If you have looked at the perk list, is anyone else's builds suffering from some of these prerequisite?
Example; my wily "Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon" survivalist only uses melee, mostly thrown weapons, yet to get the Heave Ho Perk I need a 30 in Explosives, which I didn't plan on taking for him. Another one; my gun slinging (Liberty Valance-esque) cowboy was going to be Guns, Unarmed (for bar room brawls), and Explosives (for dynamite), yet to get the Cowboy Perk, I need 45 in melee...

We all have to make compromises. I wanted Pack Rat for my sniper, but I need Bartering at 70 and a higher Endurance. It helps to narrow down the choices, really--there were so many, like on Christmas, not knowing which present to open first.

30 is no issue really, it's just a few points from starting skill (unless they lowered these considerably?). 45 though, yeah that'll take an investment - you'll just need to think how hard you want that perk and whether it's worth the points. Choices, choices... Good job Obsidian. :goodjob:

Explosives has like Frag/Pulse/Plasma/Incendiary grenades while Melee only has throwing spears.
Makes sense for Explosives to have the skill.
I have no idea how in the hell Pyromaniac is still tied to Explosives though.
I thought they changed all fire-based weapons to Energy Weapons.
Why do I need to be proficient in Explosives skill to get a perk meant for some of the Energy Weapons?

It adds to the choices and consequences aspect of the game. I for one am making a STR 4 character and was planning on taking Strong Back for the extra carrying weight, but that requires you to have a STR of 5. So it seems in New Vegas if you choose to handicap a character in one area to make them better in another, you are going to have to live with that.

Also, just a heads up - it is only possible to max 9 out of the 13 skills in a single playthrough of New Vegas so plan ahead.

See the math in thishttp://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1121328-max-number-of-skill-points-possible-in-new-vegas/.

Yes, but I found ways to fix that.

I wish perks had other (either/or) options. Like scrounger, (it should be either luck 5 or per 6 or something)

But I can do without it since I'm planning to have reloader for a perk so it works.

A choice of one or the other prerequisite would be nice, but instead we often now have TWO prerequisites to meet!

Agreed It should be 30 in explosives, or 30 in melee. These are more for role playing, I'm not trying to make some OPed jack of all trades. It also seems that some of the earlier perks are more useful than the later ones. A lot of crap perks from 3 made a return as well. Also a lot of perks seem to be for HM exclusively, like ferocious loyalty.

Yes and no. Whenever I play Fallout, I don't try to follow any established archtypes (like "Cowboy" or "Martial Artist") - as far as I'm concerned, I was simply "The Vault Dweller" in FO1, "The Chosen One" in FO2, "The Lone Wanderer" in FO3, and now I'm "The Courier" in FNV - so there's no theme I have to adhere to. I simply decide what I want to be good at when I adventure around the wasteland and then optimize towards whatever I think I will have the most fun with. So I only take perks if they will reasonably enhance my build and not based on their actual name. If they have prerequisites I don't care to meet, I just forget them.

In FNV's case, since hardcoe mode means healing is going to be harder, and that ammunition is going to have weight, I'm building a courier who is going to try to make every shot he takes as effective as possible by giving him the highest chance to hit and get a critical with each shot, and have a decent enough medical and survival knowledge to heal himself and stay alive after a fight. I build the character first before I go back and declare if he fits into any archetype. In my courier's case, I'm thinking about writing up a history of him being a professional gambler since it fits in so well with the New Vegas casinos and overall theme. Since I'm setting his luck stat so high to get as many critical hits as I can, this has the added benefit of affecting my chances at the casinos - hence where the inspiration for being a pro gambler came from. His knowledge of guns and survival came from just having to survive out in the dangerous wasteland on a day to day basis, while his medical knowledge came from having to patch up all of his comrades he roamed the wastes with.

I do the same thing whenever I game at the tabletop with paper-and-dice RPGs. Though, doing up the numbers first AND THEN writing a character biography AROUND THAT seems to be an unforgivable sin amongst a lot of role players for some reason, so I never state that I'm doing so out loud. Oh wait... :bolt:

Well some of us like to make, how shall I call it? Scale models of characters, or by inversion, your build is a scale model. Authentic in its role with defined strengths and weaknesses that you add on to and make perfect (Not perfect in build, just perfect in its execution). Not sure if this makes sense to anybody else.

I see where you're coming from. There's nothing wrong with that at all.

I would of expected a pen and paper vet as yourself to understand the want of RPing a unique build, perhaps even on the verge of ludicrous. I have fun trying to explain, whether its to myself or someone else, just exactly how my character fits into its respective universe. Check out my bio for my titular RP, its pretty out there but it works. For instance I'm RPing that the Archimedes Laser isn't some man made machine. Its Artillery on his thruster disabled Star Ship.

I do the same thing, no worries.

just a thought, but what if intelligence and perception played a role in the gambling as well not just luck. suppose a dealer was cheating it might take a high intelligence or perception to notice it

I've basically just ignored any perks that would require investment into skills i'm not going to have its just not feasible with such a lower amount of skill points available. I do find it annoying though that there's several high requirement perks needing a skill level of 70 available so early on. Since their so good you either have to let your other skills suffer or acquire them much later on.

I believe that with a maxed intelligence you only receive three less skill points per level.

That guy who got an early copy of the guide says it's exactly 1/2 as much as Fallout 3.

For an optimized build, you have to plan it out ahead of time (obviously, you'll also need to know how certain mechanics work). Other than that, there are plenty of filler Perks you can choose instead.

Also, it seems that with the new Skill system, earlier skill levels will be easier to get than higher.

With intelligence at 10 you get 15 skill points per level.

Yeah wow that's... exactly 1/2 as many as you got in Fallout 3. You're very good at this.

You got 20 skill points with a 10 in intelligence in Fallout 3, fail much?

The first ten aren't negotiable, supergenius.

No ones talking about the first ten, I'm talking about skill points gained per level. Thats what we have been talking about this whole time, not how many skill points when starting the game. So again how is 15 half of 20?

Not really. I don't have a set character build, I usually just wing it on the first play through. The only skill I'm probably going to miss out on, at least early on is pack rat. The others will come with my guns and repair skill, and I plan to invest some into melee for the Cowboy Perk. So I think I'll have enough perks to get what I want, if I don't then oh well. Them be the dangers of winging it like a fool in the wasteland.

I can see where you're coming from when you say that having to go out of your way to get a perk that in theory perfectly matches your character. One thing that I've learned to accept is that for the most part, devs have thought about every little issue infinitely longer than any of us to ensure proper balance. I don't want to need 70 Science skill to make devastatingly powerful Energy/Microfusion Cells, but I'm going to have to if I want my character to go the way that I planned. Oh, and as for the whole 1/2 skill point thing, it seems somewhat reasonable. With INT 10, after you get Educated (assuming you will), you will earn 442 skill points between levels 4 and 30. There are 51 skill books of 3 points each (or 4 with Comprehension) for a total of either 153 or 204 points. You'd be able to completely max out 6 skills. I'm kind of worried, but not as much as I was before. Some gameplay vids that have been slipping by ZeniMax since the floodgates of early acquired copies have opened show people with relatively high skill levels at level 2 or 3.