So in the previous game intelligence was directly related to how many skill points you received each level. I immediately set it to 9 and then got the bobble head as quickly as possible so I could be making the most of every level. Since we're only getting 1 perk per level, does that mean intelligence is not going to be as important and will only be needed for certain actions like hacking?

After finding this out this changed my whole perception on where I will allocate my points. I am always a stealthy gun user, but I want to be able to carry a lot too. I do not like having a companion with me as most stealth people normally choose to be alone.

It'll also be required for certain perks. And if subsequent ranks in ranked perks have increasingly high requirements, it may also be needed for the higher ranks of some perks.

Edit: I do, however, hope that it has more benefits beyond experience gain rate.

It's worth just as much as any other, if you want to get the best perks. Also increases the amount of experience you get.

INT still offers a wide range of very useful perks, although granted it does not seem to have the overpowering usefulness it used to. If the 'raw' effect of INT is to increase experience gain, I can imagine a lot of people would not WANT it to be too high --- to slow their leveling speed. But even discounting whatever 'base' effect a high INT offers, medicine and hacking and crafting offer a pretty varied range of activities that, without a high INT, you could not pursue.

So I am likely to still make a relatively high INT character.... it just no longer feels necessary to make a 9 or 10 INT character when, say, a rank 6 or 7 will unlock pretty much everything I want (I don't use energy weapons so would not care if I could craft them). Of course, if the higher tier INT skills are necessary for, say, building a modern Settlement, then INT may again be in the "must have" category.

I normally play sneaky snipers, so I'm already looking at a high AGI.... I snipe outside of VATS, so PER's VATS-accuracy is less of a concern to me, and of course STR and END aren't that 'necessary' which should leave me enough points to bolster INT, Luck and CHA to some degree. I fear my sneaky sniper may not be the best settlement-creator, however. Not sure I would WANT the best settlement-creator character, if it meant my other stats were so low I'd miss out on useful perks like Sniper, etc.

I am a sneaky sniper as well. I do however like using VATS for close range and just because its fun. So I guess I will be boosting Agility and Perception with some strength to help me carry things. Perception does have the sniper perk in it and its also responsible for the majority of the sneaking perks I'm guessing.

Also experience gain is not important to me. Honestly leveling up faster just means the game will be over faster (or become stale faster) which I don't want!

God... I cannot wait for this game lol

I presume with a focus on story, a high-int playthrough will actually have more of a narrative effect than previous. So that's one of the trade-offs between F3-Intelligence and F4-Intelligence.

I believe it's tied to crafting. If we look at skyrim as a recent example crafting was important for almost every character so crafting could likely be important in this game as well. Intelligence will also probably give you some good speech options as well.

I believe its already been confirmed that intelligence is required to build things like energy weapons and is needed for hacking perks. But crafting guns is governed by the Gun Nutt perk. If you watch the video with him crafting the weapons you can see what perk is required to craft the certain item he is trying to make.

If you want customisation you do want high INT. Look at this perk chart:

http://i.imgur.com/tJjZKM4.jpg

This means... you need 3 INT for Gun Nut. But you want Hacking? Than you need 4. And if you want the Science perk (which is need for some customisation too) you need 9 INT!

But Gun Nut is also an INT perk

if its main purpose is XP gain then I am more likely to not select it. I avoided perks that made me level too fast as I really don't enjoy getting to the end game as fast as possible. Although it might still be relevent for dialog in the game.

I might just go 4 across the board with all the special stats. I'm pretty sure there will be a way to raise them later.

The main focus seems to be customisation with Gun Nut and Sciene!

I have a feeling that the importance of SPECIAL might be completely different this time around. I'd be willing to bet that high int will be extremely useful due to the perks it could give. Not only that, but I fully expect high int characters to get bonuses when they reach The Institute. I'm thinking even high charisma will be important.

The perk chart, as I understand it, is tiered and ranked.

A character with a stat of 3 in an attribute will only be able to pick perks from rows 1, 2, and 3, of that attribute.

According to this look at the perk chart: http://i.imgur.com/tJjZKM4.jpg

It would appear you need at least an Intelligence of 3 to be able to take the Gun Nut perk, which as I understand it gives one the ability to modify conventional firearm weapons.

The 4th row in Intelligence shows the Hacking perk, which would indicate a character needs an Intelligence of 4 to be able to get the Hacking perk.

Down toward the bottom is the Science Perk. It's on the 9th row, which would indicate, if the chart is correct, a character will need a 9 Intelligence to be able to get the Science perk.

Since Science perk appear to be an important requirement for modifying and upgrading all of the Energy Weapons, a character would need to have an Intelligence of 9 to modify, upgrade, and accessorize anything requiring the Science perk, and this may also include Power Armor, as well as Laser Turrets in settlement building.

EDIT: I missed it, but, Thure93 beat me to it.

Gun nut is only needed for certain weapon mods, not for the ability to mod normal guns at all.

As others have stated it looks like Int is mostly used for building/mod'n

Building Related Int Perks

Perk #3 Gun Nut [Rank 1-4]

- Required for certain weapon mods

- Required to construct building(s): Machine Gun Turret

Perk #4 Hacker (At least 1 rank)

- Required to Construct/ or use: Terminal (controls items on your power grid)

? (Speculation) Ability to use mini-game to hack terminals

Perk #6 Science [Rank 1-3]

- Required for certain weapon mods

- Required to construct building(s): Laser Turret

Perk #8 Robotics Expert ?

? (Speculation) Possibly for mod'n Power Armor

Some of the other perks under Int appear to be

Perk #2 Medicine

Perk #5 Comprehension

Perk #9 Educated

Perk #10 Nerd Rage

Still not sure about Perks 1 & 7

I'm not so sure about that.

Given no citation for that assertion, I'll have to review the videos detailing the crafting system again to see how strongly that's implied.

Whatever the case, the more exotic modifications to conventional firearms will likely require some rank of the Gun Nut perk.

Where are you getting this?

This chart: http://i.imgur.com/tJjZKM4.jpg

would seem to indicate Science requires an Intelligence of 9.

With the perk system, I don't think any special stat will be "not worth as much". They all seem pretty worth it.

I seen that chart, and I also saw http://i.imgur.com/lA8CU6F.png. I then went squirrly eye'd looking at a few blurry charts like http://tamrielvault.com/group/fallout-character-building/forum/topics/perks-chart-news?commentId=6452022%3AComment%3A1811310&xg_source=activity&groupId=6452022%3AGroup%3A1805489.

If you look at vault boy's stance in #9 position legs are together, left hand is holding something in front of his body, while right hand is extended: Just like Educated Perk.

Vault boy's stance in #6 has his legs and arms spread apart, and it looks like he's holding something in his right hand. The size of the object he is holding is similar to the size of his head: similar to the Science image.

This is just my interpretation of a blurry image, and comparing the two different charts.

Aha. I see where you're coming from, but, please consider that some of those perks you're basing this assessment on are the old perk icons, where the new perk Icon for Science Rank 1 shows the vault boy aiming an energy weapon.

Some of the old perk icons don't seem to have been changed, but, Science Rank 1 appears to have an emphasis on Energy weapons as indicated by the icon shown in the weapons crafting section of the videos.

INT was never that big of a deal in either FO3 or FONV because there was no need to push for the extra handful of skill points. Both games had TONS of skill points, especially after the Broken Steel DLC. There have been posts about the math of maxing out any character with Broken Steel. If you take both Educated and Comprehension, if I recall the math right, you can start with INT as low as 3 or so and easily max out a character with 100 in all skills and 10 in all SPECIAL. If you want to play a more varied character, you don't even need to worry about that approach, nor is it necessary to start with INT=9 (or similar high value). I usually start with INT=9 only because I play a tech- and energy-focused girl, but I also do not use vanilla skill books anymore (now I use FWE so skill books work differently and you can customize the values of bobblehead rewards). Finally, regarding Perks in FO3 or FONV, I can't think of any perk that really required a high INT unluck several powerful perks that required high LCK. In fact, LCK was truly the overpowered SPECIAL stat in the earlier games because (just like TES) it added points to all skills, and that was more points total than you could get with one reward for any other element (e.g., adding 1 point to LCK could gain you 13 skill points, 1 point in each skill, and nothing else was that powerful).

From what we've seen for FO4, it appears that INT will actually be more useful in it as well as simpler to use. Of course, I still plan to play tech- and energy-focused girls, so I'm glad about the change, so far at least.

Yup, if you could see my monitor right now, you'd laugh at all the perk images new & old I have up there for comparing /w blurry charts.. lol I had http://i.imgur.com/RCUBoZF.png image up while going through the int column. #6 was the closest fit I could find with posture and the item he's holding in relation to the size of his head. I even broke out my old FO3 Manual to look up perk icons.

I've actually been going through the entire poster, and think I found a few more that I havn't seen listed anywhere.. like Int #10 Nerd Rage.

But I might need to take a break from staring at blurry posters. lol

Does anyone know if the Gun Nut perk actually increases damage with guns too?

Some specials will have more value than others in that they not only let you take perks but also have other benefits. Strength increase carry weight and melee/ hand to hand damage.

Heavy guns might have an strength requirement.

Charisma has classically been an weak special but is likely to be more important if you plan an settlement.

Intelligence is likely to be an requirement for science and perhaps repair perks. It looses the skill point increase bonus who was so important in fallout 3/ NV.