Beta test
Star Trek Online's closed beta test officially began when it was announced on October 22, 2009.[73] Cryptic Studios offered guaranteed beta access to users who bought 6-month and lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online. However, the offer did not explicitly state how early in the beta process the access would be granted.[74] Some pre-order packages included access to the 'open beta' running from January 12–26, 2010.
Legate magically appeared 5 days after the official closed beta release of ST:O was. Seems legit 8| gnarrnrr
Beta test
Star Trek Online's closed beta test officially began when it was announced on October 22, 2009.[73] Cryptic Studios offered guaranteed beta access to users who bought 6-month and lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online. However, the offer did not explicitly state how early in the beta process the access would be granted.[74] Some pre-order packages included access to the 'open beta' running from January 12–26, 2010.
Legate magically appeared 5 days after the official closed beta release of ST:O was. Seems legit 8| gnarrnrr
Beta test
Star Trek Online's closed beta test officially began when it was announced on October 22, 2009.[73] Cryptic Studios offered guaranteed beta access to users who bought 6-month and lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online. However, the offer did not explicitly state how early in the beta process the access would be granted.[74] Some pre-order packages included access to the 'open beta' running from January 12–26, 2010.
Legate magically appeared 5 days after the official closed beta release of ST:O was. Seems legit 8| gnarrnrr
It's not like google did exist back then and pictures were spread through news & stuff. If the modeller should feel in any way in touch with Star Trek he would've been aware of the game, even if he didn't get into Closed Beta he would've seen the news. Probably the model somewhere? Who knows.
I'm not stating anything here, just saying the game was released earlier than the model.
Keep in mind that October 2009 is not when the Legate appeared in the mod, but when a render for it was first uploaded to the Wiki. It and the model must have been included in the development process and releases long before v4.85.0.0 was first released in June 2009.
EDIT: Or, well, at least a while before June 2009.
The link is now broken, but the original Legate model far pre-dates that particular wiki picture. Also, the idea that AoM could've seen a screenshot of a ship from ST:O, fully completed it, got it in a mod release and then uploaded a render to the Wiki in less than 7 days is outright laughable.
The closest date to ST:O's launch the Legate could've been included was December 2009, which was when .85 Update 3 was uploaded to MoDDB. After that, the next release was 2012 (.85 was the loooong mod).