This is the skill list I would like to see for Fallout 4.

01. Blade
02. Blunt
03. Hand to Hand

04. Throwing
05. Guns
06. Chemical Weapons

07. Explosives
08. Energy Weapons
09. Big Guns

10. Persuasion
11. Deception
12. Barter

13. Gambling (Only if gambling minigames are removed)
14. Chemistry (Primarily crafting but has other uses too.)
15. Mechanics (cosmetic change from Repair (Includes some aspect of Science as well))

16. Pilot (Only if Vehicles are present.)
17. Electronics
18. Medicine

19. Survival
20. Outdoorsman (Only if a map node system is in place with world travel)
21. Hacking
22. Lockpicking

23. Steal (Only if they expand on the amount of items to be stolen so it can finally be viable to steal something.)
24. Sneak
25. Traps (Only if there is a good amount of traps and we can craft and use our own.)

Now let me explain them.

1. While swords (fencing) and knifes are different combat styles I'd rather not make a long list too long, but bladed weapons and blunt weapons function differently.
Blunt weapons use brute force to crush the enemy, while bladed weapons, which are mostly knifes, aren't really a strong suit for someone to charge a deathclaw with.
So Blade is mostly the stealth skill, an assassin skill, but there "are" weapons that are of more impact that you can use like swords, machetes and fire axes but they are harder to find. Spears go in this skill too, they function completely different but again, the skill list is already long, better to just throw them in here. Thrown spears on the other hand are governed by the Throwing skill.

2. Blunt, the omega to it's alpha, the straight forward brute skill, heavier, louder, stronger, while Blade weapons have a greater critical chance, critical damage and a bleed effect the Blunt skill's weapons are high DAM but slower and not very suitable for sneaky kills.

3. Basically Unarmed with a name change, think it freshens it up a little. It's core design is the same but it would be nice with more combat moves and to be able to kick like in the old games. (And kick down doors as well. )

4. Throwing, now throwing is a tricky skill and most definitely an under dog when compared to the rest, but I still think that players should be given the option to specialize in a less valid combat skill if they choose to, but the skill will support grenades as well.
Grenades are governed by this skill AND Explosives skill, they are combo weapons, if you have 200 in Throwing you will be just as proficient with grenades as you would with 200 in Explosives, on the other hand, if you have 200 in both skills you don't get any duplicate bonus for it, 200 in one skill means you've learned how to use them to perfection, you can't learn "double perfection". So while governed by both, leveling both is unnecessary.

6. Chemical Weapons, this weapon skill includes all fire based weapons chemical weapons, fire included, Flame Gun, Flame Rifle, Flamer, Incinerator, Incendiary Grenade et cetera.
It should be it's own skill because fire based weapons does not fit in any other skill (Except incendiary grenade).
If you build in this skill you will have it easier and have it harder, the damage of the weapons is quite large but the problem is their ammo consumption.
They're also "rare'ish". You can get the Flame Gun easily of course but the rest is a lot harder to come by.

9. Why o why is Big Guns on the list? Cause it should be, Big Guns governs all BIG weapons, just like it has done before, but this skill is completely filled with combo weapons.
If you have 200 in Guns you can use minigun to perfection, but if you have 200 in Big Guns you can use minigun AND the rest of the big weapons to perfection.
So Minigun is still a Guns, Gatling Laser is still an Energy Weapon, and GMG is still an Explosive, but this skill let's you use all of them.

10/11. Why the split of Speech? Because they're both different. Persuasion means you know how to persuade people it has a lot more dialogue options than deception does, but deception governs the success rate of disguising yourself, the game should of course need more infiltration missions in order for disguises to be more of use.
Anyway, just cause you're a smooth talker don't mean you have a poker face, they're both different, and should be split so.
Deception also means you know where to hide stuff on yourself and not making them "stand out" and can smuggle items.

13. I think that Gambling should be reinstated and that the minigames should be removed, I hate the minigames, if I want to play black jack I'll go online and find a game to play. Gambling should be based on character skill, not player skill, so yes, back with Gambling.

14. Chemistry is a crafting skill primarily, with this one you know how to craft various drugs, poisons, acids and other items.
Chemistry should also have it's quest and event sequences, maybe there's some mold on a beam supporting a house and your character figures out that he can use chemical component #42 and apply it to the mold which creates acid and therefor eats away at the beam, collapsing the house. (Dunno how this would work or if it even could work but yknow, have certain moments where a high Chemistry skill can come in handy.)

15. Mechanics is a renamed Repair, functions basically the same way, it has a bit of Science in it as well, but mostly it's a cosmetic change.
Well, that is IF we have vehicles. If we do have vehicles in FO4 then this skill will come in handy for repairing vehicles and sabotaging others.

16. Pilot, well... Vehicles, if they're in the game then the Pilot skill determines how good your character is at steering the vehicle and how far he can jump with it and other things. (I'm not very interested in cars so I don't know what a good driver can do with a car really.)

17. Electronics... *sigh* Go read my posts in the "Why is big guns removed?" thread in New Vegas General Discussion.
Collected the info



18. Medicine... I'd rather have First Aid and Doctor back but there are already so many skills on here.

20. If we have a map node system with random encounters then this skill will function just like in the old games.

21. Hacking, what it sounds like, you can hack any computer interface with a deep coded lock.

23. Steal, I think that steal should be brought back, but if brought back then there should be a lot more moments where can steal something of value.
Not necessarily of $ value but rather quest value, say someone has a key on himself, you could either disguise yourself with Deception and say you're a new high ranking officer, you could use Electronics to turn off the lights by cutting some wires and have him lured to the wires trying to fix it and shocking himself unconseaus(???) you could smooth talk him with Persuasion or you could use the Steal skill to take it from him.

22. Sneak only means you're great at keeping yourself undetected, it does NOT mean you're a great thief and it does NOT you know how to conceal items better.
Just means your footsteps are that of a mouse and you blend in with the darkness.

25. And finally, Traps, first off, traps should be more deadly, secondly, there should be more of them, ranging from a huge log chained to the ceiling to an alarmed door.
So for the skill to be worth it let there be more traps, hell, let there be moments (not a lot) were you can't even continue further in a building until you've disarmed the trap.
You can also create traps of your own, and yes, they are very deadly.

Might clean this post up later but I think that there needs to be more skills and these are the one's I thought of.

Skill cap should be 200. (I'd rather have it at 300 though.)


Hmm, the Electronics skill could also provide the player with a perk later on that allows to convert robots and turrets to the PC's side.
Could be useful for a pacifist to walk around with 5 Mr Gutsy's and not having to do much fighting themselves.
Of course, repairing the robot is still governed by Mechanics though.
And the robots don't get "any" +damage or +health when they're with the PC, they're only meant to be temporary.

And bad karma you brought up another good point, Chemistry could allow to create a stronger form of acid capable of destroying the lock of a container, but with an insufficient skill proficiency the PC would not be able to rescue the items in time until the acid destroyed them too.
Hmm, I'm thinking of clorophome for it as well so we can abduct people for quests and giggles. The greater the skill the more potent it is and the longer the abductee is unconscious.

Could see lots of fun coming from these two skills.

If Lyons Brotherhood is in FO4 then rename them to something "other" than BOS, like Lyons Brotherhood or The Guardians or whatever. Cause they are NOT the Brotherhood anymore, they're a rouge faction that's helping people in PA, no reason to slap a BOS stick on them again.
If Enclave is in the game then rename them to Enclave Remnants or a new name all together.
Allow us to join up with Talon Company.
Have NO generic raiders at all, all raiders need a name and a backstory, even if it's an all out hostile faction we should be able to get some kind of history from diaries or holotapes. No raider should just be there for the sake of just being there.
If Outcasts are in then have them player a bigger role, maybe not let us "join" them but let us work for them as more than just a collection agent.
Include Smugglers from PL and flesh them out.

Either have the factions in the game be fleshed out enough to make sense or don't include them.
If you can't find a good way to implement one of FO4's factions without making them the generic crap like in FO3 then don't have them in the game.

Let us be able to join or help out a lot of factions, raiders, tribals, mercs, assassin organization, black market, towns, military groups, cults et cetera.
Make it have more of an impact if we piss off a faction.
And have it so that if I help Talon Company with a quest then Lyons Brotherhood rep will go down even if I haven't killed any Lyons members.
Why?
Cause why should the rep only go down if we kill a member?
There should be a lot more action and consequence so that we must tread carefully not to piss off the wrong people.

Let us choose what race to be in Fallout 4.

Start out with:
* Wastelander > Prime Normal (race trait)
* Super Mutant > Nightkin (race trait)
* Android
* Ghoul
* Trog

Android (UnDeCafIndeed + Gabriel)
Pro's
- Base HP (before endurance effect) x1.5
- Double effects from endurance
- +1 to Str, End and Per (changed my mind with the perception)
- +5 initial DT
- Does not require SLP/FOD/H2O
- +2 to detecting enemies on radar (10 real PER = 12 PER for the detecting enemies)
- Unique perks exclusive to Androids
- Immune to radiation and poison

Con's
- Base skillpoint gain halved (if the formula is 10+(intx0.5), it would be 5+(intx0.5) for androids)
- Perks one level later than others (if normal rate is 1:2, for android it'd be 1:3)
- -2 to max int and cha
- When lit on fire, it lasts twice aslong as with others, though fire does not do more damage than normally
- Does require ENRG and SYN
- Pulse or Tesla or Shock weapons inflict twice as much damage on Androids.
- Harder to heal oneself due to very expensive mechanics NPC's and expensive healing items.
- Harder to find healing supplies, those one does find (scrap metal/electronics) does very little to heal oneself
- Very reliant on Electronics and Mechanics which means Android players might have a slightly/heavily limited amount of skills.


Wastelander
Pro's
* Bonus to initial reaction from humans.

Con's
* Initial reaction from mutants and ghouls halved.

Wastelanders have no greater pro's nor con's over the other races, they are the default race, basically, they are the SPECIAL 5.5.5.5.5.5.5.
The race with the most freedom but also with the least bonuses and penalties.

Prime Normal trait tweaks:
Pro's
* +1 INT
* +1 CHA
* Persuasion, Deception, Barter, Electronics, Mechanics and hacking gain x1.5 (This meanas that with this race trait and the normal trait Good Natured you can get a massive head start on support skills with the extreme drawback to combat skills.)

Con's
* Endurance effects with +% to rad and poison resistance is halved.
* All combat skills are decreased by x1.5


Super Mutant
Pro's
* Base health x2.5 (Base health is 100 in FO3 and NV so it's 250 for Super Mutants.)
* +5 to min STR (6 is the lowest, can't go lower than that. (How much sense would it make for a super mutant with 3 in strength?)
* x1.5 damage with all blunt weapons and Hand to Hand weapons.
* x1.5 reloading speed and equipment speed with big weapons (minigun, flamer, gatling laser)
* Immunity to Radiation and +30% poison resistance.
* +10% damage resistance against laser, explosives, bullets and fire.

Con's
* -6 to max INT (V87 super mutant = dumb dumb by even Tabithas dumb dumb's standards.)
* -4 to max CHA
* Due to super mutants hostility towards humans a lot of them will kill SM's on sight and the rest will be very suspicious of you.
* Cannot use smaller weapons. (SMG's, pistols, revolvers, sawn off shotguns et cetera.)
* Has veeeeeery few armors in the game.

Nightkin trait tweaks: (Sebor13 + Gabriel)
Pro's
* Stealthboys last twice as long and can be used two times before depletion. (Perk later on can allow to recharge depleted stealthboys.)
* Have a greater chance to find stealthboys in random container spawns.
* x2.0 sneak. (If base sneak with tagged is 30 then it becomes 60)
* +1 min AGI

Con's
* health is x1.5
* +3 to min STR
* -2 CHA for super mutant NPC's. (Due to the schizophrenia.)
* You occasionally hear whispers and enemy voices and can see random red dots pop up on the compass while there is nothing there. (Craziness.)
* Friendly NPC's can also show up as hostile dots on the radar.



Ghoul (UnDeCafIndeed + Gabriel)
Pro's
* Each tagged skill earns 2.5 more skill points than for other races. (Ghouls have after all lived for a very very long time.) (So if base is 15 then it means 37 per tagged skill)
* Machines that use "detect life" scanners cannot see them. (Thanks to Broken Steel that made ghouls have 0% body heat...)
* Gain exclusive perks surrounding radiation bonuses. (Healing crippled limbs, storing radiation, unleashing a radiation cloud like Glowing Ones can, stuff like that.) (Hell, every race except for Wastelanders and Prime Normals should get exclusive perks for their races.)
* 100% radiation resistance.
* Radiation heals over time (slowly). (Both health and crippled limbs.)
* Kinsman ability, feral ghouls and aggressive SM's are more likely to leave the player alone if not provoked (not being friendly, just having a possibility to be less agressive and ignore the player).
* Bonus to initial reaction for non-feral ghouls, neutral/friendly SM's and human ghoulsympathisers (excluding characters with set mindsets).

Con's
* Cannot wear heavy armor or power armor.
* -1 to Charisma (I saw that thing on Arcanum about "beauty" and I think that would suit ghouls better but since we only have Charisma I guess this'll have to do.)
* -1 to Agility. (They aren't exactly the best gymnastics, they'd probably lose a limb if entering the OS. )
* -2 to max Endurance.
* No natural DT or DR.
* +15% recieved damage.
* (those two due to skin and flesh conition)
* Initial reaction from humans halved (other than ghoulsympathisers).
* Slower movement than humans.


Troglodyte
Pro's
* +7 DT (due to their thick skin
* Sees better in dark areas
* x1.5 to Traps, Survival skills
* x1.5 to base health
* +2 to min END
* x3.0 to END effects. (Radiation and poison resistance.)
* Gain no penalties to any races initial reactions, Trogs are neutral with all other races. (Ferals and krazies can still attack them but are not "as" likely to do so.)

Con's
* Takes longer time to adjust to bright areas when leaving a dark area
* -2 to max ITN
* -2 to max CHA
* -2 to max AGI
* Gains no bonuses to initial reactions.

More faction quests, not just one long quest for a faction, have several quests for different members at different areas, and have patrols of each faction spawn in tons of areas.
There should be more ways to gain +rep or -rep.
Like, say there is a Talon Company squad fighting a gang of Hill Watchmen, if you interfere the battle and help Talon Company out then you'll earn some +rep while earning some -rep for the Hill Watchmen.

You know how human characters have their sliders to personify each character?
Even if we can't use it I really hope that Ghouls, both normal and feral, Super Mutants, Trogs, Skags and other human mutations all have their own sliders and that every time we meet a generic one of those their slider settings are randomized.
I'm really annoyed about all mutants looking the same, especially super mutants and feral ghouls.
So instead of set models have their own slider system which is randomized for each generic mutant.
Named mutants should have pre-set face's which are built "outside" of the slider system, like Rotface or Marcus were in New Vegas.
And have normal ghouls look like actual ghouls and not burn victims.

Unlootable armor/clothing:
* If you explode the enemies head then their headgear is destroyed.
* If you shoot off an arm, leg or explode the entire body then the armor is destroyed too.
* If an enemies armor reaches 0 CND then it becomes broken beyond repair, so even if you don't chop off a limb the armor might still be unlootable.

This means that it's best to go for headshots and try to get as little "splatter" as possible.

More insect enemies and more poisonous enemies.
I'm thinking of a giant centipede that's called an Antworm (due to the ignorance of wastelanders).
Has around 20 DT, 300 HP is half-fast, like, not Yao Guai or Cazador Speed, more like vicious dog speed.
When it attacks you you have have a certain % chance from your END stat to avoid the poisonous effect, 1 END = 2% 10 END = 20% (Perk later on gives x3 the current amount so END1=6 while END10=60% Rank 2 gives another 3x but the max effect is 90%, can't go above that.).
If your poison resistance fails in resisting the poison then you have 10 seconds to use an anti-venom or you're paralyzed for 30 seconds.
If you fail to use an anti-venom or have crap poison resistance then you are sure to die from an encounter with them.
Antworms hunt in packs of 2 to 7 always.

I know this might sound overpowered but I really don't give a damn, in the old games the tough enemies were to be feared, Centaurs and Deathclaws were brutal in their encounters and in the newer games they aren't as dangerous anymore, sure, if you charge into a deathclaw zone in NV then you're gonna die but still, not as many enemies to fear.
So I want these to be incredibly powerful, because this would make the poison resistance worth a damn, it would make anti-venom worth a damn and we would have an enemy that is truly fearsome to meet.

There are so many insects that you could just give gigantism to to make for new fearsome enemies, use them.

Here's a wild idea, how about having fixed player health?
No +hp per level.
The only way to get an increase in health is by taking Intense Training>Endurance, Lifegiver or getting an Endurance implant.
If they balance the enemies health, damage and armor around this fixed health then it could produce a more balanced combat.

So it's base health + ENDx#.
Say that base health is 50 and each END gives +5, this means that top health for a lvl 1 player is 100.
By getting Lifegiver we get +15 more health and by taking rank two we get +15 more.
The max amount of health is then 130 for the player character.

This means that armor is far more important than it was before and if balanced right then even regular small time raiders could become a challenge if the player isn't careful.
Right now I feel that END is pointless, it used to give more health per level the higher it was, now all it does is increase base health, so if it's gonna stay that way then remove the +hp per level and balance the game's combat around it.

(All weapon stats will of course have to be changed.)

Why I would like this is because I feel that humans should be humans, this doesn't necessarily mean realistic combat (headshot=instakill) but the player character should not be able to walk around like a god because he/she has 500% more health than the average human in the game.
So the player character can get better in his/her skills and get perks and traits (which a large amount of NPC's should have as well.) but we don't magically become a bullet sponge.

It's just that, how come we can walk around with a ridiculous amount of health while the NPC's don't get to?
I understand that with better Endurance we can withstand more damage, but how do we magically get this +health increase per level?
We should not be any better with health than other humans are.
Why should we? Cause we're the player character? Yeah, we've seen how balanced that turned out in FO3 and FONV.
It all depends on your and enemies END stat.
If an NPC has 8 END and a metal armor MK II it means that it's a tough son of a [censored].
If he wields a minigun then we should fear for out lives.

So say we find 5 raiders, three of them have END 6 while two have END 3.
Their health is: 80+80+80+65+65.
Your character has END 8, it's 90.
Total amount of health is 370 versus 90.
Depending on your equipment and theirs they can present a tremendous challenge.
The strength is in numbers, the more enemies you face the harder they will become.
Cause while facing one of them is reasonable since you both have the same amount of health facing 5 means their health tops yours.

Make combat more exciting by making all humans equal, all depending on what armor and END stat we/they have.

Only problem I see for this is those that "want" demi-god characters.
But yknow what?
If you want a demi-god then turn the difficulty down to Very Easy AKA Cakewalk.

Note: I know I can nerf myself, thing is, I shouldn't have to, the game should be balanced towards making a challenge to the player.
Extra Note: I know that this might seem unorthodox(Is this the right word?) for an RPG but what harm comes out of it? We can still improve our health if we wish to it's just that we don't get such an absurd health over other humans.
Third Note: Players are given health every tenth level. ENDx0.5hp. At level 40 the total amount of a 10 END character is +20hp. (if cap is at 50 then the total health a player can earn is 155. (Which is well over any human character. Still less than super mutants, trogs, deathclaws or giant radscorpions though.)

Add Disadvantages to the character creation.
Disadvantages are strictly negative features for those of us who want to roleplay or gimp our characters permanently.
So if we think that we are too powerful then at our next character we can pick the Bad Health disadvantage which lowers our base health by half.
Or we could pick the Barely Stabilized disadvantage which removes any health given by level ups.
Giving enough variations of Disadvantages we can optimize the game more for our preference and us who want it to be harder can make it so by permanent gimps.
Those who does not wish to use these don't have to.
You can pick as many Disadvantages as you want.
Examples:
* Enemies give twice as much damage.
* Poisons are twice as lethal. Rank 2: Trice as lethal. Rank 3: Four times as lethal.
* Limbs have 50% less maximum health.
* Permanently cripple [limb]. 6 ranks.
* Enemies reload 20% faster. Rank 2: 40%.
* Enemies run 10% faster. Rank 2: 20%. Rank 3: 30%.
* Enemies attack 10% faster. Rank 2: 20%. Rank 3: 30%. Rank 4: 40%. Rank 5: 50%.
* Stimpacks heal slower on hardcoe Mode.
* Food Items no longer give health.
* Water no longer give health.
* Radiation intake it doubled. Rank 2: Trippled. Rank 3: quadrupled. (Base rad 2rads/1sec, rank 1: 4rads/1sec, rank 2: 6rads/sec, rank 3: 8rads/sec.)
* Healing items are more expensive to buy.
* Radaways are rarer to buy.
* Critical failure is more likely to happen. Rank 2: likelier (This is a real word?).

By giving us this new self imposed gimp feature we can create our own balance in the game and tweak it the way we want to.
Sure, we're suppose to play the game according to the game's set rules, but if you as developers fail to create good rules to follow that are balanced then we who are on consoles are [censored] all out of luck, cause at least PC users can get mods to tweak their balance.
This new mechanic is needed for us who want to create our own balance on consoles and maybe even PC, for us who feels that the game isn't hard enough and want to make it harder.
Sure, I can choose to, in Vegas and FO3, to avoid buying the radaways, but it feels like I'm locking myself out of the games content.
I cannot play the game as I want to play it.
If I find radaways I want to be able to buy them without worrying about breaking the balance.
So how are these permanent gimps different?
Well, they're permanent, for us who are weak willed and are bad at imposing limitations on ourselves this is a great solution.
Cause once we create the character then the damage is done, no matter how much I want to find 200 radaways I simply won't be able to.
It's like a bandaid, imposing limitations on ourselves as it currently stand can be like pulling it off very slowly and then placing it back on the skin and slowly pulling it off again, it's annoying and slightly painful.
But these disadvantages are like pulling it clean off, once you've checked the ones you want and finish character creation then the changes has been made.
I for one am bad at imposing limitations on myself, when I find a new great weapon I want to be able to use it without having to worry about enemies becoming too easy to kill, so with Disadvantages I can check the box to make them have more health or DT or maybe lower my own damage by 10 to 50%.

I see no reason why this shouldn't be included.
Might take some coding and scripting to fix but once done it can really help people like me.
And if you don't like it, then you don't have to use it.
Win win in my eyes.

"But isn't like that now? If you don't want it to be unbalanced then don't use the good stuff?"
Yup, it is, but why shouldn't I be able to use the good stuff?
By including this new feature I can use the good stuff and still have it balanced.
I can choose to use any high level items, perks, armors, weapons, meds and chems I want to.
And if I checked a lot of Disadvantages at the start of the game then even though I use these high level stuff I can still have it balanced.

"But won't they have to balance the game towards these?"
No, they won't. The reason for these is to simply make it harder in a vast variety of ways for the player.
It's only there for us who think the base game is not balanced.
So they only have to focus on balancing the Vanilla in their own way and leave it up to us to balance it out in our way with Disadvantages later if we feel that it isn't balanced.

And I don't think that too much time and resources will be spent on this.
They're basically like perks, just the other way around.
Can't be too hard to design, code, script, blabla for professional developers right?

[edit]

You get to relocate your disadvantages at lvl 10, 20 and 30 (every 10 levels).
Cause in case one disadvantage didn't turn out the way you expected you can still relocate it later on.
Would be kinda bad if you gimp yourself on a couple of things then at lvl 13 figure out it did not turn out the way you intended it to and are now stuck with that character or have to restart your entire character.
So you will be able to respec Disadvantages but you won't be able to do it any time you want to, you get 4 chances, one at creation and 3 more at each 10 levels.