with defense 12 (Pilot 6+Autosoft 6),
soak 28 (5 BOD+ 23 Clothing Armor),
INI 12+5d6 (~29)
Attack ranged: 14 (6 Pilot + 6 Autosoft + 2 Smartsoft) 11 P AP -2 + up to 6 bonus dice from Target Device action 12 (Pilot 6+EW Soft 6) (Costs one complex action per round)
Attack melee: 12 (6 Pilot + 6 Autosoft) 11 P AP -2
Perception: 12 (6 Pilot + 6 EW Autosoft Limit 6)
Autonomous Matrix Perception (Agent 4): 8 (Reboots system or shuts down wireless if necessary, detects marks and devices w/ Matrix Perception)
Autonomous Matrix Defense (Agent 4): 15 (Agent on full defense + Firewall 7) and 4 noise
Sneaking: 12 (6 Pilot + 6 Autosoft)

The terminator carries the RCC with him and is directly connected to it, so he can't be jammed. 

[Herr Brackhaus]

Helmet and ballistic mask? I wouldn't personally allow that, but that's just me.

I would also say that the Big Game Hunter armor counts as full body armor for the purposes of PPP kits, meaning they won't stack.

Other than that, not bad. My only issue with using clothing armor is that you'll always have to resist damage; if you use vehicle armor rules you get semi-hardnened armor rules, where if the modified DV is less than the modified AV you don't even have to resist the damage. Thematically, I'd much rather see how high you could get the vehicle AV by sacrificing some mobility, as terminators aren't exactly fast.

[Jack_Spade]

@Armor
Nothing in the text for BGH indicates such and there have already been long discussions about helmet+ballistic mask, that I don't intend to have again.
But regarding additional armor: I just realized: Cyber armor might not count for vehicle armor, but it should count as normal for clothing armor. With four appendages you can get +8 armor without problem for 12.000 extra.

The automatic no damage clause is nice, but it's useless with armor less than 15 most of the time. Otherwise a simple taser suffices to get through. A
Also clothing armor is a lot cheaper and lighter. (Or at least it depends on the strength of the drone)
Instead of the mask and PPP I could use a ballistic shield for 1 armor more, but I'd lose out on the use of a two handed weapon.

[Malevolence]

Would the drone still ignore (non-electricity based) stun damage? That's a pretty decent perk...