Yes it would be nice if all those offline people would play online, but we can do absolutly nothing about it.  That is, unless you know one of these fools in real life.  I call them fools cause they are missing out on the best part of sins.  Buying sins for single player is like dating a super model for the good conversations.  But we can influence people have not yet bought the game to buy the game for the multiplayer.  Since we are recruiting people we already know in the real world, we can get them to come online and play.  So go recruit your family, friends, and co-workers.

problem is people like me can't get it to work online or am such a noob at it I can't get it too work

The problem is that there is no drop-in MP support and matches take hours.

I'm hoping that the online multiplayer community will choose to either play Entrenchment or normal Sins.  My money is on people's tiring of Entrenchment after the novelty wears off and returning to regular Sins.

People fear the competiton of these types of games online.

Hi guys I am getting into the online matches during the spring break season, look forward to learn more about micros.  Any good thread about micro skills that I can read on this forum?

Pretty much this, my first online game consisted of me trying an 8 person FFA which I later found out to be two players on smurf accounts who fed each other. I was lucky enough to be the first target and even though I was 2nd overall in ecnonmy the guy that attacked me had 2x my army and already had carriers and hosks when I was barely able to get a few carriers of my own.

It just wasn't fun for the amount of time it took to get to that point. The time it takes for players to get a decent size army is like equal to 2-3 starcraft or warcraft games. I like sins because it's slow, but at the same time it's not fun to play online considering I have a good chance of facing a person who's owned the game much longer then me. (I've only had it since January of this year) The irony is sins is a good single player game yet it has no single player story.

This is key. Sins feels... stretched, for lack of a better word. Most of the time you're doing stuff only at half capacity. Combine this with the typical RTS pitfall of unlikely comebacks, and it's easy to see why Sins isn't a very appealing MP game - no one likes a drawn out losing game, and most competitively minded players don't much like drawn out victories either.

Even so, I bought Entrenchment and maybe will give it a whirl someday. Hopefully player numbers have improved at Euro times.

Xinoxlx, I think you might have a better experience if you tried a team game with locked teams where the player skill between the teams was balanced.  (Maybe look for a game called "New Players Only" or some such.)  I agree with JohnJames that as a general rule, FFA isn't a great game to play online.  Also, even if the teams are locked, friends could team up together and you might still get two-wayed.

For those reasons I think team games are your best bet.  You might also look for team games where the teams are numerically imbalanced--say 3 good players v. 5 average and new players.

Part of my own problem with playing online is:

1. I am terrible. This is far and away the biggest factor.

2. It seems like even a small game takes 2 hours (4 people on a small universe being a small game, I am sure 1v1 ends quite quickly).

Not that I think fun level is associated with the number of games you play in a night. However, a 2 hour (or longer) game means you have to devote that entire 2 hours to the game. I don't know about you folks, but its hard to get 2 hour span without at least one interruption (phone call, need to get another snack or drink, need to change the laundry to the dryer, someone in your family needs help with something, extremely urgent bathroom break, etc).

In faster, twitchier paced games like Team Fortress 2 or the like you can simply go to spectator for a round and it won't harm your team too much. Besides, you don't have that much invested in a 5 minute round anyways, so just walking away is easy. In an MMO such as World of Warcraft, one can communicate with your party members to take a break.

RTS games don't have that luxury. Even if you try to pause the game for a break, most players will simply unpause as soon as you leave to gain an advantage. Most RTS games like Warcraft 3 or Dawn of War make up for that by having relatively quick rounds (unless you play a massive 4v4 or something).

Even though Sins is slow-paced, a lot can happen in 5 minutes if you need to step away.

Also, I am TERRIBLE. I feel the game needs a few more tutorials in it. It is a very complex game and a few things need to be explained by the game itself (like how Shield Mitigation works, which I had explained to me by these very forums). Also, why are there gameplay options available but not mapped to a key (like Z-axis control, which I have still not tried out but I assume it means you can move in 3d if you want???)

Is there a good strategy primer out there? I browse the Strategy forum regularily but there isn't really a general guide from what I have seen.

That is just fear though.  Even the best fall in some funny ways in this game.  Today in one game I had my home planet destroyed before we evn got fleets out really.  Hard to explain but it wasn't my fault.  My units spread out to much and I didn't notice.  It just happens,  stop caring what others think and play.  You can always make another player name if you hate having loses or something.

I've converted one guy from Empire at War, and he'll soon be multiplayer-ing. I've converted another non-rts guy. Hopefully he''l multiplay too. Multiplayer FTW!

Go forth and Multiplay!