gkk7z does sometimes come across as seeming to claim all his theories are 100% correct, but really having had a few conversations and discussions with him its more enthusiasm than anything and he is more than willing to change his theories if your willing to spend the time putting forward alternatives and put forward facts that contradict his thinking.

There is a reason I use words like probably, perhaps, maybe etc whenever I'm discussing these theories, as its really easy to seem that your stating your opinions as facts.

I'd personally like to thank gkk7z for filling up some of the time in the wait for Fallout 4 and I look forward to many further theories as more offical info is released.

I believe that comes from the casting script saying that the protagonist was in the army and the wife saying that they were going to the veteran's hall.

As for the theory, I'll have to take a long look at it to see what a good stealth/sniper/lockpicking/hacking character (my usual build) could be........how many days is it now.

Ok, thanks. Hadn't heard of the script reference before, only the vet hall and the flag on the shelf, none of which means they're military (to me).

As always, thank you for your honesty

Whenever I work on any of my theories, including the interpretation of the perk chart, I am often able to picture all of the individual parts working together, kind of like an exploded diagram. This is just something I've always done from a very early age, and it's one of the reasons why I often don't get enough sleep! Unfortunately, this also means that it's sometimes a little hard to 'detach myself' from the idea of it just being a theory, and more often than not, this is interpreted by many people as being arrogance. But in reality, I'm describing something I've already seen in vivid detail, even though it may have just been a picture in my head.

Due to the number of incredibly creative people on the forum, new ideas are constantly being put forwards across dozens of different threads. And many of these are truly brilliant. Every now and then, one of these ideas 'clicks' with me in a way that fits perfectly with an existing theory. This may change the entire focus, or may simply fill in the gaps. And so, as you have stated, I will often incorporate new ideas so that the various theories make more sense. Not just to me, but to everyone who reads them. In the case of yourself, the number of times you have helped me to 'refocus' is the very reason why I have mentioned you at the top of this thread, and so once again, a very big thank you.

And finally, this is the main reason I love to craft my theories in the first place. My sole purpose for being on the forum is to try and help others gain a better understanding of what we have on offer, and the sheer depth of choice that will be available to all of us when the game releases in November

I will be looking forward to that. Don't mind the nay-sayers. People probably would have put Pythagoras down too, if there had been the internet in ancient Greece. It is amazing how many times throughout history theories have been proven to be true ... even though Skills and Perks speculation may not quite be on par with Pythagorean theory.

Thank you Myst, I couldn't have put it better myself

Okay, I wanted to share this with all of you. I've just watched a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1CqFq63pFo which discusses the demo shown yesterday at Gamescom. In the video, presented by GamesRadar, mention is made of the 'short clip' depicting the STRENGTH stat, the same one previously shown at QuakeCon. Here's what is said:

"So first up we saw an explanation of the new Strength part of the SPECIAL stat system, which was illustrated in the tutorial by an adorable sort of forties black-and-white cartoon. But occasionally descended into hideous ultra-violence with Vault Boy being shot to pieces or crushed by Super Mutants."

Note that this is the first time we have been given any specific information about the contents of the short clip. What the description suggests is that rather than showing Vault Boy using the perks himself, it shows the perks being used on him. This brief description actually seems to confirm at least three of the perks that I have predicted.

First perk: Projectile.

The description for Strength tells us that it is "a measure of your raw physical power. It affects how much you can carry, and the damage of all melee attacks."

Now if this is the case, why on earth would the video show Vault Boy being "shot to pieces", unless of course if we consider that this also means he was being bombarded with projectiles. Now look again at my description of the Projectile perk in the OP, and notice that I did not say large objects, I said heavy objects. Objects both big and small that are heavy enough to do damage when thrown at an enemy, which may even be able to cause destruction of body parts as depicted in the video.

Second perk: Crushing Blow.

The other part of the description tells us that Vault Boy is being "crushed by Super Mutants". Again, look at my description for Crushing Blow, and note that I have suggested that this perk could be used, amongst other things, to crush enemies. Ironically, it would seem that I have actually underestimated the effectiveness of the perk. From the description above, we can assert that not only can this perk be used to crush protectrons and robobrains, but that it can in fact be used on all enemies. This would take the form of obliterating armor and crippling limbs very quickly, thus making this a very effective perk. This would also extend to the usage of the Wrecking Ball perk, which would be usable in the exact same way when using hand-held weapons.

In another comment, the reporter says "Oh, and there are melee executions as well, in slow motion in V.A.T.S."

Note how similar this is to my descriptions of the Martial Artist perk, which would allow us to target specific body parts in V.A.T.S. when using Unarmed or Melee Weapons, and could then be used in conjunction with most other perks in the category.

Finally, when speaking of Dogmeat, he tells us that "He growls when he senses there are threats nearby"

Now look again at http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1529102-skills-perks-revised-edition/?p=24208672 post from my previous thread, in which I predicted exactly the same thing almost a week ago.

-

EDIT: I've just had clarification of part of the clip from Genoman_bk, who attended QuakeCon, over on reddit:

"Him being "shot to pieces" was actually him getting shot up by a Super Mutant with a mini-gun, which in the video in question looks more like Bloody Mess (which is a Luck perk, not strength) than anything."

This could still suggest a reference to the above mentioned perk, as Bloody Mess has already been confirmed in http://i.imgur.com/GvJH23e.jpg image as being under Luck, as also mentioned by the attendee. This can be further determined by it's placement on the far right column of the chart in between Scrounger and Mysterious Stranger. The validity of the reference would still stand, as a minigun also fire projectiles, which in this case cause a great deal of devastation. But any damage caused by a STRENGTH perk would have to be related to either our fists, or to weapons worn on the hand, or weapons held in the hand, which would all be part of either Unarmed or Melee Weapons. This would include any thrown weapons, which are by definition, hand-held projectiles.

I watched the film several times and was kind of disappointed that there was no new game play footage. So sad that they are keeping this exclusive.

Well you were right in that they confirmed an overhaul of perks and stats. And you were spot on about melee and Dogmeat.

They said there was an explanation of the new strength stat system was illustrated in the tutorial but it sounded a little vague but a couple of things also stood out to me, especially when the one fellow said they "drop a vertibird on some enemies"!

I'd say your predictions are off to a good start.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the ST or EN perks improved our handling of Big Guns. Not in the sense of improving damage, but maybe helping to mitigate recoil, spread, or movement penalties. That would do a fine job of differentiating between classic Small Guns and Big Guns within the new system. Like what Gunslinger and Commando do for one-handed/two-handed arms respectively, but for Big Guns and under a different attribute.

Brilliant suggestion!

I think this would literally mean that the higher our Strength stat, the lower the recoil when using ANY ranged weapon. But this would have the most noticeable impact when using weapons that would previously have been classified under Big Guns. And so, as our Strength goes up and the recoil is reduced, this would (exactly as you stated) also reduce spread, and in addition would mean that we could move faster when wielding such weapons.

This would also perfectly explain the inclusion of a minigun in the short clip as mentioned above, which would otherwise have no obvious connection to the Strength stat due to the focus on melee damage.

I will add all of this into the OP in the next update, and will of course mention you as having suggested this information

EDIT: note that this would also effectively turn the Strength stat into an additional perk, for use with Big Guns, without having to use up one of the other perks.

Looking at this article: http://www.gamesradar.com/fallout-4-turns-you-most-versatile-murderer-wasteland

Of particular interest is the confirmation that we can now target specific body parts when using melee in VATS, which is exactly what I have predicted in the description of the Martial Artist perk in the OP. Just to mention this again here, the article also confirms that Dogmeat is able to alert us to the presence of enemies by barking or growling, which again is exactly as I predicted in the previous thread as detailed in one of my posts above.

And also, the article itself sounds amazing!

it's a dog..... my dog [censored]in barks and growls at enemies lol

So why doesn't every game with dogs have this feature? I certainly don't recall Chop being able to do this.

EDIT: for the record, what about Riley, the dog from COD Ghosts?

I think you'll find that this is a unique feature to Fallout 4. And one that I suggested a week before it was confirmed.

I hope that Far Sighted helps increase accuracy in VATS instead of just allowing you to look farther or detect enemies that are further out on radar.

I don't think the sense of progression has really gone anywhere. A lot of the perks seem to work together to increase the PC's damage output in sort of the same way that perks & skills did in Fallout 3.

In F3 Dogmeat would growl when near enemy presence. It's not a new feature.

Yeah, that was one of the reasons I always travelled with dogmeat (once he got the upgrade), because his growl warned me to move into stealth.

Wow, didn't even know that.

I never used any of the companions in FO3, because I always preferred to play solo. Pretty much the same as in Skyrim.

More of my own speculation: In the last two Elder Scrolls games, we got perks that made our currently equipped armor weightless (and removed any movement penalties). With the new perk chart, I could see that being a high ranked perk for EN or AG, possibly even ST; and if Power Armor is now a separate thing from ordinary armor, I wouldn't imagine the perk works for Power Armor.

Haven't noticed anything along these lines as of yet, but I can have another look to see if it would fit in anywhere. In the meantime, there does actually seem to be a whole load of other possibilities from Skyrim that could find their way into gameplay.

I hope the Higher The Strength the less Recoil on Guns is a thing, would make sense logically too.

I played a lot of Fallout 3 and I do remember Dogmeat alerting us to enemies. That was technically a different dog though - Fallout 3's Dogmeat being a Blue Healer - Fallout 4's dog is a German Shepherd. I thought we were talking about this dog in particular. Also Fallout 4's dog is modeled after a dev's dog named River and she is a female and does the voice, too.

Never played CoD, so I am not familiar with Riley. The only other series that had a dog similar to 4's was the Mabari Dog in Dragon Age: Origins. He alerted you to danger and had a entire set of skills (Growl,Charge, Shred, Overwhelm, Combat Training, etc) that you could choose on level up. His AI could be set to do many things and was a very useful companion in that game. One cool feature was that you could name him.

This is one of those occasions where I end up eating a big slice of humble pie! I honestly didn't realise that this was already a feature in other games, I just thought it would be a sensible addition to Fallout 4.

But at least you all know now that I'm definitely human, and not an android from the Commonwealth

Yeah, sure. That's just what an android from the Commonwealth would say!

Oh crap! I think they're on to me.

Todd, call for backup!!

I'm not sure if it's been confirmed or mentioned before, but I'm willing to bet that the 13 base skills have 5 ranks, not 4. I base that opinion on two things:

1) The numbers: unless it's just awful reporting, it's confirmed we get 70 perks based around SPECIAL with 275 ranks available. If we do the math, 70 perks times 4 ranks = 280 total ranks. That would be fine by itself except we know some perks only have one rank available, and I'm going to guess that many only have 2 or 3 ranks available. Those extra ranks have to go somewhere. If we have our 13 base perks with 5 ranks available, that 65 total ranks split among them and 210 ranks split among the 57 remaining perks. That seems a bit more reasonable than 223 ranks split among 57 perks.

2) The precedent set in past games: People always forget to count 1. The terminals and locks in F3 had 5 tiers, not 4: very easy, easy, average, hard, and very hard. Very easy was equal to 1 so that everyone could access it. There's also a possibility that the separate ranks for these base skills still require a certain level of a SPECIAL attribute which has historically gone to 10. 5 tiers is easier to split among 10 points: SPECIAL level 1 = rank 1, 3 = rank 2, 5 = rank 3, 7 = rank 4, and 9 = rank 5.