Journey's End for The Grey Wolves Mod Team

[GuyC_UK]

I am new to this arena and am amazed at the improvement you and your team have achieved with your mod pack/ patches and all the work you have done, i hope you are able to venture into this arena once again if you so choose/ decide it is neccesary. wish you all the best for your futures and Hope to see you on top of the world again with breathing apparatus so you can stay for longer.

[Draka]

Been playing SH3 since release, off and on over the years. Major lurker, first post here. Recently ( last 2 months) getting back into this, and the FIRST thing I did was find and enable the latest GWX - THEN started reading other posts and looking for other mods. Many, many thanks for the enhancement you have given this old game - enough that it still shines next to any "new" games.

Grognard since 1960 .....

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD, BOTH OF YOU!

[Jimbuna]

<TO BOTH OF YOU>

Welcome aboard Kaleuns

[Siegfried von Funk]

Thank you for everything. You will be sorely missed.

[Scape]

Just wanted to say thanks for the great mod. You made SHIII to what all the sizzle was about. The game engine itself is dated and the coding needs an overhaul so no sense flogging an old horse and it was a good idea for GWX to disband as you have done what you set out to do.

I will still play the game because of your work. I makes for an amazing experience that you don't soon forget. Well done guys!

[tomoose]

An eloquent sign off.
My only regret is that I didn't take advantage of your great mod(s) earlier than I did. You can literally rest, assured that noone can think anything but the best of the work you and your team have done and that everyone wholeheartedly agrees with your reasoning.

My personal opinion is that you saved SH3 and that SH5 will have to use GWX as a baseplate from which to start. Anything less would be a gross mistake.

From a very grateful SHIII and SHIV player......thank you so much for your efforts. I can only hope that with the advent of SH5 the team can come together again at some point to do with that game what they do best.....improve it.

Best regards,
Tomoose

[keltos01]

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.

I do concur and wish you all the best with your lives, and many thanks for the work done

keltos

[Tonnage_Ace]

Hey guys it's been a while; SH5 brought me back here and I happened on this thread.

When you released GWX 1.0 the manual you guys made, came out a week before the official release. I was IMPRESSED and read it front to back in awe.

Then the mod came out and I rushed into grab it, the quality, execution and mood of the mod was unbelievable and I was left staring at the menu screen floored.

You guys did an amazing thing. It is the best mod I've seen for any game and it grew from the best game community I've ever had the pleasure of being apart of.

Thankyou.

[Red Heat]

Originally Posted by 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!~

Thank you for everything, Captain...

[auricom]

thankyou thankyou and all the best.. GWX gold has brought me so many hours of entertainment I don't even know where to start about how awesome it is

all the best

[Woof1701]

Kpt. Lehmann, and the whole GWX team: my heartfelt thanks for everything you've accomplished over those last years!

I remember very well modding dreadful SH2, switching to SH3, downloading, testing and combining different mods and not really being satisfied with it all and thinking of going bay to Aces of the Deep every time. But suddenly there was something there that changed it. Something I wouldn't have believed possible. Some people actually did what I thought to be too time-consuming and too hard to organize. A combined mod with practically everything that I was missing in stock SH3. And as if this wasn't enough it was developed further and new more interesting features were implemented every Christmas

So again: Thank you for the many glorious hours you let me spend in the GWX world instead of the real one and for all the grief you must've endured due to pressure and nagging from the community as well as people in your real lives, for the long hours of modding, testing, bitching, fighting and willing to make SH3 better than it was. It is really appreciated.

After the initial disappointment and letting this thread settle for a while I'm convinced that with SH5 on its way, it is all for the best this way. I believe it simply won't be worthwhile to put all this energy into this great project while all the work may be obsolete by early 2010. After all SH4 is just a vamped up SH3 with a few new features and SH5 will most likely become a completely new game where everything has to be started from scratch.

However I sincerely hope this has not been the last we ever heard of Kpt. Lehmann's GWX crew. If the past has told us anything since SH1 came around, it is that SH5 will surely need a lot of improvement and I can think of only one crew with one leader to accomplish that.

Best wishes to all of you. Get some well deserved rest, and a Christmas time for your real lives and hopefully till we meet again here! Thank you.

[Venatore]

Kpt. Lehmann,

I have this feeling that the Silent Hunter III GWX days was just a rehearsal for the eagerly awaited Silent Hunter V. Your passion and desire of the Silent Hunter franchise is embedded in your soul. Yes; the team for now has been disbanded, and yes for now your soul has been dragged North, South, East and West managing RL, expectations and time-lines for the Silent Hunter community, but Silent Hunter V will re-awaken and feed that beast inside you that is currently in hibernation mode.

It is destiny young jedi.

Kind Regards

Venatore

[Faamecanic]

THe GWX team, and GWX mod has kept me playing SHIII for many years.

What you and the team have done is MONUMENTAL in mods...and not just for SHIII but when compared to ALL mods that have been done over MANY genres (Counterstirke mod comes to mind). It is still my opinion that UBI should hire every one of you for SH5.

GWX kept me playing when SH4 was a flop (IMHO). I played SH4 for about 6 months and got so disgusted with it, I went back to GWX and never looked back.

UBI Romania will have a tough act to follow.... the expectations due to GWX are HIGH for SH5 (and it looks like it WILL be good). I just hope maybe they brought some of you on to help them out.

sir! Thank you and your team for all you have done!!!!! I am sad but at the same time GREATFUL for the GWX team efforts... Enjoy your time off.... and get some well deserved game time in will ya?!

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Thanks again for the very kind words guys.

@Venatore, you've always been so encouraging. Thank you for that sir.

Kind regards to all of you.