While this might have already been said, i feel it deserves to be stressed and thus prompting me to post my opinion. Again, i used the word 'opinion'. I do not expect everyone to agree with my stance and i am open to a civilized debate about it. This post is just what i feel is essential to the core game play mechanic. I also apologize for the length, i started writing and got a bit carried away.

While i laud MMO's that go the open tree route instead of the forced classes thus containing the cookie cutter available skills/traits that accompany the class system architecture, the one catch that consistently ends up driving me away is the subsequent lack of consequences to choices available. In a game where anyone can do anything at any time there is zero individualism save the aesthetic, be it the color of your hair or which piercings you choose.

When i say 'consequences', i mean just that. There needs to be drawbacks to counterbalance bonus'. Everyone needs to have strengths and weaknesses. This brings me to my first point:

Point Pool
While i understand it is all but impossible to prevent some kind of grind in an MMO (mining rocks for crafting, killing rad scorpions for their glands, etc) there is a fine line between optional grind and forced grind. Mining crafting mats, farming mobs for caps: these fall in to the optional grind category and is to be expected in a MMO. I won't delve to deep in to this tangent as it reflects more on my thoughts towards the economy.
The 'forced grind' of which i am referring is most prevalent in MMO's containing PvP (more so even in games that have a financial penalty for dying: e.g. full/partial loot, caps, etc).

When playing an MMO that has no predetermined routes, it's exciting to match up skills and traits you want to be part of your characters core repertoire. I do not consider it a grind when i am focusing on improving skills i actually want to be good in.

I do however consider it a grind when I'm forced to improve skills i have no desire to use simply because if i don't have them i will be 'Gimp' or at a disadvantage in PvP. When i say this, i am not talking about me being a crafter and upset that i have to wear armor, more so the need to improve a skill parallel to another i had already chosen.
To put this in terms appropriate to the Fallout universe, if i skilled up the Small Arms tree it would be a grind for me to also improve Energy Weapons simply because having skill in that area adds a defense buff against Energy Weapons.
Please keep in mind, i am not suggesting that having points in the Energy Weapon will provide said bonus. I am just using that as a situation where 'forced grind' would exist.

Now that i've explained my perception of the 'forced grind', allow me to elaborate on how i feel a point pool will alleviate some of this.
By only having a finite number of points available for skills, players will be forced to make choices about their character build and thus there will be consequences to their choices, a balance between their strengths and weaknesses.

A more visual example: Lets pretend there are only 4 skills in the game and 100 points to spend.

Small Arms
Big Guns
Energy Weapons
Explosives

If each of those weapon types also afforded a bonus to defense against that type, the player would have to choose how to distribute the points. They could dump all 100 points in to Small Arms and get a large damage bonus when using small arms and also a large bonus to defense against small arms, however the trade off would be no bonus to defense against the remaining three damage types.
Conversely, they could dump 25 points in to each category and be at best proficient with each weapon type, but they would also get a small bonus against all damage types. Choice and consequences. Min/Maxers vs. balance. Strengths and Weaknesses.

You can see in this situation where not having a pool limit on the points would force everyone remotely interested in PvP to spend time and effort in maxing out all four weapon types regardless if they only ever plan on using the pistol simply for the defense bonus.

This type of limitation on available points also impacts the economy by encouraging those who wish to craft to focus on a more specialized role. If everyone can craft everything, the player driven aspect of the economy evaporates. But again, tangent. This does however provide a segue to my next point:

If you've made it this far, kudos. I promise the remaining two sections are not nearly as long as the first.

Weight
As a player i do not only wish to PvP, but also take part in the hopefully rich crafting aspect of the game. By categorizing the skills and thus assigning a weighted point value you are afforded the opportunity to be viable in both arenas.
Example, say there are 3 categories for skills and each category has 3 skills. Again, the point pool is 100.

Combat
- Small Arms
- Big Guns
- Energy Weapons

Crafting
- Guns
- Armor
- Medicine

Passive
- Survivalist
- Doctor
- Lockpicking

Skills in the Combat category are assigned a 1 : 1 value for your primary combat skill.
Skills in the Crafting category are assigned a 1 : .75 value for your primary crafting skill.
Skills in the Passive category are assigned a 1 : .5 value for your primary passive skill. Notice i said 'primary', more on this in a bit.

By weighing the skills in a category, this allows people who prefer to play a more blended style the opportunity to be viable in several aspects of the game.

Now, for the counterbalance. For second and third skills in a category, the weight needs to be adjusted to keep it fair.

Training up a second skill in the Combat category should be assigned a 1 : 1.5 value where as the third should be 1 : 1.75.
Training up a second skill in the Crafting category should be assigned a 1 : 1.25 value where as the third should be 1 : 1.75.
Training up a second skill in the Passive category should be assigned a 1 : .75 value where as a third should be 1 : 1.

This way, if a person who wants to be the mack daddy at combat can dump all their points in to the three Combat skills and use up the pool of points, but they wouldn't be able to craft or pick locks. (My math isn't spot on here, but hopefully you get the idea).

Granted, ideally the weight shouldn't factor in that much until the character reaches 25% of that skill. That way someone who stubs their toe won't die from bleeding out because they have zero points in the doctor skill.

By assigning a progressive weight to skills along with a limited point pool allows true individualism to flourish in the game and gives the player a sense of uniqueness. Which is an often advertised but seldom delivered feature in almost every MMO out there.

You might be thinking to yourself, "What about flavor of the week?" or "What if i picked Small Arms and a patch gimps me?" or "What if i started crafting Guns but the market is flooded and i could make more money crafting Armor?" Would you have to reroll then? No my friends, not with skill decay.

Decay
Preface: Skill decay should only take place over in-game time. Not at all during offline time.

My last, and shortest point, is Skill Decay. This can be a slow and natural loss of points in skills that go unused over a period of time, or a more manual and conscious choice by manually selecting which skills you want to decay (think arrows in UO). Either way, this prevents the need to reroll a character due to tastes changing, patches changing stills/traits, etc.
Points lost to decay return to the base pool for reassignment.

Well, that's all i have to say. Again this was just my thoughts on what I would like to see, what I consider important in a MMO.

Thanks for reading!

Just about 90% of your post is a legitimate view and I think the team is implementing a few things from the original Fallout structure into the MMO but please don't quote me on it. I would say the special system which has always been great about the points you made clear, could be implemented into the MMO that I could see. As for the last 10% of your idea about "decaying points", we split ways.

In my opinion what you ultimately choose is what you get. I don't even re roll my chars on MMORPGs because it's what I chose and I deal with it and work around it if possible. Most MMOs allow also for multiple chars under one account which helps a person to "try again" but take a different path. I just think allowing points to decay even if slow would make the game less of the sense of consequences for your actions.

Over all though valid points made.
I told the Overseer of Vault 13 I'd give everything to save everyone, and so I did, I saved them all. Since then I've felt loneliness.

I would be all for the no Decay depending on how long skills take to improve. If we're talking average player hitting max after 6 months (avg 1-2 hours play / day) that might be a harsh reality. Doubly so if a skill/trait was gimped by a patch and it happened to be the char's primary skill/trait.

There needs to be a way to reallocate point down the road if the curve is steep. If we're only talking 20 hours to max out your point pool, then by all means, force the reroll.