here are my thoughts on making the game more dynamic and immersive and less RPGish.
Would also be nice for a FULL PVP game since a noob can actually put in practice at anything and build up their skills
Experience, doesn't affect skills, make it a reputation of your time in the wastes, i like the level/karma Titles of FO3 for this
example :
You are looking at FurryLoaded: Alias; Firebug, Appearance; Expert Sapper, Reputation; Strider of the Wastes,
Fighting him would be a bad idea
Alias; self explanatory, would be funny if players could affect it or vote on it.
Appearance; appearance of chosen skill eg: rookie,loser, novice, adept, expert, veteran ;gun nut, sniper, thief, assassin, gambler
Reputation, your experience/karma title
Difficulty
Dynamic Skills, Like a curve having a minimum/maximum cap.
SPECIAL defines the base skill. than equipment, perks,traits and other modifiers. now we have a Minimum ability cap. like say 25%(1 in 4 chance)
Usage and practice allows improvement, stop using them and they will trickle down to the minimum.
practice, read book, shadowboxing, cleaning gun, quickdraw, typing, Thumbing cards/solitare, grabbing falling leaves(no difficulty) will raise ability 1/1000 a point.
a miss or a failure, 1/1000 a point.
critical failure, 1/200 point(but you might have hurt yourself, -1 dex til you healed)
success or a hit, 1/200pt(easy), 1/100 (difficult) 1/50(hard), 1pt(impossible)
double point for critical
Dynamic Skill example; Ability(25%base+ 0%dynamic) punching or shooting a fly(impossible) 1hp 100% evade physical.
If you can hit it you will get a full point, do it 275times(ignoring the misses), you will have a maxed dynamic ability(25%base+ 150%dynamic) which means 75% chance to hit the fly.
Using a Flame thrower only gets you 1/100 for easy difficulty(but you know how to pull the trigger better)
Item thoughts and suggestions:
AFK or offline, read a book, gain a point every day. (this would be real nice for us busy advlts that pay for a subscription)
Pipboy expansion; hologram projector. (Virtual Shooting Alley. unarmed trainer,repair practice, science, throwing) now you can practice and not waste ammo.