Carrying on from Sciencius well composed post offering a different perspective on costing. I thought swarms and app costs deserved its own topic.

The answer is in FFG's hands and I am sure they know it. An example, if only to demonstrate the versatility of the App as the platform to build the game;

SWARM TACTICS (Small ship only)

Apply this condition for all ships in a squad that has no Unique Pilots at the beginning of the game. You may not field any ship in your squad with an attack value of 3 or higher. You must field at least 4 of the same type of ship. As long as there are 3 friendly ships at range 0-1 that has an attacking enemy ship in its firing arc, you add one die when defending.

Now that sounds clunky as AT-ATs on Hoth right? The wall of text on the card would alot. But the app would just block you from adding any 3 or higher attack value ships, solving the Interceptor and Starviper problem. Academy Pilots TIEs costed at 20 instead of 24 in app when this condition is applied.

What would it look like?

Consider; 10 Academy Pilots TIEs now fielded, and they benefit in a different way than a Howlrunner swarm. Within an example of a movie scene with fluff, 10 of them coming at the Falcon. So many! And they're hard to hit! Within the rules... they have to all be at range 0-1 of each other and arcs forward. An initial benefit at the beginning, harder to maintain as the game goes. It requires great flying to reestablish their formation for a second pass, and Han is going to be flying close to obstacles to break that up and get defense.

Who benefits? Well, Imperials, most obviously. Their list of 2 primary ships is long--but most apart from the TIEs have different purposes, need certain upgrades and would not benefit as much. Rebel Alliance have K-Wings, HWKs, A-Wings, Z's and Y-wings. (No Sabine TIE because they are all uniques.) Scum have the same rebel ships + Scyks and Quads. The extra defensive die gets 1-2 agility ships a bit of a buff, but most of those would be fielded with upgrades, limiting their squad size still overall still. And green dice are fickle.

Again, the above is only an example. It shows just how much the game has changed, and will continue to do so, for the better. Brighter minds are on it than I. Very excited for September!

I suppose this is something the developers could do. Though there better be cards that show what these game effects are. Otherwise, any swarm advantage needs to just be point reduction. Though the app gives great flexibility it's important to keep in mind that cards will still need to exist for OP.