Design the Next Enterprise Contest

[Terra_Inc]

Not bad. A little bit closer to the Galaxy, a nice touch of newness (is that even a word? ). I love how it has almost no neck, looks funny. Slap different nacelles on it and yeah, you have a pretty fine ship.

 

[CABAL]

I agree, that's not a bad design. I like that they tried something original with the neck. Second, third, and fourth aren't bad either.

 

[Hellkite]

I don't remember seeing that one on Contest .

 

[SciFiFan]

A lot of people on the STO forums are bad mouthing Cryptic for the selection. The thing they all need to remember is that it was not Cryptic's decision but, CBS'.

 

[Adm_Z]

Well. I don't hate it, but it is definitly not what I thought would win, and I don't remember seeing it.

It is such a terrible angle, I can't really get a good idea of what it really looks like. But I don't like how huge the deflector is. It looks like a big mouth.

 

[Knight]

First place and second place look the same to me. They also remind me of one of the enterprise c designs...

 

[Jetfreak]

I say the winner's design pretty much fit with the STO aesthetic. Overdramatic and lacking in grace. The rest are OK too.

 

[kjc733]

Not a big fan. Agree it seems to bare some hallmarks of the Galaxy and Ambassador, but it's impossible to tell much from this angle. Also, it's a big beastie, why do people always want to make these things bigger and bigger? Didn't the Galaxy have enough space?

I like the concept of twin necks, but I'm not sure it fits this design. But I'm going to reserve final judgement until I see more.

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of any of the top four, third place would have been my choice of those as it has lineage with how Starfleet designs progress. And no, I don't recall seeing first place before either.

 

[K_merse]

Surprisingly, I kinda like it
I love the idea of mixing the Soulwolf and the Galaxy into one ship. The only think I dislike is its size. Why has every ship to be bigger than the previous one?!

But all in all, I still like it. It conservative enough for my eyes But indeed, except of the new neck section, there is no much fantasy in it... P4 would have been my choice as well.

 

[SciFiFan]

The devs at Cryptic has decided to start a blog or diary on the next Enterprise design and build. Have a look.

Enterprise-F Design Diary.

 

[K_merse]

The whole ship seems to to flat and big on this model... It remembers me to a snail for some reason
It could be a bit more slight and elegant I think.
But it's still OK.

 

[SciFiFan]

Well, it is a proof of concept. They do still are going to do some fine tuning. Personally, I think the necks need to flow a little better. That is the one thing that seems out of place to me.

 

[kjc733]

Updated... really not convinced about this one

Dev Diary: DTNE, Part 2 | Star Trek Online Official Site

 

[Majestic]

I could see this as a Federation design, just not a popular one or as a Enterprise.

 

[Hellkite]

It as ugly as Sin What in the good name of Roddenberry were they thinking.NCC-1701 - (F) ailure


NCC -1701 A for Amazing

NCC -1701 B For Bad Arsed

NCC -1701 C For Cruiser

NCC -1701 D for Dream ship

NCC -1701 E for Excellence

and now NCC-1701 - F for Failure

uninstalling my Star Trek online account as I type this

" It dead Jim." Dr McCoy

 

[StarBlade]

The Century class as NCC-1701-F maintains the graceful lines and evolution in design that one expects to see from one Enterprise to the next. The STO model has no grace in its design, especially in its unnecessarily cloven secondary hull. Why does it need a huge rift that can only be a turbolift designer's worst nightmare? Where is the separation plane, exactly? That design makes sense on a tiny Oberth but not on such a big ship. And, I mean, really, what is going on with that double-tail at the end of the stardrive? It's almost sexually suggestive in its shape, from the top down. And the impulse engines don't need to be such a dominant feature. The other features are not really developments beyond Sovereign-class design, either, they're just more of the same. In fact, the deflector looks like it was lifted straight from the Century. So half the ship is boring and the other half is bulky. Again-- everything the Century is not.

I'd sooner accept the SoulWolf as a candidate than the STO model depicted on the other side of that link. As Majestic said. It's a futuristic Federation design. It has its merits. But I don't like it as 1701-F.

 

[dinosaurJR]

Im with Hellkite and Starblade on this one - the design as it stands now is a dog... there seems to be no unifying design features (except the straight up plagiarism of the Ambassador Class) and no logical rhyme nor reason for the general layout.

Twin necks? Why? Nacelles with no clear view forward? Not a Trek Design Feature. Bigger than a Galaxy Class? Why on earth do you need all that mass? A deflector dish big enough to swallow an Intrepid Class? I shake my head...

It seems the designer does not understand, or is ignorant of the basic first principles and back story to designing a Federation Ship. Even the Defiant follows the Trek "lore" if you will...

It looks as if someone looked at the Galaxy / Ambassador and made a mutant hybrid, utilizing the ST:Online palette of ship parts. I.e. over aztecced, mis matching and ameturish...

It looks as if the sketch was drawn by someone with some skill and artistic flair, but the overall design is just pants. Really smelly scratchy woolly pants.

 

[Dan1025]

It looks as if the sketch was drawn by someone with some skill and artistic flair, but the overall design is just pants. Really smelly scratchy woolly pants.

Couldn't have said it better, really not a pretty ship

 

[Terra_Inc]

\me agrees with you, guys.
I kind of liked the original sketch. Sure, it had the usual problem of STO designs, the parts didn't want to fit together somehow. But a bit of work on the nacelles and neck would have turned it into an OK ship (= the Ambassador. ) But this clay model made it only worse. First of all, the design needs a Galaxy-style saucer, not the mutated, vaguely egg-shaped one it has now. The engineering hull is too big at the front and really tiny from the rear view. And wtf is up with that tail thing? It does not belong there.
The digital render at least makes some sense out of the front view, especially the neck is nicer, but the saucer and rear engineering hull need some serious work.

 

[Adm_Z]

Im with Hellkite and Starblade on this one - the design as it stands now is a dog... there seems to be no unifying design features (except the straight up plagiarism of the Ambassador Class) and no logical rhyme nor reason for the general layout.

Twin necks? Why? Nacelles with no clear view forward? Not a Trek Design Feature. Bigger than a Galaxy Class? Why on earth do you need all that mass? A deflector dish big enough to swallow an Intrepid Class? I shake my head...

It seems the designer does not understand, or is ignorant of the basic first principles and back story to designing a Federation Ship. Even the Defiant follows the Trek "lore" if you will...

It looks as if someone looked at the Galaxy / Ambassador and made a mutant hybrid, utilizing the ST:Online palette of ship parts. I.e. over aztecced, mis matching and ameturish...

It looks as if the sketch was drawn by someone with some skill and artistic flair, but the overall design is just pants. Really smelly scratchy woolly pants.

I do not blame the designer. I think he did a decent job and probably knew what he wanted and what it was for. I blame the STO judges for picking such an awful design for the enterprise though. I believe that the term lacking-grace applies with never before reached levels grace-lacking-ness.


Honestly, I don't mind it from the back or the top mostly, but I can't stand the front.

 

[kjc733]

I have decided!

The original sketch showed some promise, I would never say it was pretty, but it could have been (with some work) the next Galaxy or Ambassador (and I say that not being a fan of the Galaxy...)

However, what the digital artist has done is take an ok-ish ship and made it much much worse! The Sovereign-esque look just doesn't fit, and the "artistic liberties" he's taken are just horrible. I've been trying to see the good in this implimentation (just like I tried and partially succeeded with the XI Enterprise). But there just isn't a redeeming feature. The earlier clay render actually seemed ok, but this new look... urgh.

The only reason this won is it had two necks and was thus different! What a complete anti-climax to the competition.

 

[Majestic]

The comp was done so poorly, and with so much cheating it should've been re-run. Wasn't the idea of the community picking the winning entry, not the top brass in the field? Well that didn't work. I would preferred Sean's (creator to the Luna/Titan) as while his was different it was a much better design for the next Enterprise to this.

There are only a few designs in STO for the Federation I like and all of those are small (frigate) or canon designs from the series. Being a ship designer myself, specialising in Trek, I can say the artistic/decision making team on STO have no artistic flare or idea about Trek. They have made one terrible decision after another and if I had the money for a MMO I would go with Star Wars Old Republic over STO, simply because most LucasArt games actually are okay and fit in with the theme, STO simply does not. Now that my rant is over I will sign off and forget that STO actually exists.

 

[CABAL]

Why did they feel the need to change the design so much? They fattened up the saucer vertically, stretched it forward, and generally changed the look of it, removed the primary neck (look closely at the sketch, there was a more traditional neck and the two side supports), drastically changed the side necks, and completely redesigned the engineering hull, including the deflector dish, nacelle struts, and the nacelles themselves and then they added that silly tail thing that doesn't flow in any way with anything on that ship.

I know I'm probably going to be the only person to say this, but I thought that the sketch had potential and that we should see how a render of it came out. This is so much different from the sketch that it's simply insulting to the guy that sent it in. I can't judge how the ship would look rendered because we haven't seen it yet.

Now I want to see if I can get MS3D working on my computer just so I can make something more like the sketch so we can have a real comparison. Even with my poor-to-mediocre modeling skills I should be able to get closer than the STO team.

 

[StarBlade]

CABAL makes an excellent point, and given the MSFC tradition of defense of artists' rights, I think it's a point that needs to be made. I had noted the rather drastic alteration of the design and wondered whose idea that was. The final product looks like a re-working of the original idea to fit the STO model instead of what the artist originally intended. If nothing else, that's a huge problem.

 

[Adm_Z]

I know I'm probably going to be the only person to say this, but I thought that the sketch had potential ...

You're not the only one. Several of us mentioned the same thing.

I do not blame the designer. I think he did a decent job and probably knew what he wanted and what it was for.

The original sketch showed some promise,

I kind of liked the original sketch.

 

[Majestic]

I didn't notice the changes when I first looked at that link, now going back to it I can say they have drastically changed it, I mean someone obviously had their mind in the gutter before me as that tail looks more like something that due to this being a family site I can not say but the more mature users here can get what I am meaning. Even my 12 year old daughter picked this up.

The Impulse engines are also too big in my opinion, I mean this ship is supposed to be what, 1/3rd larger than the Sovereign? Doing some rough scaling, that would mean the impulse engines on this design is like double the size of the Sovereign's and the Sovereign had large impulse engines to start with, too large when compared to designs like the Galaxy and Intrepid classes.

I mean the original render looked okay, this new one, um no thanks enough said.

I still think fans make better games than companies who have no idea about the genre that they are making the game from or what the consumers want. I say lets make our own or throw our full support behind some projects as Star Trek Excalibur (I think it's called that) and Fleet Operations etc. I just hope this new Trek game coming out will put Trek gaming back on target, STO was a complete a total failure in my opinion and this complete disregard to an artist's rights as Starblade has point out is just another example of Cryptic and their values. I am now officially boycotting Cryptic and any future products they produce.

 

[dinosaurJR]

I still think fans make better games than companies who have no idea about the genre that they are making the game from or what the consumers want. I say lets make our own or throw our full support behind some projects as Star Trek Excalibur (I think it's called that) and Fleet Operations etc. I just hope this new Trek game coming out will put Trek gaming back on target, STO was a complete a total failure in my opinion and this complete disregard to an artist's rights as Starblade has point out is just another example of Cryptic and their values. I am now officially boycotting Cryptic and any future products they produce.

Words to live by - you sir are an artist and a gentleman... Well, an Australian gentleman... but a Gentleman none the less... (assuming you are kept away from the koalas, the sheilas and the beer...)

Let us commence with the STO shunning forthwith.

 

[Majestic]

Well this Aussie from the land down under is a non-drinker so beer isn't a probelm for me, sheilas, I'm married now and would get a butt kicking not to mention be a witness in a murder and a wife in gaol (Jail, the US spelling makes so much more sense to me) if sheilas were around.

Koala's aren't the issue, the Wombats are the ones that have been known to kill people. Grumpy, short and very sensitive about their weight.

 

[Hellkite]

Koala's aren't the issue, the Wombats are the ones that have been known to kill people. Grumpy, short and very sensitive about their weight.

Sure that's not Sheilas as well on the Grumpy, short and very sensitive about their weight part

 

[StarBlade]

Complete agreement about the tail end of the original design --I mentioned it earlier in this thread in passing, but it looks an awful lot like, well.... never you mind.

Maybe they figured Trek fans would have no idea what one of those looked like and tried to sneak it into the design?

Just curious about this, though, Majestic:

STO was a complete a total failure in my opinion and this complete disregard to an artist's rights as Starblade has point out is just another example of Cryptic and their values. I am now officially boycotting Cryptic and any future products they produce.

Is this boycott a personal one or a MSFC policy? Because I think I can get behind the idea of a boycott quite easily. I would politely recommend it be submitted to the MSFC membership generally for consideration. I think a lot of us feel the same way, especially after seeing how they've bungled absolutely everything they've come in contact so far. I've never seen a group of developers that made Mad Doc look organized by comparison....