Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-86.101.10.204-20140106212917/@comment-6078851-20140110142106

also take note that the technology of the imperium has been in a state of continual decline for 10,000 years. ocasionally an stc is found, but these (as far as i know) are limited to the making of war.

the imperium has tried to keep their tech at the same level as 30k, but as times progress it gets harder to maintain their technology, and as there's no innovation some processes are lost then so too are technologies lost.

in the vein of maintainance: an automatic gearbox has far more to go wrong than a manual, and so is far more difficult to maintain. and if the process of making automatic gearbox's are lost then all that can be done is to try and maintain what's left. there's no innovation so no-one would attempt to recreate it unless an stc was found of it, therefore manual gearbox's i imagine would be common :)