I actually can't believe that after n months of waiting, we are actually now heading into the development of the new map and 1.18. This is the moment I've been waiting for since Bautos42 released his original version of the new map.
Thank you, Leoreth, for pouring your heart, mind, and soul into DoC for the past 10+ years. I've been playing since I think 1.10 or 1.11? (I actually had to check the individual version history text files to attempt to recall the earliest changes I've played. I can only remember that I have been playing this since I was around 15 or 16, and I was already here when you moved the repo from SVN to Git, lol). This mod has kept me sane, made me happy, and inspired me to learn more not only about history and geography, but even also in programming.
I have currently been working as a data engineer for the past 3 years, which is in a few major aspects also a programmer. And I would like to flex that my experience in Python and Git workflows is mainly all thanks to DoC. I may not have contributed much to the actual source code so far (and for now; best PR I've had so far is updating tech icons and VD), but I've been closely looking at almost every Git commit you push to see how exactly changes are implemented in code.
Now that we are going to the most exciting part, I'll try to look for areas or aspects of DoC that need work, may it be updating or balancing or whatever. With your consent, of course. I—and many others here—appreciate you a lot.