ROFL

The replay files are not video files - they are a log of what happened in the game to allow the Sins engine to re-create the game on your screen for you to watch (think of it as a TV script for all the little Sins actors to follow).

You copy them into your replay folder (in your user settings, similar area to where your config file lives) and then go to single player > watch game and cycle through the options until you find it (there are 4 sub folders - single/mp and recorded/auto-recorded = 4 combinations).

The game will then show you what happened.

I suggest you just log in, host a game of whatever size/type you want and go from there

e.g. 5v5 comp stomp or 4v6 computer bash or whatever....

wait, sorry to continue asking questions, but you said:

I'm logged in at the moment, and have no players on my player list. I can't even get to the lobby to start a game, but you implied that I could just choose something like "host game." All I can do at the moment is add player and manage account. To get players on my list so that I can go to the lobby and host a game to comp stomp, should I make a post?

I don't think that you quite get what I'm asking. You say that I should pick a player in the lobby. The problem is that I don't have any players there, since I don't know many people very well on Sins. To find players of a similar playing level in order to be able to get to the lobby, should I make a post on the Sins website asking for players who can beat so and so but not so and so?

Sorry to be so pesky , but I'm psyched (sp?) to figure out how to play multiplayer. Thanks.

Just got it! Thanks so much. I thought the players that I selected from the non-lobby from were people like you that I was friends with, not different names for me. Just a couple last questions. Does join game mean to watch a game? If not, how do I watch a game? What the heck is latency? Okay, now I'm done bothering you.

Great - finally got there... What Az said is basically it.

You cannot "watch" a game live. However you can save a game as a replay. Other people can send you theirs. As long as the replay is for the same version of the game you have, you can watch it. What the replay file does is re-create the game except it is in read-only mode - think of it like a movie script and the game engine is the movie projector.

Latency is also known as your PING time - it is the amount of time it takes for a packet (technical term for a collection of data bundled together to be sent over a network/internet) to be sent to the recepient and then for the other end to acknowledge it.

It is important for Sins as it uses TCP (which gurantees delivery unlike UDP). Known as a 3 way handshake, it works like this

You > Here is some data

Other person > Thank You

You > I acknowledge your thank you

If You don't get a thank you, you resend the data.

If Other person doesn't get an acknowledge your thank you, they resend the Thank you

Probably confuses you - if so go with Az's answer - time to send data end to end.

Do I also have to have the newest version of sins of a solar empire rebellion or something? I only have the first version would it still be possible to work without the rebellion version?

when I try to log in to ICO it also says net work error and also in my account it say's I am not registerd. How do I register? do I need to reinstall or something?

ok I will try to patch it in my steam account

thanks

ok so now I am in my steam account finaly how do I patch it? where do I click? I can't find the options for patching

hi I am trying to host a game and I tested my hosting but it sais ip is not available, then sais alloy is recomended. what do I do? is it just I need a better pc? the one I am trying to play with has the same version as me, but he can't join my game I host. help thanks