My mistake, then. Your point is heeded.

Regarding the actual notifications, it isn't, though it is less frequent, always a good thing if you don't like numbers on the screen.

As for the systems, of course it's personal opinion, but free allocation of skills seems a lot more artificial to me than learn by doing. With the Fallout way, you can say "Oh look, haven't picked a lock in ages, but if I put two points in, I get to 75 and can open the hard ones, whereas with the ES system, well you can pay for training, or engineer your level ups, but to me you seem to 'arrive' at a certain skill level without working the numbers so much. (Yes I know the problems with Skyrim lockpicking, it's merely an example).

You're looking at it backwards. Each level up is preparation for what's coming. That is your training per se. It allows you to decide what you care about. Honestly, just doing something doesn't necessarily make you much better at it anyway.

Haha realistic? Oh, there's that word again. Neither are in any way realistic. You do realize that you can level up smithing but then spend a perk in 1H and do more damage now right? That's the same exact thing as your argument against FO's system. We're talking game mechanics here and which one leads to a better gaming experience. I prefer to be able to craft my character exactly as I want to so the FO system works better.

Also, for people who say it's absurd to have a system where you hit a threshold and can suddenly do something you can't (say pick a lock or hack a computer) how is that any different than the thresholds required for perks or special attacks in TES games? Answer: it isn't. Every RPG has always had arbitrary thresholds. In fact, not having such thresholds makes the entire Lockpick tree in Skyrim superfluous.

You can't level up smithing and then perk one handed, that simply isn't true, you'd have to reach the required skill level in 1H to get the perk. You can use smithing to get to another level but there's no perking other skills unless you've attained the required skill level. That's the big difference between the levelling systems.



Completely disagree, being able to pick any lock, no matter how hard, so long as you had the enough picks is more realistic that simply being told you can't attempt it at all but it's just a point of view, each to their own.

I like both ways, but I think "learning by doing" needs more care and thought put into it.

Certain "passive" skills just don't give you back enough to even out the level progressing. Speechcraft ... only few quests allow you to solve them by talking and those that do do not even require much speechcraft anyways. Better prices might help with getting better equipment, but it's not enough to make much of a difference. It also doesn't help that we have to waste perk points on perks we will never have any use for to reach other perks in the perk trees. They're not too bad, but some things are poorly thought through.

At least, if Skyrim had the F:NV exp system, I would have the freedom to choose what perks I would want, and not be forced to pick some crappy ones along the way.