Let me preface this with my situation: I'm a relatively new player to Shadowrun, and completely new to 5e. I'm building a Rigger, where my build priority is Vehicle Primary, Crafting Secondary, and Drone Support Tertiary, ie at chargen drones are whatever I've got leftover (at the moment, 1 combat drone, 1 overwatch drone, small swarm of Noizquitos for scouting and flashing during combat). I like to have a big tank of a vehicle that serves as the last word in a situation that's spun out of control, as always happens (there was this one Chuck E Cheese...). I've had success with this the only other time I played Shadowrun, where the armored up assault vehicle played as a trump card against whatever the party managed to rile up.
I've built a Mack Hellhound this time around. My main reasons for choosing it were the 20 body for mods, and the in-built drone racks. With 20 body, I could eventually work up to 2 of my preferred weapon mounts: Heavy, Internal, Turret, 10 slots each. Lots of things you can do with 2 different heavy weapons! (Insofar as stealth and subtlety are concerned, we aren't full pink mohawk and the GM expects an honest effort at keeping downlow, but I've got good ideas for getting around, like impersonating local security firms and the like, which have met with approval by my party; it's not an issue for this thread)
However, I've since come to the conclusion that an Assault Cannon is probably all you need unless you've gotten in so much crap that nothing's gonna get you out, so I only need the 1 turret mount. That opens the field to any vehicles with less than 20 body. However, vehicles with 16 or 18 body can't mount as many drone racks as the Hellhound has built in.
That leads to my main question: how do drone heavy riggers get their drones around? I read online of folks having swarms of 15 small or medium drones, while each drone rack of that size takes up a good 2-3 weapon mod slots on a vehicle. Are they just flying them everywhere? That seems off to me, having a cloud of 15 drones in the sky seems noticeable without springing for chameleon coating on each of them, which, expensive. And doesn't that cause problems with drone operations time? I can't find any mentions of how long drones can operate without recharging in 5e, but in 4e it was 6 hours, which travel would bite into hugely. And it doesn't cover stuff like wheeled drones, how do those keep up with the vehicle in a chase? Or be at all subtle, a string of drones following your van around? My last idea is having another vehicle strung out on Pilot behind the main party bus that's been converted to a drone carrier, but that again has a lot of problems with subtlety and chase scenes.
I know I said drones are a tertiary concern at chargen, but with the assault vehicle costing 200k+, its here to stay for the duration of the campaign, and I need to keep an eye on future expansion, if we do well and I get the funds.
Just want to know if there's options or common methods I'm missing (I did see the nesting doll strategy on the other rigger thread that's been going recently, but I'm not a fan of it). If drones have a simple manner of transport that does not require racks, then my other reason for the Hellhound is negated, and I'd feel good about finding another vehicle to serve as an assault transport. One a little easier to get around in without getting in trouble than a hauler (thinking a Roadmaster or Teufelkatze).
