pretty much, but I'd like to see more games go down that path. regarding people not noticing or trying to game the system, I think the point is that people who enjoy that side of the game would notice, and keeping the exact requirements for things hidden makes it a lot harder to game.
Oh, certainly. People who want to game are always going to hunt for ways to game (admittedly, I do this to some extent after the first playthrough), but having it be too hidden for the average joe risks blurring the line into not really being noticeable. If something cool happens, but you have no idea how it did or how to replicate it, it gets a bit frustrating. But if it's too obvious, we get back to the gaming the system issue.
As far as the speech checks and similar stat checks, the game should show you that it would be a speech check, but not give you a goal number like in New Vegas. You should have to intuit your chances for success. Is what you are asking something that would super hard to convince someone of? How gullible or open to suggestion is this character?
That almost pushes the trend from intuitive to guesswork, or requires an inordinate amount of snooping/legwork/reloading to make sure of, though. That's really tough to judge the "where is the sweet spot" option.
It would be interesting to have an actual speech tree/branching talents, instead of a one-point snags all persuade option, but that's (usually) taking options awayy from the other combat oriented trees. Unless being a diplomat is an option, speech trees are going to remain limited to how they can affect your success, either in knowledge gain, or in combat directly through bonuses against enemies.
Heck, even F:NV's barter/speech perks were pretty poor overall in relation to combat perks, but that's because combat was still the primary focus. Being able to diplomat through the game is interesting, if it's able to work in the plot without losing focus, but I think most people don't play to be able to specifically diplomat through. The average player likes outsmarting the AI, sure, but not at the expense of losing cool explosions or new techniques.
Back to the actual Kickstarter, I really think they need a lot more info from Sawyer Monday on the game systems, some mockups, something.
Similarly, more companions are cool for replaying/alternate playstyles, but I think people who haven't donated yet will need something that stands out more to kick things back into gear.
It's something we will be talking about very soon.
