Pitiful Online Player Count

I wholeheartedly agree with you that such a good game should have far, far more people online.  Sadly, most of the people who play the game play it in single player only against the silly AI.  That having been said, if you do enjoy playing the game online, then give very serious consideration to purchasing Entrenchment since most of the people who are playing online have it.  Personally, I think it should have been a free bonus pack, but I've been spoiled by years of playing the Unreal Tournament games (complete with free, multiple bonus packs and additions).  Anyway, purchasing Entrenchment will open up the online multiplayer game for you and you probably won't feel badly about dropping $10 on it later.

Even late at night (9pm my time is 3am NY time) there are 50 or so people online....can get a game within a few minutes most anytime.

I only play entrenchment.  It's worth it, buy it, you'll be blown away by how great it is!

RM

Hmmmm when i get on from 7-10pm easternt heirs normaly 100 or so people on. The lobby can be prety empty at time but that is because people don't idel when games start people flock to them very rapidly normaly. I seen game were they were more people online then on sins but gettign a game goign was harder and toke longer.

But if you come on during the day in eastern time then yeah it can be prety slow.

If you are seeing an empty lobby but the number of online people is over 50-70, wait around as you WILL get one either when others log in or as games in progress end...

What's scary is that over the past month or so it seems like the highest player count I've seen has been no more than 120 people, and that would be during prime time.  If the player counts dip much below that, soon this will become a dead game as far as online multiplayer goes, which is a shame since I'd like to be able to play this game for years to come.

It helps if people are patient and open to playing all sorts of different types of games (FFA, 2v2, PUG match, etc.).

are the games in entrenchment faster paced? i also found that for regular SINS the games could be really really drawn out and boring

MP games are about the same speed as SP. Which is to say they last up to about 2 hours in general, often less though sometimes more.

SP takes AGES to complete as the AI will never work with you and feed you etc... like a human will...

I find mp games are about an hour for 10 players, tho it can go more (and when they do, they are epic and usually really fun).  3v3 and 4v4 can be 40 mins or so.

Same here most games are under 1 hour and get decided in the first early battles of the match. But when they last longer they turn very epic and are extremly fun.

I try to play now and again, but there never seems to be any games up and maybe one or two people in the lobby.  I've more or less given up on trying to play online and am just trying to get more of my friends to buy the game so we can play more TCP/IP.  It's unfortunate, but like I've said before; Sins just doesn't 'feel right' when played in the rushy competive style of online games I've seen.  It just seems like you're missing on half the game when it's over within 30-45 mins, which is probably a large factor in why most people don't bother.

I'd love to play some more team games against real people but I can't even find 1v1s to play on ICO.

I do find it strange that for a game that sold so many copies has so few in numbers in online players. I think its could be due to the fact that a game of SINS takes longer than most other games, a single game takes some dedication to play and unless you have alot of free time, there just isnt time to play it as often as one would like. Plus i believe players would rather play against the AI to speed the process up or play against friends who have the game as to avoid players who are poor sports or think they are elites. I myself and a dozen or so fellow SINS players that live locally run LAN games which none of us have to deal with dropouts or if a game Mini-dumps, we can all pick up from where we last saved, something not possible playing with strangers.

It seems many people believe this. But it is often quicker to finish a game with humans then the AI

e.g. I have played some 5v5 (all unfair AIs) when no one is on and the games go way longer then 5v5 online as

1) The game doesn't lag like SP does with the AIs running

2) Humans work together and don't do stupid stuff. End result is people die quicker then when playing the AI

Your best bet for online multiplayer is during European and North American prime time--in the evening, say from between 3 pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time to 12:00 Midnight.

Lately the Lobby channel has just been down.  That is to say that when you join, you won't automatically be taken there but you can still see how many people are online.  (Last night I saw a reading of 130 people.)  Just try the <Join Games> button next time and refresh it every minute or so.  Sometimes you have to be patient.  Note that that listing of the number of people who are online includes players who are currently in games, so you won't see them in the Lobby.

Also, if you have regular Sins and you didn't get Entrenchment, you'll probably see very few games available since most online players purchased Entrenchment.  (If you want to play it online, then don't worry about the $10, just get it and it will open up the Sins galaxy of online multiplayer to you.)