To that end, players will commandeer the Jackdaw, Edward's ship. According to the developers, the Jackdaw is a brig class ship that players will be able to both upgrade and customize—a core element of AC4. It will be necessary to do so as players will go up against tougher and more challenging ships through the course of the game.
"They will have new abilities and more firepower as you progress forward. You will need to keep up with them. To finish the main path story you do need to upgrade the Jackdaw, but you don't need all the upgrades," Ismail said.
He added that the land and sea experiences will blend seamlessly into each other, citing naval forts as an example of how this might work.
"These are locations that you have to battle in the sea, fight against turrets, towers and other ships defending the fort," he said. "When you breach the defenses of the fort you can let go of the wheel, get on to the land and raid the fort using stealth, navigation and ground fight. And all this happens seamlessly."
The game's naval combat has been overhauled from what players experienced in Assassin's Creed 3, with a lot of work being done towards improving the physics. It is now possible to ride a wave and use it for cover, and players will have access to a much wider array of weaponry while at sea, each of which provide different strategies and require different skills to master.
"It's up to the player to upgrade these weapons and push for the play style they enjoy. To support this we have many new AI ships that will challenge the player in different ways," he said.
Ismail said that there will be different types of ships to go up against, including the Charger, a ship with very little firepower but comes equipped with a powerful ram; and the Tank, a massive ship that has difficulty turning but carries a wide array of weapons.
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is set for an October 29, 2013 release on the PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PS4.
