Sounds a bit too Starcraft-esque for me, I kind of like the idea of the unknown enemy never being revealed. And diplomacy between the races doesn't seem very Sins-like either.

Campain campain campain thats all i wandt pl dont let me be disepoindtet for the 4x

Well this game has sold well so far, mostly by good reviews and word of mouth, without a campaign, and by all accounts it will not get one. Like minecraft, I think most people underestimate just how much people enjoy a good sandbox, whatever genre it is.

I support the move for campaigns.

Besides the entertainment value of story (honestly, I dont know how many games I play that you cant jump back to a particular story moment and relive it. I also would like to just watch the well done story in some of the games I play), campaigns force you to adapt to things that cant happen in a 'balance' skirmish map and deal with minimal resources. In the process of all this, you learn how to better play the game.

For the argument that the story by developers messes up your own imaginative experiences... well, if that's how you play, great for you. I would rather have a story presented to me. My creativity comes from working within such constructs, not building them.

On the other hand, I don't see why a 'campaign-forge' type of thing could not be done here. This would make it a sandbox experience for those that want that, and allow those that don't to get their campaign fix. This is kind of what I was expecting when 'scenarios' were advertised:

• First, you build a map via galaxy forge, but can also assign planets to players.
• Next, you start the map in a special edit mode. This is like the dev.exe, but paused. you spawn in whatever ships and structures you'd like where ever you want them. This would also let you assign whatever planetary upgrades you want.
• Third, you go through the tech trees and can grant each player techs. You can also make certain techs unable to be researched.
• Fourth, this is optional and might be the trickiest part to do: triggers/events. Maybe a giant Vasari fleet phases in 10 minutes into the scenario, this is how you tell it to do that. Such things could be recurring as well: say a detachment of the Vasari fleet phases in every 10 minutes. Trigger types might be: Spawn W at X after (Y time/planet Y is captured/Y is researched/mission Y is completed); Offer mission Y from player Z after (X time/planet X is captured/X is researched/mission X is completed); break all/some treaties between player X and Y after Z time/etc. Victory triggers would be great as well. I would advocate adding a few new mission types for this as well.
• Last, you save it, Name it, and type up a short paragraph giving the backstory. Most importantly, it is made easily distributable to other players.

The difference between the above and a real campaign would strictly be a common story, progressing in a linear manner through the scenarios, and cutscenes.

I do not think that a real campaign is strictly necessary at this time. Having the players build up a selection of scenarios which are more free form is better. Then, when Sins 2 is released or something, they can take the best ones, link them together and throw in some nice cutscenes to top it off.

As a new player I'd appreciate a Single Player campaign in a big way.  While it's true SP campaigns haven't been much of a mainstay since Red Alert2 and multi-player is really where the true challenge is, the SP campaign is a great tool for the new player to get into the game and learn the fundamentals.  I believe it really opens the game up for those that don't want to fumble around getting their rears and teeth kicked in until it all sinks in.  A game like this has to have a long learning curve.  The more they can smooth that out with an engaging SP campaign the more people they will draw and KEEP.

I've seen some responses that poo poo the notion of an SP campaign as not necessary and they suggest we read a book or watch a movie.  To that I say gaming is more than pitting people against others.  That would be about as pointless a statement to say we should just play chess if you want a strategy game.  The gaming industry is where most of the best entertainment talent is IMO from story telling to music scores to directing. Gaming has it all and some titles put it all together pretty well.

I'm being expected to invest a great deal of time to be able to play this well. I'd appreciate a little investment from the Devs to bring down the learning curve a bit...that's all.