Guys. I need a little help. Due to the complexity of the Matrix rules, I have generally speaking stayed away from playing Hacker types in SR4a. However, I'm beginning to get how the matrix rules work, and thus I've begun looking into trying to understand how Agents are supposed to work. And here I run into a couple of questions.

I get that Agents are basically "Matrix Drones" to a degree. I get that the Pilot Rating stands in for pretty much all of the stats, except Response (which is dictated by the Response of the node it is running on) and the Program Rating of its payload of programs (which is limited by the Pilot rating).

Question 1:
With the Comlink, the System is limited by the Response. Does the same thing apply to Agents? Meaning that if I run a Rating 6 Agent on a Response 3 Comlink, the Pilot Rating of the Agent is effectively limited to 3 due to the Response of the "hosting" node it is running on?

Question 2:
Is the Agent's Response subject to "reduction" due to the number of loaded programs it carries? Meaning for instance that a Rating 3 Agent running on a Response 3 Comlink and carrying a payload of 4 loaded programs, will effectively operate as a Rating 2 Agent? (Pilot limited to Rating 3 by the Node Response rating, and further reduced to 2, due to the Agent's payload of 4 loaded programs being higher than its Response of 3.)


P.S.
I don't suppose that anyone happen to know of a free program that will do the various calculations for you with regards to changing conditions that affect your comlink and thus your matrix stats? Given the way that pretty much everything seems to interact and depend on something else, keeping this straight during a game seems like a pain in the ***, given that your number of loaded programs can change several times during a scene, as well as several other stats being subject to changes due to various factors like jamming, matrix damage, Nuke damage etc.

The standard rules have agents affected by the response rating of the commlink or node in the same manner as any other program. A rating 6 Agent on a Response 3 commlink will act as a Rating 3 agent, but can be loaded into a Response 5 and act as a Rating 5 Agent. If nothing else, this is the standard.

Additionally, there are special rules for programs that are loaded as part of that agent, rather than loaded independently on your commlink. There are also special rules for Nodes (which, iirc, act like computer servers) in Unwired regarding program and subscription loads.

Subscription rules can be found in the core rulebook. I'm not sure which of the two books has the rules for loading a program as part of an agent.