User blog comment:DanChan123/The Most Epic Game Idea in AC History/@comment-1888015-20150110050613

Since you've asked for feedback, I'll freely give it, though from what I see so far, your application of theory here is considerate both to us as gamers and from a developmental angle. While I'm sure some elements can be refined and expanded on, the way you've laid this out seems like a genuine pitch for a pre-production piece.

Anyway, let me see what I can say to hopefully further that along, though I may come across bluntly in some areas for honesty's sake:

Background

Though I assume it's a placeholder title, I'm not a big fan of the proposed name "AC: Asia". Given Ubisoft's trends with a snappy title as of late, relating to singular terms or social theory application ("Revelations" or "Embers" for the former, "Brotherhood", "Liberation" and "Unity" for the latter) I would be more inclined to pick something along the lines of "Solidarity", tying into the desire for actualizing personal strength, and the intermingling of multiple ancestral bloodlines and memories through the focus of co-operative play in regards to a modern-day lore-based standpoint, in a role reversal to the integration of the Helix system in Unity to deliver forth the Assassin Council's missions to multiple Assassins and thus requiring multiple users. I feel it also merges together the two options listed above that Ubisoft favor in some Zen call from a marketing angle, as it can be said to pose the concept for a person to have solidarity, and at the same time indicating the unificiation of a society under shared principles to create a stable base of core values. (And, rather shamelessly, I also happen to have stolen the term from a unit of currency from Final Fantasy XIV.)

Furthermore, while I don't particularly mind the proposed codename of the Animus 5.0, Symbiosis, to me it doesn't have the same sort of ring to it when compared against the Helix Navigator, shortened to "Helix". Though I do acknowledge that the story behind the device is one of a top-secret project that the general public has no consensus of unlike Helix, I personally feel more... attuned to the name of "Mesh". Helix and Mesh sound like they would flow better together (or even against) than when I think "Helix and Symbiosis". Perhaps because of Symbiosis having four syllables as opposed to Helix's two and Mesh's one, but even so, that just sticks out more. Maybe it could even be an experimentational adaptation to the Helix system, given that Mesh ends with H, posing as a piece in an acronym.

And finally, if I'm right in assuming that each of the captured Assassins' descendants all played parts in Asia but that they would all meet together at one point and organize the Yinglong syndicate, you could maybe find a way to weave in Desmond Miles' Chinese ancestor as being the lynchpin that the organization is focused around, perhaps the one the other ancestors gravitate to and the eventual leader of the Yinglong, with a view to expanding the lore to be that of these other ancestors becoming Mentors over their countries' branches of the Assassin Brotherhood, but with Yiulin eventually being the first worldwide Mentor as the role was established in the comic series Assassin's Creed: The Fall, or presiding over a united Asia to inspire the worldwide network in that direction. It would certainly introduce an aspect to combat the current focus on the Templars having established Rites for each area of the world, before both orders became fully globally connected.

Gameplay Environment

I have no issue with much elaborated upon in the Gameplay Environment section, as I appreciate the angle of social manipulation from a governmental angle, as if giving the reins of the Assassin Council from Unity into the hands of the player via the formation of the Yinglong at the hands of the collective protagonists while still maintaining the feet on the ground feel, one aspect I feel that most of the Assassin's Creeds have neglected thus far with the aimless protagonists, excluding their personal tales, with the only three exceptions I feel being firstly Altair's reformation, reevaluation and eventual dispersal of the Levantine Order after Al Mualim's rule, the second being Ezio's ascension to Master Assassin and then Mentor throughout Brotherhood by interacting with and regaining favor for each of the leaders of the respective factions and the upgraded faction abilities with faction-based challenges, and Connor's formation of the Davenport Homestead community in Assassin's Creed III and each citizen's personal and crafting development through story-based missions accessed at intervals throughout the game's sequences.

What I would like to remain in place however is each protagonist sharing their own distinct personalities from one another, perhaps embodying the underlying gameplay approaches and natures that players choose, such as one protagonist being an elusive figure ("stealth", La Volpe), one that co-ordinates well and uses their equipment and environment to their advantage ("tactics", Machiavelli), a headstrong character that doesn't shy away from a fight and can take a lot of punishment ("brawler", Bartolomeo), and one that picks off their enemies at a distance and applies lasting damages ("ranged", Claudia). While this should not restrict anyone playing by bleeding into casual gameplay, being reserved only for the profiles of each character's manners and dialogue displayed in cutscenes, it may be interesting to mull over who best to assign protagonist-specific missions to.

For instance, one character, the stealthy one, is sent on a mission to infiltrate an area and collect information, but elements of tactics can emerge (gaining entry using an item), or brawling (eliminating a wave of enemies before proceeding), or using ranged methodology to continue (releasing an animal to pose a distraction or poisoning a small part of the guards' rations), but requiring the mechanic triggers to be unlocked before the mission will start. Perhaps this is me recounting the aspects of Unity's Adaptive Mission Mechanic, or Far Cry's alternative approaches, though this could be merged into each different protagonist by making them initially specialized in their respective talents, with the stealthy protagonist having access to the second tier of stealth upgrades before the rest, the others starting out on tier one and vice-versa. At the latter sequences of the game, this should essentially boil down to every character having unlocked all tiers of abilities across the board, and each story mission dictated solely by protagonist restriction, due to ability criteria having all been met, but to summarize this point: sharing skill points across characters invites a degree of developmental laziness and detracts character development in a proposal embodying multi-protagonist control. As long as each side-mission is varied, unique and engaging for each protagonist though, there shouldn't be much fatigue in playing a mission that introduces them to the next tier of a certain mindset, in comparison to a protagonist for whom you already have the access.

It may also be worth using each character's background to proffer them small advantages when it comes to the social manipulation segment of the proposal. Say for instance, one of the protagonists has a naval background, they could maybe work certain connections to allow them an additional success percentage in naval-based contracts, but at the cost of a weakness in another area. You could hopefully map it out thusly: one character had a reputation as a ship navigator, with their knowledge earning them certain buffs when they send out a contract in the Naval portion, but a lack of knowledge in farming. One character was a farmer-turned-ninja/militia, so they have an Agriculture bonus from previous experience with the land, but their distance from the city and dealing through suppliers restricts their financial senses. One was an popular merchant in a city, giving them a boon to Trade contracts, as they dealt with customers and wholesalers frequently, allowing them to increase profits with price fixing, but it eludes them to the daily issues people face. And finally, a former official who worked with taxes and people's problems for a wisdom for Rural contracts, but had no sway over exporting and importing things, as well as naval skirmishes. When it comes to their backstory, something must have happened to each of them to compel their devotion to the Assassins, but their previous lives help to bolster their prospects going forward.

Seafarer = Naval affinity, Agriculture weakness. Farmer = Agriculture affinity, Trade weakness. Merchant = Trade affinity, Rural weakness. Official = Rural affinity, Naval weakness.

Now of course, Yiulin should be equal across the board so that people don't neglect to use him to enact contracts, but the assignation and return times of the contracts should be restrictive so that people are committing one Assassin to lead each one, thereby stressing them to use another character that might not be as proficient in that discipline, but individual factors and difficulty could still end up giving you a 100% success factor even if you have a -15% modifier, such as you having accumulated positive control statistics in that focus through completion of lower difficulty contracts and perhaps more experienced recruits if we go back to the Assassin Order apprentices.

Combat

When it comes to the control scheme for the proposed combat improvements, I agree wholeheartedly with the drive for a more sequential approach to eliminating an enemy. At the moment, all it takes - and all it has ever taken - is which one button to press or avoid at one point to kill or knock out a guard. Integrating a body-based attack framework with more of a succession and variety to a person's ideal reaction time will help to make fights less of a hassle to endure for want of exploration and more of a fun, but skillful way to use the series' combat system.

The idea of ducking blows and re-introducing human shields - one feature alongside the whistle mechanic that I sorely missed - would prove for a more fluid layout to melee interactions, though they would need to be counter-balanced with a short reaction window, but instant application. The only thing that had annoyed me about human shields in previous games is that grabbing the enemy to block a shot is sluggish, perhaps due to the protagonist pulling the enemy to them and not working the other way around, when moving to the enemy on the outer edge of the interaction radius may have been a quicker implementation. Either way, the human shield function as it is suffers from poor animation frames per second I would wager.

The idea of kicking an enemy in the throat with a Shoe Blade is something that has been mentioned before (Embers, Unity novel), which is exactly why I'd like to see it implemented.

For a second, I did feel like the combo list written out was going to sound like something ripped out of a fighting game where you'll be hard pressed to learn the ultimate combo counter, but when visualizing the application of it in my head, there was no objections.

Weapon Attributes

Melee

When it comes to "Sharpness" and "Bluntness", I would argue more that by sharpening a blade, you reduce its weight as opposed to increasing it. In this vein I would propose changing the attribute to "Density" would allow sharpening a blade to reduce its weight by a slight amount and afford a slight damage over time through bleeding, but would also decrease its durability. On the other hand, increasing a weapon's bluntness would increase its durability at the expense of weight, but with the added bonus of being able to break weapons easier and even in some rare instances break the enemies bones to the point that they cannot fight you any more and run due to a drastic loss of Confidence (or "morale", as the statistic has been implemented behind the scenes since Assassin's Creed II). Just to add to that point, killing a terrified and running opponent should cause an adverse reaction in others, either in the form of immense fear, or an enraged resolve.

Also, when you say "Charisma", do you mean "Appearance"? If so, does that entail an "evolution" in design based on stages or does it involve picking a customization?

Ranged

If I was to suggest something for the ranged weapons, I would remove any effect Power has on the Range attribute and simply make it so that it increases the damage inflicted at the cost of noise emitted, both for guns and bows, and make "Sound" into a hidden attribute. While guns would be more obvious, I still think that bows should make a medium amount of sound to offset it from being a truly silent weapon when taking into consideration throwing knives/needles and the Phantom Blade if the latter is even to be reintroduced (same with the Hookblade really).

If you imagine putting so much force behind an arrow, it's going to be whizzing through the air at quite a speed, and it's going to make a harder sound when it "thunk"s into an enemy's body. That should be enough to startle a nearby enemy into either investigating or standing there confused for a while, and if your quandary's body is spotted with an arrow sticking out of their lung from 100 feet away, it's still going to cause quite a stir when their body is seen and could heighten alert for the instance of arrow-fire, even if nobody near you heard the arrow fly true.

To amend this, I propose the fourth attribute should be "Reload", with the higher the figure either being the reload duration (slower), or the increase in speed (faster).

Also, if melee weapons get an appearance modifier to help reduce enemy Confidence, so should ranged weapons, even if it's only going to affect enemies in a close combat situation.

Assignation of weapon rank

Just to get the newly proposed consumable weapons out of the way, I feel you're confusing the Meteor hammer with bolas. Perhaps the two are merged for a devastatingly hurtful version of regular bolas, and I certainly wouldn't want one of those to wrap itself around my head. Next, Tar bombs and Pepper bombs are great on their own, but what if there was a merged option later down the line where you could stick a burning hot tar bomb on a character, only to have the pepper spray fumes set them on fire? If anything, they need to seriously bolster money bombs as it is, because it's a neglected feature and I don't want to spend my hard-earned cash on a social distraction if all it's going to do is call some people together who won't even conceal me, so magnetized by the little gold coins on the ground that they are.

If I was personally to rank the Hidden Blade gadgets as you've listed them, I'd probably set them as this, just so that there's an equal mix between melee and ranged based applications, though I wouldn't personally guarantee the inclusion of all of them:

Default weapons (Rank 1)
Hidden Blade (Rank 2)
Throwing knives (Rank 3)
Hookblade (Rank 4)
Shoe Blade and Pivot Blade (Rank 5)
Rope darts and Meteor bolas (Rank 6)
Hidden Gun and throwing needles (Rank 7)
Tar and Pepper bombs (Rank 8)
Poison Blade (Rank 9)
Phantom Blade and poisoned ammo (Rank 10)
Specialized firearms: Blunderbuss, Trident musket, Bowhammer, Ignition bombs (Master Rank)

Specialized firearms

I do like the idea of these specialized firearms, given that the Chinese essentially invented guns to begin with, through the application of using fireworks as projectiles, leading to gunpowder-ignited barreled weaponry, so hopefully three different guns won't be too much. At most though, there should be a restriction to which one you could carry at any one given time, though that's not to say they shouldn't implement them all, and to be fair to all, they should all be able to perform the boat-sinking mechanic detailed below them.

When it comes to the use of the Bowhammer, I would prefer that it use throwing needles as makeshift crossbow bolts, if only to reduce the need for so many ammunition types present. I see the weapon as an embodiment of pure piercing power, while also retaining a quiet edge.

I see the Blunderbuss makes a return somewhere in there, but since it's for explosive crowd control, it's nice to know you can take our gunpowder barrels while also chipping away when all the guards come at once.

I've simplified the concept of the tri-bladed and barreled musket to a trident, with the blades on each side being thick and keenly sharp. The middle blade however should have a barreled opening, but with still a sharpened end to not decrease the trident musket's utility. To me, having a triple-barreled musket seems a bit overkill, and does detract from the blunderbuss' crowd kill function, but the the bladed ram trigger does sound like a good way to get extra range with it if they're just a smidgen away. Giving it a spear wielding capacity and a shoot-able portion seems innovative enough of itself though.

Proposed new abilities

Traversal and combat additions

Improvised weaponry being more readily available, and not just a quick damage-dealing cutscene is always a good thing, but I don't personally agree with making a chain an invincible weapon just because you lifted it out of the nearby corner. If anything, they should be used as a momentary stun (brick or bottle) or distraction (bag of flour or discarded roof tile) in case of small things, and for larger combat worthy items, they should be usable and frequent, but low durability and more prone to break as opposed to your crafted weapon.

Sail tearing sounds like a great idea, though I could imagine it better as using your Pivot Blade or dagger or sword to descend down a sail from the top in a manner reminiscent of Prince of Persia, or that you can move swiftly from the left to the right or in reverse, height aiding the diagonal traversal as gravity plays its part, or being able to jump from a sail being torn to perform an air assassination. The added benefit to this mechanic as well is that if you can fully slash through a sail, you could watch as it falls down and traps an enemy under its heavy weight, giving you the perfect opportunity to leap down from a mast as the cloth has them pinned down and assassinate them from above, their blood soaking through the cloth for an obscured but confirmed death.

Head in a cannon barrel seems to me to be something that can be enacted through environmental based assassinations, this time bringing them to ships too, as there's rarely a chance to see them there.

The single shot sinking mechanism could work on large ships through having a small, identifiable weakness in said ship's structure which when hitting it with the Hidden Gun, Bowhammer, Blunderbuss or Trident musket fire could set off a short countdown like you see when you sabotage barrels on land from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed: Rogue. When it comes to small rowboats though, you should be able to stab the Trident musket in the middle of the ship and fire it to snap the boat in half, or fire a needle bolt with the Bowhammer to create a crack then smack it with the heavy hammer, or just Blunderbuss a giant hole in the middle of the rowboat and watch as it sinks.

For underwater blowpipes, it should be implemented through the use of reed beds lining shallow shores, which the Assassin could snap one off and use it to travel while diving for an extended period, though can raise suspicion when an enemy sees a single reed above water in a vast space. To use a poison dart with it though, the player should be made to give up one of their poison ammo to trigger it, thus helping to resolve ammo bloat.

I have no objections or suggestions for the creation of obstacles in a chase or backwards cartwheel in combat. The former seems like a more expanded feature of Ezio using the Hookblade to pull wooden scaffolding down, but infinitely more useful.

The wall flip sounds like a good feature to implement provided it doesn't clash with the wall stepping one. Perhaps one could be a double button press when automatically aligned towards a wall and letting the brief auto-climb carry you up before performing the wall flip, then the wall kick scaling could be a sequential button press when the Assassin is just about to land against the wall to kick off it again.

For the wall flip though, this could easily be chained into an attack when an enemy is chasing you, allowing you to turn the tables and perform a serious injury to their back, or even death in the case of lesser equipped foes.

The wall kick scaling though is actually a mechanism in Assassin's Creed: Rogue, but the bad part about it is that it's a scripted animation, triggered only by certain elements in the environment. Having an active skill that could be used anywhere that the walls are close enough to be ascended sounds like a fun way to evade a pursuer.

Finally, all I wanted to say with the flip stand is that his too could also be chained with an attack for a surprise blow or assassination in weaker enemies. Springing up and then stabbing down in an overhead strike is a treat for visual interpretation.

I believe you also mentioned something about alternate ledge based assassinations? I too would like to see the Hookblade used to bolster ledge based assassinations, this time from rooftop edges above your target. I disliked how sensitively psychic the ledge-standing guards in Unity were, especially when they had been alerted to your presence before. It makes it really impossible to get ledge kills and yet's there's an Initiates challenge for 500 of them.

My idea involves using the Hookblade to keep you in place on a roof edge, allowing you to use your other Hidden Blade to brutally slash the back of the guard's neck if the Hookblade is on the hanging arm. If not, you could snag them under the throat and throw them over to the side and over the ledge. This allows you to remain unseen above a ledge's door frame, stopping you from being spotted from both the guard below and guards inside a building. Perhaps even a feature where can kill a guard below you and throw them up on top of the roof, in contrast to ledge assassinations typically being down only?

Eagle Vision

I foresee that I'll be trimming down this section in half.

Firstly, you could be doing with merging together Eagle Scan with Natural Conscious, perhaps making the latter an upgrade.

Secondly, since Not-to-Eat and Eagle Heart pertain to the prevention of death, they can be merged together as a specialized, but general awareness perk of Eagle Vision.

And the last thing I'll speak about is Eyes-on-Tail and Superfocus. Making Superfocus work whenever you want to plan ahead with your moves makes it a little bit too powerful when there's also a slow time mechanic dealing with parrying. I'd suggest that Eyes-on-Tail works as it does, with Superfocus working to extend its duration by half, while also allowing you Assassin to pick up on all musket wielders aiming at you from the front and behind, giving you a greater chance to duck or human shield.

Considerations for Ubisoft

I agree very much with the points you've made, especially the last one in this if it is to be scanned over by them and molded into a working prototype. At this moment in time, they're rushing to get games out on a yearly basis, but it's doing the series no good, and it needs a grand revival like Assassin's Creed II proved to be in comparison to the first Assassin's Creed.

They really need to sit down, refine and tweak their engine, give us a full length game that we can enjoy again and again so we don't need another to mollify us next year, and focus on their storytelling and design decisions, because it may seem all well and good from a developer's perspective to have a point in the game where the player becomes able to explore after being confined to the story and giving them access to all the prospective side content, but from a gamer's angle, all it looks like is that the floodgates are open and now you're mired up to your neck in distractions.

I feel it is necessary to retain the exploration-based play with the chests and collectibles, and the newly integrated social events are fun to split off from your main path for (when they're not just giving you one customization piece and the rest being money from them on), but save certain side missions until they are featured in the main story line first. I didn't want to do Murder Mysteries prior to their plot based introduction, and I don't think I have even started them anyway. I didn't want to do co-op missions and heists before Arno has even joined the Assassins. I didn't want to hunt down assassination contracts in Black Flag before Mary Read introduced them to me, but I started them anyway because I hadn't known that she'd be showing me the plot trigger later on. Same with the Mayan stelae.

And last but not least, cut ou the overbearing social integration bullshit. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag handled it perfectly. My brother could be managing my fleet while I was sailing around doing the missions. He could have been expanding my progress on the Assassin's Creed: Rogue equivalent if it had the functionality. Keeping a collectible in the main game hidden behind an Apple or Android application is despicable. If Unity's companion app handled extra bits of lore here and there and a reliable, non-extortionate time-based contract system for ammo refills and money gifts, people'd love it much more than a chest you can't get into because something external won't allow it. Initiates, for some instant internet application that you can enter via your PS4 or Xbox One is sure a disappointment when its inaccessible at launch, scatters unopenable chests around the city, and hasn't even fully updated 3 months after its parent application was released.

Final notes

I'm not going to delve into historical events, because I've already spent half a day writing this colossal post out, so forgive me for any grammar or spelling errors, and since Ubisoft tend not to take people's fan written stories and make them into a game, since it makes it look like their story-writers can't do their jobs. (Not like they don't need a good kick up the arse though.)

Hope all this helps a great bunch and all,
Slate