Short of studying replays, it's probably best to just dive right in and study the replays from your games.  Be patient and understand that you have to suffer your  nooby lumps while you learn how to play it against thinking opponents.  If you work at it and study the replays you can get up to speed quickly.  I've seen people go from "new to online multiplayer" to "respectable" within a month or two.

GoaFan77, except when I want to try out some new strategy or do something crazy.  I never played a whole lot and its probably been a month or two since I last played on ICO, but chances are in any given 5v5 game someone will have played with me before.

I was thinking of setting it up as having two experienced players as captains, who would then basically tell the new players how to play an MP game. They'd play as normal but would try not to totally kill any noobs, always let them fortify or flee their homeworld for example.

Most times, but you might have to wait for 8-10 people at non-peak hours. Best times are Friday and weekend evenings during weekends.

Well, we've already had a few. We might do the same thing next weekend if there's demand. I'm usually around sometime between 10pm to 1am EST.

All faster, no pirates, locked teams, no other victory conditions. Even the 5v5s last less than 2 hours, but that's because the team that is clearly losing is expected to gracefully surrender to keep the games shorter, if only after suicide their remaining fleet in one all out battle.

Really? I could not stand normal speeds even when I first got the original Sins against the AI...

Yeah, you should definitely start playing on fastest. Some weird lag compensation mechanism also causes the early part of an MP game to play faster than normal (it feels like you're on 1.5x speed setting or something), so it will feel incredible fast paced for you.

dont know if any of you can help, but i have an hp laptop that whenever i try to play multiplaywr games with, it wont let me.when i log on to ironclad online through sins, it tells me im logged on, but to my frienda it says im not even though we added each other as friends that same minute. please help... impeding my ability to play sins! also has connecting problems with minecraft.

Play a small game, 2v2 or 3v3...hope one of your teammates is nice and gives you tips...

David is a classy pirate!

Host games with titles like "3v3 noobs only".  That way you can play against other new people and  you would be justified in booting out any skilled players who join.