Easy fix, and something that makes this game an RTS with 4X elements rather than the other way around.Multiple victory conditions. Give the player who doesn't win the first cap skirmish or loses the colony war another way to win.

You're INSANE. People leaving when the game is basically a fait accompli isn't related to people only wanting to win: it's often because the game will STILL take ages to play out, and there's no percieved way to turn it around. Some people just want a casual game, and they have no interest in spending 4 hours getting ruled. If you're a new player and you start losing, they aren't 'having fun playing the game' for however long it takes them to get defeated (in some cases this could be hours).The idea floated above of kicking out to the lobby to find a substitute for quitters sounds like ASKING for trouble from griefers. Remember, there shouldn't be a quit button because with the no stats tracking people should 'surrender' instead because nobody will ever simply ALT-TAB or pull out the cable to circumvent this EVER. We should all 'surrender' to allow the no stats tracking to not track our surrender as a quit and thus pad our ranking that doesn't exist! It amuses me that this is apparently a 'big deal' because of 'how fast the thread is growing' when it's largely the same couple of people. What a grass-roots movement! Let's make Sins srs bizness! This will somehow make a hugely long RTS less appealing to quit when losing!Frankly, people quit WiC games when they're losing. They're 20m games, absolute tops, and it's ranked out the ass and they're counted as losses. People do it anyway, because once the outcome is obvious, many people can't be bothered sticking around. Amusingly, people who cry about 'quitters' usually aren't the people who complain about team-stacking (ie, team of clanners vs pub group of noobs). I wonder why?

But they don't have to see it through! All they have to do is hit 'surrender' rather than 'quit' and it removes the requirement for everyone else to kill their AI zombie force afterwards. If they hit 'surrender', though, they get a loss recorded. If they hit 'quit', they don't - it is just added to their games played. IMO there needs to be a state added to the player file that records 'user initiated quit' as distinct from 'server disconnections / booted from server' and 'saved game for later resumption', all of which currently show up under the same category. I don't think just adding a 'real' AI to take over from players will fix this satisfactorily - if I wanted to play against an AI then I would go and do that, rather than playing on ironclad online. Giving the quitting user the option to have their force taken over by a good AI would give them even greater capability to stink up a game for everyone else - at the moment it is just a dumb AI that is a pushover for everyone left, it takes time if that's the last thing you're fighting but no real skill. If I had to play a game against a working AI when someone cheated me out of a proper game then I doubt I would have any patience for this thing at all.

You should be HONORED if someone quits the game on you. Especially if you beat the snot out of them.Quiting and surrendering are the same. It does not bother me if someone quits as long as I get a WIN on my record.The question is, is the game designed to award a WIN to the person that stays in the game?[MAGOG]Kruelgor

You're playing a RTS, when did you not expect people to pull the plug. Seriously, after how many RTS titles did you never encounter this rare creature.The Internets IS Serious Business!

way around it. 1.03 will at least have AI players take over but that doesn't solve the root problem of playing with strangers.