Originally Posted by
Damane
I think you have no idea how the current armor and weapon DATs are handled in FFXI, each Armor consists of 5 different models (in some cases more when the female version is different from the male) for just 1 piece of armor (thats accounted for 1 model for each different race) and thats only for 1 SLOT, not for all 5 equipment slots. you cant compare inclusion of new races in FFXI to other games like WoW, the games are built totally differently from the grounds up. I say it again, for a new FFXI race you would need to add a new armor model for EACH allready existing Armor and weapon (this is allready huge and a bigger time restrain in FFXI then compared to WoW or so), then you have to add animation for normal attacks followed for EACH weaponskills (since there are differences between races too in some WSs), Magic Casting, Ability, Emotes. The biggest time restraint is again, the remodeling of existing Armors and Weapons. This is wasted Dev time that could go to something that is more fun, like new events.
The undertakeing of somethign like this, would be like creating a new expansion from the grounds up. and would take 2 years or more to be done in FFXI. You would need to change everything from graphics, to options where Race/gender is an option or variable in cutscenes/texts etc to everything else. its NOT worth it.