Good Morning HWS Community @everyone
before I sit in my car for my mini vacation and preparing RDP on my mobile phone, so I can update the servers during a highway break once the patch comes out today, I wanted to thank you first of all for your patience this season.
I know some are upset about all the circumstances this time, sorry for the inconveniences. We just have to try to make the best out of it together 
Then I want to share a lit bit of stats and details about this season and the upcoming one.
First, we had 1255 unique players on HWS RE NA and 1730 on HWS RE EU this season.
Among those players on HWS RE EU, around 71000 playhours were played, or 2958 days or 8 years. And on HWS RE NA around 41000 hours or 1708 days or 4 years.
Those numbers are not only impressive to me but show, that Empyrion still has a place and deserves more love to grow and polish.
Most important is that I appreciate you spending and enjoying your time here! There is still a lot of potential unused and I hope I can increase these numbers overall with the HWS+ release and adding more content for you all.
I have to be honest with you though and running HWS since 2016, soon enough for 9 years, has also left a tall for me. I think whoever tried to be a server admin for that long, can maybe understand. We really had a lot, uncountable ups and downs. Every day is a new quest.
And the countless burn outs along the way aside, part of Empyrion died for me, after Jascha died on 23th November, 2023.
It’s just hard sometimes, paralyzing, especially around full wipes…
However, I feel incredible thankful that I can do this for living and this is in the end because of all of you. Your generous support! It means the world to me and this is something I will never forget.
I will continue to work on HWS until my end or the game’s end, whichever comes first. That is something you can be sure of.