So no simplification after all.
I'd like to follow-up with a few questions about action economy.
I assume that the Control Device Matrix action as it is described in the Matrix chapter is used to take control of a device that you don't own, or else it wouldn't be resisted by Firewall and the wording would be different.
Basically, yes. Matrix Actions are largely presumed to be hacking contexts. But some actions, like Send Message and Control Device, are also presented to (in part) provide some timing structure to matrix usage that might go on during combat.
When you own a drone, do you still need to spend an equivalent major action to control it remotely ?
If yes, I assume this action is unresisted and thus automatically succeeds?
The description of Control Device states:
You maintain control until you relinquish command or are forced out of the system.
What does "relinquishing command" mean? Is there anything that prevents you from remote controlling more than one device at a time?
These rules appear to be written from the presumption that a 6e analogue for the 5e control hierarchy would be reiterated in the CRB. Unfortunately, one wasn't.
The concept of a control hierarchy works thusly:
1) Only one person is in control of a vehicle/drone at any given time.
2) In order to assume control when it's already under someone else's control, you have to exert control at a higher tier. Those tiers are, in order:
2a) Jumped In
2b) Remote Control (via AR or VR- doesn't matter)
2c) Local Control (using autopilot+autosoft dice pools, but tactical choices are being made by metahuman controller)
2d) Manual Control (physical contact, directly manipulating physical controls- naturally only applicable to vehicles)
2e) Autopilot
So, an example: A squad of corp-sec guards are on patrol, joined by a supporting Doberman drone. The drone is part of the site's Host network. While tagging along with the guards and just scanning for shadowrunners, the drone is probably under autopilot control. Why? Because it's a drone so there's no option for manual control. Someone might be spending their actions every round to direct the drone around (like a real life R/C pilot controlling their model airplane) but this is probably unlikely as the autopilot is perfectly capable of doing this without requiring yet another employee to micromanage the drone's every action.
When this patrol comes into contact with intruding shadowrunners, the drone might remain under autopilot control during the confrontation. But, maybe the drone is making bad decisions about what to do. "Hey drone, don't shoot that one, GEEK THE MAGE!" Right? In this kind of situation, the guard used the Command Drone action (pg. 41) and control hierarchy just jumped to Local Control. If, once the mage is geeked or the drone otherwise cannot continue to execute that command, the drone will either stop and await new commands or revert back down to Autopilot control, per GM discretion. The guard could also have explicitly worked in reverting back to Autopilot control, by saying "GEEK THE MAGE, then go back to your regular directives"
Maybe the drone's targeting autosoft isn't up to snuff and it's not proving capable of geeking that mage. One of the guards (or even a security spider, potentially) can use the Control Device matrix action to invoke Remote Control level of the control hierarchy. This is the tier akin to having control of a R/C aircraft in real life. So long as they're authorized to do so, it's correct they don't roll as if they were a hacker. It just works. And while in Remote Control, they roll THEIR attributes and skill dice rather than the drone rolling its own + autosoft. Once they quit actively controlling the drone, it quits being at this tier and "control is relinquished", down to Local Control or even Autopilot, as the GM determines (or as the controlling character wishes, if there are explicit wishes)
And of course, if a rigger or spider jumps in, that trumps all lower forms of control. You can't trump Jumped-in, as there's nothing higher.
What does "relinquishing command" mean? Is there anything that prevents you from remote controlling more than one device at a time?
In 5e the way you'd command numerous drones simultaneously was via "Captain's Chair", which was at the Local Control tier. You issue orders to multiple drones at once rather than one at a time (something you need a RCC to do) and then they all go forth and do the thing, using their own dice pools. If you want to use your OWN dice pools, you have to use Remote Control and you can only be in Remote Control of one thing at time (just as you can only be Jumped In to one thing at a time)
