I'm pleased to see that the idea of PUG -- (P)ick(U)p (G)ames -- matches seems to have really caught on. I've enjoyed some great, intense games and I think it makes the teams more balanced and fair.
Anyway, now that people are pugging, I was wondering if you guys might want to take it to the next level. Picking teams in ICO is a little klunky and you don't always know which games will be pugs and which won't, and it would be nice if we could establish a more formal PUG match community where people would learn how to use voice comm and custom maps. I learned about pugging from playing capture-the-flag matches in the original Unreal Tournament (1999), and it's all set up in IRC channels and everyone uses voice comm and competition-grade custom maps are played (though they auto-download).
To learn more, visit my other thread in the Multiplayer forum:
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/310043
Here are two screenshots showing what it looks like in an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel. Note that people sign up and a program called the pugbot keeps track. When it fills to ten players, either two type a command to become team captains or the bot picks random captains, trying to balance them based on their normal draft spots. Then the bot keeps track of who's been picked and who's still available.
(This bot also keeps track of the average draft position of players who have accounts with the IRC server, so even a clueless captain will have some idea who should be drafted where. For example, in the 2nd screenshot, my friend Frank[2.6] is normally a first, second, or third pick. Neato, huh? Also, note the irc.stardock.com server and #sins and #stardock channels on the upper left of the screen, where you can actually chat with Stardock folks; another reason to use IRC. Query 1 to Joe was probably a private message asking if he wanted to play Sins.)
