I've never seen more than 24 people online at one time.  And usually only 2-5 are available for a game, as others are already at least in a lobby about to start, or in game.

What's the "Prime" hours for ICO?  I may try again when I get my laptop back...

Skidi...You play online?  I may wish to challenge you one day...(And lose...lolz.  I suck at MP...Too fast.)

-Twilight Storm

 Thanks!

-Twilight Storm

Prime Time for Sins is:  3:00 pm - 10:00 pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time.  At least that's how I see it.

The player counts really have decreased and it is becoming harderd and harder to find games.  A before Diplomacy and after Diplomacy comparisson is profound.  Before Diplomacy was released, it wasn't all that difficult to find 5v5s.  After Diplomacy split the community it became very difficult and player counts are down.  Also, for various reasons, many of the pros left the game and moved on to greener pastures.  Many of the people online now are newer players.  I've actually been seeing a lot of them on regular Sins.  The other thing that makes it hard to find games is that most of the games are private, friends-only comp stomps.

Every online multiplayer game's player counts are going to whither away and die at some point, so it should come as no surprise that this seems to be happening to Sins.  The only real surprise is that we were able to enjoy playing Sins online for as long as we did.  When a game only has 280 people online, max, just two or three months after its release, back in April and May 2008, as Sins did, the writing is already on the wall.

There are still games to be had, but they are fewer and further between.  You might not be able to find a game with all of the settings you want, and you might have to play with new players.  I guess I don't mind playing a 3v3 with all new players where I get to be the hero and carry the team to victory if my allies can just hold out.

The loss of the pros creates a great opportunity for people who are tiring of playing against the AI to come online and try their game play against other newer players.  Another thing that might help would be if regular Sins or Trinity went on sale or would get bundled with a video card.  Should Trinity sell for $40 into perpetuity?  Might it be possible to earn greater profits by selling more copies of the game at a lower price point?

I'd say sins are dead, this saturday at ~22:00 GMT i saw like 20 people. Better to ask: what you guys are playing now? I moved to DoW2, unfortunately it blows. Pretty dumb clickfest.

I've been on my usual 3-4 months play seriously followed by a few month break.  Decided to stop in and see how many people were online 6pm Sunday.  It was about 70 people between Ent and Diplo combined.  That is pretty low compared to when I bugged out just before Christmas, where it was about 150 for Ent and 2-3 for Diplo beta.  I may rejoin the fold eventually but I'm in the market for a new game as well.  Civ4 really didn't work out for me...

Lol I moved to turn based Strategy.

I went on Sins the other day to see how people are doing. No hope. 14 people online on that usual time I was online. And no more of the people i know either. Good bye Sins of a solar empire~

Well, there is hope.  There have been a strijingly large number of new people on the forums lately.  We just need a way to get them all on the same thread posting whe they can play online.  Would't be a MASSIVE presence, but decent enough to find games.

-Twilight Storm

Well I'm going to try to stay active in the fourms and hopefully meet people enough to play online with everyone. Though I think I need to the expansions first.

There are games for the original Sins, but you won't find too many 4v4 or 5v5 games.  Instead you'll see 1v1's and 2v2's.  The good news is that most of those players are new and not skilled pros.  The skilled pros are mostly playing Diplomacy.

Anyway, guys, you do realize that by complaining about the low players counts and then moving on to single player or other games that you are part of the problem and not part of the solution?

On the flip side of that, if I find another game to move on to it ain't my problem anymore.

It was actually fun yesterday.  I tried to play a game for old times sake.  I got booted from the only 3v3 I saw for the whole hour I was on... for being too good, while someone I don't even remember was wispering me telling me I was a smurf. 

Considering that most of them WERE smurfs, it was a pretty good policy.  I send thanks to you and most of your DT brethren for bringing him and others to it.  Kudos for killing a game online.  Quite an accomplishment although the game itself supplied plenty of nails for the coffin.

[_]-Greyfox

You guys could, you know, play smaller games?  Even with larger RTS communities, games over 3v3 are difficult to set up.  Is there something wrong with 1v1 or 2v2, or is 5v5 to only way you guys know how to play Sins anymore?  A lot of balance issues disappear when players can't neglect their economy and mindlessly rush.  I've looked online at various times and see 3-4 people in the lobby, but they complain 'there aren't enough people to play' and leave.  What?  4 people aren't enough to play a RTS?

There is more skill involved in a 1v1 or 2v2 in any RTS, this is a fact.  If the 'top players' only play huge team games, I have some bad news about the supposed skill level of the top players.