I don't know if they have such laser communications built in, but such a feature would definitely get around the issue rather easily.

I have a few swarmanoid related questions myself, specifically concerning their, ehm, combat applications. While I know they're not exactly made with combat in mind, I can't help but think of the terror factor of something that can essentially hide anywhere in plain sight only to explode outwards in a massive, indistinguishable swarm of gruesome death. Something like that could make an excellent villain, especially when you consider that all of it could hide inside the smart-clothes of it's latest unfortunate brainhacked victim. So, is it viable to equip a swarmanoid with simple extendable blades, like miniaturized cyberclaws? And, assuming a fair amount of the swarm is thus equipped, what kind of damage would a few hundred tiny sets of miniature razorblades do? Perhaps monomolecular edges to counter the rather small cutting surface and minimal power behind the attack, or perhaps simply design the entire thing so that the swarm can string up lines of monowire between various units. The giant flying meat grinder image is appealing, especially as a gruesome guerrilla villain, but how viable is it? As an aside to this, how easily would it be to get your hands on something like that, and make it in the first place for that matter? Secondly, could a Swarmanoid be "implanted" with one or several specialized nanoswarm hives? Perhaps using some form of modular design that allows several units to combine to form the hive, distributing the entire thing across the swarm when not in use? Having a swarm of disassemblers at the ready could certainly make life easier for a Swarmanoid caught in combat, even a pc one.

Yeah, that was definitely one of the sticking points in the idea, but considering the pure piercing ability of monomolecular weaponry, I kinda got wondering on how much force is needed to actually cut skin with one, and the Swarmanoids can certainly generate enough force to MOVE, so I got wondering if it would actually require any real strength or would just be glorified fly-by attacks using the momentum of movement. Anybody with a physics degree (or rudimentary high school knowledge) care to clear up the issue? But yeah, the "up to the gm" part is, well, I am the gm, I just like getting some tips so as to not illicit cries of "Preposterous!" at the virtual gaming table. I suppose I could just let the thing dump disassemblers on people, which is a body horror genre all of it's own, but it lacks a certain amount of Attack of the Killer Swarm flair, not to mention that it fails to leave behind suitably impressive crime scenes.

If you as the GM want some nanoswarm going for a killing spree with hideous results, i'd just take...well, one of the combat nanoswarms in the GM section. These should be able to pull off all of the stuff you have in mind. Swarmanoids are something entirely different, they're probably the most defensive morph in the core book. Almost impossible to hit, but seemingly with no attack capability on their own. I get the impression that they're intended for players who want to spend combat with hacking anyway.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Both the Eelware and the cohesion collision suggestions are fun options I might use, but for now, the nanoswarm hive seem the most in line with what I had in mind. *Spoilers for the GM section, I suppose* Rasumichin: The reason I didn't so much want to use a full on Nanoswarm from there was, well, one of those Nanoswarms on something like Mars would cause a lot more chaos, confusion and political impact then some dick hacker with a custom Swarmanoid going around killing people on his way to stealing data and being a general all around dick of an antagonist. After all, if the pc's say "Oh no, LEGION manufactured nanoswarm on the loose!" chances are, they're gonna get a whole lot more attention in the form of help than if they went "Some hacker is being a dick!" no matter what aforementioned dick is up to.

Short answer? No. A Swamanoid is not a nano swarm. Sentient Nanoswarms are TITAN tech. A Swamanoid is a micro swarm, each individual being about the size of an insect.

The labels of size that are used on small machines are overall abit confusing, not only in EP The terms Micromachines and Nanomachines seems to be diluted. Nanomachines shouldnt really include machines that isn't on the nano scale (atoms and molecules) especially if the machines doesn't act on that level. However both terms are used on other sizes, for example on bacteria sized (micro-scale) and the insect sized machines (millimetre scale). That said, My reluctant impression is that the swarmmorph is the size of a beetle and not the size of a small grain of sand.

Quote:

Beetles range in size from less than a millimeter (≈1/100 of an inch) to tropical giants over six inches long (≈152.4 millimeters).

10 milimeters =1 centimeter ≈ 0,4 inches Thus it may be fairer to say that the most of Transhumans tech and swarmmorphs is at millimetre if not centimetre. Centimetre machines?

There is a very cool Flexbot in the later levels in Vanquish, and it can be very freaky when you see it for the first time and it's manned by an ennemy I'm not sure about having mecha in EP. I'm already removing them from the equation in a series of settings ideas I've been working on. Like making Zion Principality an offshoot Ultimate faction that opposes the LLA. Blue Cosmos is a bioconservative group present in several habitat secretly supported by the Jovian Republic. Celestial Being could be a radical pacifist group founded by a gerontocrat held in cold storage somewhere, and monitored by a college of Prometheans and Argonauts. the Innovators could be LostGen survivors. Ribbon Allmark, for exemple would make a great NPC Anyway, on the topic of the Swarmoid, it can be quite scary to have it against you. Especially if the bugs together form the shape of a face (think Matrix or Appleseed Ex Machina)

I think flexbots are worth their own thread. I can't wrap my head around them, to be honest. Do i need more than one flexbot to achieve some distinctive shape? How can one flexbot create that mech from the Scavenger sample character? Or is it him and his buddies?