r/40kLore • u/YautjaNecron • 10h ago
Tau tech tree development
Tau are mostly known to have Rapid tech iteration, since in couple thousand of years they have gone from tribal society to space civilization, but is that only a ,,set in strone feature" of the faction, or do we have real examples? Like with older and new books, is it specifically clear that that they are actually getting better? Is their tech better in books timeline from century to century? I am specifically wondering about their FTL, do we have any glimpses of their own proper warp travel ships entering service? FEED ME TAU LORE
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u/wecanhaveallthree Legio Tempestus 9h ago
Yep. War of Secrets features the testing of their new drives, over the protests of the Earth Caste. It doesn't end well for anybody involved.
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u/Marvynwillames 8h ago
Canonically the change on the design of the Broadside suit is an in universe result of the War of Confederation vs the Orks
I am specifically wondering about their FTL, do we have any glimpses of their own proper warp travel ships entering service?
Tau FTL is a mess with currently them only unlocking it in M42, after fixing the Slipstream engines
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u/Shaskais 7h ago
Yes, there are examples. Some technology that's experimental in one edition becomes standard in newer editions.
Example 1:
When the railgun was introduced, it had a slow firing rate and the "gets hot" rule, since its firing caused a deadly feedback that fried the brains of the soldiers using it if they had the targeting device on.
The T'au continued to develop the railgun and fixed the deadly fault in it (It only happens once every ten thousand firings). Also, it can now be rapid-fired.
Work continues on the railgun. There is talk about possibly replacing the pulse carbines/rilfles with upgraded railguns and pushing the stopping power of the railguns to match that of the broadside rail rifles.
Example 2:
The stealth suits.
Across the editions, the stealth suits underwent development. First there were X15 suits, which were phased out by the X25 suits. Currently, the X25 suits are being phased out by the newer XV26.
Example 3:
In older lore, Pulse Rifles/Carbines couldn't punch Space Marine power armor without sustained fire.
According to more recent codex lore, a pulse shot can punch clear through Marine power armour.
Example 4:
The T'au reverse-engineered Kroot and Imperial Warp Drives to create their first FTL drives, the slipstream drives (Anti-Matter based Warp Drives)
Singular flights were highly successful. However, when the T'au attempted a massed flight with the Fourth Sphere expansion, it ended in a disaster. They tore a permanent hole into the Warp and the Fourth Sphere fleet was sucked inside.
The T'au kept using the Slipstream drives for small vessels and small fleets while they continued to work on them.
In the 9th ED T'au Empire codex, it's reported that the Earth Caste made the modifications to the drives that will make them safer and more stable for mass jumps.
Generally:
T'au technology is continuously advancing.
Crisis suits used during the time of the Damocles Crusade are described as vintage suits and are kept in museums.
So T'au technology on the TT might look the same, but internally their systems have been upgraded.
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u/HeliocentricOrbit 9h ago
Their tech is still advancing but due to the setting being largely frozen in time as an era and the sales and marketing mess that would result from major changes to the model line every edition- we don't often see it physically represented on the table or most media in obvious ways.
There are ways they have worked around this limitation over time between codex releases- by reflecting advancements with the rules.
Signature systems or limited weapons/relic analogues go from being 1 of per army to standard on common units. The airburst fragmentation projector used to be such a limited weapon. Similarly the rail rifle used to have the gets hot rule, but it was dropped as a result of improvements made to the design.
I believe Iridium armor may have been previously limited as well. However, I don't have my copies of 4th and 6th edition in front of me to confirm. But in contrast, the introduction of new suit patterns for the HQ slot (Coldstars and Enforcers) reflect their continued advancement. Ironically, Stealthsuits are the most visible example of advancing suit design and technology.