its not that there arnt any skilled players its just that skilled players are pretty much the only people who have stuck around though all of the problems with sins MP (Minidumps, desyncs, balance). There are still many casual people online its just that "skilled players" are on more often. if you host a game you will get people whether it is a "Skilled" game or not.

Unfortunatly sins MP is dying with little help from the devs to fix major issues people just get enraged and dont play MP anymore or they get scared because it seems like there is so few skilled people on.

Almost all skilled people will play with you even though you are slightly less skilled just dont try to join a game labled 'Skilled" because the hosts feel because they call it skilled they can kick anyone who they think isnt skilled.

Thanks guys for the replies. I think i'll take on what you both said and try to get faster at building up my fleets and things like that. Although i do like the fighting to begin quite quickly, i would prefer it if i didnt have a vasari starbase in my homeworld within the first two minutes into the game. lol.

what are you talking abaut, sins is populated by drooling noobs these days ...

casual gameplay doesn't exist in games employing PvP mechanics

it does exist...I love screwing around in a 5v5 games..building dunov's only,rushing from eco spot in 2 directions and such things ] - win/lose ratio is 2:1 ^^ .

topic poster problem ,is that he fell several times on a special kind of people - who are unnoticed until you speak to them.that kind of people is called MORONS.

The solution to the MORONS problem is getting as much  NON MORON friends as you can and trying to get into games with them: see an adequate person? - add him to the friend list, person who is playing st00pid but is still nice? - friend list........

oh and 'sKILLED' are fags,all of them

another thing - BIA blow.

As a new player (ie few months) I can say that this game "seems" to have good things going for it, however a few big down sides too.

ICO issues are always a pain, but can be dealt with.

Smurfing however is a pain. So many games of late have been wrecked due to 3 ppl pretending to be noob, so that as soon as game starts, they ally up in FFA, or simply rush rush rush in big games. I dont mind people who are better than I, thats all good, great for experience and learning however the better players pretending not be in order to play against weaker players is simply boring.

The sad thing about it is that I have spoken to several even newer players than me, who dont want to play anymore simply because the skill gap is too great and the majority of smufs seem to want to only win, not play. Even worse, the people who introduced me to the game, no longer play it due to the reasons above. People even going so far as to pull their cables to not lose "STATS" is even sadder.

There are exceptions to this rule, however IMHO there is a group of skilled people who dont play for fun, only to bully.

I think one solution might be to create a separate area for people who have only been on ICO for less than one month and then another one for people who have been on for between one and two months.  Of course, they could access the main ICO area, but the skilled players couldn't access the areas for newer players.

I think it's oK to have newer players in the games as long as they are balanced amongst the teams.  Also, as a new player you have to change your expectations for having fun.  Instead of demanding that you win in order to have fun, your criteria needs to be "Did I play as well as I could" and "Was I a big pain in the ass"?  So, you want to take pleasure in becoming a tougher and more resiliant player over time.  The focus in online multiplayer needs to be to help your team even if you personally are getting beaten.  I try to maintain that mindset as well since even good players playing against other good players can expect to lose about 40-50% of the time, especially in pug matches (where your win and loss rates should be 45-55%).

Personally I don't mind losing becuase of noobs. Its fun anyway to teach them stuff.

Hate losing becuase of smurfs though. And its nearly impossible to tell the two apart (until the match has started...)

I like FFA......

Ohhhh.... I think i've played with a few of these before, so annoying!

this is the whole thing that gets me, especially in shooters. people who tell you to learn how to play better- but they themselves should be playing in a more challenging server/ game. hard to learn when you get blasted right on the spawn point.

vets should take newbs on vs. unfair AI comp stomps

Honestly, if I'm going to play against an AI, I'll just play singleplayer.  That way I don't have to wait to find a game and I can use galaxyforge maps.

lol, but it's still only an unfair AI.  One level 6 Marza can toast its fleet repeatedly.

Ugh, now THAT is the worst.  Quitters in general are bad, but that just ruins an otherwise great game.