Another thread pointing at over a year old issue...

As per what dchan said - prepare yourself for many hours in case of balanced game or about 45 minutes to get trashed by experienced guy(s)...

Saying that it seams that developers are FINALY realising this so in latest patch you have rather nice option of "Quick Start" which basically cuts down very early stage of the game and gives you some buildings and small fleet to start with...

It doesn't solve the problem but it is sure step in right direction

Here is to hope that more features and options such as "quick start" will make it into MP eventually...

depends on map size... but even small 1 vs 1 can sometimes end up in a 2 hour match

im sceptical about the quick-start,  sure hope people won't use quick-start as a standard...., you'll have an entire different game when working on your own empire from the start, compared when being given buildings and ships

That's becuase RA3 is fast-paced,   you dont have to conquer entire planets there....

in sins  some planets are easily taken, some switch ownership 10 times,

in RA3 it's secure mines,  hold them, mine them until your advantage is big enough,  and attack

Astax means 45 minutes to two hours.

I agree.  A 3v3, 4v4, or 5v5 on a single star map normally ends in under two-and-a-half hours if not two hours and they're usually decided by 1:15 or 1:30 into the game.

Personaly, I don't.

That is why I teamed up with ShadowMastiff, who created a mod that can cut game times down to around thirty minutes.

If you want to check it out, Our forums are here:

http://thedomesoasemod.freeforums.org/