Rulers of the Sea will be a game in 3rd and 1st person perspective. When you walk around through the streets of cities, when you are in interiors of buildings or on the deck of ships, the world will be seen from a perspective behind your character. You can pan the camera around your character, seeing the world from a 360 degree perspective. When your character interacts with an object such as a desk, a book or a cupboard, or when your character is in a fixed command position on a ship, the perspective will change to 1st person.
The user interface is based on as much realism as is practically feasible. Instead of 2 dimensional menus showing lists of items or characters, the presentation will be in the form of ledgers, books, lists and forms that appear in an 18th century style. Mail will be in the form of letters, chat will be in the form of proximity voice chat. Things like the technical game settings menu or text chat might be in a modern form, but wherever practical a historic styling will be preferred.
Names for characters, families, ships, units or companies will be selected from extensive lists that match with the chosen culture. This way the existence of unrealistic names will be avoided. Names will not hover overhead and markers will not been shown in a HUD, locations can be found on in-game maps. Gamers will have to depend on observation as they get familiar with their surroundings. For gamers that find this realism too hard there will be some HUD assist options.
The movements of gamer characters will be appropriate to their surroundings. Gamers won’t be able to sprint, jump, crawl or be aggressive in locations and times where that would be unrealistic. They will be able to interact with furniture, talk to NPC characters, enter a variety of interiors and engage in realistic behaviour such as drinking, eating, talking, bartering and making music.
The cities, costumes, ship types, sounds and music will appear in cultural styles that are appropriate to the region. As gamers are also encouraged to play in their own cultural region of origin, the look and feel of regions will truly appear authentic. NPC’s in the streets or in places of business will show realistic behaviour according to the day and night cycle, maximizing the historic feel of a place.