2008 has become the first year in the history of Discovery when it was never updated. The concept for the new version, Discovery 4.85: Reunion, proved to be so extensive and complicated that we simply did not have time to finalize it earlier. However, the progress is evident, and later next year - when its ready! - we will deliver the largest update Discovery ever had. We dont have similarly ambitious plans for further versions, and they should take less time to develop.
The year was complicated one for the community: as you probably remember, some of our server administrators left, and we were in constant search for new admin talents. The search proved to be a successful one, and while I am not mentioning anyone in particular here, I must thank all of our administrators for their hard work and dedication, especially those who volunteered to perform the necessary routine duties when literally everyone else was away, and those who found time to help with mod development in addition to their usual admin tasks.
New challenges arose as we chose to form a large team working on various aspects of the mod development and testing. Keeping the team organized and focused in the right directions proved to be harder than anyone could expect, but the experience gained this year will be invaluable in developing future Discovery updates.
Last, but not least: Freelancer is by no means dead! Despite more than 5 years have passed since the games release, our server and community is growing larger each year. There are new players who abandoned Freelancer long before they knew about Discovery, or never played unmodded game at all. Despite the dated graphics, despite server limitations Freelancer still has no competitors in terms of playability, and Discovery will be there in 2009 to make it even more enjoyable and fun to play.
And now: Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Good luck and best wishes for the next year, and have great holidays!
