It's been a while since we've spoken. How do you feel things have gone since launch? Are you happy with the way that Fury is progressing?

The launch was pretty smooth from a technical standpoint. We had some early database lag issues which were quickly addressed, and we've made a number of improvements to client performance in the last few patches. In terms of numbers, however, it's fair to say that they've been rather underwhelming. Reviews have, frankly, sucked. There is no doubt that the learning curve and lower than expected populations meant new players would be thrust into battle against veterans and get "pwned". That's no fun for anyone.

With Age of the Chosen, our first free content update due to release on 14th December, we expect to see many previous players return and some new players join the fun. Age of the Chosen will address many of the big concerns noted in reviews and community feedback, so it will definitely be a big step forward.

Have you found it at all challenging running a game that is totally reliant on PvP?

Running any sort of online game is a big challenge! Being a pure PvP game doesn't change that challenge much, really. There's still servers to be run, updates to be planned and produced and a community that expects answers. The advantage we have, however, is that being a PvP exclusive game allows us to focus our efforts on addressing the specific challenges presented by PvP. It also means our community argues about PvP matters instead of being divided between PvP and PvE communities as we've seen in other games.

The downside has been the lack of an environment for people to come to terms with the faster paced battles that FURY offers. This has been our focus for AotC.

Recently, you announced your first free content update that you expect to go live on December 14th. How long have you been working on this?

There's been a team working on this update since well before the retail launch of Fury. Having said that, there are numerous changes that have gone into this update following analysis of community feedback and reviewer comments over the Weekes following release. It's definitely been an update that's evolved based on feedback rather than being set in stone at an early stage.

As an example, pretty much all of the reviews have mentioned NPCs; specifically that there are too many of them, making it hard to find the specific one you want. This is being addressed in Age of the Chosen, with a significant reduction in the numbers of NPCs. They'll also be moved to better locations, so both new players and veterans alike will easily be able to find what they need.

You mention that one of the features of this update will help new players "prepare for the furious action". Does this mean just a longer tutorial, or do you have something else in mind?

The tutorial has been revised to make it more useful for new players, however it is't be longer. It's better organized, more detailed and there are less RP elements. There is also a repeatable training zone available where anyone can go to whack on bots and get a feel for the various abilities and play styles available. We've also worked in some additional pointers for features of the game that aren't well known (like the ability list filter!).

More importantly, however, will be the new Carnage game type. Carnage is still PvP, however the win condition is linked to slaughtering bots. This makes the contest for victory more about earning points than beating down your opponents, so new players should have more time to get to grips with playing their character in a competitive setting.

This new game type, "Carnage". How will pitting new players against bots rather than human enemies help them to find the game less "fast and confusing"? Will these bots be significantly slower than other players?

Reducing the "fast and confusing" nature of Fury is more through increasing the global cooldown on ability use to 1.3 seconds and increasing character health (to slow down the time is takes to kill someone). This gives players more time to think about what they are doing and react to what is being done to them.

The big difference with bots is they offer a relatively consistent, predictable opponent for everyone. Humans are so unpredictable and "brutal". The bots follow all the same combat rules, however we can control how effective the bots are. They'll be 'softer' targets simply because they'll be more predictable and a little less deadly.

You mention in your press release that you are "lengthening decision making time". What does this mean and how will you accomplish it?

This is being accomplished by increasing the global cooldown on ability use to 1.3 seconds. This will give all players a little more time to assimilate the current state of the battlefield between each ability used, and therefore afford them with more time to decide on the correct ability or tactic to use.

We're also increasing health for all characters. Along with the global cooldown increase we're hoping to increase the "time to kill" so that players have more time to recognize what it is that is killing them and thus learn from the experience.

You also mention that you have "improved combat feedback". Can you explain exactly what you mean by this?

There are a number of things we are doing to improve feedback. Some of these have made it in for AotC and other s just missed out. The biggest improvement is that we've fixed a bug regarding the frequency of updating the health GUI so it now happens when it is supposed to.

You mention too in your press release that items are tiers and rarity are going to be more important in items. Can you tell us how things are now and how they will be different after Age of the Chosen?

Under the current equipment system it is possible to get a rare item at tier 1 with modifiers that rival the best available on tier 10 items as well as a common item at tier 10 with low power modifiers. The biggest change with the new system is that rarity, and power, are now much more closely aligned to the tier of the item. This will increase the decisions a player needs to make when equipping their character, as it will no longer be possible to purchase a powerful item at tier 1 and only spend less than a tenth of the equip points required for a tier 10.

Another major change is the amount of bonus health on each piece of armor. Under the current system a full suit of tier 10 armor gives around 950 bonus health. Under the new system this will be significantly higher. The exact amount is still being tested, however we're currently looking at a little more than triple the current values.

What other changes and additions that we haven't covered can we expect to see in Age of the Chosen?

There's a new 1v1 version of Elimination, with ladder support, for those who want to prove they are the best. Four new abilities will be introduced, available to all characters. 'Sprint' temporarily increases movement speed, 'Liberate' breaks disruption effects such as pacify, 'Elemental Purge' removes all charges from the user and 'Elemental Immunity' makes the user immune to charge manipulation.

There is also a long list of bug fixes and general polish going into this update.

Is this an indication that you are planning frequent free updates for Fury?

Definitely!