from first to third, what do you feel has the most importance?

speech, barter, survival.
leave your reasoning!
also, if you're playing on a high difficulty leave that in the comment. don't bother posting the difficulty if you're on normal or lower, we'll just assume.

1st. survival - boosts hp gained from food, self explanatory. very handy on hardcoe/very hard, and some of the campfire recipes are useful.
2nd.barter - i usually put just enough and then some for speech checks. very helpful if you're trying to get implants.
3rd. speech - i honestly prefer doing all of the quests. usually just enough for major speech checks.

I will say that this STRONGLY depends on what sort of character I am roleplaying in the game.

For friendly PCs --

1 - Speech (Conflict Resolution, plus I get extra rewards that I might not otherwise get for going the peaceful path)
2 - Barter (Because I like money; New Vegas also has a lot more barter speech checks)
3 - Survival (I rely on Med. skills instead; I often get put put off to the skill because there's an unnaturally huge gap between low level capabilities and high level ones)


For vicious tyrants --
1 - Barter (Same reasons above)
2 - Survival
3 - Speech

I would probably re-arrange that list if someone came along with an artfully done mod that allows speech to be multi-dimensional -- i.e, if I am playing a friendly, I'll have friendly responses, and if I'm a raider, I'll have... less friendly... responses. Hmmm.. something to add in my karma overhaul mod. ^.^

I agree it does have to do with he character you are creating, but survival is actually a waste of points, even on hardcoe. Food and water are abundant. The real goal is to just keep from getting your body crippled. Simple eating, drinking, stim packs and sleep with fix your problems just fine. Survival is a nice flavor stat, but it isn't that useful at all. If you like to make stuff, that's cool, but it's impact on the game has it as one of the least useful skills, if not the most, in the game. Food is also cheap and light weight to just buy and carry.

Barter isn't bad, but it is easily the #2 on your list here. It's nice to increase your reward on quests and get better prices when, well, bartering.

Speech is number one. you don't need to take it, but it has the biggest impact on game play. It is an alternative to combat in many situations. You aren't skipping parts of the quest, you are solving them with words instead of bullets. there is an epic moment with the legion, for example, where you can fight or speech challenge your way though it, but you are going to need 100 speech to finish it with out resorting to violence. If anything, this is a staple of fallout and RPGs. It's the ROLE PLAYING part of the game. Are we playing an RPG or Halo? Most of the game asks for exactly 50 speech to get by. there are certain situations where having 75-100 speech gives you that alternate path to completing objectives. The fact that it directly relates to main and side quests as an option, this is why speech has the largest impact of your three skills listed. Survival can't say that and barter can only do this a small amount.

This game is all about having one or two major combat skills maxed out along with speech and/or science. there are tons of science checks in this game, and many of them are 75-80. You can use your major combat skill to, well, survive/win combat and use your speech and science skills to complete quests in a manner that doesn't involve more "gun play."

Personally I am going with a charisma/speech based character over an intelligence/science character on my first play though. I plan on doing the science play though on my 2ed run and on my 3rd I am thinking I will want to play as an evil character.

Speech is the most important one imo. Originaly I started with Guns, Repair and Survival but once I've seen how much dialogues I'm missing at around lvl 15 I took extra trait perk and started building speech.
Barter is the second one. At this point not very usefull money wise since I earn loads of it just by playing Caravan but I've noticed a lot of dialogue opportunities which makes it worthwile.
Survival is totally useless, even though I play on hardcoe I've never ever had difficulty finding enough food or water.

Speech
Survival
Barter

Speech, can save you a lot of running and talk your way through- very useful

Survival, i play on hardcoe mode from start and on very hard, im doing fine with 18 survival tbh, stimpaks and clean water are all over th place...for me useless

Barter, atm i have around 20,000 caps a lot of stuff to sell and in pristine condition... and i have 7 barter.... for me useless

I argued in another thread that I was fairly displeased with the absolute number of free safehouse areas in the game.

To me, the availability of freebie beds and containers really, really, REALLY breaks the game if you're looking for challenge or roleplaying for realism.

For the same reasons, I think that it breaks "survival." It's a crafting stat. Food is stupidly easy to come by and water is available out the wazoo. For the price you pay to remove rads (assuming you don't have a literal stockpile of Rad-Away), it's not worth it to tote water around with you.

On the surface, Survival and requiring food and drink for hardcoe is a really awesome idea.

Once you get into it though, they broke the balance by overcompensating you with hoards of freebies.

1. Speech, there's a lot of speech checks in the game and can be useful for working around a hostile situation.
2. Barter, haven't tried it as much but from what I've seen it has fewer speech checks and you get so much money by looting Black Mountain that shop prices are of no concern.
3. Survival, :meh:

I'd say the most important skills are:

• Speech (Up to 80 and occasional +20 boost with the skill mag and the perk)
  
• Sneak (for sneak criticals and avoiding battles you don't want to engage in)
  
• Repair (with Jury Rigging Perk so you can keep your best weapons at the highest damage potential)
  
• Your choice of the following attack skills: Guns, Energy, Melee or Unarmed

Survival is not bad, but I usually don't put in more than 25. Crafting in general is not very useful unless you actively seek and keep the component materials.
I think some of the more useful crafting items do not use survival like Weapon Repair Kits (50 Repair) and Doctor Bags (40 Medicine for hardcoe).

Hmm.

• Medicine - HOLY [censored] THE HEALING RATE IS SLOW, solution: Medicine, speeds up healing and gives more health per second. Can be really useful since getting hit by a deathclaw can take away 70% HP. Doesn't matter how many stimpacks you have, if the healing rate is slow and not instant (Casual mode and FO3) then you need the upper edge with 'em. Living Anatomy is also a GREAT perk.
  
• Speech - It's very useful to get what you want in quests.
  
• Combat skill of choice - Cause... You need combat unless you're playing a diplomat character.

Sneak isn't that important unless you're playing a melee or unarmed character, but with Explosives you're going to create such a bang that it isn't useful and EW and Guns have snipers, that is all.
Repair isn't that good either, as soon as you get some money you can repair items to full at merchants. It can be good for weapon runs but otherwise, not really.
/opinion.

I like the survival skill; primarily as it adds some more content and immersion to my roleplaying, though also for practical purposes. Whenever I'm moving into a new territory, I scout for a decent campsite with at least a bedroll and a campfire, and make it my temporary base. I bring all my stored items there, and decorate it a little bit to make it suit my character. I make Rex guard the campsite while Cass and I are out hunting, and I place some strategic mines in case any creatures come too close for comfort. I then return periodically after my hunts, and create food and beverages for myself and Cass (she can use the food to heal herself during combat). I also create doctor bags when required, and prepare new poison for my melee weapon. I also ensure that I have a steady supply of the 'super mentats', which give twice the temporary bonuses of normal mentats, making it easier to use lockpicking and hacking skills. Creating all this requires the survival skill. A high survival skill is also required in a few unique dialogue checks throughout the game, such as in the very independent North Vegas square. Additionally, creating and healing yourself through food unlocks an achievement. In any case, I'm sure there'll be some great hardcoe mods which will make the survival skill even more useful in the near future.

I'll have to take your word for most of the above statements since my PS3 got the YLOD before I could get into the higher levels... =/

I'm sure the Silent Running perk, which requires at least 50 sneak is as useful as FO3, if not moreso in NV where you would want to avoid battles with certain factions (like if you are hated with the NCR and just want to pass through).

Jury Rigging sounds like an awesome perk for people who like to horde gear like I do. By the time I hit level 14 (and have 90 repair) I can convert most of my arsenal, though if the caps are as free flowing as most people are suggesting, I may consider just keeping repair at 25 or 50...

I'll consider putting more points into medicine though since stimpack healing is painfully slow in hardcoe mode.
Barter looks interesting too, aside from the numerous speech checks, the Long Haul and Pack Rat perks, which both require Barter 70 and will greatly un-complicate my habit to horde things... =p

While my current character has a high Survival skill and makes things that can reduce the meters by over 200 per use, there is so much food and drink out there that I could have forgone the ability to do so and not really lost all that much. Am thinking said character should have put the points into Lockpick or Medicine instead. As for sleep, there are plenty of supplies for that too, as well as beds if I really need one.

A high Barter and Speech are musts for me, even if it means my combat skills lag a bit at first. Fortunately it's not hard to get a couple of companions early on (ED-E and Cass, for example) to help make up for that. I also tend to raise Repair early on, so that I can get more out of each spare or kit used. Somewhat annoyingly, even with a 70 Repair I am only getting small percentages repaired on some items when using spare parts while kits fix large chunks at once. Not sure if the fact I play with hardcoe enabled matters here or not.

Survival is useless...even on Very Hard + hardcoe.

1st: Speech - The social way is often the most interesting way. There are a lot of speech checks which can save one from a lot of trouble if, at that time, one is not keen to go through all the effort - and a bonus point comes from not getting XP from killing (since the leveling happens quite fast).

2nd: Survival - Moderately important only in HC mode where the food actually bears a meaning. But who want's to play without HC on anyway?

3rd: Barter - One of the most useless skills in the game. There are few checks for it, but it's main purpose is nullified by the insane amount of loot, caps and faction money one finds in his travels. Basically useful only for low strength and no companions character.

Nah, hardcoe Mode's Dehydration, Sleep Deprivation and Starvation meters all go up way too slowly.
There's no need to cook food to give better bonus since you only need to eat two or three cans of food and be done with it.
I see no real reason to micro-manage the food at a fireplace and waste points in that skill but maybe that's just me.
Anyway, if they added hardcoe Mode +1 then I think that Survival could be more useful.

I've only ever cooked about 10 geckosteaks - I don't care too much for that stuff, as what it provides is more easily acquired elsewhere. I do agree that the meters move too slowly (or, maybe not too slowly... maybe the whole meter system of 1-1000 is flawed to begin with - there is no possibility for them to ever cause any real harm with such a huge scale unless one deliberately ignores them). But having the skill higher saves some trouble of finding more extra food and water because it increases the effects of them, and hence I said moderately useful.

I'm not a big fan of these needs to begin with, and think the mode should've done something else (like add a recoil to the weapons and increased wobbling/accuracy for lacking skill, for a couple of exaples). I only use HC for the more fitting healing effects. I think the meters should be way smaller and the increase rate a bit slower, but the negative impact bigger (an example: a meter goes from 1 to 250, after it hits the mark of 200 you'll get the stat hits, after 225 some visual distortions every now and then and gradual healthloss, at 250 death - these accompanied with a bit smaller amounts of aid). Or something along those lines. Not necessarily making it extra special hardcoe, but just giving some meat to it.