I hear what you're saying, but I still feel that the scale used will be very different than Fallout 3 or Skyrim. The main reason is to do with verticality. Looking at some of the buildings and structures reaching skywards, as well as the 'white marble quarry' and other locations that reach well below ground, we can see that the actual traversable map size is going to be much bigger. Add in Boston Harbor, which will be the 'mountains' of Fallout 4, and this increases even further. Now factor in the new ways that we can actually get around (of which there would seem to be a few nice additions), and all indications point to the scale being much closer to real life.

I even have a very strong feeling that instead of the 1:30 timescale we have been used to, we will instead be seeing a 1:6 timescale. This would mean that, rather than each in-game day lasting a mere 48 minutes of realtime, it would actually take 4 hours. This would equate to 1 hour of realtime for 6 hours in-game, and would give far better pacing to night missions, which I'm also quite certain will be a thing.

Man, I hope all that comes true. There's so much that could be done with underwater adventuring. Could be an entire vault/base/city underwater. Rapture like.

I genuinely believe that it will.

As many people on the forum know, my 'special interest' is finding obscure patterns and hidden connections with information from the footage, the perk chart, and various other sources. With many other games, this would not necessarily be as relevant, and would perhaps be a little OTT. But the way that Bethesda put their games together, there are always a ton of these meaningful hidden references, and with Fallout 4, it looks like they've really gone to town.

The information I have discovered in the layout of the perk chart alone literally proves that our couple are directly connected to the US Navy and the Marines. The male protagonist is a Navy SEAL, and the female protagonist is a Marine. I am even fairly confident of the specific units/regiments that they belong to, and it's all in the numbers. For the record, there are a number of images in the concept art that show the male protagonist wading through swamps, which is one of the terrain types covered in the rigorous http://www.military.com/special-operations/training-to-be-a-navy-seal.html training programme. Also note that there even seems to be a possible WWII connection with JFK, who actually founded the SEALs in 1962. To add further weight to all of this, the SEALs even have their own special attack dogs who are also water trained, such as the one shown http://navyseals.com/2163/the-dogs-of-the-navy-seals, who happens to look an awful lot like the dog we have seen in the footage and even the trailer.

Speaking of the dog, I think there is a very important reason why the trailer is shown largely from his viewpoint, and I believe this is tied in with one of the perks.

Note that none of the above information would make much sense unless you also had lots of water areas that were filled with wreckages and other features to explore, as well as being potentially very dangerous. Apart from the lakes, rivers, and swamps, the area in which the game is set also happens to include an enormous underwater area in the form of Boston Harbor, which is known to have a large number of wreckages, submarine mines, and according to the concept art, underwater creatures including giant squid.

EDIT: I shall post up my proof once I have completed the rest of the update for the remaining perks

I wonder if the dog will actually be required to complete certain tasks? .. Hopefully if it is, they give us a way to call and dismiss it................ Is the dog male or female? Maybe it's gender will be determined by what gender you choose... that'd be funny. Maybe it'll be the opposite gender of what you choose so you can pretend it's the reincarnation of your spouse.

I doubt the dog will be required for anything.

Todd has already said you can choose to never get it in the first place.

I don't think the dog will actually be required, no more than any of the other possible companions would be required. But I can see two very important reasons why the perk is called Attack Dog.

NEW UPDATE:

All Perception perks now added to OP with full Descriptions.

Just finished reading through your latest predictions. Excellent work! If this turns out to be accurate, we are in for some real treats. Firestarter and Sniper are more than I would have hoped for. Great job Liam!

The only problem I have is deciding which perks to take now.

Glad you like then, more on the way!

This looks to be something of a work in progress. It's nice that whoever did this is in agreement with some of my ideas, but it's a bit of a low blow ripping ideas without so much as a mention. As you can see from the first paragraph in the OP, several people on here have contributed ideas to this thread, and all have been mentioned

I have added a link at the top of my thread to the orcz page.

Thank you, I really appreciate any feedback due to the amount of time this has taken so far. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Note that the orcz page mentioned above now includes a direct link back to this thread, accessed via the http://orcz.com/Talk:Fallout_4:_Perk_Chart

will different perk ranks have their own names? for example: Medicine rank 1 = Medicine, Medicine Rank 2 = Doctor, Medicine Rank 3 = Surgeon, etc?

This is a strong possibility, although it would be incredibly hard to predict in an accurate way! For simplicity, I have included only the 'primary' names for each perk. If information is revealed at any point as to specific rank names, I will add this to the OP.

That seems fitting.

Do the strength perks seem somewhat mixed up or backwards to anyone else? Brawler at 1? Surely, to be effective at hand to hand combat it'd take much more strength than just 1. Then you have all your melee perks above hand to hand and then after all that you get the hitting with gun techniques which you'd only really need to use to knock somebody back a bit so you could shoot them.

I guess they could be putting them in order of what would be the easiest, most accessible things people would have learned to fight with. Hands, things, guns... But it'd still require the opposite in strength to use any of those effectively. Nobody's going to be running around as a strength 1 hand to hand guy but everyone with a gun will probably be bashing people away who get too close.

The Intel perk is quite a satisfying read.. Hopefully that indicates that there will be a new separate mini-game for safe cracking.

The Strength list seems to have a natural order of progression that would suggest an almost evolutionary process:

First we throw a basic punch (Brawler). Then we pick up an object and hit someone with it (Big Leaguer). Then we pick up another object and throw it (Rocketeer - we've just invented ranged combat). Next we learn to throw a more powerful punch that damages limbs (Crushing Blow). We then pick up a heavier object and use that to break even more limbs (Wrecking Ball). By this time, we're able to carry many objects as we scavenge the wastes (Strong Back). Next, we find a metal weapon in the form of a pistol, and we use the handle to cause damage at close range (Pistol Boy/Girl). We then find a rifle, which does even more damage at close range using the stock (Rifleman/Riflewoman). By this time, we're becoming fairly competent, and so we start to put together brutal new forms of attack (Slayer). Finally, we are so strong that we can even use our body as a weapon to charge into others and knock them over, as well as carrying huge amounts of weight over short bursts (Power Surge).

Oddly enough, this fits perfectly with the idea of moving from a civilised pre-war existence, to becoming an almost primitive hunter/savage in a post-war world.

As for safe-cracking, this has already been confirmed as seen http://www.gameinformer.com/games/fallout_4/b/playstation4/archive/2015/07/26/fallout-4-quakecon-presentation.aspx?utm_content=buffer11c8a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer&PostPageIndex=3&PageIndex=3, and so I'm quite certain there will be a new dedicated mini-game.

Well, it is fun to read the speculation, but some of the perks seem extraordinarily unlikely, and contrary to Bethesda's usual design. For example, a strength perk to bash both locks and terminals? Would make that unrelated perk far better than either of the direct lockpicking/hacking perks individually, and is completely illogical to make someone super strong better at infiltration than someone who's an expert at picking locks or hacking.

Bethesda's usual design has never included flying in vertibirds, cracking safes, voice acted protagonists, military training, or tearing apart and rebuilding entire settlements. And these are just a few of the evolutionary changes we have been shown.

Also, the ability to access a door or container, or bypass a terminal, should not be limited only to those with lockpicking or hacking skills. Because of the sheer number of possible builds, and the focus on player choice, it would make sense if there were alternatives. As long as the perks are balanced, so that anyone trained in picking locks or hacking terminals would have a definite edge, and that breaking either was not guaranteed success, this would open up more focused choices without every player having to take certain perks just because they're the only available option.

I still think the whole idea of two perks, with levels, just for using a gun or rifle to hit someone with is a complete waste. If I'm a gun user I can't see putting myself in that position enough times to warrant spending perk points on it, and am I still not better off just trying to shoot someone point blank, and if I can switch weapons just grab a bat. There would have to be no other perks left in the game before I picked these two. I certainly hope there is more to those perks than these assumptions.

If this is in fact the correct function for these two perks, then they would certainly be something of a speciality. But consider a player who perhaps chooses to carry as few items as possible, who uses a lot of stealth, and who also wishes to preserve ammo. Granted you could just use the basic melee attack of your pistol or rifle without using perks, but a few ranks invested here would turn either choice into a formidable melee weapon. This would be exactly the same as investing in Big Leaguer, but would involve using your pistol or rifle instead, which is an entirely different skill. Essentially, you are learning a very specific one-handed or two-handed attack depending on your choice of weapon.

EDIT: It's also significant that both perks have a high stat requirement, which would suggest that they are both very powerful. Although a bullet would invariably do a lot more damage.

sure you will, you can do whatever you want with your perks, i'm sure there's going to be an intense training perk and each time you level instead of picking a regular perk you can pick a SPECIAL stat perk, i would think at least 10 ranks of the SPECIAL stat perk, you start with so few they have to let you build a character with at least a few very high SPECIAL stats, if you could raise only 1 special stat to 10 that wouldn't go over too well or be any fun, even starting the game you can't raise any to 10 without having the rest super low, i can't see that, although i do like the idea of starting with less stat points, but of course you're going to be able to max out several of them during the course of the game, not all of em, but probably a few of em.

the estimate for fallout 3 is 50 hrs? it depends what you're talking about, no possible way to explore and clear enemies in every location and do every quest in 50 hrs, its just not close to possible, to go in every metro tunnel and kill the enemies, do all the quests[some of which are complex and time consuming and clear every building complex/facility takes more like 3 or 4 hundred hours and you still will find locations years later most likely, just clearing the capitol building for the first time takes an hour easily, same goes for most of the locations, la enfant plaza is a serious battle, same with takoma industrial area, a lot of the building complexes are pretty large, like lob enterprises, the metro tunnels under hubris comics, the roosovelt academy, red racer factory, those locations take time to clear and explore the first 2 or 3 playthrus, it took me like almost 2 hrs just to clear the national guard armory the first time i went in there....rushing thru the mainquest once you're familiar with the map and game can be done in less than 50 hrs but it takes time to pick locks, loot containers and walk all over the map clearing out large locations

You can do all the main quests, DLCs and even a good many of the larger main quests in Fallout 3 in about 25 hours (if not rushing). I think I've seen a speed run done in less than 20 minutes (but it requires a bit of a glitch to get into the Citadel just after leaving the Vault). Note that's just for Vanilla ending (not Broken Steel).