[Glaive]

Well I just asked this in the Catalyst's Shadowrun Products, Nothing Personal thread, but I figured I'd throw it up over here since more people are likely to see it. So, the F-B Bumblebee says that is has the Stoner-Ares M202 as a standard accessory. Is that standard as in packed with the drone, or standard as it built for it, but gun sold separately? Also, does this thing come with the heavy weapons mount needed to use an M202? It doesn't explicitly state it, so I was worried that you'd be getting a gun that you couldn't mount at char creation.

Also, best drone, or bestest drone? Cuz seriously, this thing is looking like a pretty good deal! Also, is this missions legal?

[Shaidar]

Standard Accessory means installed at the factory, all prerequisite equipment included (even if not explicitly specified). Usable out of the box, fresh off the lot, as it were.

[Csjarrat]

Best drone by a long shot. Good armour, better mobility than steel lynx and comes with heavy weaps mount and an MMG. Needs recoil comp and better autosofts but is good to go other than that!

[PiXeL01]

Was it ever errataed how big the autosoft rating actually is?

[Shaidar]

The author set rating at 3 here (towards the bottom, look for Backgammon's 4th to last post).

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Will need to forward this drone to my parties rigger.

[Finstersang]

Glad to see something like the Bumblebee ingame, even if its hidden in the back of a Novel. Riggers need much more love atm, and no Rigger/Vehicle supplement is in sight. That said, the Bumblebee is a nice deal, but not necissarily the best choice: While an Armor Rating of 14 is hard to pierce without appropriate weaponry, it has only a Handling of 3 and is also relativeley slow an thus an easy target. Plus, with Body  4 it has less Recoil Compensation then the Steel Lynx - And with a fixed MMG with FA as the only Firing Mode, Recoil´s a real bitch. Without an additional Gasvent, the FB  would lose 4 Dice a basic 6-Shot Burst. So: nice gear, but not overpowered.

[jim1701]

You could replace the MMG if you want to.  Absolutely no rule that says you can't.  You can also add Gas Vent 3 to the MMG to handle six round bursts.  You would almost certainly want to upgrade the autosofts as well.  Also, while I do like the Lynx, it can't go vertical.  Just sayin'

[Herr Brackhaus]

Suppressive Fire is where a Bumblebee with a machine gun shines, in my opinion.

[Shaidar]

Ain't Air Support awesome!!!

Less cover available from an airborne weapons platform.

[Glaive]

Glad to see something like the Bumblebee ingame, even if its hidden in the back of a Novel. Riggers need much more love atm, and no Rigger/Vehicle supplement is in sight. That said, the Bumblebee is a nice deal, but not necissarily the best choice: While an Armor Rating of 14 is hard to pierce without appropriate weaponry, it has only a Handling of 3 and is also relativeley slow an thus an easy target. Plus, with Body  4 it has less Recoil Compensation then the Steel Lynx - And with a fixed MMG with FA as the only Firing Mode, Recoil´s a real bitch. Without an additional Gasvent, the FB  would lose 4 Dice a basic 6-Shot Burst. So: nice gear, but not overpowered.

as jim1701 says, there's no reason to think you can't remove and toy with dat MMG. With gas vent 3 and an under barrel weight, the Bumblebee has RC9 (1base, +3gas, +1weight, +4bod), which is enough to fire full auto at only a -2. Not so hot with the base autosoft, only having 4 dice with that mode, but at a -9 dodge, you're still more likely to hit than not...probably. Still, any rigger worth their salt is gunna upgrade that, so no biggie. But yeah, I think being medium and flying counts for a lot, but I got nuthin for the speed. Guess you're just gunna have to deal. Still good for ground fire support, but I suppose it would be worthless in a car chase.

[Finstersang]

Do Drones get that one Point of Base RC? I thought this is already in the RC from Body?
 

[jim1701]

Do Drones get that one Point of Base RC? I thought this is already in the RC from Body?

Here is what the book says

Vehicle and Drone mounted weapons have the advantage of a sturdy platform from which to fire. The vehicle itself has enough mass to absorb the bulk of the recoil created by the weapon.  Mounted weapons have Recoil Compensation equal to the Body of the vehicle plus any built in Recoil Compensation of the weapon.

I think the definition is pretty clear.  There is no base 1 recoil for drones.