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Help with drone questions

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JmOz01

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« on: <06-23-17/1221:50> »
What skills/attributes do you use for combat if you are jumped in?

Sphinx

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« Reply #1 on: <06-23-17/1428:36> »
Your own attributes and skills, but the vehicle's limits. Pilot Skill + Reaction [Handling] once every Combat Turn to control the drone, Gunnery + Logic [Accuracy] to shoot targets, Perception + Intuition [Sensor] for observations, etc. (See "Rigging and You," SR5, p.266.)

(EDIT: Don't forget to adjust dice pools, limits, and thresholds by the rating of your Control Rig.)
« Last Edit: <06-23-17/1440:25> by Sphinx »

JmOz01

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« Reply #2 on: <06-23-17/1433:17> »
Thank you, I should have been more specific, I was having trouble with shooting (Could not figure out agility or logic)

Karlok

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« Reply #3 on: <06-23-17/1647:21> »
Sphinx,

I guess you confused me a little.  I'm a complete newbie at this game, but i've been digging through rigger texts trying to understand cost/benefits of jumping in vs. RCC commanding vs. remote control. 

Where do you read that a drone requires a 'control vehicle' complex action every combat turn?  I feel like being jumped in is total immersion and thus, would be like rolling to 'keep standing up' as a complex action.   Remote control and/or manual control of the vehicle feels more obvious to have that roll.  I could also see that action being more relevant with driving scenes or on the go type situations than with a drone being in relatively stationary combat.   

If you were jumped in through an RCC with multiple drones and you chose to swap drones during an action phase, would you then require the rigger to roll another complex action to keep control of the new rig?

As an unrelated note,  when jumping between drones through an RCC, what happens to the initiative of the three people involved?

Let's say you were in a drone at  the beginning of a combat turn,  you were connected through an RCC running at least one other drone.  Presumably you would roll VR iniative for yourself and that would be acting as the drone, through yourself.  I.e. the drone does not initially roll initiative.  During one of the action phases you decide to swap drones.  What happens to the initiative of the original drone? Do you roll initiative and subtract 10x initiative passes for the combat turn?  What happens to the initiative of the jumped into drone? Does it just disappear because you now control it and it is now operated as part of your action phase?  Would you require that the drone you left receive a new command to keep shooting at someone if you left it?





Kiirnodel

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« Reply #4 on: <06-23-17/1719:05> »
My stance on the control vehicle test is that it is required as long as the vehicle is in motion. So yeah, if a drone isn't moving around, it wouldn't require an action to be taken to "keep control." I might require for some circumstances, such as a flying drone that either can't hover or is in a situation where doing so might be difficult (f.e. heavy winds). Basically if a vehicle is in a situation where "going uncontrolled" would mean it needs to make a test to see if it crashes, then you would need to make a test to control it at some point during the turn. In a stationary situation, going uncontrolled would mean it just continues to sit there.

As for the initiative thing, the easier thing to do would be to roll for the Drone's initiative (just so you don't have to worry about rolling it later). Technically, the drone still has an initiative, its just sitting back and not doing anything while you're Jumped In. It mentions the initiative thing in the Control Override section on page 265 of the Core Rulebook. Basically, the drone' autonomous brain is (presumably) sitting at the controls mindlessly trying to perform whatever action you last told it to do, but because you're Jumped In, your commands take priority and it does that instead. Sort of like setting your GPS to go somewhere, and then just driving a different direction, your GPS can shout at you all it wants, but it isn't going to change anything.

On any pass where you're Jumped In, a drone's own attempts at control automatically get blocked, it can't take control until the pass after you leave.
So using your example (two drones, one rigger), Rigger starts out jumped into drone 1, roll initiative for everyone. Pass 1: Drone 1's initiative won't matter, it doesn't get an action this pass (you could choose to roll its initiative later if you prefer), on the Rigger's turn he jumps drone 2. Pass 2: Drone 1 will take its initiative this pass, but Drone 2 won't.

Now, technically, by the rules this can lead to one circumstance where something interesting happens, if the Rigger acts on an initiative later than the drone, the drone could potentially take its action, then the rigger switches jump and takes another action with the same device. Full RAW doesn't address this circumstance specifically, so it would (presumably) be legal, meaning the "drone" would end up taking two sets of actions, once with its dog-brain, and once with the rigger's control. I feel that it would be reasonable for a GM to rule that the physical "body" is still limited to only one action a pass, meaning the Rigger would potentially jump into the drone to find that the body performing the dog-brain's actions before he can fully take control. Sort of like in a relay race if someone starts running too soon before the baton is passed.

Sphinx

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« Reply #5 on: <06-24-17/1225:25> »
EXAMPLE:

MadMonkey the rigger has three MCT-Nissan Roto-Drones (p.466), called Alfa, Bravo, and Charlie. He starts combat already jumped into Alfa. Bravo and Charlie already have standing instructions to follow him and shoot at whatever target he shoots at.

MadMonkey’s Matrix Initiative is 11 (Data Processing 6 + Intuition 5). He rolls 4D6 initiative dice (hot simsense) and gets 14, so his Initiative Score this turn is 25. His drones substitute their Pilot rating for both Data Processing and Intuition, so their Matrix Initiative is 6 (Pilot 3 + Pilot 3). They each roll 4D6 initiative dice (see “Drone Initiative,” p.270) and all get the same result, 16 (amazing coincidence!), so their Initiative Score is 22. (Alfa rolls initiative same as the others, but takes no actions while MadMonkey is jumped in. When Monkey jumps to another drone, Alfa’s pilot program resumes control on its next action.)

Drivers must spend at least one Complex Action every Combat Turn driving their vehicle or it becomes uncontrolled (see “Actions,” p.202). It doesn’t have to be on the first initiative pass, but MadMonkey decides to get it out of the way. He rolls Pilot Aircraft 4 + Reaction 4 + Control Rig 2 = 10 dice, and gets 3 hits (well within the drone’s Handling of 4 + Control Rig 2 = limit 6). Bravo and Charlie roll their Maneuvering Autosoft 3 + Pilot Rating 3 = 6 dice, and get 4 hits and 1 hit. The GM looks at the Vehicle Test Threshold Table (p.199) and Terrain Modifiers Table (p.201), and decides that 1 hit is enough for now.

On the second initiative pass, MadMonkey has his target in view (an armored troll security guard) and opens fire with the FN-HAR assault rifle mounted on his rotodrone. He chooses a Long Burst, firing 6 rounds, giving the troll –5 to its defense test (see “Firing Mode Table,” p.180); Recoil Compensation from the FN-HAR (p.428) and the drone’s Body rating (see “Vehicle and Drone Mounted Weapons,” p.176) cancels out the recoil from the Long Burst. He rolls Gunnery 6 + Logic 4 + Control Rig 2 = 12 dice and gets 4 hits (less that the weapon’s accuracy). The troll’s defense test is Reaction 3 + Intuition 3 – Long Burst 5 = 1 die, no hits. The troll has to resist 10P + 4 net hits = 14P damage (–2 AP). The troll’s damage resistance test is Body 7 + Full Body Armor w/ Helmet 18 + Armor Penetration (–2) + troll natural armor 1 = 24 dice, for 9 hits. He takes 5 boxes of damage.

Alfa takes no action while MadMonkey is jumped in, but Bravo and Charlie follow his lead, firing long bursts, rolling their Targeting Autosoft 3 + Pilot Rating 3 [Accuracy 5] vs. the troll’s defense pool of zero (after factoring the penalty for “Defender Has Defended Against Previous Attacks,” p.189). Bravo gets 2 hits; Charlie gets 3 hits. Troll now has an additional 12P and 13P damage (–2 AP) to reduce. He gets 10 and 8 hits, taking 2 and 5 more boxes (12 boxes total), and he tumbles bleeding to the deck with a full physical damage track.

On the third and final initiative pass, MadMonkey jumps out of Alfa into VR with his first Simple Action (see “Taking the Jump,” p.266). With his second Simple Action, he orders Alfa, Bravo, and Charlie to continue attacking, firing Semi-Auto (because of cumulative recoil) at targets with the same armor pattern as the troll (see “Group Command and Jumping Around, p.267). The GM decides to roll Pilot Rating x2 = 6 dice for each drone to make sure they understand the complicated instruction, getting 3, 2, and zero hits (see “Pilot Programs,” p.269). Alfa and Bravo understand, but Charlie is confused, so it hovers and does nothing. Alfa gets to act this pass because MadMonkey has already jumped out by the time its turn comes up in the initiative order. Alpha and Bravo choose random targets among the armored security forces and fire single shots, rolling Targeting Autosoft 3 + Pilot Rating 3 + recoil (–1) vs. Reaction 3 + Intuition 3, getting zero and 2 net hits. One security guard has to soak 12P/–2 damage.