What I want to see in the next Assassin's Creed

So a new Assassin's Creed is coming soon (November to be specific) and while the core gameplay hasn't changed there's been tweak and changes that have had major impacts to the overall feel of the game.

Going forward, here's some changes I'd like to see in future games.

• Bring back the Kingdom - The first game had this rather huge area that you had to travel through to get to and from each major city.   There was a number of viewpoints, Templars, and flags to collect there.   It was a huge wide open space that made the game feel rather large.   For the impatient, once you had traveled to a particular city you could fast travel but I liked knowing that I could ride through the kingdom.  With the exception of a single road at one point in the ACII (which I actually really liked), the game never let you travel from city to city.  And since ACB was all in a single city, well there you go.
• Add difficulty levels - Let's face it, Assassin's Creed is easy.  It would be nice if the game had additional difficulty level or maybe even a New Game + option.  The full sync addition to the missions in ACB was a really nice addition, but why no Achievements/Trophies for my electronic bragging rights?
• Try to stay historically accurate (aka - Don't get too crazy) - The War Machines from Brotherhood provided an interesting diversion, but it started to take the series in a bit of a, "Hey that's not in my history books" direction.
• Bring back the investigations - I don't necessarily mean that you need to have it quite as rigid as it was in the first game, but every once in a while (more so in AC II), you'd get a contract with no rhyme or reason and somehow you know exactly where they would be and what they would be doing.   I actually liked doing some of that find out myself.
• Pickpocketing - I used to be able to pickpocket.  Bumping to people is all fine and good for small change but I want to be able to take that nice shiny dagger they have in their belt.
• More Cities - Rome was nice, and it was huge, but I kinda wanted to be able to go to other places (and travel to get there).
• More side missions - I love all the hidden catacombs and places that you can explore in ACII and ACB.  Keep that stuff coming.
• Keep the flashbacks coming - I loved the bits with Altaïr in ACII and the sidestory with Cristina in Brotherhood.  Let's have more of that please, maybe some Desmond backstory would be interesting.
• 100% Sync Achievement/Trophy - There should be an achievement/trophy for this.  And while we are at it, how about a bonus cutscene or something.

Of course, I also want them to continue the great story and gameplay, but I think the above would help.