Dear ANNO 1503 Fans,

much to our regret, we have to inform you today that we have ceased work on the Multiplayer Patch. Our in-house QA team, Max Design QA and a number of beta testers have performed extensive test runs on more than 20 versions of the patch, but were unable to solve the considerable technical problems that presented themselves, despite their best efforts. The following summary of the multiplayer development is meant to document the difficulties encountered, which ultimately proved to make the successful realisation of the MP Patch impossible:

Even before the game was published, test runs showed that the DirectPlay component provided by DirectX did not seem suitable for the support of 6-8 players in the ANNO 1503 / 1503 A.D. Multiplayer Mode. This required the development and implementation of custom-made technology.
At the same time, work on the singleplayer campaigns and the game scenarios proved to be so labour-intensive that SUNFLOWERS and Max Design eventually decided to finalise the most important elements of the game first, and deliver the Multiplayer Patch after the game release. Nevertheless, the Max Design QA team continued to test the Multiplayer Mode internally and check it for errors, but by the time the game was released, there still was no version that would run steadily for more than 2 hours.

After the release of ANNO 1503 / 1503 A.D., work on the Multiplayer Patch was resumed and intensified. By March 2003, a number of bugs had been dealt with, but at the same time it became more and more apparent that solving the remaining problems was more difficult and time-consuming than envisaged. Some of the individual bugs required weeks of intensive test runs.
Problems with data transfer were especially troublesome: The Multiplayer Technology in ANNO 1503 / 1503 A.D. requires all participating processors to concurrently calculate the game progress. The high complexity of the game world can lead to so-called "A-Syncs" during Multiplayer operation (via the Internet, but also within a network). Despite extensive efforts to remove all bugs and errors, these A-Syncs could not be removed in their entirety.

The "A-Syncs" in Multiplayer Mode prevent the necessary synchronised transfer of game moves to all participating players. As the programme does not always recognise an "A-Synch" situation (i.e. the auto-synchronisation will not be activated), such a transfer error can mean that the game world will develop differently for individual players. Each MP player might see their own individual game world, which runs separately from that of the other participants. This can destroy hours of a MP game at the drop of a hat.

Furthermore, there were severe performance problems as well as incompatibilities with specific versions of Windows:
Even in the ANNO 1503 / 1503 A.D. Singleplayer Mode, gamers can generate very high population numbers: Populations of 50,000 or more are not unusual.
In Multiplayer Mode, advanced settlements can lead to an exponential increase of system requirements: Out tests showed that a fully advanced game with two participants requires processors around the 3GHz mark to ensure lasting playability. If performance on less powerful PCs falls to less than 15 images per second, an increased number of "A-Sync" errors are the result. Furthermore, the MP programme code uses operating system-specific formulas. Whenever a number of operating systems are used in multiplayer mode, i.e. if there is a combination of Windows98, WindowsME, Windows2000 and WindowsXP, the dreaded "A-Syncs" appear in force.

Despite our best efforts and the cost- and labour-intensive tests of more than 20 versions of the Multiplayer Patch, as well as a Beta Test in August 2003, these problems proved to be unsurmountable. After a further test run with faster processors in a Windows2000 environment was unsuccessful as new "A-Syncs" appeared and a smooth multiplayer operation was impossible, SUNFLOWERS and Max Design have finally come to the decision to cease work on the development of a MP Patch for MP-Patches ANNO 1503 / 1503 A.D.

Your SUNFLOWERS Team

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