Have intelligence affect number of skill points?

[joejoefine]

I was just trying out a tech-centric character, and maybe I missed something but it seems like intelligence doesn't really add that much value to a character.

It just seems like the trade-off of spending a precious stat point on intelligence is tied to very few feats (actually I don't think there are any), and the gains that you do make in advancing your tech skills a bit faster are limited by the fact that you get a significantly reduced number of skill points in total now, meaning that at most you can really only choose one or two tech skills (because you may need other more crucial skills for combat).

I was just thinking again about Fallout, and how the system they used made a good deal of sense. I think that as your intelligence increases there should be a small bonus to your starting skill points as well as the number of skill points you get per turn. Besides that there should be a few feats devoted to intelligence (if that's not enough).

I think it also makes sense for intelligence to have positive affects on persuasion and dialogue options.  I'm not actually sure if dialogue options are added for increased intelligence or not, it would be quite time consuming to go through the game (and very difficult) without any of the feats you can gain with the other character stats. Thinking more broadly, it may be a major change but if it seems like a good idea, I feel like it could allow someone to specialize as a pacifist-type, and maybe earn experience by persuading enemies to do certain things that could lead to quest completion.

Perhaps in the GMS compound you could persuade your enemies to go to the top level through some 'intellectual trickery', and maybe have a trap set up beforehand by talking to Gorsky about it. And for completing the task this way there should be some experience bonus so that this play style is feasible long-term. Just throwing ideas out there!

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Incidentally for the first time in a video game I feel like I'm really missing out based on my character build; you're really squeezing my choices with the limited number of stat points . Its good because I like the challenge, but I had to skip persuasion in order to get another crucial tech skill and now I can't gain access to the secret area in Omega's GMS compound - plus I'm worried a future quest may be impossible without persuasion.  Its just so frustrating to know I'm never going to get in there! I hope you didn't add anything major to that area.

I'm always used to finding a way to make it work somehow. I guess this time it just isn't going to work.  On the plus side I've crafted a nice gun and some armor, so I feel a little better. Prices are still hard to deal with at the start, but 5 levels from now I might finally reach the point where I can buy components, fabricate something, and sell for a profit. Then I'll probably become outrageously wealthy as usual

[Styg]

I agree that there should be feats relying on the intelligence so I'll definitively be adding some of those. Also, I think there's a couple of cases (at least one I can think of the top of my head) where intelligence comes to play in dialogues. I'll strive to add more in the future.

As for bonus skill points, I'm not really a fan of that. I don't see skillfulness in general to be heavily intelligence based. Maybe it should increase number of points you can spend in science skills, but that's already accomplished indirectly by the bonus the intelligence gives to all your science skills so I feel it works pretty well there. I'll probably just be adding science feats that will be intelligence based and will boost your crafting in some interesting way.

[joejoefine]

I guess that's fair. I think I need to experiment more with tech skills to understand their true potential and the value of increasing intelligence, as it seems like most of the really valuable items become available later in the game in terms of finding raw components, having the money to buy those components, and the ability to combine them.