A final message from Luthier
 

Good day gentlemen,

I have been a part of the Il-2 community since its earliest days. I remember getting excited by this project way back in 1999, just as the very first info and screenshots began coming out.

I remember the day I received the IL-2 Sturmovik Beta in the mail. I dropped whatever I was doing, closed my work, installed it on my work machine. I remember the very first mission I flew in Il-2 as if it was a second ago. Dusk, coastline below, dark black pixels of the four enemy planes outlined against the clouds on the horizon.

I remember the first time I got to fly the very first airplane I built for the game. I had fallen in love with the BI-1, and finally seeing the fruits of my labor in game, seeing all those polygons and pixels I poured so much love into materialize and become a living, breathing flying machine in my most favorite game in the world. The feeling was absolutely indescribable.

I remember the first time I finally met Oleg and set foot in the Maddox Games office. I still remember the office layout, where everyone sat, what I talked about with every single person in the room.

I remember the sleepless nights and the incredible hectic sense of the world crumbling around me in the months leading up to the release of my first very own major release, Pacific Fighters. The eerie quiet when it went to print and suddenly it was all over, replaced by the wait for reviews and community feedback.

So it is with a very heavy heart that I say goodbye to the IL-2 series today. It’s been a part of my life for so long, the one thing I cannot remember is not being a part of the Il-2 world.

I thank you all for being there with me, the fans, and especially all the Il-2 team members. I’m proud to have met and worked alongside you. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the Il-2 series for all these incredible years.

I loved every second of it.

Ilya “Luthier” Shevchenko

Good luck with what ever you try next Luthier.

Bye Ilya, A shame it all fell apart, but thanks for trying. I wish you success in the future.

Good luck. Hope to see you in the new flight sim skies ;)

See ya mate. An incredibly sad day. I too have been there from the start. It's going to be extremely sad not having those feelings of what is coming in the next release.

All the best mate.

+1, all the best to you, and thank you!

Will we see you again, maybe over korean skies?

Just wanted to say thanks Luthier for giving us CLoD, it's a real shame it isn't going any further, I absolutely love this game and the potential it had is huge. Despite not being finished it's still the best flight sim for online play, what we have on the ATAG server and with the SoW campaigns far outstrips anything I have experienced. You ruined other flight sims for me because they feel like arcade games by comparison :) !!! There is still a part of me that is hoping this is some temporary hickup and CLoD will live on, I was really looking forward to future expansions using the CLoD engine, to watch it evolve and grow into what we had with the old series, but with this more advanced engine. Even if this is it, which it looks like, I have still had more than my moneys worth playing CLoD and will continue to do so, thanks and goodluck.

Bounder

Thanks for the excellent 'toy' Cliffs of Dover. Many of us will be admiring it, off and on, for years to come. In the distant future it will be regarded as a software equivalent of the famous Venus statue with no arms. :)

Good luck Ilya. ;)

Thanks for all your work Luthier!

I have only one bone to pick with you (my main problem with the CloD series going under) is that it showed us the real potential of what flight sims could possibly be if they had the resources. It's amazing that you tried, but now us simmers are left with an amazing view of what could be (with CloD), contrasted with the bitter (in comparison) reality to what's financially and practically possible. Thank you for trying, my only quibble being, as Bounder said, you have potentially ruined all other flight sims set in this period for a long time to come just by showing what we're missing :D

In the meantime I'll continue to enjoy CloD, the only sim that I play regularly at the moment, with only the slight disapointment that I'll never get my Typhoon or Tempest to go and terrorise the pesky Luftwaffe and beat them at their own game.

I hope it won't be long before we hear from you again anyway!