So I noticed in the most recent video, when the player hovered over the base SPECIAL stat (Strength), it gave the impression that you could use a perk or something to increase the SPECIAL stat itself. I don't recall something like that being in any of the previous Fallout games. Anyone have a clue what that could mean?

I can't link the image, or the video, because I might be a bot, but it occurs at :02 in the video.

The headline reads: "Strength Training" and the description reads: "Strength is a measure of your raw physical power. It affects how much you can carry, and the damage of all melee attacks. Now you instantly gain 1 point!"

I think that's the running theory, that we can perk up, or boost our SPECIAL.

It has been confirmed that anytime you lvl you can eather take a perk or increase a stat.

And if my memory serves me well that has been done before already in FO3.

In FO 3 and NV you could increase your special I believe it was called intense training.

But, back to your point. Each time you level up you get the choice between choosing a perk and choosing to increase special. That is confirmed.

Yes, it's been confirmed that per level gained you'll get a point to put into either a SPECIAL or a PERK.

It was called the Intense Training perk in FO3 an NV... you could take it multiple times

No really. FO3 was just like New Vegas...you got an alottment of points for skills...may they rest in peace...And then a perk. SPECIAL's were pretty much fixed unless you found the adequate bobblehead in FO3, or used a perk to increase a SPECIAL stat.

I thought FO3 they were pretty static, with the exception of a few quests that may have raised it and obviously bobbleheads. Interesting!

The older games had Intense Training - the even older games had a set of perks at level 10 or so for each SPECIAL stat.

Now we can train our SPECIAL indefinitely, all the way up to 10 each. Although that would take 42 levels, and there is almost always a better perk to take on level-up than just bumping our SPECIAL.

Well yeah it was done by using a perk but it was an option which you cud chose multiple times on same stat.

It was more of a trade off. Gain something new via a perk, or spend a perk on increasing one SPECIAL by one.

At level 30 there was even a perk called Almost Perfect that set all Special to 9, which with Bobbleheads included, gave you a perfect 10.

On the perk chart the "header" row shows your specials with 10 ranks each. So think of your stats as perks now, and like any perk you can chose to rank it up when you level.

Yeah but isnt it a tradeoff now as well i mean you chose eather to get a perk or increase a stat, sure tehnicly since there is no lvl cap you cud eventualy have it all.( but realisticly how many will keep playing same char that long to achive that cosidering they dont use any possibile exploits,cheats or mods that cud make it easely obtainable)

Very true, the system has changed, and now getting a boost to SPECIAL isn't just a hard choice to make. It goes without saying, we had a hard set on level cap, which meant a perk was very valuable. Do you spend it on this or that, or maybe this.

I agree there is a *spoiler* achievement for getting level 50 so that means level 50 is achievable by just playing the story.

That would leave you with 10's in every attribute but only 10-15 perks. That would be a major liability.

Awesome to hear. Honestly it will make me fret a lot less about character creation because like I said, I felt FO3 was a lot more concrete. Even though you could change it to some extent.

Still obviously in the early levels it will be very important. Sounds like this game will have much higher levels at the end game then compared to FO3 and such (I know there's no cap, but endgame perks and such seem to have a much higher level requirement.)

This has been rumored for a while, and it was possible in FO3 and NV. They just had a convoluted way of doing it, you'd take a perk that let you increase a stat. Now you can just up the stat directly using the perk point.

I think my plan is too use level ups on SPECIALs early on. Since the beinning of the game is relatively easy compared to the rest, i am going to look at the full perk chart when game is released and see which perks i really am dying for to be unlocked. Any of those perks that aren't unlocked after allocating my SPECIAL stats, i will use my first level ups to get them. Once all the perks that i'm really interested in are unlocked, i'll focus on all the best perks. Should be well rounded once the game really starts to kick off

Yes and no.

Everybody has a tendency to specialize. Even if you do go through the bazillion levels you would need to get all your SPECIAL attributes to 10 and pick up all levels of the other perks, you will only be using a subset of your abilities. Basically, with the way most people play, there is no reason to max out all specials and/or perks.

That's correct, you could always take the INTENSE TRAINING perk and rank up any SPECIAL stat at any level up.

Balanced start is 4 in all 7 stats

6 more for a 10 in one stat x 7 = 42 level ups to get 10s across the board. That also means you will obtain only the perks you get from non-level up sources (books, magazines, bobbleheads, quest rewards, etc.).