P.s.

Stop whining.

I've seen the same thing.  I assumed it was an advertisement for a game that was up and waiting for players on the Diplomacy side (I hear the lobbies are split), but I really have no clue.

And just ignore people who say STOP WHINING every time you open your mouth.  It's just a programmed response some people have to anything anyone says, LOL.

I find that I am not much interested in what it adds either since I solely play MP.  Unless the majority of the online players move to it, I find it unlikely that I will buy it myself.  We shall see.

[_]-Greyfox

Online Diplomacy is a lot more fun than Entrenchment. The increased speed settings are very nice, and pacts give the eco spot a lot more use other than simply feeding. Diplomacy mkes eco starts a lot more viable now.

Hey Dirty,

I can see how it that would be a little offensive. I logged onto entrench last night, got a little excited that there was a game up, only to find that it was someone telling me to play diplomacy. i had just came from diplomacy where there were no games up. Usually I go check diplomacy for games and If I dont see any, I log on to entrench. I'm sure if I had a little patience I could get one going on Diplo, but I often don't. Im hoping that the Diplo community will get larger so I'l be able to play more games and so I can let you know exactly what it brings to the table as far MP goes, but alas, I usually can't play during peak hours. I have played several games (no big 4v4s or 5v5s yet) on Diplomacy and have noticed some good differences so far. The faster setting, despite what Agent thinks, doesn't make it more like Starcraft. It doesn't allow the fastest clicking player any greater advantage than on a fast speed. The game moves a little quicker certainly, but the most noticeable difference in the game speed is the increased resource rates. I've played some of my normal MP opening set ups to find I have cash left over for upgrades or more ships. Thats definitely nice. One other thing I've found thats great is the TEC envoy cruisers can draw income from other peoples planets (tier 2 ability). So when I've run out of room to expand, and used up my logistics a slots already, I can continue to increase my fleet size and afford the fleet penalties because I know I can turn some of that into income. I've only played as TEC (I always go random, and everytime seems to put me as TEC..), and haven't played very many diplo MP games, but from the few I've played, I enjoyed these extra features. Im sure as I play more, some more of the new features will jump out to me as game enhancing.

The trend I'm noticing that makes me sad is the increasing animosity of parts of the community towards this expansion. I understand where its coming from, but I feel like its somewhat unfounded. People are fearing the collapse of the MP experience through the division of players. The fact that the Diplomacy server is separate certainly adds to that fear (it should have been integrated like entrenchments is). But I have a different theory of what will happen. Worst case scenario: the MP crowd becomes displeased with the expansion and migrates back to entrenchment. The overall community suffers from another period of hampered growth as new players find the diplomacy server empty (not realizing the entrenchment server is where the action is). Thats worst case scenario in my mind. Best case scenario is that entrenchment players slowly wane (like vanilla sins did) as people move to Diplomacy, where the community continues to grow with new Trinity purchasers trying the online experience.

I get your hesitation to invest. The bonuses are certainly not as apparent as they were with Entrenchments release. Nor is there Diplomacy players online all the time telling you to go get it (well there seems to be one, though his methods aren't incredibly scrupulous). But on the other hand I say don't knock it 'til you try it. For the price of a good lunch or a couple of lotto tickets you can try it out. Maybe it will re-spark your interest in Comp stomping, or playing ffas. Maybe the enhancements to team games will become more apparent as you play (as they are for me). Then again maybe you won't like it, and will have felt like the $10 was wasted. For me though, the $10 wasn't wasted, and I hope you will take a chance and give it a try.

Cheers,

Deceiver_0

Not that I expect this to not to fall on deaf ears (of course it will), but it seems to me that increased speed settings, with the increased resource flow, actually tilts the game more towards mil and away from diplomacy.  There is less need or incentive to eco, because you are getting even more income faster rather than having to go out and earn it proper.  So just fleet up and go get the other guy?  It seems rushes will be even more prevalent (more income faster, earlier).  On and on.

Come on, you people just admit you really don't want to play a strategy game.  You'd be happy with complete elimination of all base building and eco'ing.  Real-time tactical is what you want, right?

deceiver is right, actually i think quick start made a far bigger impact on sins than faster game speeds do.

Really the majority of people are moving to diplo, if you look at the number of people online there is usually 2x the amount of people on Diplomacy than on enterenchment.

And as many other people have said previously Diplo is actually alot more fun. It gives the econ slot an active roll in the game other than just hitting feed as fast as possible, pacts are game changing. And also researching to feed usually prevents people getting rediculous feed on the rush allowing a bit more fairness right at the start.

Judge for yourself but dont throw away diplo because you think it might be bad, it is actually quite good.

[_]-Uber

Dirty, in my opinion.  The addition is good.  I feel a bit like a noob again, and I love it.  As for the desync and minidump rate---we had that in entrenchment, and we have them still. 

In diplomacy  I have only dumped out 2 times in about 15 games.  So for me-I actually see improvement.  Just played a game where no one mini dumped-4v4,,, and it was one of the best games I played.

Top reasons why I like it

1) Faster settings

2) Higher resource rate

2) Vicious AI

3) No quick feed

4) Pacts

Diplo sux.  and im not talking about lack of content or desynk. or separate lobby or 10 $

1 Diplo is bugged. (it can be fixed) (tec fleet pact broken, canons r on auto after building)

2 Diplo is totaly screwed unbalanced late game (and it wont be fixed)

The problem is devs fixed 1 thing that was killing the game  (bugged lums) whith removed 100 lums  bals that rolled through everyfhing like a steamroller and they add pacts (especialy tec). So now all u need is max tec pact and u got another steam roller that will roll everything. no tacticks will work. Fellt supply  pact is broken (almost doubles supply)

U dont need to think , u dont need anything just a tec-vasa max pacts and happy spamm.

Devs insteed of adding some new stuff that will increase viable number tactiks  made everythink obselote. just spamm spamm spam (ah sory eco and pacts first)

Also with bigger income and supply pact fleets become much bigger whith totaly counter faster game speed and slow down even more then usualy late game to the point of carzyness. Y did u increase number of ships in game without upgrading server? if u think about any late game micro-forget it, doesnt work.

and arguments for no early feed is funny, u can get feed in less then 5 min.

i bought, i saw, i wont play that shit again.

PS devs stop this low quality advertisement, cause every action can be hit with counterraction.

What the bloody hell are you going on about?  I paid about £6 something for Diplomacy, where did you pay £10?

From what little I can tell so far, the Diplo + Ent + Reg player counts are lower than the Ent + Reg player counts were before Diplomacy was released.  I'm hoping that lots of people who are brand new to Sins, people who just bought Trinity, will come online at some point, boosting the player counts.  When that happens the rest of the Entrenchment holdouts should come migrate.

I guess I don't feel too badly about having bought it; it's not as though I haven't already received hundreds of dollars worth of entertainment value out of Regular Sins and Entrenchment.  I was in a pissy mood last night when I posted.

Maybe Diplomacy will help to spur interest in my custom maps where players can choose maps that allow allies to start right next to one another with 3 ecos and 2 flanks or even all 5 in non-rush spots.  It's too bad that it still doesn't allow custom map auto-download.