[brombur]

just want to clarify that I am playing Drones correctly

1 - When not jumped into by a rigger they can be given commands which they carry out using their autosofts and dog brains, to the best of their ability so the following questions came up

1a - if they lack an autosoft for a weapon can they shoot it with the normal -1 pool penalty a character suffers when using something they are not skilled with or can they not shoot at all

1b - do they need to make some sort of test to see if they act correctly when firing at a target for the first time? if the target moves in and out of vision or do they auto acquire/reacquire the target?

1c -  If they do need a test, does the rigger or drone determine whether or not to use sensor lock or standard targeting

1d - Not jumped into what stats does the drone use for its defense test?

2 - When Jumped in to a drone the rigger uses their skills in place of the drones where possible so does this mean they use their defense rating for defense tests? I would understand the this to some degree but a clunky drone may not react as fast as the rigger does with his body so is there some limit? Am i wrong about drone defense? do they get treated like a vehicle?

3 - Riggers in hot sim gain a +2 bonus on actions. Does this apply to every action and test taken by the drone they are jumped into? Shooting weapons? Defense test? damage resist? Sensor targeting being the main ones Im curious about.

Thanks
 

[firebug]

1a)
No.  Drones cannot default on most things; if they need an autosoft for it, they cannot do it without the autosoft.

1b)
No, there's no "act correctly" roll.  That kind of rolling would really slow down the game and be just make drones have a chance to say "DOES NOT COMPUTE" at every command, which would be lame.  If you command them to do something, they do it.  If it requires a specific Skill, they need an appropriate Autosoft.  If it would just be an action with no roll, they can probably do it.  If it's just attributes, they can probably do it.  "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."  But this is not for basic tasks like telling a drone to fire a gun, this is explicitly for edge-cases that don't quite make sense.

1c)
There's no test.  A drone autopilot using a Targeting Autosoft simply rolls Pilot + Autosoft Rating [Accuracy].  Bottom of page 183.

1d)
Pilot x 2 if it's on Autopilot.  If you used Control Device and are remotely operating the drone (but not jumped in), you use your REA + INT.

2)
When you're jumped in, you also use REA + INT for defense.  There's no Limit for this roll, because there's no Skill rating involved, only Attributes.

3)
Just about everything, yes.  When you're jumped in, Vehicle Actions are Matrix Actions.  Firing a mounted weapon with the Gunnery skill is a vehicle action.  Defense Tests are not actions.  Resisting damage is not an action.  Those don't get the hotsim bonus or the Control Rig bonus.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

More on 1b:  If you gave the dogbrain really vague instructions like "shoot anyone who comes out this door" the GM might well call for a pilot check to see if the drone shoots at your teammates who come out the door.

Then again, maybe not.  GM might also say "of course" the dogbrain knows you don't want it to shoot your teammates.

To expand on what firebug already said: drones aren't supposed to be a liability.  They're already much more expensive and have much worse stats than spirits; no need to play computer logic gotcha games to tone down their power.

[Kiirnodel]

1a) Have to disagree, skills that can be defaulted on would arguably be able to be used by a drone without having the autosoft running. Otherwise, the entry on Autosofts wouldn't say that they "increase the effectiveness of a drone’s performance," it would say that they are necessary. If a drone required autosofts to do anything an autosoft improves then they couldn't even do basic maneuvering, because that's the Maneuvering Autosoft. Or they couldn't make Perception tests, that's Clearsoft.

I would say that the Autosofts give the drone the skill, if they aren't running an autosoft for it, they are considered defaulting and will roll Pilot -1 as their dice pool. A nice GM might let them not take the defaulting penalty, rolling just Pilot is already pretty bad...

1b) There is an "act correctly" roll, it's just only necessary when the drone is presented with an odd situation. If a target leaves view and circles around, a Pilot+Pilot roll to see if the drone is able to piece together the situation could be used if the GM feels it is appropriate. This would essentially be a test to see if the drone "recognizes" the target they were attacking.

1c) I would probably say whether or not a drone uses Sensor targetting would be part of the set-up for the drone. You could probably command it to do it one way or the other, but it probably doesn't by default. Not test necessary.

1d) Yes, Pilot x2 automated, your stats if you're actively controlling.

[firebug]

1a) Have to disagree, skills that can be defaulted on would arguably be able to be used by a drone without having the autosoft running. Otherwise, the entry on Autosofts wouldn't say that they "increase the effectiveness of a drone’s performance," it would say that they are necessary. If a drone required autosofts to do anything an autosoft improves then they couldn't even do basic maneuvering, because that's the Maneuvering Autosoft. Or they couldn't make Perception tests, that's Clearsoft.

I would say that the Autosofts give the drone the skill, if they aren't running an autosoft for it, they are considered defaulting and will roll Pilot -1 as their dice pool. A nice GM might let them not take the defaulting penalty, rolling just Pilot is already pretty bad...

Keep in mind there's a difference between "perceiving things" and "making perception tests".  There's also a difference between "being able to move" and what requires pilot tests.  Still, you have a point.  However, I know for a fact that a drone cannot fire a gun it doesn't have an autosoft for.  Drones being unable to default on things is part of what makes them different from metahuman characters.  I think 4th Edition said something about that--  But unless I can pull a quote, assume that's not the case.  I swear there was a specific drone mod in 4th that was necessary for drones to default on skills, like a "Fuzzy Logic" thing or something.  EDIT:  Fuzzy Logic is a thing, but it just adds to the Pilot test to interpret confusing orders.

DRONE GUNNERY
Drones attack using their Pilot + [Weapon] Targeting autosoft rating (p. 269), limited by Accuracy. Drones must have an autosoft appropriate to the weapon they are wielding in order to attack. They cannot fire a weapon untrained.

[Kiirnodel]

Fair point on the Gunnery, I hadn't remembered that rule. But it does show that it is an exception. They can't default on Gunnery, but that would mean they can default elsewhere if necessary.

[brombur]

Thanks for the answers. Again I keep finding areas where I think I know the rule then I go looking for it and can't find it or find something that suddenly sounds vague.

So no defaulting Guns, I was mostly concerned about the drone perception, sensors and stealth, since most drones aren't super high rated they have limited slots for this stuff. It makes sense that there isn't defaulting since it would allow your drones to do everything as opposed to being specialized. I think it feels wrong that a combat drone, decked out for shooting things gets to also be great at avoiding detection without having to buy the program.

Additional question - It says that you can run some programs from the RCC and all drones in the network benefit.  Is that accurate?

I get that for gunnery autosofts this wouldn't work on all drones just the ones that were the same make and model but things like evasion and clearsight. Seems like if it works universally on all drones you would just run max rating evasion and clearsight on the RCC to save costs and ensure max performance  and free up the local slots for gunnery.

Additional question - You mentioned perception vs perceiving. If it isn't hidden and you are jumped in you see it, if it is hidden and you are jumped in its your perception value limited by the sensor rating of the drone? or your normal mental limit?  If the drone is on autopilot does it perceive non hidden with no tests and then use its clearsight + pilot to find hidden stuff but is it smart enough to try and find hidden items or will it only seek hidden objects when specifically commanded to do?

[ShadowcatX]

All drones of that make and model benefit. If you have a steel lynx, you need steel lynx clear sight, etc. Also, they can't benefit from RCC autosofts and on board autosofts simultaneously, it is one or the other.