Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag Q&A Reveals Further Details

A Q&A on Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with creative director Jean Guesdon has surfaced and can be found on various sites including All Games Beta. It's a long document, so if you haven't got time to read it through here's a summary of some of the things you might not yet know about the game:

Ubisoft Montreal is the lead, but five other studios are also working on the game (Singapore, Sofia, and Quebec for the single player; Annecy and Bucharest for the multiplayer). This practice of using multiple studios has been in place since Assassin's Creed 2.
As far as the Templars and Assassins are concerned, the story is that the Templars are trying to find “a mysterious place” that could give them an advantage against their enemies, and the Assassins are trying to stop them.
Ubisoft wants to tell the “TRUE story of piracy”, not a clichéd version.
The events of the game start in around 1715, the year in which a hurricane caused eleven galleons full of gold to crash into the Florida coast, which resulted in the arrival of many pirates to the scene. These pirates established a base in New Providence in the Bahamas, in a place today called Nassau. Nassau could apparently be considered one of the first prototype democratic societies, “with fewer distinctions based on race or sex”.
Edward was born in Wales but his family moved to Bristol in his early teens. He married a “lovely and stable” woman called Caroline Scott but she left him because of his plans to sail as a privateer in the West Indies to make his fortune. He did sail out with a privateer in 1712, but in 1713 “peace broke out” between the major empires and privateers were no longer needed, so he became a pirate.
It sounds like Edward doesn't start out as an Assassin. When the game begins he is already a pirate, but events early in the game “lead Edward right into the heart of the Assassin/Templar conspiracy”.
Edward's main weapons are dual swords and multi-pistols. These allow him to quickly wipe out groups of enemies, which comes in handy when boarding a target ship.
Prostitutes are back, and Edward can hire them to distract guards. He can also get drunk pirates to “do some dirty fighting for him”.
Aside from the dual swords and multi-pistols, Edward has a blowpipe with different kinds of darts (much like Aveline, presumably) and double hidden blades, and can use weapons taken from enemies (rifles, single swords, knives, heavy axes). Apparently, the Rope Dart “will also make a return”.
The Jackdaw, Edward's ship, has a variety of different weapons too, and will gain more throughout the game.
Ubisoft seems reluctant to discuss scope – “we don't really craft a game comparing its size to previous ones” – but points out that we'll be able to visit more than 50 locations.
If you didn't really like Assassin's Creed III, don't worry; Black Flag will learn from all the previous games, and is “not the legacy of AC3 only”.
As far as missions are concerned, around 60% of play will take place on land and 40% at sea, but given the open-world Horizon system in the game Ubisoft hopes players will feel like their experience as a whole is divided 50/50 between the two.
“Stealth will be back” as it fits with the piratical theme.
The Horizon system offers players two or three pirate “opportunities”, discoverable through using Edward's spyglass, at any one time.
The team has “completely overhauled” the ocean physics to create more realistic naval navigation and combat.
Some of the famous figures Edward will meet include: Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, “Calico” Jack Rackham, and Bartholomew Roberts.
Black Flag will come to next-generation consoles with “new connected features” that will show players that even if they prefer playing solo it's best to play while connected in some way.
Desmond will be “referred to as a very important legacy of the AC universe”, but is not the main protagonist.