From:	Jani Fikouras <feanor@**********.UNI-BREMEN.DE>
Subject:	Re: vehicle combat question
Date:	Mon, 18 Sep 1995 14:38:39 +0200

> Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that a rigger
> needs to expend a complex action to control a drone. He can merely tell
> it "do this." Does that mean that the drone doesn't get to fire? Of
> course not. It will do its damnedest to hose whatever gets in its path.
> So if you treat a turret as a drone, it also doesn't need an action spent.

Both is correct, a rigger can assume control of a drone thusly using his
own initiative, gunnery skill etc for all success tests (this costs an
action or a succesfull crash test :) Or he can issue a command to the
autopilot (we dont know what the drones initiative will be in this
case, but it'll use its autopilot skill as its piloting skill and its
sensors rating+autopilot rating as its gunnery skill).
One could argue that a remote turret could use the autopilot/sensors
of the car to fire its weapons given a command by the rigger. Or one
could go so far as to install extra sensors, but thats a different story.

> > I believe that the system was made this way to give an advantage to
> > regular turrets and gunners. Though riggers get the chance to mount turrets
> > they have the drawback of having to spend one complex action a round for
> > their turret :).
>
> Actually, the system already gives an advantage to gunners and
> normal turrets. If you have two Banshees fighting it out, the one with
> the gunner is going to get more shots off than the one without. Why?
> Because the one without has to split his actions between firing and
> controlling the tank. Thus, he'll get one less shot every round, and
> suffer because of it (this is assuming a relatively equal skill level
> and both opponents choosing the "fight" option in the position test).

Hmmm, I think that pop-up remote turrets are enough of an advantage as
they are. Just think about it, a rigger with fixed arc weapons is screwed
by definition because he cant hit squat. A rigger with a pop-up turret
(and a gunner) is screwed because he has to carry a gunner around. A
rigger with a remote pop-up turret has no problems at all.

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