A final message from Luthier

[carguy_]

Originally Posted by luthier

Good day gentlemen,

(...)

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

Luthier,

I always felt like you were "our man" in the MG studios. Sharing IL2 community`s passion for warbirds, seeing them once again alive in the air.
It was as if you guaranteed us hardcore simmers an experience we dream of. Cliffs of Dover came short on many things, but the actual flight experience is top notch. I don`t know if the IL2 community will have a chance to see the next big thing, but I have both IL2 and CloD on my HDD so I can set it up and take a quick skirmish any time I want to recall the best times of the hundreds amazing combat sorties I experienced few years ago.

You have my respect for saving this project back in the days, because everything you did with it was worth the end result, even if it didn`t work the way IL2 community wanted it to.

Cliffs of Dover is a great creation, imo maybe even the most ambitious of them all for a PC. It remains a benchmark for many of the ideas both from graphical and gameplay standpoint. Making games in actual world isn`t easy, and making sims may be even something not worth the effort for a normal developper. Maybe that is why it didn`t make the cut. It was too much for one team. How would it have all turned out it everything went perfect, we shall never know. It seems that my dream of a perfect WWII combatflightsim is yet to be created, but for some time needs to sleep and wait for better times. Life is just that - we can`t shape the story in every way we want it to, sometimes we have to move on.

I personally want to thank you first for all the work you put for the original "IL2 Sturmovik", second for the courage, ambition and all the love you poured into this game and CloD. It means a lot to me and I support you and your inspiration.

For me as a gamer the road doesn`t end here as I still have the juices in me to appreciate the WWII aerial combat. I shall stay updated with the future IL2 creations and support them waiting for a game that Cliffs of Dover could have been.

I wish you good luck with all of your future endeavors, hoping that you sustain the same kind of passion for any future work you do as you did for Cliffs of Dover.


S!