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I am looking for a picture of this legendary fabled item of the 40K world. Known far andf wide to be the goal of the Adepts Mechanicus as goals to find throughout the universe, the Standard Template Construct is an item that makes the vehicles weapons and equipment since the dark times of the Imperium.

I've read about them several times in the past, but have never ran across one, a picture of one, or even a home made facsimile of one.

Has anyone seen or know of a picture of the item in question?

Think of the G.E.C.K. from Fallout II, only bigger.

BYE

I always considered the S.T.C to be a program, or some kind of data storage device, as opposed to an actual manufacturing unit.

However, I guess thats the beauty of it, it can be anything you want.

If you're trying to make a games piece for it, then simply go with what suits you best.

I still like the idea of a data storage device mind you.

The term STC has been used in the fluff many times to in reference to many different items. What we can assume, (and has been stated) is that the Standard Template Construct system is a gigantic repository of data and construction schematics/blueprints used by humanity before the Age of Strife, or whatever you want to call it.

And STC contains all the data necessary to build any number of peices of equipment or machinery, and they are highly modular. The STC design for the Rhino, for example, allowed for the construction of the Rhino, Prdedator, and Razorback.

What is unknown, is whether or not a specific type of manufacturing machine is needed to build from an STC template, or whether it can be interfaced with any type of construction or memory device.

I've always assumed that the STC contains all the data necessary to build the said item, and all of it's support equipment, to include the manufacturing facilities and any technical data or tools needed to maintain or operate the item.

They are extremely valuable, (priceless) to the Imperium because technological innovation and scientific discovery seem to be beyond humanity's capability at this point, and each STC recovered increases humanity's total knowledge of technology (and possibly science) lost since the Dark Ages.

So yes, I'm with Delephont and see them as more of a Data Storage unit rather than an actual facility.

The STC is really a maguffin.

It seems to me that an STC is a kind of magic box where you dump raw materials (possibly just rock) in at one end, and finished items roll out at the other end.

This would be inefficient, but it suits the fluff.

Each STC can only produce one kind of output, or perhaps a small range of outputs. STCs also need self-repair capability, as they are self-contained and the users do not understand their workings.

An STC that could make anything would have to be absolutely massive -- the size of a city.

What kind of STC would be needed to make other STCs? Theoretically such a device should exist.

Making stuff would be much easier with nanotechnology but the Imperium doesn’t use nanotechnology.

Probably the equivalent to a Star League data core, for those of you who play Battletech

So far, Ive come across these articles about them, but no picture.

Based on Gaunt, I don't think im going to be making one any time soon.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/STC

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Standard_Template_Construct

Enlightening, either way.

yeah,
reading grots links they sound massive!

this bit is nice to read:
"Probably the most significant find of an STC fragment was by Magos Arkhan Land in M31. This fragment contained the templates for the construction of the now famous Land Raider Main Battle Tank, the Land Speeder, all named in honour of their discoverer."
sounds like it's at least the size of a car factory? which would be a entire COD board!

this text is cool too:
"Sixty years ago... a team of Imperial scouts found an intact STC... It was the Standard Template Constructor for a type of steel blade, an alloy of folded steel composite that was sharper and lighter and tougher than anything we've had before"
I guess this could be building sized or even contained inside a room?


Panic...

STC's to me, have always just been electronic Blueprints, hence why a 'Fragment' can be recovered.

These would contain the data on how to create the technology, and also how to manufacture etc...

If the "fragment" was part of a facility, it could have been a mainframe or data repository that remained functional... when that fragment was introduced into a fully functioning STC, the blueprints it held became useable.

The second STC sounds like it would have been smaller, as Panic said, the size of a room... possibly it was also a "fragment" of a larger facility although a self-contained component.

Personally, I'm with Killcrazy on this: it's a Macguffin, the Holy Grail, the source of light from the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. An object that drives the story, but isn't necessary to it except in an indirect manner. It can be anything you want it to be, Grot. Make it a shiny gold briefcase...

I wonder if in the fluff any of the AM have attempted to deconstruct one of these 'ere STC's. Might implode the universe though

They wouldn't dare!

Consider it a really complex piece of funiture from Ikea. With the instructions, you can put it together and take it apart easily. Without them, you'll always have bits left over.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:They wouldn't dare!

Consider it a really complex piece of funiture from Ikea. With the instructions, you can put it together and take it apart easily. Without them, you'll always have bits left over.

Just like a LEGO model....

Gavin Thorne wrote:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:They wouldn't dare!

Consider it a really complex piece of funiture from Ikea. With the instructions, you can put it together and take it apart easily. Without them, you'll always have bits left over.

Just like a LEGO model....

yeah..
the french would dare... avec their LHC... which sounds like it's the size of a large STC...
PAnic..

Actually there are 2 or 3 more Hadron Collider's with MUCH MUCH MUCH higher TeV's that have been proposed, 2 of them I think right in the US from FermaLab and CERN, and one other. I don't understand what all the damn hysteria is about the LHC. CERN did over 20 years of research into the effects of its operation I believe.

I've always thought of it this way. Of course, I don't have any actual fluff references for this, so it may just be the way that I rationalized it, but hey it makes sense to me.

First, you have the STC program itself. The program was a widely used repository of blueprints and construction templates that could analyze local materials and make necessary substitutions and construction alterations to provide the necessary equipment for colonists. At the same time, these programs were also capable of evaluating the specific economical or combat needs of colonists and devise different weapons and fighting platforms. STC programs themselves were not factories(but were, logically, linked to factories that produced their designs)

An STC template is just that, a template for a specific product. STC programs themselves do not exist anymore, so any template found is literally a precious, one of a kind discovery.

VermGho5t wrote:Actually there are 2 or 3 more Hadron Collider's with MUCH MUCH MUCH higher TeV's that have been proposed, 2 of them I think right in the US from FermaLab and CERN, and one other. I don't understand what all the damn hysteria is about the LHC. ...

Because we actually went ahead and built it.

Talk is cheap, bullets cost money.