So I was just killing time yesturday when I found an old GameInformer from when Cryptic first announced STO and all I can say is, wow. Even though I've played since beta, its still scary how much this game has changed.
Anyone remember when these ships were supposed to be a thing?


or how about the old ESD?

And who could forget the old Crystalline Entity :P

Anyone else have so old pics from simpler times?
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The top picture is not from STO as it ever was released, I think. The other two look like it, though.
It's part of the leftover stuff that Perpetual had drawn up but never got to actually get into game form.
They should use the old ESD Starbase design as the outside for Starbase 39-Sierra.
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The difference is 4 years on that one. I doubt there's any kind of direct connection (initial 2409 Miranda variant also had cut-outs but even then that's just the expression of a general idea) even if it was a question of early cryptic versus late (as stated above its from the first dev to take a whack at STO.)
Also, some of those space assets (Ie. the ones that actually made it to the game) are still available in the Foundry. If you're really keen in revisiting the glorious past you have the tools to play around with a few things. :P
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I like that one too. I want one...anyone for a new destroyer, maybe?
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He was hired to work on their design team back then.
(I wish like Hell that PWE/Cryptic would take him on as a design Dev for a while, or at least hire him to make some ships)
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It very much seems like a flight deck variant of the Akira escort (with a better deck arrangement). I think you can find a few small touches of it spread out between various Akira variants but that probably owes a lot to convergent evolution. The one right above that you can actually emulate reasonably well with some of Cryptic's original Akira bits too.
I am liking that shortened sovereign class at the top. I really wish cryptic gave us something more subtle like that for customization options instead of the Majestic/Noble hyperactive dream fests. :P
Also here's a fun "easter egg." If you look through some of the older debris fields in STO containing Federation ships (for example I think Wolf 359) you can find a variant (or at least something a hell of a lot like it) of the cut-out-saucer cruiser with the saucer filled in.
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On a related note to the ESD change from "The Old Donut In Space" to the current one, KDF First City had a change from way before even the ESD change. You can get a very general look of how First City looked before its change when you play "Blood of the Empire," minus the fires and destroyed equipment of course
2 screenshots, 1st from 2012, the 2nd from 2013.
Character models, especially the faces have changed.
The Shipyard at old ESD was a separate room to load into entirely.
Unfortunately all my old, launch era pictures are gone.
I also dont have very many pictures of my own from back then, but a few of the more.... interesting ones that I have include:
This glitch in the old Exploration missions
(hard to tell, but yes those buildings are floating)
And something I really miss, the good old starship pileup:
Anyone want to give me a Temporal Heavy Dreadnought pack? I'll be your friend
Those are better than all of those abominations we had to choose from for the Jupiter!
You're right, that's a terrible view. It looks like when your dog drags his butt across the carpet, lol.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
Would kick their poor Borg butts with grin on my face.
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"Learn lots. Don't judge. Laugh for no reason. Be nice. Seek happiness." ~Day[9]
"Your fun isn't wrong." ~LaughingTrendy
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Also, yeah, while some of those ship designs look nice, some of them look like garbage, and to be fair, none of them were 100% going to be in the game, even when it was owned by Atari, they were just Design art.
also, good old days? when you were repeatedly kicked out of teh game every 5 seconds? or how if you were not using a fast turn rate ship with DHCs, you were automatically, totally inferior?
The old first city with the 3 story hall way that everyone loved. the tribble piles during the first anniversary. the insanely confusing layout that made the shipyard look like some kind of back-ally for selling drugs. when the old Vo'Quv was OP like crazy. I have a lot of memories trying to get places in my KDF.
so many good times
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The Good 'ol Days had more people in the game. When Delta Rising hit, I can still remember the departures of a lot of people, a number of which I knew. Some fleets were gutted. Hell, traffic on the Official Forums took a sledgehammer to the nose. More Subforums used to be active, like the Faction (especially old Fed Shipyard), PVP subforums. Now the only active subforum is General Discussion. Even the Fed subforum is slow in participation. I also remember the massive lag the game had at the time of DR's release, especially around the time of last Winter Event. You guys remember the Sarr Theln's trait causing the entire queued instance to lag and disconnect? The first few months after DR hit was a pretty low point in the game, IMO. Things have gotten better, but man did we lose a lot of people.
The Good 'ol Days for me also had more people participating in PVP. It had always been niche. But it always had this active core to it to do battle. Enough to a point where there were many long play sessions that all I did was PVP and not hit a single PVE queue or BZ. This was also during the days when the PVP queues had FvK (Fed vs KDF). The Feds and KDF players used to be a lot more passionate about their factions. That passion is gone, as with PVP.
The KDF was markedly different, too. Everybody knows the KDF is by far the smaller playerbase. But due to the roots of the faction being so PVP oriented, back when PVE was a total joke (Kahless Expanse ad nauseum) for the faction and PVP was the only real way to progress, the smaller KDF was, IMO, on average generally more "skilled." I would have taken a KDF PUG vs a Fed PUG any day of the week, and seeing a KDF teammate even in a PVE queued instance reassured me. Hell, even in PVP, the KDF PUGs knew the importance of fighting together compared to too many Feds trying to go solo and "Kirk" it. Not saying the Feds couldn't win. We had our win streaks, they got theirs. Sometimes you clubbed the Harp Seal. Sometimes, the Harp Seal clubbed you
BTW, the map is in foundry, including the non-burning version.
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There was only 1 thing I liked about Donut ESD.
It was doing the trick to put yourself outside the windows and people wondering how the hell you got out there
That was fun
Old ESD looks great, but its scaling feels off somehow (like way too small).