The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I hear that. In AC3 it didn't really matter because the default Assassin Tomahawk was pretty much the best weapon in the game anyway. Once you got the hang of the combo system, it became more about distinguishing between enemy types in a milisecond rather than factoring in weapon choice. Tool/Sub-Weapon choice, yeah. Most enemies can be Counter-Tooled and Tools in combat do crazy stuff.

Yeah. I didn't really mind the "purity" of that system, but it will be interesting if there's more an element of planning and preparation to grow more deadly rather than just learning the combat.

Thanks for the maps. I'll have to compare them with AC2's cities.

TO be fair, only the counter stat mattered in AC2. In AC2, there was a somewhat noticeable change in counter time. Once chain-kills/dual-wielding was introduced, the damage stat was practically useless. Speed...well, I never noticed swing speed.

No need to apologize, Calvar. The worst part about these forums is that you can never really know the tone of the other person.

There's one minor thing that bugs me when looking at the map. Some weapon stores have two icons right next to each other. This is probably because the store has two entrances, right? What's the point in having two icons? Why did they do that? One icon works as well and how many entrances a shop has seems irrelevant to me.

Yeah, damage doesn't mean much now, though to be honest I never really liked the way the game worked with enemy health in AC1-2.

Health just seems kinda uneeded, and it encourages horrible boss fights. (though Pitcairn could be fought and he had the same sort of horrible big health bar design)

I like the rock paper scissors system of "counter then this button", or enemies you have to counter break to combo. I really had a whole lot of fun with AC3 combat, though it was obviously best when fighting a variety of guards (hopefully regular guards are more fun to fight in groups in Black Flag)

I like the idea of the only attack that really matters in regards to the enemy being hurt is the one that's represented by the kill animation. That's kind of the way AC was originally sold to me, though it wasn't quite like that.

If they go back to enemy health and your weapon damage mattering, though, I won't mind as long as they implement the system well.

http://vesferatu.deviantart.com/art/AC-map-comparison-393627932?ga_submi...

http://vesferatu.deviantart.com/art/Havanna-393627645

BEAR IN MIND that the Havanna map hasn't been fully revealed, though I personally think that it's not gonna be bigger than the upper part of Florence.

Let me know what you guys think.

It's difficult to make a comparison because we don't know the scale, but I'd say that you zoomed in quite a bit too far with the AC2 maps, judging by the width of the streets compared to Havanna.

Doing a little bit of re-jiggering in my head, I'd say that Havanna is actually more comparable to the size of Venice, probably a bit bigger.

I'll ask Ashraf for a comparison of scale for all the cities on twitter.

Well, we don't know what they mean if they're really separate from each other (I haven't seen these, I'm just going by what you said). Maybe one with the markings is controlled by pirates and the other isn't? It may not mean separate entrances. Now I'll have a look for myself and edit this comment with my thoughts...

EDIT: Yeah, I have no idea why, either.

Does look like multiple entrances, but don't expect all the UI to be exactly the same on launch. They could still be making tweaks.

I'll try to find out as much as I can when I do give it a whirl.

man...

i was gone for a week and this thread (and the rest of the site) blew up.

if memory serves me, the same thing happened in AC3... for example, the forts that you access earlier in the story (Boston, for example) had barrels you could shoot right away to blow the powder reserves. for the later/more difficult forts, the kegs had to be moved closer first.

Also, I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet...

at 6 minutes into the stealth demo "you are a true Assassin when height is in your favor.."

NO NO NO NO NO!

to me, you are a TRUE Assassin, when you adhere to the Creed and "Hide in plain sight" through social stealth rather than being the one guy running from roof to roof. Standing on top of a house does not make you hidden... especially in an environment like the Caribbean, where the sun is strong enough year round to cast shadows even when it's slightly overcast. Nothing about running on a rooftop is stealthy (unless your target is up there and it necessitates climbing).

I haven't really noticed by now, considering the fact that stealth has been completely disintegrating before our very eyes with each new installment. Besides, there's not much crowd-blending out there in the Caribbean other than the cities/villages. The only stealth option LEFT are the bushes, water, and any tall surfaces. If I can go of on a tangent here, hopefully they'll fix the health system.

Seriously, regenerating health was a horrible game design. Not to mention a huge-ass life bar that can tank freakin' bullets! I'd prefer the medicine.

What they need to do is have damage affect movement and abilites. For example, if you get hit too much in the leg, you'll be limping. If your arm is thrashed, you won't be able to climb. Punish the player for going in guns-a-blazing. Using medicine would heal over a few seconds rather than immediately (that's a maybe; I like the first idea though). More encouragement of stealth is a good thing with this type of game.

In the stealth video (5 minutes), Ismail says there are lots of upgrades for Edward and the Jackdaw and scrolls through a ton.

here's everything i was able to glean from the video:

Jackdaw Upgrades

Edward Upgrades \ sword sets (speed/combo/damage)

Jackdaw appearance

hunting goods

Jackdaw appearance [again]

here's a slowed down version for your perusal (once it renders, I'll put the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vP0uOCoM8

EDIT:
gotta say that the diversity in animal life you can kill sounds cool.

also, any thoughts on what "pistol swords" are??? swords with pistols in the hilt?

also, there's a lot of info packed into those 2 seconds of video. ha

I second that. Good idea to add a bit more realism.

Quite a lot of animals to be hunted, nice!
And thanks for breaking down the video!

^ I actually like that medicine idea. It can't be automatic - there has to be a lag towards the healing process, and even then it's a gradual increase in health. How about if you take damage while the medicine is slowly is healing you, the medicine healing effect dies, and you take damage?

I'm all for that idea, but I'm not sure how that'll be implemented. Most of the combat animations aren't very limb specific, as nearly all the slashes and bullets are targeted straight to Edward's chest.

I like the idea of slowing Edward in a state of pain when his health goes under a certain percentage of health. You see him limping and gasping. MAYBE SLIGHTLY slow down his running/jumping/climbing animation.

I'd rather you encourage stealth by making it easy for enemies to outright KILL you if you blunder into too many of them, don't fight well enough, or engage a bunch of the sniper class enemies directly.

From twitter:
https://twitter.com/DarbyMcDevitt/status/368595153960701952
@DarbyMcDevitt
"Just let some journos play AC4BF, and guess what... every one of them died at least once during combat. CHALLENGE!"

If you know that the player's capabilities are going to be the same every time, and they'll always go into everything with the same amount of health, you can stop worrying about making the level or setup completable for someone at every stage and instead just focus on making it challenging. That's not to say the game couldn't still be challenging, but just that it would take more work that would have been used for other important things if they had kept the original system to do so, and might result in less well-designed challenge until they got the hang of it.

The idea of decreasing player mobility/capability is an interesting one, but brings it's own set of problems and doesn't play to the strengths of AC's gameplay design, animation system, level of accessibility, or excuses built into the fiction.

However, hey, one day they may introduce it and make it work!

I think Ashraf did that quick scroll through the shop menu just to tease stuff to the people who would go in and frame-by-frame it

Guilty.

Depends on how good the journalists are in an AC game. Not sure if they've gotten time to get accustomed to the control scheme of the game and the AI.

^^I think mobility hindrance due to damage CAN actually work! Side effects include: slower counter time, slower running/climbing, blurred vision, unable to have tag people in Eagle Vision; ect.

I remember when the ianxofour did his guide to the Eagle Strike Stunt to William, he recommended that you have full health, otherwise Altair would not jump that far. It's certainly fit into the stealth, as it encourages to not lose as much health in combat or clumsily falling from rooftops. Animation? It's Assassin's Creed! They practically built the franchise on fluid animations!

The concepts are already there. They just need to put a little more effort into it. But then again, it's there choice whether to implement it. It'd be a great addition if they did do it!

I've been wishing for an Extra Difficulty level or a New Game + for YEEEEAAARRS. Some kind of Hardcore/Extreme/Insane Mode. I know I'm already going to love Black Flag. If they also happened to include New Game + or Extreme Mode then I'm going to freaking spontaneously combust in a disgustingly lewd display of pleasure.

Any journo who went to that event was selected because they knew a lot about AC, and were probably reviewing it later. So they've played a bunch of AC games, and the basic structure of the combat doesn't look that different. Darby's tweet basically confirmed it's rare for anyone to die at preview events in previous games.

As I said, changing the capabilities is DOABLE, but they need to account for that in the level design. They can't just slap that on existing level design and expect everyone to do just as well as before.
The fact that there are so many fluid animations INCREASES the difficulty of providing variable animations, because there's an increased amount they need to make compared to less fluid games.

It's a cool idea, but it's very likely it could be considered time-inefficient if they have a lot of other new things they want to implement.

It would be much easier for "you move 25% slower for 5 seconds after being hit" to be a feature in a harder difficulty, since at that point they would be able to be less forgiving about that, because they're encouraging you to be stealthy regardless.

This isn't really accurate. A lot of journalists that go to these events, demo the game, and interview people who made the games tend to ask a lot of the same questions. The inaccurate point I'm making comes from when they try to assume things before/during the answer or get the main character's name wrong. Some that I've seen/read, don't even get chronology correct.

A journalist from Spike talked to Darby himself and mentioned the "underground statues from AC Brotherhood" and how (the journalist) "remembers seeing a pirate statue".

This is just their job. Some of them may know the series well, but these people go to these events all the time. I'm sure they have to demo games they don't care for in the slightest most of the time. Video Game journalists are most likely selected because they know what questions to ask, not what games they like.

Misremembering the exact nature of side content from a game from 2009 doesn't mean you aren't familiar with the series' very easy-to-understand combat, it just means you play a lot of games. And even if you don't, people forget things all the time.

Have you never had an amazing story to tell but forgotten it in the heat of the moment, or after being momentarily distracted? It's very easy to apply that sort of situation to trying to get interesting information your readers/viewers will care about out of someone who's had to answer questions all day. You have to ask questions fast, and you're trying to get more interesting and unique answers than every other journalist today has.

Most of them played AC3 last year, so they couldn't be too rusty on the mechanics (And the buttons for combat seem unchanged from the AC3 setup so...)

The undisputable point is this DOESN'T usually happen in journalist demos. And when it does happen, it's one or two people. Not ALL of them.

When a statistic shows a marked increase on all fronts, it's not meaningless.

Weapon use on domesticated animals confirmed.

https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/368172696674512896

lol, a week and a half after this comment, and throwing knives are confirmed in a video.

If it really works that way....

Connor's tomahawk is gone probably for good, and I'll heal from that too.
AC2 style glyphs are gone probably for good, and I'll heal from that too.
Hyperblending is gone probably for good, and I'll heal from that too.
Poison in the hidden blade is gone probably for good, and I'll heal from that too.
Lucy is gone probably for good, and I'll heal from that too.

Th-thank you Double McStab! <3 ;_;
#toosoon #shewassoyoung

Hyperblending is noob-tier!

Threw that one in just to see if you were paying attention, DAZ... You were.

haha. It's not like I used it as a crutch... more of a "just goofing around" thing.

Not if you use it for setting up amazing kills. I mean, hyperblending is noob-tier if your name isn't Aurel, Stabguy, Ian, or whatever.

Who is this whatever person?

...you rang...

This is quite possibly one of the nicer forum jokes I've encountered in recent times - especially when you consider the fact that this user just joined today haha ^_^ Brilliant.

Hahaha nice one!! To whoever did this, thanks for making me laugh.

Back on topic: does anyone know what happens to a guard when he has been hit by a berserk dart, after the poison works out (if he's still alive, that is)? Does he pass out with a serious headache or something or does he just continue his work like nothing happened?
Has anyone been able to distill this from videos or interviews?

*whomever -- this came out today

But no, I haven't seen anything...
We know the berserk darts are non-lethal.
We know the sleep darts are non-lethal.
We don't know about the ending of the berserk darts.

If I HAD to guess... (in order of my confidence)
1 - I'd say he gets worn out, passes out asleep, and wakes up. So, in my mind's eye, the berserk is an advanced sleep dart; it has a berserk stage before the normal sleep stage. I don't see how someone could go batshit crazy and then just stop like nothing has changed.
2 - Alternatively, it could be that he/she/it just berserks until killed by you or an NPC. The only way to stop berserking would be death to the berserker.

Yeah, seems like the berserk dart is a still-non-lethal way of making a disturbance with a sleep dart, rather than using a sleep dart quietly.

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFkdVCaWfRc

Some new Underwater gameplay and interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIVVvU2y_l0
Kinda poor quality/framerate, but it's gameplay.

asked, and answered: NPCs can FINALLY swim in an Assassin's Creed game.

https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/369954414770937857

I'll be able to find out about Blowpipe AI reactions this weekend.
That's one of the things I'll look out for.
Other things I'm interested in reporting about are
- the new 'stealth rules' and how they've changed.
- Whether the dots above enemy heads represent timers or new 'layers' of detection
- or if they're just the new 'skin' for the Social Status Indicator.
- new Pistol mechanics.
- Whether or not Health mechanics have changed
- How Eagle Vision tagging works (if it's not just a 'see them once') as well as when it wears off
- If Whistle is more responsive and functional than AC3s (some people complained about that)
- If I die/gauging Open Conflict difficulty

whistle seems more responsive. I noticed a few weird things with it in AC3, but it was still pretty reliable even then.

I don't think it's any secret the bubbles are just a clearer skin for the SSI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ixGnqXCbU&feature=youtu.be&cid=ACsocial...
pretty cool gameplay trailer showing off some of the bad guys, what looks like a costume-switching system, hireable factions, and some good ol' stealth sneakin'.

EDIT: yeah, and one of the targets was taken out in an open conflict fight. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and saying this is optional.

ummm... none of that was gameplay. (but for 5 seconds, maybe, total)

I hope the costume gameplay is better than the last games. Hitman does it really well, but AC has left me with a bad taste in my mouth each time I play through a set of missions where I have to put on a disguise.

AC2 had the guard armor, ACB had the stupid Roman soldier play, ACR had the Bard outfit, and AC3 had the Redcoat missions.

Most of these were very linear and halted the entire experience for me. I want the choice to steal an outfit and infiltrate an area that way. In fact, that should be an option for almost every mission, as well as simple stealth, distractions, and guns-a-blazing.

Fine, Mr. Literal. In-Engine trailer.

And Joey, It looked more like the Liberation system to me, where you can choose what costume you want for an occasion on the fly. In that case it was a three-outfit system of assassin/lady/slave

I didn't mind the more linear versions of outfit stuff that have have been in the games. Especially in haytham's case, it was just a skin that you wore during a few pretty fantastic stealth missions. But the way it was presented in that trailer didn't look anything like the kind of stuff in said sections. He puts it on in a remote location, and he's shown going tons of places and stalking people while wearing it. If it were a linear sequence, I don't think it would have been shown off in this trailer the way it was.

The costume system seems to have been something they've wanted to do for a long time, and they've already tested it in Liberation, which also had the underwater gameplay that's being expanded on here. Another piece of evidence is that Ubisoft Sofia (the liberation studio) came over to the AC4 team.

So I was just watching this: http://www.twitch.tv/rebelfm/b/449991869

and realizing how well marking targets works in Splinter Cell games. In both AC and SC you got people on the minimap, but when you can mark someone it allows you to time more accurately when they're going to walk around an obscured corner or notice more immediately if they're coming your way.

It's also a great tool for co-op, and that made me wish once again that AC had proper Single-Player style co-op, though I can think of many reasons that would be difficult to implement: the potential combat difficulties and problems with integrating two players into the sort of giant free-roam environments used for single-player.

Hope they pull it off one day.

http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:JAlbor/Assassin%27s_Creed...
Great Wikia interview with awesome questions and answers.

The best part for me was "With little skulls on it... for pirates"

I don't think it has been mentioned before, but I saw it in that interview video (again) and I felt like mentioning it.

Objectives will show over people's heads. In the video, when Edward was beating up some guys on a beach, they all have a yellow dot over their head, as we've seen in AC3, but now it also says 'beat up' over the guy's head. I've also seen it in an earlier video, during an assassination contract. The target had a red dot and 'kill' over his head.

This is just extra hand-holding and seems completely pointless to me. Even new players understand that, in a brawl, you need to beat the other guys (the ones with the dots) up. New players understand that, when on an assassination contract, there's this guy you need to kill, and after identifying him, a red dot is enough to work with.

It may seem like a minor detail to you guys, but I felt the need to say it anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTg3Q6mqN48

^Awesome trailer that accurately portrays what pirates really were.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4BuCkABbuk

^Good demo. Really like how seamless the transitions are. Wonder if you'd be able to SWIM the ENTIRE Caribbean sea? Wonder if we'd be able to do the same in the PS3 and the 360.

Achievement unlocked: 'You've earned some rum'
- Swim all the way across the map without stopping.