There should be more expensive things. I found in oblivion that money didn't take much effect in the game once your a higher level, and don't just make horses as pets you should be able to get dogs and maybe even creatures.
A lot of people didn't like oblivions level up system but I did. If they make the level up like fallouts then oblivion will lose it's uniqueness and it won't be as fun.
Bigger creatures, oblivion's creatures were strong but it didn't make it epic or scary because they were small. they should have things the size of merunes dagon that you can acually kill.
Also when I enchant my sword with fire i don't want a feint red glow, I want my sword on fire. Like the shishkebab from fallout.

Ehh there's the point, how is he supposed to see your exact skill number, look into your character sheet?

Perks:

Here are a few ideas on perks.
The ones you gained in Oblivion and how you got them felt a bit artificial but having some out of there ones would be nice.


So why not splice it up a little.

There are some perks you can learn naturally like new weapon moves, those come naturally over time. Your basic moves are not counted as perks, with a sword that would be thrusting, sidewards swings and chopping down with it. Other moves like a spin attack are perks.
Here it should be done that they are available already but they need to be trained, at first they are a bit to clunky and slow to be really used. But as you rise in level they become more effective.

With the spin attack example, at first it would be a relatively luck based attack, imagine you're surrounded by enemies, out of despair you try a spin attack and actually manage to hit a few, not hard but it may have gotten them off you a bit more. Then later when you're more trained you try it again and really manage to hurt the enemies surrounding you that way, maybe even get a lucky shot that downs one.

Some would only be useful when you reach true mastery (in my system getting over level 100), below that they're still usable but not really useful as they're too random or demand too much of you.
That way it wouldn't feel like “DING – new ability” but “Hey I'm slowly getting the hang of this”.


Others that are more unusual abilities require a trainer to to teach them to you OR another source like scripture to learn them from.
Those too require a learning phase after you acquired them but it generally goes a bit faster.
Here too a few of them could only really become usable when you reach mastery.

A master training you those perks could demand, as I suggested before, a test of skill. If you pass his test he teaches you that new ability.

This could give you a incentive to dedicate yourself to one skill or a certain field of skills without having to force you to learn it as those perks can still be available even when you're lower but not really that usable

As for the naturally learned perks, you can also train them with masters, this makes them accessible (really usable) earlier on.
On that note, trainers shouldn't actually add a new level to you but give you a leveling “speed up”, means you still have to train that ability but it just goes faster thanks to your training.


Also to separate it, I did mentioned some “character traits” before which are kinda like perks but not quite the same.
Character traits can be chosen when you create your character but they're not 100% set in stone, you can actually gain or lose them over the cause of the game. A example would be immunities to diseases, when you contract one in game and cure it out your immunity to that disease rises.
Alternatively a negative character trait can also be battled in game or used to your advantage, imagine you gave your character arachnophobia, when you go of against a spider enemy this “fear” can be crippling to your character making attacks less focused, but the same time the more often you manage to encounter spiders successfully this fear goes down AND it can give you a adrenalin rush making you a more fierce fighter.

However most traits should have no clear positive or negative, they can go both ways.



While the first and third could be discarded as not really being perks I think they do kinda count into this and could help to make characters much more fluent and “unique” to play.
Also it would prevent the “from loser to god” problem where you're to incompetent to breath in the beginning of the game but later kill someone with a sneeze. You would have the very BASICS of what a skill needs, so much that if you're a mage who's out of magica can still grab the next best stick and fight with it. You simply lack the advanced abilities, or rather lack the ability to use those well enough to matter.



It's less on Realism but believability, something doesn't have to be realistic to be believable (Magic is a good example, in the game world that is believable), some points just strain it a bit much (Some regular guy getting set on fire and not even having a scorch mark afterwards).
The focus on clear cut numbers is by no way hindering or HAS to go but it just makes it feel kinda stiff which strains at the believability a bit.
If someone said "You don't look like you have the stuff but let's give you a chance" is more believable than "you're level 8, come back when you're level 12".

As mentioned before, if they're really strict they can tell you "You failed the test because you didn't stick to the conditions we set", like only wining a magic fight by kicking your opponent, that's still fair play, if you manage their conditions despite being on a very low level that just shows you can do it.

Oblivion's perks were fun, but Daggerfall's are way better IMO for personalizing your character.

For those unfamiliar:
You get choices in the beginning of the game of your character's http://uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:ClassMaker.

I've made a Dunmer who is resistant to fire and allergic to silver. And a Nord who can't swim, but heals in water.
You can make some really unique characters with this type of perk system.