Indeed that's so. I apologize for jumping to conclusions on that, although the murky marketing/support docs of uber didn't help much. (Compare http://support.uberent.com/kb/faq.php?id=60 with https://forums.uberent.com/threads/which-commanders-do-i-get-in-the-armory-sic-where-did-my-delta-go.57407/) PA is actually very concerned with MP balance, to the point of including only one faction in the game, albeit with many unit types https://forums.uberent.com/threads/factions-current-lack-of-character-in-units.61487/

Anyway, my main point here is that surely Stardock/Ironclad would love to have customers like this guy: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/which-commanders-do-i-get-in-the-armory-sic-where-did-my-delta-go.57407/page-3#post-899329. If that can be done without touching the pay2win route (even in single-player, like DoW2:R did) that seems preferable to me. I see that Sins:R has a collectors' edition by the way (which doesn't include the actual game: https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/collectorsedition), but I for one ceased to buy CEs for physical trinkets since I bought the collector's edition for Deus Ex (the first one)... and that was over a decade ago. (Back then a collector's edition had some other benefits, including media with the game pre-patched to latest version, so quicker overall installation etc.) I just don't like filling my house with trinkets, so I end up throwing them anyway; and in general I prefer e-books etc. Buying extra licenses to give to friends seems preferable to me collecting plastic toys, but won't say no to "special edition"/DLC in-game visuals or music.

Most games could use reviews like that.

There's going to be a big announcement next month that I think will make Sins players happy.

More copies of Sins of a Solar Empire will likely be sold this year than last year.  The biggest challenge Ironclad/Stardock have had is how to fit "more" stuff.  But I think there's a lot of Meta related stuff that could expand the Sins experience a great deal.

The reason the servers have had problems this month is that the number of players this month jumped substantially due to the Steam sale.  We're working with Ironclad on that issue.

Great to hear that it's still selling well.  Was it just the steam sales or the DLC or what?

Not quite sure what you're alluding to regarding the difficulty of putting stuff in and the meta.  I'd guess you're referring to the 2 gig limit and the balance of the game as it stands, but I could be wrong.

At my experience, most of the people will not make a mod for a game which it is not played by the people. At other point, people will continue playing it, if the game adds by example, new mods more unique than the mods from other games. 

But personally, SOASE should not die in the next 6 months, in fact large communities like this, usually they live ten years without new improves in the original game and here, we have seen a new patch very few time ago. If SOASE will give the same amount of hours playing than other games with mods, easily I would give to it another ten years. Unfortunately after some time playing, SOASE starts to be boring because it is very monotone but easily I can give to it two or three years more of live.

I sure do hope they will release a full blown sequel...

If it is a new game with a lot of changes and new features. Very good. But if it is a new game as Rebellion which it is more as a DLC from the original SOASE with a higher price. I would not know if I would be happy. Specially by the 2GB limit, even the older Star Wars Empire at War with the last defreezer program http://firefoxccmods.com/index.php?topic=1078.0  does not suffer this problem. SOASE developers should fix it if they want release a new game.

About other games similar to SOASE which they can move all the community to it, specially the modding community. I would not put my eyes in Planetary Annihilation because it is a very different game and it is focus in the ground combat, perhaps you can add some air units as space units but nothing more. At the end, the developers from Planetary Annihilation have not spoken too much about modding.

But I would put my eyes more in Vol'Talkes, a new game at development with a engine very similar to Star Wars Empire at War which it will be a game without ground combat in first place and it will support the modding community. The final game will be more similar to SOASE with a galaxy conquering planets. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vol-talkes-the-ai-war https://www.facebook.com/HyperDriveGames 

They tried a fast kickstarter campaign without too many success but they will finish the game, just it will take a few more time.

About if it will add ground combat, if they let it, it will be after the first release with patch or DLC.

While I agree SupCom 2 was a miserable game, I just need to point out that THQ actually refused to publish another installment of the game and as such GPG had to turn to Square Enix for publishing, going so far as to sell the IP for the game to them.  It was SE that ended up determining the direction the game went....

While I do not play Sins online I am fairly excited to read about the imminent announcement that'll make us happy.  IMHO Sins will continue to have a solid fanbase if not a very big online crowd.  At least that will be the case for me.  After all it's one of the few programs still sitting on my harddisk since I built my last system 4.5 years ago.

Now that it sounds like the announcement was Tachyon, how do we now think sins will be in six months.

Maybe 1 more patch?

To be fair, they also said Diplomacy would be the last expansion...

Before that they said we were supposed to get "three micro-expansions". Then they said Diplomacy would be the last one, hence why they made that Trinity combined version for retail. Then they changed their minds again and we got Rebellion.

In order for matchmaking to work, you have to have a large enough player base...that's not something we have or probably are going to ever have...it's really just about timing, this game is old and on the end of its lifecycle -- if lots of MP features had come out with it at release it would probably be a different story and I could see a strong MP going strong until the next iteration in the franchise...

But that time has come and gone...you'll see spikes from steam sales and what not, but they never last...as far as I'm concerned, any effort to improve the MP features of ICO would really be more for testing purposes and getting feedback from dedicated players...it's not likely that it will save ICO or the MP aspect of this game...

Another issue is how to calculate player ranking...in a team game, it is very hard to objectively determine an individual player's performance independent from how their team does...in FPS or MOBAs, there are statistics you can use to do this and for the most part they'll be pretty indicative...that's just not the case with this game...combine this difficulty with the fact that random maps can have a huge impact on your performance in this game, and I think you are going to see a lot of people peeved about how rankings come about...and if there is no faith put in the ranking system, matchmaking falls apart...

At the very least, a clear and fair method of determining ranking would be needed, and that is a huge challenge...I know a lot of hardcore MP guys complain and complain this game doesn't have ladders and matchmaking, but I don't think they realize just how little value we'd probably get from those things...

Way I see it, Tachyon is exciting because of what it can do for future titles, not for existing ones...