The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Crafting is how you get your upgrades, it's part of 100%ing the game in the sense that you no longer need to visit EVERY SINGLE SHOP to get upgrades that you just randomly spend money on. It doesn't feel like you've accomplished anything when you just have 999,999+ Florins/Pounds/Akce that you can just spend on Upgrades to suddenly get everything in the game. This Crafting system makes more sense: You have to go out and hunt the animals yourself, get the materials yourself, and once you do you're instantly rewarded by being able to Craft from anywhere.

As far as I know, the Tag and Track system is what Ashraf wanted to put in because the rest of the Stealth would be brutal without it. The option to turn it off would be wicked, though. If not, I hope it works like the Mark and Execute system's limitations from Splinter Cell, where you can only Mark a certain amount of people at a time.

Agreed on the HUD, that was one of the first things I said to my brother. I wasn't saying it very well because I was ecstatic and freaking out. (You know how I am.) And yeah, the Jackdaw -> Aquila thing feels like a little hint that the Devs would give us. They love doing things like that, passing us tiny clues, linking everything together. Thank you, by the way.

You're a pirate? Why do you need an economy system? Just steal everything you need.

Also, re: x-ray being unneeded with hud right there... sure, but what if you play with no hud? or want to know the direction a guard is looking?

I bet he was aiming for the hangman.

Let me play this game already.

Let me wander through Havana, Kingston and Nassau without a plan or a destination.
Let me get lost in the jungle.
Let me dive into the sea and explore shipwrecks.
Let me love the Jackdaw.
Let me upgrade the Jackdaw by hunting and crafting.
Let me roam the seas in my newly upgraded Jackdaw.
Let me stop for a minute and climb the Jackdaw's mast just to look at the environment.
Let me stalk and kill animals I didn't even know existed.
Let me take down a plantation without being spotted.
Let me laugh about conversations between Edward and his pirate buds.
Let me be fascinated by the Templar-Assassin conflict.
Let me roam Abstergo, hacking everything that can be hacked.

Let me play.

Let me recruit ships to my fleet so that I can play on the go with the companion app.

Good one, I probably missed a lot more.

URGHH GUYYSS DAMMMIIITTT
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/10/01/making-of-assassins-creed-4-black-...
LIKE THERE'S A WHOLE VIDEO AND EVERYTHING ON HOW THEY MADE IT AND ASHRAF IS SO HAPPY AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY AND-

Please. Please, somebody save me.
Like I can't take this.
Twenty six more days.
*cries*
It's so beautiful.

Can you imagine, HOW MANY GLITCHES and EXPLOITS this game is gonna have?! But like, not BAD ones, FUN ones that TheHiddenBlade can play with and just...

It's happening. It's happening already, DAZ-syndrome. *shiver*
Every time the Month Of hits, my god...

http://au.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag/videos/edward-the-f...

*drops in*
You might know this already, but you can rate missions!!??!

I am really psyched for this, but I hope that legit stealth missions don't get downvoted for being "too hard".

I'll probably only use this feature on my second playthrough, when I can more accurately analyze what is good or bad about a mission.

-spoiler avoidin' calvar

Yeah, I'm afraid that new players will be like: "ugh, I can't seem to complete this mission, it must be bad scripting, I'll rate it 1/5*." even when that just means they're bad at the game/bad at remaining stealthy. I hope I'm not overgeneralizing new players now, but that's really what I fear. The developers risk throwing away 'hard', but well constructed stealth missions by using this system, but who knows, it might be a good touch to let players vote. We'll see eventually.

Also, the many inspirations from Far Cry 3 that were used in the making, that's a good thing right? I haven't played FC3, but were those things worth re-employing?

I'm sure it'll be fine.
Keep in mind that this voting system is NOT the only data they have.
They also have [all GLOBAL by the way] Trophies achieved, objectives done, playstyle data (whether you CHOOSE to go in Stealthy or guns blazing). Ubisoft has a looottt of data on the way people play these games. The voting system is just another layer. They've already been designing their missions on AC4 with global play data in mind and it's looking good. Me, personally, the way I plan to do it is on my first playthrough, vote my absolute FAVORITE missions 5 stars, and vote the ones I didn't like 3 stars.

Considering that I'm a fan of Ghost runs (not even touching anyone), that's sure to be interesting.
Then on my second playthrough, I'll fill in all of the other ones.
But the thing is, I love this series so much that I'm probably just gonna drop 5s on everything and that would really skew the data... URGHHH T_T

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd73JlardVY

OK, is Edward now Batman? He's seen doing things that would make even Ezio, Connor, and Altair blush. Breaking METAL CHAIN and busting through wood? Damn!

Awesome video. I thought giving bits about Edward's backstory through showing the meaning of his (many) tattoos was really neat.

"Follow the pirate's CREED".

Well, it's official. AC has jumped the shark.

I'm actually pretty excited for the Adewale DLC and it's probably the first one that's going to merit buying a Season Pass for me.

*looks around*

Alright, I'll be the 1st one to say it.

This is like every black man's dream come to life.

Two out of the three playable characters in this game are black. Hell yeah! I sense progress. By the way, Adewale looks badass in his Assassin outfit.

Its mine for sure.

Dude, Adewale's DLC is like freaking awesome even to me and I'm the PAAALLESSTT dude you will ever see in your life. I'm hype for this game. And for Ade's freedom. I love the friendship between Edward and Ade, it really reminds me of the friendship between me and a best friend of mine.

I didn't look at anything on this page due to my paranoia, but I'd just like to mention that until I finish Black Flag, I will be on this forum exclusively to post in and update this topic on the possibility of an AC game set in modern times: http://www.thehiddenblade.com/how-could-modern-ac-game-work which I posted in "Other Gaming" since we don't have a general AC discussion forum. (If the topic needs to be moved to the Black Flag forums I'm fine with it, Stab)

I always like speculating on future AC games and mechanics, and as Darby has proven, some people at Ubisoft DO read this forum from time to time, and I've seen some things suggested by THB members make it into the games in some form or another. (though it could always have been a coincidence) Hopefully you'll drop by my self-imposed exile!

You know, with AC games constantly coming out now maybe we should have a "future AC game" section. Just saying. I mean when people made topics for ideas they had for AC3 and AC3 came out without those things, they still hoped for those in future games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFxWOq9HbzY
Video documentary by VICE on AC's YouTube page about the Golden Age of Piracy, Charles Vane's relevance in this time period, the Bahama's, and historical firearms.

New random gameplay.

I won't post it, because some people will not be able to ignore it, but there is currently a singleplayer walkthrough of the first Sequence, Modern-Day and beginning of the Second Sequence of Black Flag. If you DESPERATELY want to see it, you can look it up, but I advise against it because in the first TWO MINUTES there is a MAJOR spoiler.

Challenge. I might be able to beat you. Then again, I don't own a sweet hidden blade. And in a few weeks I'll own a PS4 copy of ACIV without owning a PS4. Basically I suck.

Referring to DarkAlphabetSoup, he's right. I've seen the 1st few minutes of that walkthrough...and it's...interesting to say the least.

What I watched got me excited for the game. I was ready to hate on it but...well yeah.

Welp AC4 is currently available at my nearby store, sucks for 'em I'm waiting for the PS4 version~

Or PC, not sure yet... xP

Oh my god man, tomorrow at 11:59 PM it's gonna be CRAZY. MAD, I TELL YOU.
*puts on Hidden Blade and hoodie*