[FST_Gemstar]

A few questions here.

Can you install a nanohive without any nanites? The hive wouldn't do anything of course until you get nanites in your system.

Who sells Nanites in the 6th world. Many of the soft nanites have high availability ratings and forbidden. Especially with the CFD scare, it seems the fluff in Chrome Flesh insinuates that back alley cyberdoc and chopshops might resell secondhand stuff, and that more legit folks who have nanolabs probably aren't trustworthy (trying to infect others with CFD).   I'm not sure who would have access to them how you would go about buying them. Would you have to steal them from a secret lab? Get them as payment for a run?

[Hobbes]

Yes you can buy a Nanohive without the Nanites.  Mind you I find it a bit silly that you can legally buy a widget specifically for using an illegal item.  But there are plenty of real world examples of that, so....

And yes the illegal Nanites are bought in dark alleys from shady characters.  Good luck, hope you don't become a Head Case!

[ScytheKnight]

It's basically standard availability test, the high Availability demonstrates that you're really having to reach into black market channels to get a hold of this stuff one way or another.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

A more appropriate question, to my mind, is whether or not you can buy a nanite hive without it needing to be implanted, just letting the thing do its work in generating the nanites, then taking those and injecting them once per week, or whatever.

[Reaver]

Probably have to be implanted to work...

It needs fuel and power to build those nanites, which I assume would come from the meta-human body it was implanted into. (Running off the bodies natural electrical charge and using food eaten to make the nanites)

At least that is my take on it...

A nanite "forge" (for lack of better term) could probably be bought to just sit on a counter and "make nanites" for you to inject.... but i have no idea what they would cost. (Probably 2 to 5 times a nanohive would be my guess)

[ScytheKnight]

Hard Nanohives don't 'build' nanites, they only store spares. Building new nanites takes a Replicator, it's how CFD headcases regulate nanite populations..

[Overbyte]

Hard Nanohives don't 'build' nanites, they only store spares. Building new nanites takes a Replicator, it's how CFD headcases regulate nanite populations..

Welllllll.....   I'm not sure that's exactly true.  Looking through the references in Chrome Flesh it says various things, but on p.151 of Chrome Flesh it says:

"Nanohives themselves replace and repair nanites that are excreted or damaged by the body, maintaining nanite populations at a normal
level and even restoring depleted levels after injury. Combined with the filtration systems and the robustness of current nanotech, this limits natural nanite loss."

"a nanohive incorporates sensors that monitor nanite levels in the blood, as well as reservoirs of feedstocks that support machinery for additional nanite colonies, and several thousand backup nanite units are present in ancillary pods."

"Hard nanohives must be restocked every six months at a cost of 500 nuyen x Rating."

It can definitely repair existing nanites, and possibly also build new nanites from the feedstock supplies it has.

[Kaysic]

"Hard nanohives must be restocked every six months at a cost of 500 nuyen x Rating."

This, combined with the knowledge that headcases are known to eat sand/metal, probably indicates that nanohives do function as Replicators (in that they produce hard nanites, not just store spares); an average metahuman needs to replenish the hive's material stores with a purchase, whereas headcases just DGAF and eat the materials they need.

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

"Hard nanohives must be restocked every six months at a cost of 500 nuyen x Rating."

This, combined with the knowledge that headcases are known to eat sand/metal, probably indicates that nanohives do function as Replicators (in that they produce hard nanites, not just store spares); an average metahuman needs to replenish the hive's material stores with a purchase, whereas headcases just DGAF and eat the materials they need.

Correlation =/= Causation

Hard Nanites are reprogrammable for a number of different kinds up their Rating (+1 Wireless.) So it's very clear that Nanohive just store blanks that are programmed & released as needed. That's why feedstock prices are the same across the board, so you aren't buying a specific Hard Nanite but the Code for one. That's why you need to buy the Rating for each different kind... otherwise you could just buy the cheapest one & have your Nanohive reprogram it. Obvious game imbalance there... so the Fluff is used to justify the Crunch, or at least explain it at least. I'll grant they don't make it explicitly clear but just like Active Hardwires... you still gotta buy the Activesofts for, you need to buy all the different Hard Nanites that you want to be able to use.

FYI... when the book says that ONLY headcases have Replicators than ONLY head cases have Replicators. Replicators are Hard Nanites not Soft Nanites that a Soft Nanohive does reproduce naturally. 

[Sendaz]

Come on down to Crazy Frank's Depot for the best in New and Repurposed Nanites.