Ok so i wanna make some kool agents for my drones and stuff. So tell me if i get anything wrong.

First you determine your agents rating which will determine its pilot attribute. Which has a max of 4 at character creation. Your firewall matches your pilot attribute for agents so he also has firewall 4. And its built in so you dont pay for that part.

Now the agents response attribute equals whatever node it is being run on. Now it gets messy... If an agent is acting independant then its programs must be active which might affect its response. Also programs are limited to the pilot rating of the agent. However i dont see anywhere where it mentions what an agents system rating is set to so how do we know if our programs are slowing us down or not?? Let me make some examples:

Node response (4)

Agent(4): Analyze(4), attack(4), stealth(4), track(4)
Pilot 4, firewall 4, Response 4

Now what?? System is limited by response. So The system above has to be 4. Which means i get a -1 response. Which according to your religion either causes a death spiral or my response to = 3.

Can agents be loaded up with autosofts??
If i give my agent a command program could he drive my vehichle or something?

If i have agents who i want to stay in contact with they have to be subscribed to my com limiting me in that way ?

What if i stick an agent in a vehichle, he cant go anywhere do i have to keep him subscribed? Or could i cut him loose and then when i need to talk to him subscribe him. I guess its like turning the wi-fi on or off on your devices?

How do you get a vehichle to have a response,system, firewall, signal attribute?? Install a comm or something? *edit* Oh pilot = system for vehichles/ drones/ agents. So how does a vehichle get a response or signal.

I named my agent Smith. He's not a very happy sort though.

A pilot or agents rating = its system. So a rating 4 pilot/agent with 4 programs on a node rating of 4 has a response of 3.

An agent can only run a program up to its rating (so a rating 4 agent with an exploit 6 program runs it at 4 as limited by the system).

I don't have the book in front of me right now to find the page that says this. Somewhere around the matrix chapter for pilot/agents/IC

Ok i have a GMC Bulldog. I upgrade its pilot to rating 4.

Bulldog = Pilot 4, Firewall 4, program limit 4. Response ???

Now if i make an agent like the one above.

Agent 4: Analyze 4, Attack 4, stealth 4, track 4.

How many programs does that count as 1 or 5 as far as my van is concerned?

geez i cant find anything that mentions response of drones/vehichles.

Ok so the agent counts as one program, i thought i had read that. Grinder do you have a page reference for what you said about a drone being able to run systemx2 programs before suffereing a response penalty ? I've never seen that.

Do you just buy response and signal hardware for your drones and vehichles?

Maybe I've mis-read about Reponse/System here's what I recall (looks like it's time for a re-read). I thought it was each multiple of Reponse before the effective System dropped a rating point.

So Response=6 and System=6... Sytem would drop a point once 12 programs where running, then another point on 24, then again on 36, etc. At that point, System=3 and all the programs running would be effectively 3, all 36 of them.

This right?

nope, 1 point at 6 programs running, 1 more (total 2) at 12, 1 more at 18 (total of 3), total 4 at 24, total 5 at 32...

thats is system dont change.

if its changes then the likely curve (if one assumes that the allready existing drop fullfilles the need for a drop at the new ratings) becomes:

1(total) at 6, 2 at 11, 3 at 15, 4 at 18 and onwards...

and now that i put that list of numbers up, i think that this may be a good compromise between the interpetations.

at 18 programs running (starting from rating 6) they would have a effective rating of 2, unless they where bought as rating 1.

question still remains, what happens when you fire up 21 programs? (the point where the effective response becomes 0)

I've been away from me books too long it seems! Time for some re-reading.

Thanks. ~GTT

I believe the spirit of the rules was to suggest that running to many programs makes you slower. Not cripples you. If your dropping system and program ratings you have already started the death spiral so why stop?

Matrix hitpoints = system/2 round up +8. If you run to many programs are you also gonna lose hitpoints also ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to modify a GMC Bulldog so i can rig it and i also want it protected by Agents/IC and i will probably wanna give it some autosofts.

Now a vehichles device rating =3, security vehichle=4, and a military vehichle=5. Device ratings determine a devices attributes like response, firewall, pilot/system, and signal.

So am I to assume my gm bulldog has a response, signal, firewall, and system of 3 by default? And can i mod it out to fit in fatter software. Availability caps pilot software at rating 4. sr4 pg240 talks about response and signal upgrades which cap at rating 5 for character generation.

So i could get response 5 and pilot/system 4 and run 7 programs and suffer -1 reponse to drop it to 4. My system=4 so my programs would all be capped at 4??

Man i wish they had that stupid hardware upgrade table in the back along with the software upgrades.

Should you treat a vehicle/drone like a commlink in all things except vehicles drones also have autosofts??

If a person has a comm w/ sim module they can get all this virtual crap on there comm like surround music, virtual person, wall coverings. Then it talks about the people you have over to your house or whatever can hook up with your comm to see those things to.

Would it be possable to mod my GMC bulldog up with a sim module and give it a virtual person who would like emboddy my vehicles soul. Everytime i am near my vehicle this virtual person would be around to give me status reports or something and if others are hooked up to my comm they would see the person to??

Also along the lines of adding software to vehicles. What does mapsoft count as.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taking things to the next step. Can i program an agent to pilot my vehicles/drones?? Could i make it so an agent is tied to my virtual person?? Like i could jump in the passenger side of my GMC Bulldog and i would see my virtual person sitting in the drivers seat and i could send it a command to drive me to wherever and off i'd go. (people able to see into my vehicle would see me in the passenger side and the vehicle driving itself.)

*edit* Hmmmm i dont have to use an agent with a command program i just need the vehicle's pilot program. Does that mean ALL vehichles have an autopilot feature sincethey all have pilot ratings? I'd have to tell my vehichle where to go via AR/VR though. Ok i guess i need to ask how can i mod my GMC Bulldog to accept voice commands?

I suppose if you must you could compare this to this crapfest tv show Andromeda and her holographic version Remi or whatever. No i dont plan on ever making a physical version of my virtual person.

It's okay, one of my player wanted to have Drones with holograhic projcetors that made them look like spiders.

Bottom line is, device ratings impart Matrix attributes on them and that means you can run software on them like Programs, Autosofts and Agents.

Uhh if im modding my GMC Bulldog into a drone basically and giving it autosofts can i give it Defense so it can dodge bullets ?? lmao.

Ok to finall get back on point hehe. What are some cool agent set ups you can create for with 3 programs? Im trying to protect my comm and vehichle/drones with them.

So far for my comm I only have these three:

Ninja(4): Stealth(4), Analyze(4), Attack(4)
Counter(4): Track(4), Analyze(4), Attack(4)
Gaurdian(4): Armor(4), Analyze(4), Attack(4)

Would analyze, decript, and sniffer be a good combo to find out access ID's?

-Does track work if the target's info is encrypted?
-if I track somebody i find their original node but do i have access to it or do i have to try and hack it before i can attack their persona?
-Do my other agents need analyze to spot intruders or do i only need one agent with analyze?
-Can i load an agent up with Data Bomb and then plant it on someone's persona?
-If one of my agents is crashed do i have to rebuy them?
-can i make copies of blank or custom agents? I paid 60,000 for 6 agents. should i have only baught 1 and just copied it ?

I really need to know if you have to buy each individual agent? If i can free up 50k nuyen that would be great.

Agent/Pilot programs are the only ones I don't allow to be copied in my games.

All other programs including autosofts can have the CR-Protection broken and copied.

So any computer/hacking programs you have can be loaded on any number of agents/systems/drones. I even go as far as to allow that if you purchased a drone with an autosoft, to copy that autosoft onto other drones you purchased.

Agents however are more like operating systems than programs and can react independently with 3 IP passes. To much potential for abuse to allow a hacker to write/buy one agent and then copy it until he had an army of agents. (limited by subscription and system rating though). Next thing I know a hacker we'll ask if he can upload edit to have the agent copy itself.

Since they don't let you copy your "better" or upgraded commlink's operating system onto everyone elses commlink (woooo 6 firewall for everyone, no cost), I'd say this seems reasonable.