Entenchment

i'm not quite sure what you are asking, but if you are asking if entrenchment makes sins easier, the answer is no, it adds more depth to the game.

Entrenchment makes it easier to understand?  No..  It does however make it harder for the AI to kill you since you can simply set up a starbase on the border world.  Of course, it will reciprocate your action, but still...

Now, if you are talking about the forums making the game easier to understand, oh yes.  The guides are a huge help, even if most are a bit dated...

Entrenchment adds new units, structures, and technologies.  It's the same game, but with extra stuff.

also i went on ICO and i saw about the same amount of players in the lobby as if i was playing the original SOASE - i know some gams have started but i actually expected to see at least 25-30 ppl in the lobby instead of 4 5 or 6 - this game is approaching 3 years old now - why dont that many ppl play? i mean this game was awarded game of the year of 2008 - and its 2010 and the biggest amount of players ive seen was 130 players - whats the deal - id thought thr be more ppl to start up games

well, the majority (90%+/-5% I think) of the people who play Sins play singleplayer exclusively. Additionally, ICO doesn't differentiate between vanilla&Entrenchment games in the lobby; only when a game is started will the difference be noticeable.

Because you need time for this game. Its not your usual RTS. It CAN be played online and it CAN be played relatively quickly on small maps (circumventing a large portion of the game), but its not the kind of game you hop in and play for a few minutes vs some stranger. Its a RT4X, and is probably better played in a weekend sessions with friends in a LAN environment.

Sins is different. It has certainly more appeal to strategy players than to the usual RTS audience.

Its still a great game. Its just a different genere and a different scale.

Additionally the community is a bit devided with the online-only purcasable micro expansions. Trinity will change that i guess.

i read about the Trinity and its like a 3 in one deal - it has the original SOASE and the Entrenchment plus i think the admin i think he was said that thr was a sneek peek in Diplomacy

I see recent questions for multiplayer campains in forums with three pages replies. Its not your usual multiplayeer game but it is certainly popular. Just don't expect a Warcraft III in space. Multiplayer games are viable but you need a certain target audience. It is a full-blown strategy game despite all the RTS mechanics. It just APPEARS to be a RTS because of the UI.

This special kind of game needs a special kind of player. You find them playing Civilization, AlphaCentauri, MasterOfOrion2, SwordOfTheStars, AgeOfWonders and similar games in multiplayer.

Of course you can reduce mapsize and engage in quick ultra-short engagements, but that really is not doing the game justice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY-NSNhgydY

nevermind...

the tutorials make the game easier to understand.  try starting there

For whatever reason this game just sold to people who are predisposed to play single player and not online multiplayer, or perhaps it just didn't seel to the types of people who play online multiplayer.  It also had problems early on that chased some people away such as minidumps, desyncs, and the inability to host games for about 80% of the players (this was a huge problem that has now been fixed with Alloy).

Also, I think that a great many people--people who have never visited this forum--may not know that the online multiplayer component exists or they might mistakenly believe that because single player games can take many hours to play that playing it against other people is impossible.  (In fact, your average 5v5 only lasts 1.5 hours, but you wouldn't know that if you were used to playing single player against 9 enemy AI on a huge multistar map.)

Another large problem is the game patching issue.  When the game was released people could download the patches (normally like you do for other games).  However, after the game was released--after the v1.05 patch and starting with the v1.0 or 1.1 patch--you needed to download and install Impulse and then register your game's CD key with it--which is Stardock's form of DRM.  Presumably a great many players are on v1.05 and when they click the Ironclad Online button (wondering what the heck it is) they receive a message about how they have the wrong version.  Also, when they click the Multiplayer button they are asked to enter an IP.  Since 95% of all buyers have probably never visited the webpage or discussion forum they probably don't know about Impulse (which should probably be bundled and included with Stardock's games from now on) and thus wouldn't know how to update the game.

So, in summary, Sins is a great game that deserves to have more people online but suffered from (and still suffers from) some technical issues.  Or, maybe 99.5% of all buyers really are single player only types who cannot contemplate playing against real opposition.  The real reason is probably a combination of those factors.

Anyway, welcome to the Sins online multiplayer community.  Please stay and be part of the solution to the low online player counts.  Most of the games are in fact for Entrenchment and that is where you will find the larger 4v4 and 5v5 games, so consider getting it.  As a general rule you can find games for both Regular Sins and Entrenchment from 3 pm - Midnight U.S. Eastern Standard Time.  However, you will not be able to choose from a large number of games and need to be flexible about what types of games you play and with who.

or are like me and simply don't have the time very often to do so...  I am forced to break games into little snippits.  Though this summer, with the hopeful finishing of my mod and more time, I will be able to play some online games...  Such is my summer schedule:

1. AP summer assignments
2. Write a hundred or so pages of my book
3. Finish Fleet Diversification Mod
4. Play online MP
5. Convince two of my friends to buy/play the game online.

This is an interesting insight which hadn't occurred to me.  Perhaps some effort should be made to market the game to those people--people who play 4x strategy games online.  They would probably love Sins.

Speaking as a Deity Civ4 player, hell yes.  I love Sins, and am usually weak at RTS versus slaying at slowpaced strat, to the point of usually avoiding your outright WarcraftIII clickfest RTS mayhem.  Which Sins, superbly, avoids.  Civ and MOO players would be liklier than average to enjoy this game.

-evoke

Sins actually plays VERY similarly to Warcraft III, just at a slower pace.

I just got this I love it

I love the game too, but I have not had a fun online game yet.  I generally play Diplomacy lately in a 4 player FFA with 3 comps to play with the new features.