I've decided to sit out until the next patch fixes some of the outstanding issues, but there are still plenty of people online and you can definitely find games.

You more or less hit the nail on the head with the problems of 1.19.

I still play.  The basic soundness and flexibility of the interface make the game enjoyable, even if Ironclad have consistently failed to to produce gameplay that lives up to the promise.

I can understand players who have quit 1.19 though.  Having to face constant Skirantra-Kanrak rushes isn't fun. 

Also the developers seem to have abandoned the second expansion, which was rushed to release with most of its features broken.  The relationship victory, the relationship AI and the pirates are crass, I could make a better mod on my own in a fortnight.  What happened to the other fifty weeks of development?  Also the developers have disappeared from the forums, with perhaps a couple of posts since the release of Trinity nearly four months ago.

The current version is mostly unbugged, there is a trade problem with the starbases and an extractor problem with normal starts.  Apart from that the only major work would be to unite the lobbies and replace the useless subforums with version-dedicated ones.  Though the gameplay issues are severe, the fixes are just a matter of text edits- and putting the effort in, which is something that we can't expect from Ironclad.  Some issues have existed almost since release, others have cropped up as parts of the game have undergone major revision while others which were part of the same original design have remained unchanged.  No RTS could survive this sort of patch process.

One patch a week would be counterproductive but one patch a month could help considerably, and is the sort of release rate a community patch could achieve.  There seems to be the expectation that Ironclad will not leave the game in its current state, but I don't know where this is from, there seems to be no kind of further commitment to the game and we have been told that there is no work ongoing.  A patch might nevertheless appear, but I could make a patch composed entirely of text edits in a day.  It isn't hard.

We should make a community patch anyway, regardless of any jam tomorrow patch release.  It might even help development.

I haven't been able to play SOASE recently, though it's due to being too busy than the gameplay issues. Even with the current balance problems, playing online is still very fun. I just wish the problems would be fixed.

That's exactly what I thought as well, when I uninstalled and quit playing a while back.  Ironically, I bought Diplomacy when it came out, not because I wanted Diplomacy (nothing about it appealed to me), but rather I wanted support.  In other words, I looked at it as me buying another year or so worth of support from the devs, but in hindsight it was probably wishful thinking.

You took the words right out of my mouth again.

I agree 100%.  Unfortunately, I guess there is no support in the community for a community patch.

That's exactly what I thought as well, when I uninstalled and quit playing a while back.  Ironically, I bought Diplomacy when it came out, not because I wanted Diplomacy (nothing about it appealed to me), but rather I wanted support.  In other words, I looked at it as me buying another year or so worth of support from the devs, but in hindsight it was probably wishful thinking.

You took the words right out of my mouth again.

I agree 100%.  Unfortunately, I guess there is no support in the community for a community patch.

I suspect there will be at least one more patch, if only to tie up the Skirantra issue.  Personally, I think if they want to just leave the game with few changes, they should keep the recent bug fixes and revert game balance back to 1.181 balance.

QFT. I would also support and promote one, but thats not the problem. Its getting the Online crowd to use it and maybe change the rut they love. Random Maps...for example.

would it even be worth trying to get in contact with the developers about this issue?

I've sent out a few pm's over the last 6 months or so but haven't heard anything back.

Also was told about 10 months ago that there would be some sort of 'upgrade' package available for those of us who purchased the micro-expansions but wanted to have a boxed copy of 'trinity' which we technically already 'purchased'. Never heard back. What was once a rocking community / supported development has fallen far short of what I hoped it would be so far.

With DS, all we're missing in my mind is a simple tweak to the display of 'fully zoomed out' star systems and I would be perfectly happy.

My honorverse map would finally be able to be properly viewed.

Yeah,

Just want my 150 or so star system map (with 2-5 bodies in each system, only 15 bodies in the whole MAP would have militia, rest would be empty)

Did that " Gamers bill of Rights"    that Stardock touted include anything about being kept in the dark for months at a time?

I mean really whats with the suspense?

Its either

1. working on new title. you'll  love this one!

2. working on a patch. Boy these hotdogs are good!

3. working on sins 2 or expansion. Really it would kill to tell us?

4.helping Stardock finish elemental. Yawn.

5. blair brothers blow all their new cash on strippers. sign me up!

I haven't played Sins in months due to the state of balance.  There's only so many times you can play against carrier cap rushes and LRM/bomber spam before you lose interest in multiplayer.  The AI just doesn't put up enough of a fight for single player to be a viable alternative, and the bugs (particularly the AI not bidding on other AIs issue) and poor balance in regards to pirates have been ignored.  All in all, it's up to the community to keep the game alive and interesting at this point as it indeed seems like Ironclad has moved on to other projects.  While I can't entirely blame them, I did except a little more support for Diplomacy considering how light on content it was compared to Entrenchment.

The good news is the community is small, so it shouldn't be a major issue to get most people running a community balance patch.

The only problem there is that like was said earlier, two or three patches aren't going to fix all the major and minor issues in Sins.  It would likely need a patch every week or two for 3-4 months to get all the units and techs at a generally agreed level of balance.  I suppose the community could beta-test the patches and then once we hit an agreed upon final we could ask Stardock to make it official.  Make it an optional download stressing that it's a community patch, but providing it via Impulse so everyone sees it.

While I totally agree with you, this right here is main reason why any attempt at this will probably end in failure.  Pulling some numbers out of my ass, I'd estimate about 95% of the Sins community would want to go in this direction; slowing down the game so that spamming ships and rushing is not the best tactic as IMO Sins was not designed with this sort of play in mind.  The problem is that the other 5% are the ones most active in multiplayer and would prefer the game to be even faster paced, just with better balance so one or two units don't dominate.  They're also the ones most likely to be doing most of the mod work.  The obvious issue here is that there's no way the game can be balanced for both groups. and once the balance mod clearly starts leaning one way the other group will lose interest in it and likely refuse to use it.

Unless this situation can be defused right from the start, this seems like something best left to a private mod not a community patch.