Whatever happened to Cait Sith and Atomos?

100% guarantee that we won't even get any word on this until after the august update.

I'm also pretty sure we won't get them this year. Although I don't really care about them anymore. What i care about is ungimping Avatar's favor/Blood Pact: Wards and adjusting the Bloodpact delay cap to the overall increase in speed of the game.

Will they even be worth it?

Will Atomos's blood pact be better than using Odin against trash or Alexander against NMs?

Will Cait Sith be better than any of the main six avatars for anything other than blood pact: wards?

Maybe Cait Sith will pull a Nursery Nazuna on us: a lion in sheep's clothing that outclasses every other avatar offensively. If it's not, I don't see the point. We're pretty good on wards already.

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Originally Posted by Edyth

We're pretty good on wards already.

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Well, we would be if they didn't stop buffing them at 75.

All of fenrir and diabolos's buff for a start need to scale higher in potency in today's gameplay.

13HP phalanx? you can pretty much get that on a melee/rdm these days.

For the record, a 13 pt Phalanx was pretty lame even back at 75. At 99 it's just laughable. Nearly all of our buffing Wards are. In general, we pay far more MP for less potent effects than anyone else is capable of, winning out only in durations. (Longer Duration Vs More Potent? Guess which wins in most scenarios.) Heck, a nekkid melee/sch is capable of putting out a more potent AoE Stoneskin than Titan can!

Even our best buffing wards aren't that impressive, comparatively. Hastega isn't any more potent than normal Haste, offering only the convenience factor of being AoE and lasting longer. Our Enfire is pretty nifty, yes, but any combination of RDM and SCH can come to within 10 points of that at 500 Enhancing, while being able to cover any other element as needed for when fire is resisted.

I will give credit to Crimson Howl and Earthen Armor, though, as these effects stack with what other members of the support line are capable of. Pretty much everything else is better served by being taken care of by the WHM, RDM, or SCH who is likely already there to cover healing needs.

Fenrir and Diablos now... Their Wards also need a revision in terms of potency, but I also feel like we need to have to variability of those Wards removed before they'll be of any use. When you really need that +Acc, it's going to turn out to be the time of the moon phase that grants +Eva. En-Drain? Nope, sorry, it's En-Aspir week. Want some MAB for your nukers? Better hold up the Alliance for another 30 minutes, because it's MDB time. From a thematic stand-point it's kinda cool and quirky, but ultimately all it does is make those Wards difficult to work with. This leaves them cast aside in favor of Wards we know will work the way we want them to right when we need them - not later on in the week when all the stars have aligned in the heavens and the Great Conjunction is formed.

Interestingly, our area-based cure spells do seem to stack up decently well for their MP costs. Generally, they come in just above Curaga II, but in the low ends of what Curaga III can do, but for an MP cost of just less than Curaga II. I bet these would make us a little more attractive if they didn't share the same timer as our buff/debuff Wards.

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Originally Posted by Edyth

Will they even be worth it?

Will Cait Sith be better than any of the main six avatars for anything other than blood pact: wards?

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Cait Sith is Carbuncle's replacement... Or at least I suspect She will be.

Hopefully we will hear something soon... after they get rid of the bugs from this update lol

*NECROBUMP*

Been since May 31st 2013 since the last mention of Cait Sith and Atomos:

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Originally Posted by Camate

Greetings summoners,

The development team has not forgotten about the implementation of Cait Sith and Atomos as new avatars; however, when it comes to job related content they are currently prioritizing adjustments and merit point categories for geomancer and rune fencer, as well as the new special abilities.
(They are prioritizing the new special abilities because they are being added to all jobs.)

With that said however, we are planning to implement Cait Sith and Atomos at the same time.

We mentioned this previously, but Caith Sith will be a type of avatar that will fight alongside you, while Atomos will be a special type of avatar similar to Odin and Alexander.

Once we have some new information to share on the status of these two new avatars we will be sure to let you all know!

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Since the new 1 hour job abilities and GEO/RUN merit point abilities have been released, when should we expect the new summons?? Remember they have been delayed for a long while now (1 to 2 years +).

When should you expect them? Never.

Cait Sith is in XIV, and Atmos is a statue. as summons in XI they are Vaporware, I sooner expect an Atmos minion in XIV then another "announcement" for them in XI. Its not going to happen, not for XI anyway.

I rather hold out hope they both get implemented eventually. Just wish we get an update to status on both summons and what abilities we are likely to see.

Camate's statement is quite clear, I thought. They plan to implement them when they implement the new SP abilities. Not the ones we just got, of course. Must be getting a 3rd set of SP abils around the 20th vana'versary?

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:

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Sorry for making you all wait on this. We definitely want to implement Cait Sith and Atomos soon but it's not just the magic and abilities that we need to finalize, we also need time to develop the quest, storyline, and cutscenes associated with obtaining these avatars. As much as we want to have this completed and implemented, we haven't been able to allocate our resources to this which is causing a delay. Please hang in there for just a bit longer.

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*Please find the corrected information here.

Wow. Just.... wow. I mean, really? I just don't have the words to express the pure bafflement this latest excuse has filled me with.

Given the scale of time we're talking about - since Cait Sith was first announced to today - pretty much all of those little details should really have been talked to death already. Literally years ago. The only thing that should need to be done at this point is just the programming. And there's no good excuse for that to not be done by now either.

This is just insulting.

Is there not much funds budgeted for FFXI now?

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Originally Posted by Zumi

Is there not much funds budgeted for FFXI now?

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There hasn't been since XIV bombed.

Wings of the Goddess is still a new expansion, guys. Be patient.

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Originally Posted by Catmato

There hasn't been since XIV bombed.

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Rob Peter to pay Paul, then change Paul into Peter and watch both of them fail.

I think we need to all stop the complaining. We are likely to hurt the feelings of the cube family of four that make up the entire Final Fantasy XI development team.

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.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mezivq8COa1r6jbub.png

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/MgxK5vm6lvk/hqdefault.jpg

I am not someone that logs onto the forums and comments on every single topic. I do however read these forums all the time and I have been looking forward for years now on some sort of resolution with Cait sith and Atomos. Because I rarely comment on things but once in a pink mage moon I want to give some of my input.

(Don't need every forum troll alive to explain how we got this, got that, had this adjusted, had this added, and are capable of this, and capable of that, I know all that has happened don't require your pointless explanations of the job and its history.)

First: THANK YOU!! for everything you have worked on and made come true in vanadiel and all realms of Final fantasy from the time that hironobu sakaguchi was involved with everything final fantasy until even now, I have truly enjoyed playing these games and I love the World's that are final fantasy. Arigato /bow.

Second: I have played 14 and don't care for it much summoner in that game is horrid if I have to cast ruin 1 more friggen time id likely sooner cast /shutdown. 14 is beautiful and even more boring than before the fixes. You got the AH right good job.
If we have lost all dev staff to 14 im sry to say im canceling my 3 month self renewing sub with 14 it just hasn't lived up to my hopes again.

Third: AH hasn't had a new Summoner scroll in how many years? Maybe some new spirits once you finally have time and resources to give summoner pets again?
If it has taken 2+ years to get these avatars out to us Can I just ask right now in advance along with some new spirits and the final implementation of cait sith and atomos, while that team is putting some efforts towards this game and its can we also get phoenix ? and maybe a few other future avatars figured out and created with back storys yada already in place so that such extended wait times are avoided.

Fourth: I realize this game is older and has its limitations but we are still paying full price for something that no longer has dev team resources ? Maybe we cant ever really expect it to last forever but we sure as hell can have fun hoping for it too. I have never had a problem with buying any expansions released and im sure most would agree we would pay full new game price for something that gives us the things we want. you want money ? we want avatars make some mini expansions and charge us for it. If the question is will we pay ? yes we will. will everyone cry about it ? yes they will lol. but if it gains us resources just be honest with us about it and I think you can limit the cry cry at least a little bit.

Remember all the voices on the forums are FAR!!!! from all the people that are actually playing and care about this game. Talk to you again on another pink mage moon. :o

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>.

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Originally Posted by Edyth

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Okipuit

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:

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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!

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Originally Posted by Multiabuse

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Multiabuse

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.

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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:

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Originally Posted by Sasaraixx

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.

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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.

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!

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Originally Posted by FaeQueenCory

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

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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.

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.

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....

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.

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Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui

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.

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I don't mean to come across as brash but haven't we been waiting for these said avatars for over 2 years? I understand you're all very busy making new content and whatnot, but I mean, 2 years is a long time. Haven't the SMNs been patient long enough?

SE is racing against Team Obama to see which would be the slowest to implement a promised made years ago (these 2 summons were announced back in 7/2011). So far, it appears that Team Obama is in the slight lead. Would SE make a come back? Stay tuned...

Could you at least define "a bit more time" ?

This stuff was announced years ago. I've been away from the game for at least 6 months and I was pretty bummed not to even get any real news about this.

Producer, do you realize that the best way to ensure the continued longevity of your player base is to deliver on your promises (and the promises of those made before you came in)? Many other jobs have gotten new spells and abilities on a fairly regular basis over the last few years. SMN hasn't really gotten anything other than the new 1-hour (which, by the way, is awesome, so some thanks are deserved for that). Summoner is easily one of the most popular/famous jobs since the ones in the original game and new content for the job always seems to get brushed under the rug. Even PUP has gotten waaaaaaay more love.

Its not going to happen, plain and simple. its vaporware yet they keep on beating around the bush.

You know when Cait Sith/Etc were first announce, I recall jokes about "looking forward to Cait Sith in 2014"... Its a little funny their half-joking post hit the mark so close.

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Originally Posted by Dreamin

SE is racing against Team Obama to see which would be the slowest to implement a promised made years ago (these 2 summons were announced back in 7/2011). So far, it appears that Team Obama is in the slight lead. Would SE make a come back? Stay tuned...

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I think you're giving Team Obama way too much credit.

I've never put to much faith that there would be a CaitSith avatar letalone one for Atomos (it only does so much). At best, much of the pacts and animations should have already been done with the BC against Cait Sith Ceither. I was also more on the assumption that cinsidering the plot for Wings of the Goddess. Atomos would have more likely been a 2hr blood pact ability for Cait Sith.

As for why I don't expect this to ever to be finished is mostly due to the Kindrid Freelances in Campaign. They built up (via that taru npc) the fact they could be swayed to fight for the various nations. They made them NPC's when theres no battles. Then tossed asside so they can stay on track with the missions and various plot updates.

I think they made Odin and Alexander summons mid way through WoG. They could have also used an Alexander Idol as the summon and full size Alex as the 2hr ability. However I think they just took the path of least resistance on getting Alexander out quickly. Instead of developing new animations for an Idol to use all of Alex's abilities.

Now we had three mini expansions, a three part Abyssea mini expansion, and now Adoulin. Cait sith would have been done by now now or at best by the time we were fighting Provenance Watcher. The quest could have started after the WoG plot (like ToA) and fought in The walk of Echos. If they wanted a simple plot it could have been to make sure atomos stayed dormant or to prevent more Vw NM's from apearing in their world via Atomos.

More Likely in my opinion its probably the 2hr abilities (Cait Sith had none), filler pacts (spells dont have animations), and what to do with atomos (if at all). Since it had almost no animation effects or abilities, especially for combat. Cait Sith also doesn't have that glow like the other avatars. Then theres the prizes for defeating them, it'll need to be content relevant now. Hell I go as far as saying well see a sword weilding Magian moogle as an avatar by the time Cait Sith is done. Then Smmoners can say they have the disposable Paladin that Alexander could have been.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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Sorry for disgusted rudeness but before you promise us things in this game all this you said above should have been done. I gave up on summoner long time ago after you didn't keep your promise about these last two avatars.


http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/im...quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Akihiko_Matsui
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.

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

You know when Cait Sith/Etc were first announce, I recall jokes about "looking forward to Cait Sith in 2014"... Its a little funny their half-joking post hit the mark so close.

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I think that whomever said 2020 is closer to the mark. They're just struggling to make atomos not sh1t, is all. My guess is that Cait Sith has been ready for ages. After all, she already had all the required abilities and animations.

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Originally Posted by Masamonae

I don't mean to come across as brash but haven't we been waiting for these said avatars for over 2 years? I understand you're all very busy making new content and whatnot, but I mean, 2 years is a long time. Haven't the SMNs been patient long enough?

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Cait Sith and Atomos are new content. Last update we got reskinned BCNMs and armor to play with. I'd rather have something new instead.