Cait Sith in Action :D

[Kristal]

You have no clue what you're talking about. If you did you'd understand why people are outraged at the video because it is something that could have been done in 5 minutes time. When supposedly cait sith and atmos have been in development for 2+ years, even if they were on the back burner you'd think there'd be more than 5 minutes worth of work shown in the video. I'm being generous with the use of 5 minutes by the way.

You were expecting a fully functional avatar? Animation-wise Cait Sith has a lot of work done, but they still need to add backstory, quests, balancing, etc. Most of which is done behind the scenes. And they got a LOT of food on their plate right now. It has some abilities, but how many of those can be used directly? At what level? Is it overpowered or underpowered? Which NMs would be critically weak against it? What about the remaining pacts that need to be added for a 'regular' avatar? What needs to be done to prevent another Perfect Defense debacle?

Face it, if the avatar is too strong, people cry nerf. If it's too weak, people cry garbage. If it's just right, people cry pointless. It doesn't matter what they do, some people are never satisfied.

[Zagen]

You were expecting a fully functional avatar? Animation-wise Cait Sith has a lot of work done, but they still need to add backstory, quests, balancing, etc. Most of which is done behind the scenes. And they got a LOT of food on their plate right now. It has some abilities, but how many of those can be used directly? At what level? Is it overpowered or underpowered? Which NMs would be critically weak against it? What about the remaining pacts that need to be added for a 'regular' avatar? What needs to be done to prevent another Perfect Defense debacle?

Face it, if the avatar is too strong, people cry nerf. If it's too weak, people cry garbage. If it's just right, people cry pointless. It doesn't matter what they do, some people are never satisfied.

Why not expect functional? Walk, attack, and TP move animations are all in the game, the only animations missing are how it would appear and disappear when summoned which even then it has animations that would work. Seeing the TP moves being performed has nothing to do with how much damage they will do, what buffs they will get, or how Cait Sith's quest line will get incorporated. Had they done that, it would have shown they were willing to put forth more than a few minutes worth of work into showing progress on something that has been talked about for 2+ years. Check other forums and you can see just how hacked together that video really is.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

I see you discovered the video before I could even tell you about it...

This is indeed the new Cait Sith video that we mentioned was in progress. Please keep in mind that this is still quite early in development and is rough footage, but we wanted to give you guys a first look! Enjoy.

Now all we have to do is wait for the next expansion to get it. Even though it has nothing to do withthat expansion.

[Logandor]

So um.... >.> would this avatar be one we would have to go to WoE and do some silly quest to obtain? At least that is what I am thinking. If so then why do we have to wait for the next expansion to receive the new "toy" as for say if it is dealing with the past and not the new expansion. Unless they are making that new expansion have like a secret dealing with Cait Sith and WoE that we do not have any intel on. >.> hmmm....

Okipuit please give us some intel on why he is pushed so far back other then early stage of development. Is there like a programming error or just been shoved to the side for other things to get done for other jobs?

[Clou777]

She's so tiny! Daaaaw what a cutey patootie that can kick arse. Love the sound effects she makes when attacking. Should totally have her theme as the battle music when she's summoned!

they call me cuuutie, cutie patooootie, workin at the pageant and shakin ma booooty

[jake3614]

The fact of the matter is that 99.9% of what Zagen is pointing out is true. What he may be not also explaining is the fact that beta tests are done by players via the test servers now, where as they were done "in-house" previously. Promises of things like new avatars, airship battles, advanced UI, etc. have been put in place since RotZ expansion and never come to fruition. There's more re-skinned material now than before, which means that more stuff should be pumped out faster. Now, I understand the staff for FFXI has been reduced significantly to enhance FFXIV, but there's no reason that an avatar that is in game and functioning, not just a marionette that doesnt move, to take this long.
Even with the updates to the 2hour JA's, the new 1hour JA's, Meeble murbows, updates to dyna/NI/salvage/Legion, and such - why is the dev team wasting time on "let's take pics of mog houses and post them!" - there were more updates about this community event than there has been about content in the game for 6 months. To me, that's ridiculous. Re allocate those services/moneys to get back on the time line SE showed us and readjusted and readjusted and readjusted....
Cowardlybaboon, I'm not sure as to how long you've been playing this game or time invested, but personally after nearly 10 years and clamoring for all info released/I can dig up, I can say that the production value and implementation on FFXI has hit the plateau. Expect an announcement soon that SoA expansion to be delayed to second quarter of 2013, along with MAYBE 5-6 zones only being available total at the start.
As for the statement on Alexander's recent nerfs - Alexander was implemented awhile ago and new content has been implemented, i.e. level 99, therefore yes it does deserve to be nerf'd to compensate for this.

[Draylo]

Those community events aren't done by the developers who create content.

[vienne]

i like it, just for the fact that its nicer to look at then a random shaking galka butt.

[Cowardlybabooon]

It would be interesting if a community rep could tell us what their staff really looks like. People throw out numbers as if that information has been made public, and to my knowledge it hasn't been, nor is it a reasonable estimate in my opinion.

[Zagen]

It would be interesting if a community rep could tell us what their staff really looks like. People throw out numbers as if that information has been made public, and to my knowledge it hasn't been, nor is it a reasonable estimate in my opinion.

If you mean my numbers, they're based on taking a look at what's been done, and comparing it to what I have been expected to accomplish as a game programmer, and what has been expected of senior programmers. So if you don't think my numbers are reasonable then I guess American game companies far exceed the efficiency of SE. I've worked on teams as small as 1 programmer, 1 artist, and 1 designer (not counting the producers/project managers that oversee multiple teams), and if that team churned out stuff at the pace SE's "skeleton crew" has we'd have all been fired.