Okay, big changes take time. However.

[LateReg]

Hi Alexis,

Sure it may seem frustrating, but it absolutely is possible that every sub-team is working on Patch 1.18, 1.19 and the major overhaul happening.

You ask "where the heck is the art department?"

How about making the R30 Thousand Maws of Toto-rak Dungeon and the R50 The Dzemael Darkhold Dungeon?

How about making the Bosses and additional creatures for these 2 new Raids?

How about making the new Rewards that come from the Dungeons and the Grand Companies?

How about working on the Frontier Quest Hubs that Yoshida-san talked about in his previous Letters?

How about working on the Beastmen Strongholds he's been talking about?

How about working on the Ifrit Boss Battle / Quest?

How about the planning and starting concepts and building the Major Map Reorganizations already mentioned in the "1 to 50 Zone" Thread?

These are only some of the items the Art Department could be working on.

The Programming Sub-Team is probably working on the actual Battle System Overhaul, along with Server Side stuff (as we hear so often about), and numerous other items.

The Animation Sub-Team is working on those revised Weaponskills mentioned (e.g., the new Chaos Thrust) and animating the Bosses (and possibly other new creatures). But even if that was all they were working on, they can't blindly Animate without the Battle System being finalized; knowing the pace of the new Combat System. How many Frames should each Attack take? What Skills are being adjusted / changed / removed / etc.

The Design Team, well they're buried at the heart of all these major changes, from the fundamental overhaul and redesign of pretty much everything about FF XIV (from Combat Systems to Grand Companies, to how Mounts are going to work, to planning the major Map Revamp as promised in the "1 to 50 Zone" Thread) and much more.

You saw the detailed Table of upcoming items in the last last Producer Letter.

Asking them to throw you a "bone" and give you "25 different new hairstyles for every race"... Really?! You think the Art Department is just sitting around doing nothing? (see above.)

And let's say they *did* give you your 25 New Hairstyles. Guess what? We'd get about ~20 new Threads on the Forums with people flaming Team Yoshida for that:

Angry Player A, "Uh, WTH?! are they doing? We want REAL CONTENT, not 25 New Hairstyles?! This is dumber than scaling up the monsters in the world! What a waste of time!" (~_~)

Yes, we all want New Content NOW!!!, but it's not ready. Overhauling a game is more than just making content, it requires a period of seeming no-activity, where they have to plan, design, and vette all the major system changes; see how all of that works together; and then start to do concepts for them, and then dive into actual implementation, and revisions and testing and more revisions to make sure it's done right.

Time will tell if it was worth the wait, but for now the best we can do is wait until it's ready.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

For starters, 80% of the things you mentioned they could be doing have been in the game's data (on your computer) since release, and you can hack your way into them now if you wanted.

As for the other 20%, you really think it takes 7 months to make some smallish maps for a boss battle and to revise some weapon skill effects?

Come on...