[Tiamat]

So I am using Chummer to upgrade my drones, and I came across a rule I didn't know: Drones can only hold a total of 4 upgrades.

Now, while I was looking at it I realized that Chummer was not letting me directly modify the hardware of my drone either! I couldn't up the pilot, reaction, firewall, etc because it was counting it as a modification.

So is this true? Does adding in new pilot software take up a "modification" slot?

[_Pax_]

Not exactly true.  I don't know hwo Chummer handles it, but in the RAW (Vehicle Mods rules for Arsenal)?  All vehicles of ANY SIZE have a maximum number of modification slots available to them, equal to their Body ... to a minimum of 4.  (That's for any vehicle, not just drones.)

Some single modifications take up more than one slot (Luxury Amenities take up SIXTEEN slots!).

Some take up no slots at all (spoof chips; Response or Signal upgrades).

Every single one that takes up a modification slot, is a hardware change.
...

Pilots are software, not hardware.  Ergo, they take 0 slots.

[Tiamat]

Sort of what I was trying to say.

It sounds like chummer treats EVERYTHING as one slot, and even the standard upgrades.

I'm just going to have to do it by hand

[_Pax_]

Hero Labs does it very well.  If you don't mind the $85 pricetag to get ht ebase program and all supplemental datafiles ...

[CanRay]

Hmmmmmmm, interesting question, I need to check out "This Old Drone" more if I can upgrade Drones.

[_Pax_]

Modify, yes.  Upgrade to the point of no longer having "Obsolete" ... not so much.

[Mirikon]

This can be modified somewhat by tossing after market add-ons, and upping the matrix attributes. Of course, that's a lot of cred, and it'd have to be a special drone to warrant it. I could see plenty of use the Hachiman or the Predator/Reaper. The Hachiman's reinforced turret means bringing some heavy guns to the party, and toss some camo coating and some armor on the Reaper, and you've got a decent assault craft, for much cheaper than some of the newer drones out there.

[CanRay]

Modify, yes.  Upgrade to the point of no longer having "Obsolete" ... not so much.

Depends on what you're doing.  Those old drones are a lot larger than the new ones.  Replace the old computer hardware with a CommLink using some Emulation Software to run the old physical hardware, and you got room for a lot of extra features! 

[Tiamat]

Interesting. I'm picking up the black book in the next couple of days(I lost the pdf! Hardcopy time!) so that I can use that...

Apparently Chummer works properly on the Steel Lynx, but not the Rotor Drones and I'm not sure why. I might just try deleting the rotor drones and starting over.

[_Pax_]

Modify, yes.  Upgrade to the point of no longer having "Obsolete" ... not so much.

Depends on what you're doing.  Those old drones are a lot larger than the new ones.  Replace the old computer hardware with a CommLink using some Emulation Software to run the old physical hardware, and you got room for a lot of extra features! 

Really what they need is an official-source modification that takes 0 or 1 slots, and specifically brings the relevant parts "up to date" and removes Obsolete / Vintage / etc.

[Tiamat]

Just a followup: User error. Apparently when I installed the turret on the rotor drones, I picked the wrong options and ended up with something which wasn't what I had in mind.

As a result, adding anything to the drone(0 slots or not) brought up an error.