[aridun64]

Like Noctem I am also using Umaro's Ghost for a campaign, though I made a couple changes. Change one was to change his metatype to Ork (moving the spare points around) and change was to drop the Heavy weapons skill and pick up Assault weapons so I could use Battle Rifles for sniping. Those are the only changes I have made to the character.

Since I am using Battle Rifles I chose the AM-884 from WAR!. I would like some Ideas as to what modifications I should put into the rifle to make it awesome. Any help would be most cool

[UmaroVI]

By "Assault Weapon" you mean "Automatics" right?

I would actually reconsider the AM. It has -1 more AP, but that's just not worth the numerous drawbacks in has: namely, low ammo, no innate BF, no innate RC. I would instead suggest the AVC-7.62 for this (the HVBR is usually better, but not for this because it's no-accessories thing is a nuisance for a sniping weapon)

Firing Selection Change (full auto) [1]
Barrel Extension [1]
Manual Easy Breakdown [1]
Chameleon Coating [2]
Personalized Grip [1]
Accessory: Sound Suppressor [Barrel]
Accessory: External Smartgun [Top]
Accessory: Tripod [Under]

This gives you a solid weapon with FA and 8 RC (1 innate, 1 personalized grip, 6 tripod), Sporting Rifle +10% range, silenced, chameleon coated, and breakable. The major alternative would be to fit on a built-in Sound Suppressor for an extra -2, but you'd have to yoink something that is IMO more useful.

I'd also carry a modded HVBR for pink mohawk times; you can get 10 RC on it without too much trouble.
Gas Vent 3 mod [2]
Personalized Grip mod [1]
Firing Selection Change: Full Auto [1]
Foregrip [1]
Folding Stock [1]

The 11th RC requires 6 strength or some other means of getting a last point that stacks, which you probably don't have, but it's still worth it; a long burst at -1 beats a short burst.

[Noctem]

I actually gave thought myself to dropping Heavy Weapons for the Battle Rifle alternative.  However the thought of shooting a gyro mounted railgun with no recoil and insane range just made me go for the Heavy Weapons.  Call me silly but I just like the visual candy that this gives hehe.

[Noctem]

Alright !  So new update for those interested.  We've completed Mission 2 with all objectives successfully fulfilled.   Whoo!!  By finding some smart ways to resolve situations we also managed to come by a decent amount of cash.  My current holdings are 30,000 nuyen.  I was wondering if anyone could give me ideas on what to spend my cash on.  I know there's a list of things in the Ghost build entry that Umaro posted, I guess I just want to check what's recommended at this stage of the game. 

The other players are bought some Break n Entry gear, ID eraser etc..  We also came by some commlinks from some hired guards that will serve as disposable commlinks.  Rating 2 in all stats, so they aren't bad either.

Any and all help is appreciated

[Henzington]

if dont have muscle replacements its a nice and cheap but essence heavy upgrade to agi and str.  If essence is more of an issue muscle augmentation and toner do the same thing but use less essence and more cash.

[Noctem]

oh, here is the build I am currently using.  It was posted by Umaro.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J5-Z04bXEhuylLRumDT7tUA36rsNq0sWRdIHnQFDFxg/edit?hl=en_US%22&pli=1

I have the items it lists and I am looking for figure out what to do with the 30,000 nuyen I have now.  There are suggestions listed but I figure better to ask the community

[UmaroVI]

I'd say it depends on what you've spent the most time doing. The biggest available areas to improve are:

Buying more heavy weapons. How much did you wind up using the LMG versus your pistols? How often were you in situations where getting a really big gun out of the van and murdering a lot of dudes was called for. Of note is the minigun option - it has the rather severe drawback of taking a Simple Action to spin up, so it's only useful if you know you are about to be in a fight, but it is incredibly good otherwise.

Buying the Gauss Rifle. It's a very versatile weapon that can do most of a sniper rifle's job (not quiet, but better at penetrating walls/armor/vehicles) and is also good long-range fire support. How often did you want to snipe/long range fire support?

Attention Coprocessor is a cheap and large upgrade to your Perception. Were you making Perception checks a lot?

If you used your Stealth group skills a lot, Reflex Recorder (Stealth) is a good buy. Ditto for the other reflex recorders, but the others are more for skills you're already perfectly good at, whereas the Intuition-based stealth skills are hard to get high ratings in.

You'll never be a really good face, but Tailored Pheremones are a relatively cheap and large bonus to social skills. Did you wind up needing to make Social rolls a lot? You might want to save up for Pheremones 3.

[Noctem]

thanks a lot for your reply Umaro as always.

The first mission I did end up using a sniper to take out a camera ahead of time and create an opportunity for the group to enter the grounds of the area we wanted disguised as a repair crew.  The hacker intercepted the call and the face set it up.  Anyway it was nice teamwork which paid off.  Then we infiltrated inside the grounds and took out the stuff we needed to take out semi-covertly :p  Bullets started flying when the guards spotted the troll haha.

The second mission was an investigation type mission into the disappearance of ork women.  There was a decent amount of B&E, data searching and perception.  Once we found the people doing it, infiltration was used to enter the building by myself and the face (go gecko tape gloves !).  Once inside I made use of a mini drone that I decided to get myself,  a fly spy mini drone (Is this a good drone ?).  I used it to find the location of the guards and map out the patrol patterns they had.  Lots of pistol fire here since ghouls made a surprise appearance and the BBEG of the place had some weird fire elemental summoning mojo.  I cleared the place out with pistols with the aid of the face and hacker who decided to have fun with a chemical loaded squirt gun *lol*. 

The third mission so far has been a search and rescue, we were contacted in the middle of the night to enter old tunnels that were found by a company building a research building.  So far a *lot* of perception stuff inside the tunnels / cave system.  Not much gun fire so far though.  Though what there was has been one bullet combats since I seem to be rather good at nailing heads   Got me some alligator teeth and talons, now all I needs a knife.

So far, it would seem the group is a lot more covert ops oriented, making noise isn't our style so far.  I've been looking at the Gauss Rifle though because I've spent karma to specialize into Assault Cannons in heavy weapons and in case it would be useful, I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.   However getting it right now would cost me pretty much all my nuyen.  Is it worth it ?

I'll look into the Attention Coprocessor though, as there's been a lot of perception checks..  I'm also using karma to boost it right now so.

Since we have a good face already in the group I've asked her nicely to help me out with things that she's good at and that I am not.  Like negotiations or cons haha.

From what I've described does anything jump out at anyone for something I should look into ?  Or maybe a suggestion as to what to buy ?

[Henzington]

it never hurts to have the heavy weapons for when things go sideways

[UmaroVI]

The Gauss Rifle is worth it if you find yourself able to use it reasonably regularly. The big thing it gets is that (due to the Arsenal errata) is has AP of -half -4, as in half armor, then -4. So it punches right through things like high force spirits with ITNW and (more importantly) heavily armored vehicles that are hard to hurt with pistols.

I would, however, probably get the attention coprocessor first. It's a really good buy.

[JustADude]

The Gauss Rifle is worth it if you find yourself able to use it reasonably regularly. The big thing it gets is that (due to the Arsenal errata) is has AP of -half -4, as in half armor, then -4. So it punches right through things like high force spirits with ITNW and (more importantly) heavily armored vehicles that are hard to hurt with pistols.

Just for the record, a Barrett 121 firing AT ammo is pretty nasty as well, against things that have armor that's not tank-grade. However, you get more other bits of fun from Heavy Weapons... if you really don't care about 'subtle' or 'expensive', for example, emptying the belt with an ITS Gonryu firing Full Narrow bursts will turn just about anything into a crater.

[Noctem]

ok, attention coprocessor it is !

big guns later :p