I'm pretty sure he shut down the game for primarily monetary reasons, and I don't recall any kind of "tantrum" prior to the game shutting down.
It was after the game shut down (although shutting the game down one day without prior warning to anyone was kind of ? ? ?). He apparently didin't get the fact that people want to play the game at all, and was pretty much against any online form of it existing. I don't remember the details, but I remember going like "what the fuck went wrong, is something wrong in his life or something that he's just doing that?". I believe the monetary reasons are the official explanation, but then you'd guess he would warn people in advance or something, not 5 minutes before it goes dark, lol.
On the other hand, that's Haxus for you.
Also, the 3D modelling is fun but it is ultimately WAY too complicated for it's own good. TBH I'd like if it had an option to make arbitrary rooms like in the old one and then just overlay a model on top of it, or even generate one for you, because the primary problem is handling the interior, zones and all that shit. It should be just more... automated if it needs to be. I mean, maybe it changed and is now, but I remember it being a handful to figure out and it took me like two days to figure out everything (like, modelling it in 3D is by any means not the worst part, the worst part is making it so shit works) and make a basic ship I'd do in 15 minutes in old one.
Also, heh, I remember the days of old Hazeron. Going to moon with a helicopter because building a rocket is too casual, ferrying ships through space and running out of fuel at Warp 32, shitty combat. I remember the... Klingons? And Toucan Empire. I remember when Syndicate was not a thing, then it was a thing, and I was fighting with some dudes (Fasgort? TJSoldia?),
Shitstaines, having a close enounter with the Battle Barge, and then after we started losing some of the dudes I was with turned out to not take that well and just turned to shooting random people in Syndicate space, which was pretty rude.
I came back some time later and I started playing like week before the game shut down, struggling with the new non-grid based building system. I tried a trial from a friend like months ago and decided "fuck that noise" after screwing with the ship builder.
Eh, I feel like Hazeron was greatest during like... 2010-2012? I don't even remember a lot, it was quite long ago, lol. Also, I always wondered, since I think it may have just been my imagination, but I swear I seen Shores Of Hazeron version of the DF "
Casual-Hardcore-DF" image, which basically was another piece to the right where the dude fights monsters, builds cities, goes to moon in a rocket, that type of stuff, getting fucktons of fun, and then he gets his first spaceship and departs with friends into a Galaxy of FUN. I remember this image really well, but I have been looking for it every time SoH is brought up, but I never did. I wonder if someone has it or at least remembers it too, lol.