Markup View

Author: zarpaulus

Jun 22nd 2012 at 7:25:28 PM

* In {{BattleTech}}, a series of violent civil wars have destroyed almost all the factories for [[HumongousMecha Battlemechs]], and the equipment that goes into them. Battlemechs from 500 years ago are more advanced than the ones being built at the time. [[CargoCult ComStar]] is dedicated to retrieving [[LostTechnology LosTech]] and preserving/worshiping it.
** This is eventually subverted as the timeline progresses. By the time of the FedCom Civil War and Word of Blake Jihad, the Inner Sphere powers have rediscovered and even improved upon Star League technology, or invented entirely new equipment.
* The ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' game setting is another sci-fi example of this trope: thanks to the Imperium of Man's CargoCult approach to maintaining technology and its leaders' unshakable belief that the StatusQuoIsGod, or rather that God is Status Quo, human technology and culture have remained largely unchanged for the past ten thousand years.
** This has bitten the Imperium in the ass on occasion. In one case a planetary purge and colonization was postponed indefinitely (due to a violent [[NegativeSpaceWedgie warp storm]] that enveloped the planet) abandoning the spear-wielding natives for over 6,000 years (technically 5,953 years, but who's counting?). They were more than a bit surprised when said spear-wielding natives showed up on some of their frontier colonies with railguns and plasma rifles.
** The Eldar, as well as being quasi-immortal, have been trapped in a decadent, decaying culture [[AfterTheEnd since The Fall]]; expending their very limited resources on simply maintaining their existence in a universe where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou.
** Ork culture is far too chaotic and violent to ever manage to develop very far and their basic technology is innate knowledge coded in their genes. That said, they have managed to develop rough-and-ready tractor beams and mass teleporters that are much more effective (if more dangerous to the user) than any other race's equivalents quite recently in the current setting.
*** Of course, Orks aren't driven by the desire for improved life or scientific inquiry, they just want {{More Dakka}}. And most of their "technology" literally [[ClapYourHandsifYouBelieve runs on enough Orks believing it works]].
** The Necrontyr turned themselves into mindless automatons serving {{Cosmic Horror}}s. On the other hand, they are so far ahead of everyone else already that it hardly matters. The armies used on the tabletop are scouts and raiding parties; their full-powered war machines aren't even reactivated yet.