[Hobbes]

Honestly, it's a common misspeak for people to call Vehicle armor (or barriers for that matter) "Hardened" because of the fact that if the modified damage doesn't exceed the modified Armor, none of it goes through and the attack is effectively ignored. A lot of people overlook that Hardened Armor does that plus the bonus hits. Barriers and Vehicles don't get those free hits.

Eh.  No Damage is No Damage, however you get their, but you are correct.  This particular mechanic is likely why most Vehicles have lower armor than what a person can easily wear.  Except for a couple of specifically "Armored" vehicles, most vehicles and drones are single digit armor values.  A few get to 12.  Stock vehicles of course, Rigger Modifications can raise these to silly levels.  Anyway, being able to toss 19 points of Armor on an Ares Duelist is a huge upgrade and essentially turns an Ares Duelist into a light tank.   (Ares Big Game Hunter and favorite combo to get +5 presuming Drone Body = Str for Encumbrance).  An Assault Rifle with APDS will still need multiple net hits to force a Soak roll.  Autosoft and Swarm and your Drones likely have a decent defense tests too.   

[Jack_Spade]

Vehicle Armor is just normal armor, because the specialty lies within the fact that a vehicle doesn't have to worry about stun at all.

That said, cloth armored anthro drones are still very vulnerable to tasers and SnS, since those electrical attacks are always P damage for them. (That's when it pays off to use non-lethal options)

[Rooks]

Isnt swam kinda a waste I mean you only get +1 dice pool bonus per drone firing Also if you put non conductive 6 you pretty much gain a point of armor against electrical attacks

[Hobbes]

Swarm is broken.  It's a generic +1 Dice Pool, +1 Limit that has a max of RCC Device Rating * 5 *3.  So on a Rating 5 RCC, that's a +14 Dice Pool and Limit to any test.  Any Test.  Perception, Electronic Warfare, Sneaking, Mechanics, ect, ect, ect.  Also Swarm lets you use the RCCs Device Rating as the Pilot rating for the Swarm, and share Autosofts across your drones so you can use your RCC to run even more Programs.

[Kiirnodel]

It's Device Rating *3, although that just looks like a mistype based on your example.

A balance to the brokenness of swarm is that they still can't do things that the drones can't do, and they always have to act autonomously. So, for example, what actions are the drones performing on their own with Electronic Warfare?

It also uses the lowest stats (Handling, Speed, Acceleration) other than Pilot.

My personal balance would be to keep swarms limited to only performing actions that all the drones can perform. Attacking? They all have to have weapons. Perceiving, they all have to be able to have sensors capable of noticing the target. Sneaking? They all have to be moving in the area, sneaking. And a swarm is going to be easier to spot than a single drone (lower concealability). If less drones are participating, the bonus is lessened.

[Hobbes]

Just because they're acting on their own dice pools doesn't mean they're autonomous.  It's a simple action to command a swarm to go do whatever it is you want them to do.  As for EW, Snoop comes to mind.  Hide would be sorta funny.

[Kiirnodel]

How does a swarm of Drones perform the snoop action? The auto-pilot isn't an agent, and the drones aren't devices designed to be used to browse the Matrix, not to mention that they don't have Sleaze attributes.

I think my point is still valid, the drones still can't do actions that they aren't physically capable of doing. How do drones perform acts of Negotiation? Most of them don't have readily functioning speech abilities.

Remember, the base Pilot program isn't a replacement for any and all actions.

Pilots have a Rating indicated by the Device Rating of the vehicle, drone, or other piece of gear they’re in. This rating is used in place of any Mental attribute needed for a test, but it hardly makes up for a metahuman brain. When faced with something novel or unexpected, or a complicated command, a Pilot program must make a Device Rating x 2 Test against a threshold set by the gamemaster based on how confusing the situation is. If it fails this test, it blithely continues doing what it was doing before, or simply stops entirely and asks for instructions.

[Coyote]

How do drones perform acts of Negotiation? Most of them don't have readily functioning speech abilities.

If they're flying, maybe they use a mime dance? Something like a honeybee "where is the honey" dance?
I mean, I'd drop my price a bit in order to see that...

[Hobbes]

Swarm bonus is fluffed as being some gestalt bonus of the combined processing and sensor power.  So lots of different perspectives for a Perception test.  Lots of different sensor feeds for your social tests to watch body language, lots of processing power to come up with a response.  You just need one drone with a Speaker for a verbal communication, not exactly difficult.  Not that any sane GM would allow a default negotiation roll from a Swarm of Fly-Spys. 

And "Add a Matrix Attribute" Sleaze Rating to one Drone, Attack Rating to another for your Matrix Tests, get a +14 Limit from Swarm.  I'd argue that Drones would be able to do a "Snoop" action.  That's what at least one of the Drones in Rigger 5 is built for, the Hedge Hog from Page 129.
"..., it can listen in
passively while running decrypting software. Parked in
a hidden location, it can eavesdrop for up to forty-eight
hours on a single charge, gathering data by the gigapulse."

That's the Snoop Action I would think.  Although, the Hedge Hog doesn't have a Sleaze attribute by default so, to your point, I don't know how it actually does what it says it does.

[The Bald Man]

drone limb (cyberlimb) armor mods don't add to drone armor (rigger5.0 p.122)
Drone armor doesn't stack with regular armor because neither is a +armor.

wouldn't limb armor mod stack with worn armor, just like a metahuman with cyberlimb armor mods and armor?

[Rooks]

Swarm bonus is fluffed as being some gestalt bonus of the combined processing and sensor power.  So lots of different perspectives for a Perception test.  Lots of different sensor feeds for your social tests to watch body language, lots of processing power to come up with a response.  You just need one drone with a Speaker for a verbal communication, not exactly difficult.  Not that any sane GM would allow a default negotiation roll from a Swarm of Fly-Spys. 

And "Add a Matrix Attribute" Sleaze Rating to one Drone, Attack Rating to another for your Matrix Tests, get a +14 Limit from Swarm.  I'd argue that Drones would be able to do a "Snoop" action.  That's what at least one of the Drones in Rigger 5 is built for, the Hedge Hog from Page 129.
"..., it can listen in
passively while running decrypting software. Parked in
a hidden location, it can eavesdrop for up to forty-eight
hours on a single charge, gathering data by the gigapulse."

That's the Snoop Action I would think.  Although, the Hedge Hog doesn't have a Sleaze attribute by default so, to your point, I don't know how it actually does what it says it does.

you'd want add sleaze attribute to your RCC and run smoke and mirrors for 20 sleaze attribute

[Jack_Spade]

drone limb (cyberlimb) armor mods don't add to drone armor (rigger5.0 p.122)
Drone armor doesn't stack with regular armor because neither is a +armor.

wouldn't limb armor mod stack with worn armor, just like a metahuman with cyberlimb armor mods and armor?

Nope. It's an explicit rule in Rigger 5

p.125
"Drone limb armor does not affect the drone in any way, but having a limb provides +1 to the physical condition monitor as normal. Adding a drone arm requires a Shop and uses 1 MP."