<Sigh>.

Oh behalf of the online multiplayer community, please accept an apology from me for the actions of those two cretins.  I think most of the regular Sins players who are experienced are good folks and we're not all jerks.

I also think that most of the experienced players will honor a request for new players game.  When this sort of thing happens, as soon as it becomes clear that the other two guys are experienced smurfs, I suggest just typing out something to the effect of, "GG noob killing smurfs, not good enough to play against JJ?" and then have you and your ally just quit, denying them any further satisfaction.

It's a shame that you want to play online in principle but can't make it work.  I do have some ideas for ways to make it work.

First, I know of a small group of adult folks who enjoy playing by direct IP connect, off of ICO.  They'll make an effort to keep the team's balanced and they are welcoming to newer Sins players.  Just send me a private message with your gaming email address and I can hook you up with them.

Secondly, you could try to get organized here on the forums so that you have a self-regulating community within ICO.  See this thread:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/362801

Don't let the jerkwads chase you off of ICO.  Hang in there.  I see games all the time that are passworded or restricted to friends only, so there are ways around this problem.

Thanks I really appreciate the offer.  I'll send you a PM.

There's a program we're working on here
That will make your distress disappear.
It's called 'Ready To Play',
And I'm proud I can say,
Once it's done, you'll have reason to cheer!

It's designed to help players connect
Where their interests and styles intersect.
It may help you make friends,
Though I'd say it depends
On the things you both like and respect.

It's a closed beta, so it's not ready.
But it seems to be working quite steady.
When it's done, you will find
All the folks of your kind
Have been waiting there for you already!

https://www.stardock.com/products/readytoplay/

All systems are prone to abuse.

The easy way to abuse the system you describe is a loss-account.  Just create an account, lose a bunch of games intentionally, and then your "tracked" skill level plummets, enabling you to match against less skilled opponents on your main account.

Number of games probably won't be helpful, because skill doesn't necessarily correlate to number of games played.  Some people are still newbies after dozens of games (for instance, I ran into a 22-1 player I was sure was a smurf, but turned out to be a comp stomper who massed static defense in the pocket), while other players will scour the forums for advice and be competent after one or two matches.  I was holding my own against veterans in my first game without difficulty. 

personally, im waiting for ready to play. then ill go back online.

This kind of thing happens a lot in the noobs only/welcome servers for counter strike. Some of the hardest matches I have ever played have been in these servers while i showing some kids hiding places, how to aim for recoil and all that crap. it was such a CF (cluster F). I hate when people do this. For FPS it works out that someone wins, and the game is over relatively quickly, for RTS it takes a while to understand youve been had.

I am waiting for a free weekend in order to get online. I may also PM you, or just go on ICO and hope for the best. If i get hosed, I may wait for r2p.

In that case, please don't hold your breath because as far as I know, Sins has never had a "free weekend" where people can download the game and play it for free but only for a few days before it uninstalls or disables itself.

The best advice I can give people for starting out on ICO is to make sure that you feel very comfortable with the technical aspects of the game--such as controlling ships and combat--and also be very knowledgeable about the different races and their strengths and weaknesses and their tech trees and then come online.  You will get beaten but if you want to get better you can watch replays and learn from them and grow stronger.  You're just paying your dues.  You can also start games with "new players only" or "noobs only" in the title and I think most experienced players, even evil smurfs, would respect that.  You'll also have an increased chance of finding newer players in Regular Sins than you will Entrenchment.  Note that there is one school of thought which says that you need to play against and lose to good players in order to see how they engage in combat so that you can pick up that knowledge and get better.

Also, people need to understand that as a competitive online multiplayer game, you are going to lose, a lot, just like you lose many FPS games on public servers.  Even skilled players lose sometimes if not often to other skilled players.  In all likelihood, unless you become one of the game's top 15 players you probably aren't going to get to enjoy some sort of a Sins nirvana where you almost never lose.  Sometimes you just get a bad starting spot on a random map and your nearest opponent has a great starting spot, sometimes you just end up on a bad team, and sometimes you'll just get plain outplayed and beaten.  In order to enjoy this game, you really do have to try to focus on getting your enjoyment from playing to the best of your ability and to being as tough of a player as you can be because you're not always going to win.

correct, I have been playing SP and LAN for a few months.

more like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFD0OMXmyBw

thats the point.......

but when you can beat the game with 9 unfair ai teaming against you without the use of SB, its time to play online.

currently hes only missing that because of smurfing...................alot of people prefer to know that when they face off against someone they are who they say they are.