4 goodness sake-Where is the beta ?

It's likely another six months until it comes out.

They're under no obligation. I'm fine waiting as long as it takes if it means a better game when released.

Why do people buy this game and expect a beta? (no offense) its too early. Never pre-order a game until at least someone has reviewed it. For all we know, this could be the worst game ever developed, unlikely, but anything is possible, those damn hamsters!

Agree 100%.

No one's arms were twisted, and I do love me some Sins, but way to early to pre- order imho.

lol this is an expansion to an already great game.  I bought this as soon as pre-order came out because ironclad/stardock aren't rich enough to make shitty games.  We are making out even better then we could have hoped, the 3rd micro expansion has become a full fledged expansion, can't wait!!

When there is an announcement of a likely Beta release date (key word here is when because they haven't gotten to the point to  even do internal Alpha testing from what I've gathered) for pre-orders I will pre-order at that point. Not before.

Just do us a favor, Ironclad... for Rebellion, advertise multiplayer. There appear to be tons of people who bought Sins who may not even know about online play.

Er...Im sure they know about it. Its hard to not know about MP. They just choose to ignore it for whatever their reasons maybe.

Not ignored it, got royally a$$ raped and didn't come back.

Something definitely happened, because a GotY that only has at most 60 people online these days is just wrong.

@OP Patience. Do you want a crappy, rushed game, or a quality one?

I prefer quality. Its not like there aren't other games we can play that can fill the time.

What about all those who play LAN or any of those weird Tungle/Hamtic/however you say it? You can count ICO for all MP numbers. With the past issues ICO has had and coupled with the playstyle found on ICO, it bound to turn alot of people away from it. On top of that, the well documented notion that your gonna not have fun for awhile on ICO to 'learn' to play like the current crowd has defently hurt numbers.

There are not many who will or want to dedicate hard time just to play a game. Those who do, IMHO are usually found on an MMO. Not an RTS.

I can say from personal experence you dont see me on there much, b/c of the dominate gamestyle (Faster everything) and the whole stupid beat around the bush with smurfs. I dont care to lose, I just like to lose to people I can get know. Ask the DS crew, when we MP...whos the first to die? Me.

Not always.  I do my fair share of being the first one out, though I won't quit or surrender until you've wasted a lot of time making sure I have nothing left. 

I wouldn't be so sure of that.  To the uninitiated the game may appear not to have a viable online multiplayer component.  When you click the "Multiplayer" button it asks you to enter an IP, so it looks like LAN/Direct IP pre-arranged friends-only games.  Then when you click Ironclad Online, if you don't have the most current version it won't let you onto ICO.  I bet many players who don't know about Impulse or how to patch the game just shrugged their shoulders and concluded that the Ironclad Online feature was broken or never implemented.  Not everyone reads the forums and knows about Impulse, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were tens of thousands of players out there playing regular Sins v1.05 (the last non-Impulse-based patch).

If anyone actually plays it over Hamachi or Tungle, they're probably pirates.  (I did install Tungle once to check out the activity and it seemed completely dead.)

I often wonder how people can continue to play the AI and not get bored with it.  Over the past week I saw an AI capital ship suicide itself on an enemy starbase at a sun, and then I saw a large AI fleet suicide itself on a Vasari starbase.  The AI really isn't capable of playing this game properly, but people seem to think the game is good with a retarded opponent.

Perhaps if the bored fans who are clamoring for the Rebellion expansion would explore the challenge of online multiplayer the wait would be easier.

I sure hope that Ironclad and Stardock take their time and release a spectacular, polished product with proper marketing and advertising.

Excuse me?!?

Many of us use Hamachi and Xfire for LAN games because it is often EASIER than dealing with ICO which in the past has dropped players, had LAG like crazy etc etc ...

For most of our games we play once every two weeks or so on Normal and Slow (using the DS mod as well as Vanilla) with five or six friends with the rest being AI ranging from Hard and above in difficulty and see how far we can get (typically about 6-8 hours till someone has to leave). We often start as a FFA and eventually teams emerge. It's a lot of fun and we all have legal copies that are updated via Impulse. Depending on your internet connection, OS etc it 'sometimes' seems that Hamachi gives better results when it comes to lag etc.

I have used ICO before and every now and then I still do. I just do not have the patience or the will to deal with the anxiety of Faster game play with and against complete strangers that can beat Unfair AI with one hand behind their back. Oh, did I mention they get angry when you have NO idea what the acronyms are or if you micro'ed an ability just a split second too slow? It's not a learning curve, they expect you to read their minds and if you can't they cannibalize you to the enemy.

We don't like being accused of being smurfs (took forever to find out what that meant because no one would tell us) and booted from games (simply because we don't have 5000000win/12loss records) and then when we finally get in a game we get cussed at, screamed at and then disowned and fed to the enemy because we're not 'good' enough. That's not fun.

You complain about no one new being in the online community? It's because everyone that's there doesn't WANT anyone new to show up apparently. No one has the 'time' to deal with 'newbs / smurfs / wtf are you?'. This is why we largely gave up on playing strangers online via ICO two years ago. It just was not worth it. If it's changed then sure, I guess we 'might' come back and likely will check it out when Rebellion arrives for sure but so far ICO for us has been a hard memory to forget. *shrugs*

Our group likes to relax, drink some drinks and play a game while joking about stuff etc. The people that THEY play with on sins outside of our group do the same thing. It's just the way it works and it's why we don't play 'online'.

It seems a good percentage of us, like 95% have no interest what so ever in multiplayer.

dedicated servers always make a game live long and strong because regardless of location they are open to everyone. Its very beneficial for people to be able to pick a game and play or spectate. " being given a file to put in a very hidden folder   is cumbersome." Both options should be available. Is spectating available?

It would be a nice option! Then you could have 'live commentated' games.

In light of Boshimi's post, I stand corrected.  It sounds like closed friends-only games get played over the Virtual Private Lans.

Sorry to hear that you and your friends had a bad experience; online multiplayer with the general public isn't for everyone.  The only real acronyms you need to know are SB (starbase) and PJI (phase jump inhibitor).

It has been listed on the FAQ page for several years now that there is indeed an "observer" option available in Sins multiplayer.

...but I've never been able to find it.

@sd_sins

In all honesty, the beta will be available when they feel it is right.  There's no "rush" going on.

While I agree that i dont want the game rushed to release, i do think a beta is a good idea at this point. Ive been in every sins beta so far and the game always changes substantially between the start of beta and the final release. This should be the time when they are getting our feedback on what of their ideas work and which don't. Its not like they are building a new engine here. Once beta starts, models will change, balance will be overhauled and core mechanics will be scrapped and replaced. Let us participate in this process and we will all benefit. Give us a beta and 99% of the comunity will shut up and help rather than wine and tell you to hurry.

There will be a beta, there are no plans that I know of to get away from the usual plan of attack...  It's just not ready yet.