A final message from Luthier

[Kupsised]

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

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!

[Feathered_IV]

Thanks Luthier for all your good humour and hard work over the years. I sincerely wish you all the best for the future. Things don't always go the way one might expect, but I'm sure the Il-2 story isn't over yet. There is always room amid the great unwashed here and in the flightsim community for you to enjoy things from the "other side" now and again. After all, you will always be one of us!

PS: Please let me know where I will be able to preorder your memoirs of your time in the industry.

[ChrisDNT]

Thanks for all, Luthier.
And good luck for your next projects.

Concerning Clodo, I must say I'm really not happy that the game engine is thrown to the dustbin, as NOW, with a good current PC, the game is beautiful to see and very fast, with good fps.

[ems9]

Thank you a lot Luthier, for everything.
I which you all the best.
Good luck with your future jobs and projects =)

[Drum_tastic]

Yeah, thanks for the enjoyment over the years and I'm really sorry it’s over.

As has been said many times here already the ClOD engine had massive potential and I would have loved to have seen it come to maturity with a few more years development work. I feel pretty sure it will be a very different kettle of fish with the new owners at the helm and it doesn't excite me at all if I am honest.

I would really love to know what happened to the project from what was included on the bonus disc of 1946 until what was released as ClOD, but I guess we will never know.

Hope your next venture brings you success and happiness - S!

[kopperdrake]

Just wanted to tip my hat to you and thank you for the flight sim we do have. It was seeing screen shots and youtube videos of Cliffs of Dover that pulled me in to the flight sim fold - I was blown away.

Thanks to your game, and the community surrounding it, I am hooked, and look forward to anything coming close to the experience you have helped give me with CloD.

Cheers and good luck,

Bunny

[katdogfizzow]

Thanks Ilya for all your hard work. I can imagine how difficult it is to put out such a complex simulation and then have to deal with all the constant negative feedback.

I've enjoyed the heck out of your work. i can't thank you enough: I've flown over a 1000 hours in the skies of the Pacific that you help create. IL2 series is the one of best computer sims/games of all time. A great inspiration for anyone interested in history. I look forward to flying in CloD for some time to come.

One of the greatest things about IL2 was letting the community run with the great work you started by releasing the code. Please continue this tradition and release the code to Clod so the modders can continue the great work that you've started.


Cheers

[janpitor]

I was also flying il2 since beta. I didn´t have a pc that could run it those days, so I flew at my schoolmate's pc only with mouse and keyboard. I enjoyed the whole series and I think it is a pity it came to this solution just in the time the engine started to be more and more polished and hardware friendly.

When I look back to the hundreds of hours in the series, I might try out the 1946 just for the nostalgy. It is a great sim and only COD outperformed it. Unfortunately the sequels will have a hard time.

Thank you and the whole team, with Oleg in the first place, for the best sim ever, and for us, who started the real simming on il2, even the best sim forever.

[mazex]

Dear Ilya!

Like many others here I also remember the day I fired up that IL2 Demo and took off in my 109 with a big grin on my face. I realized right after the take off that this was the best flight simulator I had ever tried after playing most sims that where released since the Spectrum days...

And unlike you I just reaped the fruits of what you and the team later did over the years to produce an amazing series with a staggering number of wonderful flyable aircraft and locations... Thanks a LOT for bringing that joy to the rest of us!

The CloD project really hurts as there is so much potential in this game and just as the gem was starting to shine through more and more the project got axed. The comparison to Falcon 4 is very easy to do... You tried to give us the ultimate simulator with blood, sweat and probably tears but the project finally got so complex it killed your business. So sad.

I hope that CloD one day will be remembered the same way as F4 - a monumental simulator at least 10 years ahead of it's time. It's just sad that you could not get the confidence from 1C to continue the project. As much as I like RoF and hope that they succeed it's simply just one of the best sims out there. It does not have that F4 buggy "wow" feeling around it like CloD...

As a fellow manager in the IT business that have gone through a lot of insane projects myself I also realize all the sleepless nights and mornings waking up with emails in the phone about new problems that everyone thought where solved the late evening before... And investors and other managers chasing you every week with demands for progress reports and budget cuts etc.

Good luck in the future - and I sincerely hope that you will continue in the gaming industry doing what we love most. Flight simulators!

/mazex (beeing a nerd I realized my post count is 1337 - a good number to stop at and sign out with you )

[juanjo]

I suggest..someone make a video...of all of us..red and blues...flying in Steam...as much as possible...in formation...as a tribute and thankfull to the effort of Luthier and company. They faught hard to die with proud, and they left behind the best sim ever. Just set a date and I will be there...If you want to join...pass it...and just click +1