Just watched 3-parts demo again ( as I wasn't sure ) and YES - the spell costs are shown on the GUI. `Tis would be strange if they removed this kind of info. Maybe he just didn't pay attention

Son of a...

Yeah, sorry. Magicka costs are displayed right on the spell description in the menu. I haven't had much experience with spells (except healing), so I haven't paid enough attention until now. I looked before I made this thread, and completely missed it. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the magicka cost used to be.

Stand by, I need to try something involving a level 1 character.

Wait surely this isn't true otherwise what is the sense in leveling past level 50? I can't see it being this way with most skills :S though I don't have any proof to back me.

At least for weapon damage, the game manual has the answer... It says "the weapon itself, your skill, and pertinent perks".

Now that I understand the mechanics of skill values i can answer this question.

Once you gain 100 skill points for example, you gain the ability to forge dragon armour, weapons, shields(bah!), bows etc. Now, why should you gain more bonus'? Isn't having the ability to forge all this dragon equpiment enough of a reward?

I for one can understand why Bethsda would do this.

You get perks past level 50. (they changed it a while back)
EDIT:
Total amount of perks you could get that way would be around 75

this is true.

i'm willing to trust the manual more than the "streamers" or "leakers" so that means all 3 factors go into the equation.

HAHHH!!!

Update: The Healing spell is more efficient for a character with mid-level skill than for a brand-new first-level character with no skill.

CRISIS EFFING AVERTED. I can't literally give you confirmation aside from my own word, for reasons which are likely obvious - but consider it confirmed.

Sorry for contributing to the hype and confusion, guys. The difference is fairly small (and thus hard for me to notice, without paying attention), but it's there. (Also, the scanned manual floating around confirms the same for weapon skills, as a previous poster stated).

I do still wonder what the effect of skill ranks is for skills like Alchemy and Smithing, in which skill level really does appear to have no effect. Still, I'm fine with a prereqs-only for those skills, if that's all they do. You won't be building those two skills up if you're not going to take the perks. Nobody who cares about crafting wants to "cap out" at crafting leather.

Again, I'M SORRY for contributing to the panic. Carry on, everyone.

It's funny how this thread starts off with "this is purely speculation" and then goes on to bash the game mechanics before most of you have even tried it

So youre sure that potions dont get better with skill ranks, as they did in previous games?

Just checked...Okay, it's kind of hard to tell, I'm fairly certain he didn't pick a one handed perk, and his damage with his Steel Mace (fine) seems to go up from 13 to 18 over the course of two levels. Again, I could be wrong about that.

NO, I'm not sure. I've only experienced alchemy once, for the sake of seeing the menu.

Another poster on the GameFAQs forums claims to have tried alchemy out at skill level 1 and 70, with no difference between potion strengths. I cannot vouch for the truth of that, however.

Yes, it is information like this that is the why of why we discourage discussion of leaked material.

This seems to be rumor or misinformation.

How about we just close it until there is some first hand knowledge on the 11th.