4-month patch cycle was a lie. It's almost 4.5 months now.

[Larirawiel]

I don't doubt that it could be done faster, but it isn't. At least that's the reason Yoshida gave, that it was only a matter of time before patches slowed down because they are creating a greater number of items than ever before, with more permutations adjusted by hand.

I am sure, that they have automated tools to solve those permutations. And they could get rid of this problem if their game engine would implement a physics engine. A physics engine would also solve many clipping errors and would provide better clothes- and hair animations.

Soon they will add female Hrothgar and increase the number of jobs to 22. Before Hroth and Viera were added they weren't planning on any more jobs because they were already stretched to capacity on the amount they could support in the 3.5 month patch cycle, but demand was enough that they caved in with the concession of skipping hats for those new races. They didn't want to add even more delays by tailoring all headgear to the new shape of those race's heads.

Yes, female Hrothgar will be an additional efford for them. But additional jobs not really. Because most items are role/class specific and not job specific. So if they do not implement a completely new class, nothing will really change with new jobs.

I guess, the new job specific quests need more effort than the items.



Cheers