Ubisoft reveals Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag multiplayer ‘secrets’

In an UbiBlog Monday, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Lead Multiplayer Game Designer Tim Browne spilled the beans on a number of multiplayer secrets, including improvements, additions, and ways to further the component's longevity.

According to Browne, multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is more accessible than ever, something their team aims to do with every installment. Browne adds that the idea is to enhance the experience without “losing the core gameplay” or “dumbing it down,” and he believes they’ve done just that through a number of improvements.

We have an improved tutorial, which has this nice story to it so it’s a bit more accessible. It draws you in a bit more than a dry, flat simulation. Then, with Wolfpack we’ve created a deliberate story wrapper around it. It’s sort of a revenge story – but I don’t want to give too much away and spoil it. The story helps introduce all the different sequences and what’s involved in Wolfpack, to make you a better player so you can work with up to three other players cooperatively in this specific mode.

We also made improvements on the menus, and we looked at the ergonomics of things. As a player, where would I expect a menu to go? How should it react? What happens when I press this button? That kind of thing. We’re always striving to improve that to make it feel comfortable so when I pick up the controller I don’t feel put off. I’m not overwhelmed by information. We gradually introduce different things like abilities. That’s key in our progression system, which we spend a lot of time on.

Browne’s team has also focused on the additions to multiplayer that longtime fans will instantly recognize and adapt to. One of these additions outlined in the blog is clan support. Players can now create full clans in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag multiplayer, something the Ubisoft team has recognized as an importance with online tournaments and regular, competitive interaction in past installments.

Better yet, Browne detailed how players will be able to keep returning to multiplayer long after the Oct. 29 release date.

We’re always looking at keeping the game going. This shows in our prestige loops as well. We’ve increased the level cap this year from 50 to 55. After you’ve gone through 55 levels, then you prestige and there are 99 prestige loops. There are hours and hours of gameplay in that. There’s progression. You unlock new things – titles and emblems and things for customization. It’s not exactly a showoff, but if you put in the effort to get to prestige 15, we want to give you something exclusive that you can only unlock at prestige 15. We love supporting the community like that. We want new players, but we want new players to make the community bigger, not to replace existing fans. We will always support existing fans.

Source: [UbiBlog]