Fury preview

Balancing act
Currently the biggest affliction to plague the MMO industry, other than ‘I’m a derivative!’ syndrome, is class balance. No one likes to play an underpowered character, and Auran has not gone into Fury’s production unprepared. Balancing issues are particularly a problem when expansion packs are released for a game – new content, be it revamped existing powers or new exciting ones, has a tendency to throw an established game ecosystem out of whack.

Fury’s solution to this problem is simplicity itself: Forget about adding new abilities.

‘Who says new abilities are required for a game to stay fresh? Why can’t additional gameplay experiences come from things like game types, new levels and the addition of major systems such as crafting, territorial battles or guild enhancements?,’ Carpenter says.

The developer agrees that if Fury depended on new abilities to invigorate the game, it would not only face the balancing act of keeping the new powers in check, but dealing with ‘ability bloat’ – the addition of content for the sake of including it.

Fury even includes a bit of fan service

‘This is why we are looking to create new gameplay experiences [instead],’ he says.

Despite what seems like the perfect plan, Auran will inevitably face balancing issues once the game hits the world at large. Carpenter however assures us that the team will be doing everything it can to minimise any hiccups.

‘Our method for balancing ability combinations comes from two directions, the first being analytical and the second being empirical. On the analytical front, we use engineering calculation packages as well as simulation software to create baseline values for ability power. Using our tools, we then explore a diverse array of ability combinations and test for magnitudes outside our desired range. When we find those combinations, we make adjustments as necessary to bring them back in line with our desired targets,’ he says.

‘On the empirical front, we’ve formed a Fury “core group” of players who are all very hardcore, very experienced players. This core group has direct-to-developer feedback channels and through them we gain invaluable information about incarnation setups, abilities combinations and the like.’

The end result is that players will find that there are no ‘flavour of the month’ classes, as is found in other MMOs. Unless an incarnation is in-tune with a player’s own style, they will find supposed ‘overpowered’ combinations less than amazing.



Where for art thou Excalibur?
Although it never saw release, Auran’s Excalibur could be considered the spiritual predecessor to Fury. Comparing screenshots of both games, it is easy to see that they share a visual feel. Of course, when Excalibur was being developed, Unreal Engine 3 was not available, and Auran used its own Jet technology.

Sadly EA, the game’s publisher, cancelled Excalibur, ending any hope of the game making it onto shelves. That didn’t stop Auran from taking advantage of what work it had already done.

‘Fury was inspired by Excalibur and our early prototypes and tests drew heavily on the Excalibur code base and assets. Our team also gained valuable experience through their work on Excalibur,’ explains Carpenter. ‘While we could have continued with Excalibur independently, we were keen to develop the online team combat aspect of the gameplay and this lead us to developing Fury instead.’