OK Frogboy, now that I have your ear....at some point will there be an attempt to fix two glaring and rather annoying issues with the game?

(1.) Both regular Sins and Entrenchment (and presumably Diplomacy) access the exact same file, uimappings.setting to load keybinds, but each one uses a different version of the file and they overwrite the file with a default copy if you saved settings to the file from a different version of the game.  Will this ever be fixed so that they use their own individual uimappings.setting files?

I get around this by having two separate keybind files set to Read Only (and a backup for each) whose file names I change depending on which version of Sins I want to play.  I have a shortcut to the Settings folder on my desktop but it's still a pain.

(2.) In online multiplayer you cannot see available games for other versions of the game.  I understand that an Entrenchment player would need to load Regular Sins if he wanted to play a Regular Sins game, but wouldn't it be nice if he could see what games were available for Regular Sins while being on Entrenchment before deciding to open Regular Sins?  This is only going to make it tougher for Diplomacy players who would be willing to play games in Entrenchment or Regular Sins.  Could you please create a checkbox option for each version of the game to allow players to click a checkbox to toggle which games they can see in their Join Games menu?  For example, the Join Games window (where you see games that people are hosting) could include three checkboxes that could be checked on or off in any combination as long as one was always on:  "See Sins games."  "See Entrenchment games."  "See Diplomacy games."

Right now I keep both Regular Sins and Entrenchment open and log on and off, back and forth between the two, to see what games are available, closing the game and reopening it after swapping over the right uimappings.setting file if need be.  I don't know if my computer can handle having three instances of the game open at one time--Regular, Entrenchment, and Diplomacy so that I can toggle logging on/off between them to check the game activity.

I'm also still hoping that custom map auto-download will be enabled one day but that's not really a Diplomacy-specific issue.

Thank you for the info, Annatar.  As far as I can tell, Regular Sins and Entrenchment are still using the same file name, but I'm happy to hear that at least Diplomacy will get its own keybinds settings file.

Actually, that's one reason I'm hoping MP *doesn't* pick up diplomacy.  Games already fly too fast for me to be able to put forth my best effort.  Any faster and I guess I simply won't be able to play at all

I see great shadow that covers the sins comunity and put us all in fear.

Its Sunny's ego

Somehaw im not very exited about diplo.  but we will see...

PS Frogboy nice advertisement but  real usefull new MP features would do it much better.

Lack of new ideas?-read foum

Pirates are awesome now, I don't see why people would turn them off now.  About an hour into a FFA test game they attacked where I had a Kol and 24 LRMs waiting.  I got owned.  Definitely not just free XP anymore.

I see the feed research as more of a team rush deterrent. If you're gonna rush, you better have some skill, cuz you're aren't gonna get that big feed to put you over the top super early. In all likelihood though, the eco spot will probably research feeding first, or at least second only to tradeports or culture centers. And as fast as I know people can get tradeports no matter what race they are, I don't think it will change the team dynamic a whole lot.

i don't think that i will EVER be playing diplomacy on multiplayer.  I bought the expansion, and i found Envoy cruisers if anything just a detriment to the game, and seriously, how uncreative, i could have swore when i played originally the tec envoy cruiser was an upside down starbase constructor.

i don't think asking people on ICO to switch to diplomacy for the option of a faster speed is worth it, it will only start lagging faster, and who knows, if we put ICO under more pressure, who knows what the minidump and desync gods will have in store for us??

So, how would a Diplomacy 5v5 work?  Would you have to make sure that there is a player for each of the three races on the team and then have all 5 players have 1 Envoy cruiser from each race at their home terran so that all five can share the benefits?  Would I need to make 4 Envoy Cruisers and send one to each ally?

I wonder what the effect would really be--if each team does the same thing, is the end result that everyone gets more income, faster extraction rates, and faster research?  Would the practical result merely be no different than if the rates of income, extraction and research were speeded up for everyone in the game along with all ships doing more damage and having more armor?

It also seems like starting positions could play an even bigger role in games since one team could really get screwed over if it can't easily get its Envoy Cruisers out to everyone on the team.

im super disappointed... diplo contributes nothing but problems to MP. Ent was a great idea and grea addition to MP where as diplomacy in a set teams game does absolutely nothing. With ENT we got SBs, mines, and various other upgrades to help defend urself. It made the game expansive. With diplomacy, we get a new ship? that in a MP game wont do anything. I had a feeling this whole diplomacy expansion was gonna be a bad idea for MP.

MS

{SB}=>Specter

Just wait. Two hours in they will rickroll your fully upgraded starbase and all supporting tactical structures - nuke your planet, and then sit there forever making it a pain in the ass to get the world back. Take a look at their hp/armor values later in the game too... it's better than anything any faction can get.

^ That's good.  Invincible pirates are not fun.

I think Diplomacy will bring a lot to MP.  If you think of Entrenchment as the expansion for the militarily oriented player, consider Diplomacy the expansion for the civic minded players.  It will bring great benefits to those who are already headed in that direction.  It makes perfect sense really, just like Entrenchment; what use does a pocket player have for building a starbase, after all?  If you don't benefit directly from the Diplomacy upgrades (like wing players) you don't have to research them.  It's just like a pocket player; he has no use for a Starbase, but he's not going in that direction anyway, and so has no reason to reseach it, so it's not his problem.  i.e. quit complaing about having to build civics on the front line, you won't.  Leave the civics to the people building civic labs, and focus on the military stuff vital to your survival.  Pocket players never complained about starbases, did they?

Eh, convoluted post.  But yes, I support and hope we will see Diplomacy in MP.

All very true, but wouldnt it be nice to be able put those civics labs to more use in helping your friends? And some of those envoy ships abilities would be pretty saweet for the guys on the frontlines.