The concensus seems to be that the 13 traditional skills are still in the game due to the bobblehead stand, but have somehow been merged with the a revamped Perk system (since we know at least some of the traditional perks like Gun Nut are in the game, and have Ranks, too).
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They will pretty much work the same I imagen, the only diffrence is with the smaller scale, each increase will be more significant, unlike the old 1-100 scale.

Some perks work as gates (eg. science), others probably offer something like 10% damage/barterprices/persuasion boost. They will probably look as if they have more significant effect per rank than with the previous skill system, but whether or not that translates into the gameplay in any significant manner (since the previous skills also didn't due to implementation) is still in the air. Like remmus says, they will probably work the same as previously but in a smaller scale... which would of course be a pity since there's so much more that could be done with them.

As someone who played tabletop RPG like Shadowrun I personally find the smaller scale more satisfying, and if you interpret each perk rank in a similar way to how Shadowrun does it, actually gives more freedom for roleplay then the old 1-100 scale.

I've played my fare share of PnP too - but that's not really all that relevant here since the gameplay we're talking about doesn't work that way (it should, as it used to -- but it doesn't). It depends on what the hands on effects are designed to be. If there are accuracy penalties/boosts, how much and does the player feel that in the gameplay? If there are minigame distortions to lockpicking/hacking, how much? If there are movement penalties/boosts from agility, how much? Previously most of the effects were highly negligable, a problem independent of the used scale since almost everything was just gates and not probabilities.

I don't really understand how the smaller scale translates to "more freedom". If you have a 1-100 system that deals with probablities (as opposed to having gates at certain intervals and a lot of dead air like with how Beth didi it), you have a much larger amount of possible results. It's just as free, if not more, only it's more finegrained.

Except it wasn't independent of scale, the large scale has always, ever since the old games meant each individual skill point had very little impact on your characters performance, with a smaller scale you get the benefits of each improvement having a much stronger impact.

Sure it was. One point did nothing (in the previous games) unless it was the "gate-point". In a proper system each point still does something (however small) towards a success and it's not like you only get 1 point increments at a time. These things drive towards slightly different goals. With larger scales you get more finetuning, with smaller scales you get the benefit of bundled effects.

Which why Im personally is quite happy with the smaller scale as each increase shows much greater impact, tho I can understand why some might not approve, but that's personal taste for ya.

Sure. But like I said, how it actually works and whether or not it will be "better" depends entirely on what those "chunks" are designed to do. Those that work as gates don't do it any better, those that work as boosts.... we'll see, but if Todd said he thought the last time they were too tied up with the skills (that was regarding combat) and that now that has been corrected, it doesn't give the impression that it will be "better" or with "greater impact" despite the chunked effects.

Consider your clearly bias opinion of Beth work, Im not surprised you go for such a negative impression so easily.

Assuming it's not all made up, the wiki shows that most of the skills in FO3 had some effect per point. Yes, there were "gate" levels (for certain perks, for levels of lock/hacking), but the individual points did do something - reduced sway/increased damage in ranged weapons, higher max condition/better repair efficiency for Repair, more effect from drugs for Medicine, etc.

I'm just very wary based on previous experience. I have a gut feeling (which turned out to be spot on considering the removal of skills and how they were tied to SPECIAL - lucky me, right?) that I follow until proven wrong (which would be wonderful).

Considering how it translated to the gameplay, it didn't seem a very thought out system (the sway was a nonissue because it was so slight and missing one or two shots didn't matter anyway since bullets were everywhere and the damage scaled along with the skill). The repair mechanic was probably the only thing that appeared to work; if only the rest of the design had supported it (eg. more CND effects, less duplicates and replacements to be found).

See http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1529102-skills-perks-revised-edition/?p=24215866 post