Whatever happened to Cait Sith and Atomos?

[Rwolf]

I don't know why I got excited seeing this thread in the Dev Tracker. I should have expected that reply lol.

Though in all seriousness, it would be more humane to just be honest and say they really don't want to allocate the resources to do this. Give the Summoner community some closure and just say it's off the table then if the mood strikes, just throw it in as a random surprise down the road if they figure it out. It's lame to publicizing over a period of years that a piece of small content is coming but only after <insert this year's reason why>.

[Multiabuse]

Some very substantial new content has been developed since Cait Sith and Atomos were announced (Adoulin's areas, missions, quests, lore, characters, monsters, skirmishes, delves, items, music, and more; Monstrosity; two entirely new jobs), so the team has been very busy. It would be really nice to see this promised content delivered. Personally, I've lost some of my interest after all these years because I don't think they will have been worth the wait. Also, playing as Cerberus, a summon from FFVIII, in Monstrosity has helped my wounds heal.

Like any other company, they have to budget and prioritize resources. They should have been more careful with the announcement about the new avatars considering how harsh and critical of every move they make the forum base is.
I'm glad they have devoted their time to making quests, lore, and new systems in lieu of focusing their time trying to implement 2 avatars for 1 job in a game with so many others. I'd love to see Cait Sith and Atomos, but knowing dev resources in this game are tight one can only hope for so much. I'd much rather see SMN as a job fixed with said resources than to see a couple of flavor pets, if I can't have both.

[Umichi]

Greetings,

At the Niconico Live FFXI Lounge event hosted on 11/27, Producer Matsui announced the following information regarding the status of Cait Sith and Atomos:

Thank you, I'm sorry you cannot do this yet! Understandable as these aren't just pets in the span of things they are much greater beings!

[Sasaraixx]

I'd much rather see SMN as a job fixed with said resources than to see a couple of flavor pets, if I can't have both.

But you aren't going to get that either, so your point is moot. We've been asking for SMN fixes longer than we've been waiting for these avatars.

And it has nothing to do with how harsh the forum base is. It has been years since they were announced and every "update" we have received has just said "we have other priorities , please wait a little longer." We are far past a little longer. I honestly don't care anymore. Any interest I had in them has long since vanished because 1. I have little faith they will actually be useful and 2. it's taken so bloody long.

We all know there has been major content added and that there are few resources available to the XI team. Nonetheless, it still reflects poorly on the team when content continues to be delayed.

[FaeQueenCory]

Like any other company, they have to budget and prioritize resources. They should have been more careful with the announcement about the new avatars considering how harsh and critical of every move they make the forum base is.
I'm glad they have devoted their time to making quests, lore, and new systems in lieu of focusing their time trying to implement 2 avatars for 1 job in a game with so many others. I'd love to see Cait Sith and Atomos, but knowing dev resources in this game are tight one can only hope for so much. I'd much rather see SMN as a job fixed with said resources than to see a couple of flavor pets, if I can't have both.

The bold..... so much the bold........
What's really sad is that "fixing" smn... or at least a cursory fix.... would take all of 10min: adjust variable Blood Pact Timer Cap 45=>30s
There's some other stuff that need real fixing.... but if the timer cap was adjusted, having weaker wards and whatnot can come later.

EDIT:

We all know there has been major content added and that there are few resources available to the XI team. Nonetheless, it still reflects poorly on the team when content continues to be delayed.

In their defense, do you have any idea how time consuming FMVs are?
Dear God.
It's one of the most obnoxious things to program.
It's not like adding to a trade table (you can use excell and/or notepad? you can do this).
It's not like adding jobs to Relics and Empys (90% of progamming can be done in either excell or notepad... it's kinda sad...).
It's not even like adjusting or adding stats to items.
Or even adding new spells/items to the game.
FMVs take FOREVER to make.... because unlike all the previously mentioned things... you can't take an afternoon and do it by yourself.

[Jerbob]

This is unacceptable.

I've not logged on to XI for months because of how horribly downhill everything is going. I've been force-fed item levels and vertical progression, bizarre content tiering, broken Reives, and an expansion that I simply don't want to play as a result. This announcement is just the icing on the cake.

What you don't understand, SE, is that a lot of people have given up on Cait Sith. For me and many others, it's no longer about the question of whether you're finally going to start work on content that should have come out with the conclusion of WotG SIX YEARS AGO. It's about what it represents across the board - a consistent failure to deliver. A consistent lack of resources and staff. A consistent lack of acceptable response to feedback.

Please, SE. I want to play your game, and I want to be able to invite my friends to join me. I want to be able to be proud of the game I've chosen to play. Not all companies are in the position that you are in; you have people who still want to pay for your services because they hope to see the game's potential realised, despite repeated catastrophic mistakes. However, hope only takes people so far, and I've had enough.

I know that the developers are not entirely at fault here, and that crippling budgetary problems are playing their part in ruining the game. It's a bad set of circumstances. Just get the act together and start working on something amazing rather than something that's balancing precariously on the border between "barely adequate" and just "embarrassingly bad".

I suppose it's sort of ironic that I'm being forced to cancel my account just when a new recruitment scheme is starting, but honestly - do you really expect a mass return when you've done nothing to change the circumstances that caused people to evacuate the game originally? Sign me up for the 2015 event after all of this awfulness has been reverted!

[Sasaraixx]

In their defense, do you have any idea how time consuming FMVs are?

Does 3 years sound right? And are you implying that they underestimated how long it would take them to complete this task? (The avatars appeared on the road maps until they were removed.)

I think no matter how you answer either of those questions you are still left with the fact that this has been poorly handled.

[Rwolf]

I won't pretend to know anything about game design. I have a passion for the industry but I'm not a programmer, designer, director, etc. yet. Although, to be completely fair, it doesn't take someone in the industry to realize how disheartening that statement is. They've added 3 mini expansions, 3 abyssea expansions and a full size new expansion. Choc full of quests, vomiting tons of armor/weapons that outdate themselves within 1-2 months. Now they are adding several new complete battle systems and arenas. I don't think anyone is ungrateful for what the game has given so far.

However, being grateful for new content doesn't excuse promising a considerably smaller piece of content for years. And right when this would have been a great time to cancel the Cait Sith/Atomos project or at least revert it to a quiet behind the scenes addition. We are asked again to be patient and wait for who knows what time this is. I lost count.

I feel it's like being asked to wait in line at a store while the staff lets people who just got there move ahead of you. The staff promising you that you will be serviced soon but <insert new reason why not>. No matter how accommodating and sincere the staff may be, even offering you other things while you wait. Eventually it's going to bother most people. Rightfully so, because it feels like an apathetic promise meant solely to placate.

One thing I do have experience with is customer service. It would better just to be honest. There are ways to be honest with your customers without ruining reputation for not delivering promises. I'd rather have a company say something was more than anticipated than to continue telling me just wait a bit longer until they have the desire to figure it out.

[Tptn937]

I paid for each of the mini expansions as they were released. 15 dollars for body/head/leg armor that had surprisingly bad content. Imagine what I would pay for well designed avatars and not complete shit stories to go with it....

[Camate]

Hello,

There was a slight miscommunication regarding what was said during the Niconico live stream and we have a response from Akihiko Matsui outlining the correct statement.

I apologize for the error and have corrected the previous post.

Matsui here.

I apologize for making you all wait for the Cait Sith and Atomos avatars.

In order to implement these avatars, we need to not only create their associated spells and effects, but we also need to prepare various things such as the quest to obtain them and the battles related to the quests.

As there is other work to be done on this to get it ready besides just the avatars themselves, we'd appreciate it greatly if you could give us a bit more time to implement them.