Journey's End for The Grey Wolves Mod Team

[Kpt. Lehmann]

My friends,

(This is going to hurt.)

Apologies for making a new thread for this post... but I think you'll understand after you've read it.

After days of agonizing over the GWX-related discussion/tasks at hand for this weekend... it is clear to me that there is really only one choice left to us.

In the light of Ubisoft's SH5 preview announcement and impending release... and given the now-reduced manpower available to the GWX dev team...

...we are clearly no longer capable of executing our mission to develop GWX4. Even if we were able to do so, many of the objectives we intended to execute, (as stated on our website and elsewhere) would likely be mirrored only a short time later with the release of SH5... rendering our work obsolete. Just as we've done our dead-level-best to impliment things most sought after by the community... it is clear that the Silent Hunter Devs have been listening to you. This is a good thing guys. It is rather logical that parallel courses were eventually steered into in many ways...

Try not to be angry at us when considering all the things we 'could have done'... or 'should have done' during the development of GWX. Please understand that many of the good people of the GWX dev team have given the final measure of all they could given the circumstances presented by familial obligations, faltering relationships at home, the failed economy, loss of jobs, the demands of school, increased workloads placed on our numbers by employers that sign our real life paychecks, ... and the limitations of simply being human. The stresses of developing GWX have always been very real, and often very painful... in addition to all the things spoken of above.

The only thing that could ever really harm us... REAL LIFE... has made the decision for us. Admitting it... is simply miserable. However, sometime in the night while we were sleeping, we passed the point of no return. Though just a few weeks ago, it seemed we could still get the job done, the engine has stopped because Real Life is demanding its payment.

I hope you'll allow us to end our voyage with our honor intact. I think that we all knew that the hardest part of our journey... would be that someday we would have to end that journey.

Without a doubt, we can sit as I've done the last few days... and rethink our choices a million times over... but the writing really is on the wall.

This project has become a part of who we are... and for that reason, letting go is heart-breaking. In so many ways, this has become SO MUCH MORE than "just a game." This project has been about PEOPLE... and TEAMWORK... and the WILLPOWER to build SOMETHING out of NOTHING... and about being SUCCESSFUL in the face of adversity.

In the end, we must thank our enemies too... as they helped drive our team to succeed.

Most importantly though, our project has come to represent a global friendship... and PROOF that a few good and determined people can change their surroundings for the better.

We have stood on top of the world... and the view was breathtaking... but no one can stay there for long, and no-one can march forever. The air is very thin there... and if you stay... a storm will take you.

Going forward...

Effective immediately, we are retiring the GWX4 project and I am releasing the GWX team from all actual or implied developmental responsibilities.

We do reserve the right to hold the titles "The Grey Wolves Project" and/or "GWX" for future consideration... (I think that after all this time we've earned the rights to our own name.) Myself and Jimbuna will continue to oversee GWX interests that remain (detail management following the closure of the project) but without any expectation or obligation to start again with Silent Hunter V at some date in the future.

I also humbly ask that you in the community will lend your morale support to the above requests.

Here and now, the idea of re-assembling the team for SH5 when the time comes, just doesn't seem to be a viable concept... The people on our team are very tired and from what I understand of SH5, it is to be built on a totally new engine... and its files may subsequently be completely alien to us.

All we can really do is speculate concerning how the release and possible patching of SH5 will go anyway.

The coming days will be very difficult for us... and I personally feel a great deal of hurt for those on the GWX dev team who have poured so much work into all things GWX4 over the last few months... and am absolutely gutted for those of you who have followed our work and encouraged us again and again over the years.

This weekend we take the train 'home to Berlin'... knowing we gave it all we had... For all our faults and shortcomings we hold the simple hope that the paw-prints we leave behind, and the marks we made on the history of the submarine simulation genre... are in the end, viewed as 'well done.'

Its time to end this letter now, and tend to the details of our demobilization... and its getting hard to see anyway...

... and so I'll save my last words for The Grey Wolves dev and crew...

With hand on a heavy heart...

I THANK YOU ALL!!!

~SALUTE!~

[Jimbuna]

SPECTEMUR AGENDO GREY WOLVES

[bert8for3]

Thanks for everything you've done through various iterations of GWX, and best wishes to you all for the future (and who knows?)

[EgoApocalypse]

Best wishes in the future.

[Bosje]

sad though it makes me, I read, understood and appreciated that letter.

My hat is off to the GWX team for everything you did

best wishes,

Bosje

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Its only fair that you deserved an explaination and hopefully a bit of closure.

[Task Force]

well... thanks for GWX3.

guess I have no reason to really keep sh4 around...

hope someone does something similar to SH5...

[jaxa]

Thanks for all GWX Team, especially for GWX 3 Gold, I hope you will return after SH5 release - I'm sure your work will be necessary for making the perfect Uboot simulator based on SH5.
Salute Kameraden!

[Syxx_Killer]

Thanks for all the hard work you guys have done! You have totally defined SH3. I wish you all the best of luck in whatever ventures you find yourselves. Fair winds and following seas!

[FIREWALL]

I want to thank all the past and present GWX Team for all your hard work.

You guys and gal took an unpolished game and turned it into a real Sub Simulation.

SH5 has it's work cut out for it. GWX 3.0 stays on my rig permanately.

To GWX Team I salute you. GWX RULES

[Captain Birdseye]

Thank you GWX, you have mad my minutes of enjoyment into hours and days.

To the GWX Team, Thank You for your time, your talent, your insights and everything else. Enjoy a well deserved stand easy.

Good Shooting

[mookiemookie]

Thank you guys for all you've done!

[raymond6751]

GWX will live on with the many who have enjoyed your efforts. Nothing you have done is lost. All is greatly appreciated. It is amazing the transformation you guys did on making a good game into a great game.

You have, even more than us, influenced the birth of SH5 and what it will be.

Thanks.

Thank you kpt.Lehmann and your team for a hard work. No matter what your plan in future will be, i wish you all the best. SALUTE