I know one of the things we're really looking to add are scenarios.  While fun in SP, they could really enhance MP.  For example, you could have a scenario where the first player to own three particular colonies wins the scenario.  There's a lot of different interesting winning conditions that could be made for people who want shorter games or even more epic games (depending on the scenario).

^^^

IMO, a more flexable option would be to include or have directly on the side at the time of launch a sort of GalaxyForge, but include neutrals that can be captured/given instantly and AI that follows specific guidelines (no build, attack X planet at Y time with only Z ships) so users can create their own scenerios or download ones that others have created for story or challenge purposes. It would add depth and challenge those who want to sharpen skills or gather more user information about the Sins universe.

This sounds like a great idea--adding more game types.  Any chance for a "Capital Ships only" mod similar to the one Annatar made?

I have an idea for a scenario type modeled after one of the games in Unreal Tournament.  Domination.  There is a planet with (say) 500 max hit points equidistant between all the other players in the map.  The goal of the game is to maintain ownership of the planet longer than anyone else (or any other team).  The game host could set the length of the game (stop after 30 minutes and add up the points) or it could be set to stop when a player or team reaches a set number of points.  Let 1 point be generated for every 15 seconds of ownership, say.  Maybe the host could also choose the amount of hit points on the target planets.  This could be expanded to maps where two or three planets need to be dominated, etc.

A Domination game type might be wild and crazy fun or it could be a gasser.  Only way is to try it.  I suspect that it would be wild-and-crazy fun.

      Your the boss, but why does Sins ( and other games )commit so many resources to MP game play, when it is >5% of your customers at best?

If the games were shorter Sins would have a much larger online player base. And I am hugely in favor of adding new game modes, it was the achilles heal of Sins so far, made all the more obvious due to a lack of a campaign. It will be especially awesome if the senario system they implement is moddable. Can't wait to see what we are going to be able to do with that.

I can't speak for the developers, but people who enjoy online multiplayer are often a game's biggest source of word-of-mouth advertising.  They'll have enthusiasm for it and encourage their friends to get the game.  Perhaps it didn't work that way for Sins, but online multiplayer has proven valuable for other games, including other RTS games.  It's certainly important for first person shooters. How would Starcraft have done without online multiplayer?  People that play human opponents might also play a game long term, getting involved in clan activity and leagues, continuing to advertise the game by word of mouth whereas people who became bored with the strategically-challenged AI might have long since moved on to other games.  A vibrant online multiplayer community also encourages the creation and dissemination of custom content.  Overall, it offers much more potential value to a gamer than being limited to single player.  You can finish a single player campaign in a couple days, but online multiplayer can hold a gamer's interest for years.

For example, there are still people out there playing the original Starcraft, the original Unreal Tournament, and even Tribes and Tribes 2.  Those games are legendary in their minds.  If sequels are made you can bet that they will promote them.

WBino, what do you think could be improved about the single player aspect of the game other than having a campaign?  How do you think an investment of time and effort in online multiplayer detrimentally affected the single player game?

If you say, "I wish the AI were smarter", then the answer is to simply play against other people in online multiplayer; that's what it's there for, to offer opponents that are more challenging than the AI.  If you want more planet types, more maps, and more ships, custom content is available.  (I don't think the Sins AI is bad as far as AI goes, but it's just AI and will thus always be limited in its strategic capabilities.)

I'm not convinced that the length of the games is the primary problem.  Most people who have the time to play computer games could probably devote 2 hours or more to a gaming session.  (In practice, most 4v4 and 5v5 games last about 1:30-1:45.)  I think the cause of the low online player counts is due to multiple technical problems the game suffered in its early days.  Also, it's very possible that the game just didn't attract the types of people that play online multiplayer.  Perhaps it attracted the single player 4X crowd and not the online multiplayer PvP RTS crowd.  Maybe it had something to do with the marketing.

Agreed.

Even simpler would just be making "Gateway" an MP scenario.

this is going to be standalone?

sure an hoping for a rework on.. well.. everything  me & buds stopped playing sins cuase it was just unplayable in later stages (2 hour games + cuasing -5x time "1 hour gametime = 5 hours")

verycurious what wil become of this,
wil most definatly pre-order just to participate in beta.... but i simply must know if the same engine will be used?

S_o_L

Same Engine yes, but the devs are reworking it within certain parameters (aka no 64-bit, multi-core support, etc). Already there are some excellent improvements and I am sure more are to follow.

that sounds great, im sure theyre aware of the issues peopel are having and wil do their best do tweak the engine then.

"(aka no 64-bit,"  no 64-bit ? that doesnt sound like an improvement,  or am i missing the point here ???

Yes and no. Yes as in it would be nice if they could put this in, it would help a lot. No as in if they took the time to do it, Sins would be dead. The devs have said they could do it but it would be a huge and costly project that would in the end cause more problems then solve (as in bug finding and such) so they simply abandon the idea. Here is to hoping Sins 2 having those features. Which it should if it comes out.

Well, with how you explain what's coming up. The titan seems to create a balance issue that between offence and deffence that entrenchment fixed with the starbase are the developers planning on addressing this inbalance in some way. Some one for the deffence of a planet to be equil to deffending it against the titan as you have described it.