Empire eh? Perhaps it's about the Roman Conquest of Egypt, and the Romans being the Templars, and the Assassins being the Egyptians hiding their ancient Egyptian assassin relic from the Templars. Actually you know what, I'm bookmarking this prediction and coming back to it later, if the rumor turns out to be true.
At the same time, it very well could stray away from the Templar storyline quite a bit and focus more on the character like Black Flag did. They did say complete revamp too......
How can they make it better? Well the things you listed sound intriguing, but it won't be enough. If they want a complete revamp they are going to have to remove the terrible and confusing Animus - along with all the bad modern day missions.
Also, you gotta make us feel like we're in that world Ubisoft. That's how you get your critical acclaim.
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