We had a "rush job" because we were held to Perpetual's original release date. What you see above is really all they had (after 4 years). They had a ton of pretty drawings, and not much else. If they had actually started developing the GAME of STO when we took over, they would have had the same amount of time to complete it as we did.
So that explains why there are all the little bugs... that makes me feel a little bit better about the whole thing you guys have managed to do a lot with very little considering the time constraints.
I do find the idea of customizing things like the nacelle based on the engine used or the shield animations based on that component or weapons based on ... etc you get the idea but i'm also quite happy with being able to design the ship components somewhat staticallly from a base design like cryptic has right now.
You are not following. Here is what the Cryptic guy said, I have no idea how accurate it is:
The original devs had, apparently, 6 years. They blew 4 on TRIBBLE around and drawing pictures like the ones being discussed.
When Cryptic was brought in there were only two years left. The cycle was not quick, it was in fact an extremely generous development cycle that was mostly squandered by the original developers. If I had to guess the mentality behind Cryptic's 'short cycle', it is that every year you pay developers to make a game costs obscene amounts of money. The people funding STO were already burned by the first team and quite possibly not willing to dole out yet more money in hopes that the second team would actually do their jobs. So they said "We got the money for a two year cycle, take it or leave it" and Cryptic took it.
I followed perfectly, thank you, and you gave the answer I expected, though it would be nice to hear it from Cryptic. Ultimately, Cryptic chose to work under nearly impossible time constraints--it wasn't an imposition, but a term of Cryptic's attachment to the project.
Two years is painfully short for an MMO. Especially one that wants to be a AAA title. Then again, SWTOR had significantly longer, far more developers, and a much larger budget and didn't manage to accomplish much. I guess given the circumstances, Cryptic did well.
But it's all relative. I think Cryptic is/was capable of delivering a fantastic experience, but they've been hamstrung by the game's early release; they've spent so much time, effort, and money playing catch up and haven't really had an opportunity to stretch their wings until recently. I really believe we're just now starting to get a taste of what they're capable of as a studio.
I shed a tear every time someone brings up Perpetuals concept work; they had such a strong vision for the game and it's a shame they were passed up for taking too long. Given the time, I'm sure they would have delivered a fantastic experience.
Naw. Vision yes, but actually accomplishing anything? Maybe after 10 years.
♪ I'm going around not in circles but in spirographs.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
I would have preferred a slow and steady development cycle as opposed to the 2-year rush job we got from Cryptic. The unfortunate side-effect of Cryptic's fast turnaround is that the team had to play catch-up for most of the game's 3-year life thus far. We're just now getting to see the game expand.
You realize of course Cryptic had no choice in the fast turnaround and inherited Perpetual's release deadline, right? CBS felt burned by Perpetual (with good reason), and only sold the license on the condition that the buyer retain the deadline. Cryptic did pretty good considering that Perpetual had basically nothing to show for their years spent on the project and had to essentially start from scratch.
Cryptic has done many things I disagree with, but this really wasn't something they have control of, and did the best they could with. You may think "maybe they shouldn't have done it at all". Well, perhaps, but then there definitely would not have been an STO.
We had a "rush job" because we were held to Perpetual's original release date. What you see above is really all they had (after 4 years). They had a ton of pretty drawings, and not much else. If they had actually started developing the GAME of STO when we took over, they would have had the same amount of time to complete it as we did.
Beat me to it.
♪ I'm going around not in circles but in spirographs.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
So STO was doomed to be rushed either way. That's very unfortunate. What was the mentality behind the short cycle? Were investors that anxious for a return? Was CBS? Did Star Trek 2009 have something to do with it?
I'm just curious why you guys were held to an impossible deadline when it would have made sense to extend development to give you all time to iterate. I find it hard to believe that no one during the process raised their hand and said, "Maybe releasing an unfinished product that we'll have to patch and fill in holes is not such a good idea. Please give us more time to deliver a quality experience that will put us in a better position to expand upon."
As has been stated, CBS felt burned by Perpetual. A dev said as much in an interview recently, but I forget whom. Either way, they also said that Cryptic did in fact ask for an extension of the deadline when they actually had some work to show. They received that extension, but it was only a month or two, less than they had hoped for I imagine.
♪ I'm going around not in circles but in spirographs.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
You did a good job with little time. However, I have a question, do you guys even wondered what you would have done, if you were the one that started working on STO, instead of perpetual, and having all this time ? Do you think you would have done the same game, more or less, or do something different ? I don't say something better, simply different.
When Perpetual lost STO, by their own admission they had more done on Gods and Heroes than STO. They put another year or so into G&H and then folded entirely, at which point Heatwave picked up G&H... Which turned out to be a mocked up rendering engine and concept art - it was basically at the point where most games are announced, not when they're delayed two years past their initial release date.
Perpetual appears to have accomplished nothing in its existence except burn through investment capital. The fact that both of their games managed to come into existence is owed entirely to other developers using other engines and creating their own assets.
So, yeah, their game would have been awesome... In the same way that the Phantom would have been a better video game console than anything in its generation or since. Similarity being that neither one ever actually existed and was never going to.
So STO was doomed to be rushed either way. That's very unfortunate. What was the mentality behind the short cycle? Were investors that anxious for a return? Was CBS? Did Star Trek 2009 have something to do with it?
I'm just curious why you guys were held to an impossible deadline when it would have made sense to extend development to give you all time to iterate. I find it hard to believe that no one during the process raised their hand and said, "Maybe releasing an unfinished product that we'll have to patch and fill in holes is not such a good idea. Please give us more time to deliver a quality experience that will put us in a better position to expand upon."
It had everything to do with it. Both the game and the movie were supposed to drop at nearly the same time. They tie together, with JJ carrying on the new timeline a la "Back to the Future" style (seriously, the scene on the bridge in the movie is the Trek version of Doc Brown with a chalkboard while screaming at the top of his lungs about the time line skewing off on a tangent) and the game continuing on in the prime time line with Romulus destroyed.
It would have worked out nicely and wouldn't have been a rush job as Perpetual had plenty of time, at least 5 years, to develop the game. We all know how that worked out..... I am glad Cryptic took it over because MMO's have changed since then. Perpetual didn't survive anyway, and after the initial boost of releasing STO, they would have probably folded anyway and we wouldn't have STO.
I have to give it to Cryptic on adapting to today's MMO market like they do. This game continues to make it through one painful transition after another, all self inflicted by the rushed dev time. It just seems awful because the community is so vocal and a bunch of cry babies. MMO = grind, Life = grind, MMO ~ Fake life... Life rarely gives you a whole bunch of stuff for nothing... and an MMO is a representation of the life of a toon... so why should the game not be the same?
And about the concept art... concept art ALWAYS looks amazing... look at the concept art done by Cryptic. Look at the Vulcan chick with the huge TRIBBLE on the front page..... Concept art is supposed to make you go "wow" as it's there to sell you on the game. Just because Perpetual released some gorgeous concept art, doesn't mean it would look that good in the game. Don't dwell on it too hard.
join Date: Sep 2009 - I want my changeling lava lamp!
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
Indeed, I think you guys at Cryptic Studios have done an awesome job at making STO come to life from Perpetuals original concepts and continuing making the game better and better with each new update, like I said in my last post here I do like some of the ideas and art the Perpetual had, but I also like a lot of the concept art done by Cryptic such as the New Romulus art and ideas such as being the Captain from the start instead of grinding up the ranks to get there, and in the end all we had got out of Perpetual was art and other ideas, good art and ideas, but just that, which some have been brought into STO anyway like the Aquarius Escort, so I for one am glad Cryptic took on STO and even more happy to see it flourishing after 3 years and continuing still, great job guys.
"I think, when one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable like…like old leather. And finally… it becomes so familiar that one can't remember feeling any other way."
- Jean-Luc Picard
It had everything to do with it. Both the game and the movie were supposed to drop at nearly the same time. They tie together, with JJ carrying on the new timeline a la "Back to the Future" style (seriously, the scene on the bridge in the movie is the Trek version of Doc Brown with a chalkboard while screaming at the top of his lungs about the time line skewing off on a tangent) and the game continuing on in the prime time line with Romulus destroyed.
It would have worked out nicely and wouldn't have been a rush job as Perpetual had plenty of time, at least 5 years, to develop the game. We all know how that worked out..... I am glad Cryptic took it over because MMO's have changed since then. Perpetual didn't survive anyway, and after the initial boost of releasing STO, they would have probably folded anyway and we wouldn't have STO.
I have to give it to Cryptic on adapting to today's MMO market like they do. This game continues to make it through one painful transition after another, all self inflicted by the rushed dev time. It just seems awful because the community is so vocal and a bunch of cry babies. MMO = grind, Life = grind, MMO ~ Fake life... Life rarely gives you a whole bunch of stuff for nothing... and an MMO is a representation of the life of a toon... so why should the game not be the same?
And about the concept art... concept art ALWAYS looks amazing... look at the concept art done by Cryptic. Look at the Vulcan chick with the huge TRIBBLE on the front page..... Concept art is supposed to make you go "wow" as it's there to sell you on the game. Just because Perpetual released some gorgeous concept art, doesn't mean it would look that good in the game. Don't dwell on it too hard.
I "ooh and awe" over the concept art from Perpetual because their vision--or concept--for the game as a whole is far more in line with MMOs I enjoy. The Cryptic-adapted game is closer to a themepark experience (which is why we always seem to be reaching for new content to satisfy us) and less of the sandbox Perpetual was claiming to be working toward. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, it's just not the game I started following and got excited about.
And we have different understandings as to the purpose of concept art, so I'm just going to disagree with you there that it's meant to sell you on the game. Concept art isn't for players, it's for developers.
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
And we have different understandings as to the purpose of concept art, so I'm just going to disagree with you there that it's meant to sell you on the game. Concept art isn't for players, it's for developers.
Concept has many uses. Both of the above ideas are correct.
The basis of concept art is to convey the idea to the production artist, so they can create final assets in line with that. You do concept art because it's far faster/cheaper/easier to make sweeping changes in a 2d painting, than it is once you start building things.
However, what we production artists need to do our job is not finished beautiful paintings. 'Concept' is the keyword. It needs to convey the concept, and little else. Sometimes big beautiful paintings are helpful for setting the mood, or conveying the overall idea, but most of the time, when we're making something, a quick doodle, or a black & white shape study will be enough to get us going.
'Finished' beauty paintings like much of Perpetual's stuff are used to convince the non-artists. Artists can see past WIP and envision a finished product. CEOs, Customers, Players, and Investors, usually have a harder time with that. So, you do pretty versions to show all of them.
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
After three years, the game STILL suffers from its extremely premature release... You can still see the scars. KDF starting at lvl 20, bad crafting, worse PvP etc.
Concept has many uses. Both of the above ideas are correct.
The basis of concept art is to convey the idea to the production artist, so they can create final assets in line with that. You do concept art because it's far faster/cheaper/easier to make sweeping changes in a 2d painting, than it is once you start building things.
However, what we production artists need to do our job is not finished beautiful paintings. 'Concept' is the keyword. It needs to convey the concept, and little else. Sometimes big beautiful paintings are helpful for setting the mood, or conveying the overall idea, but most of the time, when we're making something, a quick doodle, or a black & white shape study will be enough to get us going.
'Finished' beauty paintings like much of Perpetual's stuff are used to convince the non-artists. Artists can see past WIP and envision a finished product. CEOs, Customers, Players, and Investors, usually have a harder time with that. So, you do pretty versions to show all of them.
Got ya. Do many concept pieces get "prettified" for the audience? Or are there concepts made specifically for consumers, too?
There usually aren't concepts made specifically for players. Generally they're made for production, but might be prettied up more than they would be for us, so they're presentable online, etc.
After three years, the game STILL suffers from its extremely premature release... You can still see the scars. KDF starting at lvl 20, bad crafting, worse PvP etc.
To be fair that has almost as much to do with Atari as with the early release. So glad they are out of the picture.
It had everything to do with it. Both the game and the movie were supposed to drop at nearly the same time. They tie together, with JJ carrying on the new timeline a la "Back to the Future" style (seriously, the scene on the bridge in the movie is the Trek version of Doc Brown with a chalkboard while screaming at the top of his lungs about the time line skewing off on a tangent) and the game continuing on in the prime time line with Romulus destroyed.
Umm... no, actually it didn't. Cryptic had entire storylines and a general outline of where they were going to take the game...
...until just a month or two before the Abrams movie came out, and Cryptic was called to a meeting with CBS to be briefed about the changes Abrams was going to make that would affect the Prime Star Trek Universe (destruction of Romulus, disappearance of Spock). Cryptic not only had to put out a game by 2009 (I'm guessing beta counts close enough), but now they had to rewrite their story arcs as well as the background setting with only a few months left to go.
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
Don't take it personally when people say Perpetual had nice designs and concepts. I think most of us here are genuinely discussing concepts, not telling a Perpetual STO would have been wonderful, perfect, flawless, and so on. They had some interesting artwork. Some of the game concepts are very different from Cryptic's STO and also look interesting, nothing more.
None of us said "oh i want to see that in season 8 or 9", it's just that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The current state of the game is what we could expect from a fully developped MMO though. Before season 7, it felt a bit empty. It's definitely not a bad game, even if game mechanics are very traditional. This might explain why people enjoy discussing stuff from Perpetual. It doesn't look traditional at all. Even if there was no game at the end of the day.
I was not on the project at launch, and I never worked at Perpetual, but yes, my understanding is that Perpetual had a contract to put the game out by sometime in 2009. When it was obvious they were going belly up, CBS offered the license up for grabs, but under the condition that whoever picked it up had the same deadline that Perpetual always had. Of course we asked for extensions and such, and we did get a short extension, but that was it.
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
And even if they did somehow release their version of STO, some of it wouldn't have been too different from what we got at launch anyway. Except, of course, space combat which was rumoured not to have been in at the beginning.
Comments
So that explains why there are all the little bugs... that makes me feel a little bit better about the whole thing you guys have managed to do a lot with very little considering the time constraints.
I do find the idea of customizing things like the nacelle based on the engine used or the shield animations based on that component or weapons based on ... etc you get the idea but i'm also quite happy with being able to design the ship components somewhat staticallly from a base design like cryptic has right now.
I followed perfectly, thank you, and you gave the answer I expected, though it would be nice to hear it from Cryptic. Ultimately, Cryptic chose to work under nearly impossible time constraints--it wasn't an imposition, but a term of Cryptic's attachment to the project.
Two years is painfully short for an MMO. Especially one that wants to be a AAA title. Then again, SWTOR had significantly longer, far more developers, and a much larger budget and didn't manage to accomplish much. I guess given the circumstances, Cryptic did well.
But it's all relative. I think Cryptic is/was capable of delivering a fantastic experience, but they've been hamstrung by the game's early release; they've spent so much time, effort, and money playing catch up and haven't really had an opportunity to stretch their wings until recently. I really believe we're just now starting to get a taste of what they're capable of as a studio.
Naw. Vision yes, but actually accomplishing anything? Maybe after 10 years.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
You realize of course Cryptic had no choice in the fast turnaround and inherited Perpetual's release deadline, right? CBS felt burned by Perpetual (with good reason), and only sold the license on the condition that the buyer retain the deadline. Cryptic did pretty good considering that Perpetual had basically nothing to show for their years spent on the project and had to essentially start from scratch.
Cryptic has done many things I disagree with, but this really wasn't something they have control of, and did the best they could with. You may think "maybe they shouldn't have done it at all". Well, perhaps, but then there definitely would not have been an STO.
EDIT:
Beat me to it.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
As has been stated, CBS felt burned by Perpetual. A dev said as much in an interview recently, but I forget whom. Either way, they also said that Cryptic did in fact ask for an extension of the deadline when they actually had some work to show. They received that extension, but it was only a month or two, less than they had hoped for I imagine.
It's pretty much this hard to keep just one timeline intact. ♪
EPIC, my jaw is stuck on the floor this very minute..
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/10/04/cryptic-explains-star-trek-onlines-quick-turnaround-time/
http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/news/cryptic-producer-explains-star-trek-onlines-quick-road-to-launch
My point is that while Perpetual made some beautiful concept art, there was no game there. People who talk about how great a hypothetical Perpetual version of STO would have been are fooling themselves. If Cryptic had not picked up STO where it lay, and carried it the short distance we were told, there would be no STO.
Perpetual appears to have accomplished nothing in its existence except burn through investment capital. The fact that both of their games managed to come into existence is owed entirely to other developers using other engines and creating their own assets.
So, yeah, their game would have been awesome... In the same way that the Phantom would have been a better video game console than anything in its generation or since. Similarity being that neither one ever actually existed and was never going to.
I'd rather have what we have than having the game end up like the Duke Nukem Forever of MMOs...
It had everything to do with it. Both the game and the movie were supposed to drop at nearly the same time. They tie together, with JJ carrying on the new timeline a la "Back to the Future" style (seriously, the scene on the bridge in the movie is the Trek version of Doc Brown with a chalkboard while screaming at the top of his lungs about the time line skewing off on a tangent) and the game continuing on in the prime time line with Romulus destroyed.
It would have worked out nicely and wouldn't have been a rush job as Perpetual had plenty of time, at least 5 years, to develop the game. We all know how that worked out..... I am glad Cryptic took it over because MMO's have changed since then. Perpetual didn't survive anyway, and after the initial boost of releasing STO, they would have probably folded anyway and we wouldn't have STO.
I have to give it to Cryptic on adapting to today's MMO market like they do. This game continues to make it through one painful transition after another, all self inflicted by the rushed dev time. It just seems awful because the community is so vocal and a bunch of cry babies. MMO = grind, Life = grind, MMO ~ Fake life... Life rarely gives you a whole bunch of stuff for nothing... and an MMO is a representation of the life of a toon... so why should the game not be the same?
And about the concept art... concept art ALWAYS looks amazing... look at the concept art done by Cryptic. Look at the Vulcan chick with the huge TRIBBLE on the front page..... Concept art is supposed to make you go "wow" as it's there to sell you on the game. Just because Perpetual released some gorgeous concept art, doesn't mean it would look that good in the game. Don't dwell on it too hard.
Indeed, I think you guys at Cryptic Studios have done an awesome job at making STO come to life from Perpetuals original concepts and continuing making the game better and better with each new update, like I said in my last post here I do like some of the ideas and art the Perpetual had, but I also like a lot of the concept art done by Cryptic such as the New Romulus art and ideas such as being the Captain from the start instead of grinding up the ranks to get there, and in the end all we had got out of Perpetual was art and other ideas, good art and ideas, but just that, which some have been brought into STO anyway like the Aquarius Escort, so I for one am glad Cryptic took on STO and even more happy to see it flourishing after 3 years and continuing still, great job guys.
- Jean-Luc Picard
I "ooh and awe" over the concept art from Perpetual because their vision--or concept--for the game as a whole is far more in line with MMOs I enjoy. The Cryptic-adapted game is closer to a themepark experience (which is why we always seem to be reaching for new content to satisfy us) and less of the sandbox Perpetual was claiming to be working toward. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, it's just not the game I started following and got excited about.
And we have different understandings as to the purpose of concept art, so I'm just going to disagree with you there that it's meant to sell you on the game. Concept art isn't for players, it's for developers.
Thanks for the links, Taco. Insightful stuff.
Concept has many uses. Both of the above ideas are correct.
The basis of concept art is to convey the idea to the production artist, so they can create final assets in line with that. You do concept art because it's far faster/cheaper/easier to make sweeping changes in a 2d painting, than it is once you start building things.
However, what we production artists need to do our job is not finished beautiful paintings. 'Concept' is the keyword. It needs to convey the concept, and little else. Sometimes big beautiful paintings are helpful for setting the mood, or conveying the overall idea, but most of the time, when we're making something, a quick doodle, or a black & white shape study will be enough to get us going.
'Finished' beauty paintings like much of Perpetual's stuff are used to convince the non-artists. Artists can see past WIP and envision a finished product. CEOs, Customers, Players, and Investors, usually have a harder time with that. So, you do pretty versions to show all of them.
After three years, the game STILL suffers from its extremely premature release... You can still see the scars. KDF starting at lvl 20, bad crafting, worse PvP etc.
STOWiki admin.
Got ya. Do many concept pieces get "prettified" for the audience? Or are there concepts made specifically for consumers, too?
To be fair that has almost as much to do with Atari as with the early release. So glad they are out of the picture.
Silence. Back to your grind. Marks and dilth are not going to accumulate by themselves.
If you are still lacking in joy, charge your Zen for great justice.
:rolleyes:
Umm... no, actually it didn't. Cryptic had entire storylines and a general outline of where they were going to take the game...
...until just a month or two before the Abrams movie came out, and Cryptic was called to a meeting with CBS to be briefed about the changes Abrams was going to make that would affect the Prime Star Trek Universe (destruction of Romulus, disappearance of Spock). Cryptic not only had to put out a game by 2009 (I'm guessing beta counts close enough), but now they had to rewrite their story arcs as well as the background setting with only a few months left to go.
Raptr profile
Don't take it personally when people say Perpetual had nice designs and concepts. I think most of us here are genuinely discussing concepts, not telling a Perpetual STO would have been wonderful, perfect, flawless, and so on. They had some interesting artwork. Some of the game concepts are very different from Cryptic's STO and also look interesting, nothing more.
None of us said "oh i want to see that in season 8 or 9", it's just that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The current state of the game is what we could expect from a fully developped MMO though. Before season 7, it felt a bit empty. It's definitely not a bad game, even if game mechanics are very traditional. This might explain why people enjoy discussing stuff from Perpetual. It doesn't look traditional at all. Even if there was no game at the end of the day.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Actually, The grass is greener where its watered. :P
And even if they did somehow release their version of STO, some of it wouldn't have been too different from what we got at launch anyway. Except, of course, space combat which was rumoured not to have been in at the beginning.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"