I think you're making too heavy an assumption here and I'd agree largely with Thrasher. Seriously, just considering the idea of obtaining a perk every level in a game without any level cap, does that not slightly take away the potential impact these choices have? If I'm leveling faster and getting perks all the time - where's the need to be concerned about character building when I'm being inundated by super-powers?
I'm not talking about a fabricated rate of level-ups and a fabricated power-ranking of perks.
I'm talking about the system in itself.
I have no idea why you assume you'll be getting levels and perks "all the time" - but I don't have such insight into the game. There are MORE perks, yes, but I have no idea how fast you'll level up.
More perks doesn't mean less impact of choice to me. That's about how they've balanced and implemented perks, not the frequency with which you get them.
What I'm saying is that I find it questionable to call out getting perks every level as non-gradual and "magically appearing super-powers" - considering the old system had them every two levels instead. Having them every two levels is less magical? Getting one every level is not gradual? Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean you'll be getting super powers every 2 seconds.
Going by Bethesda, the perks are supposed to replace the progression of the skill system - so I don't know why they can't be reasonably "gradual" - depending on how powerful the lower ranks are.
I guess the big problem is that you get tangible upgrades instead of small incremental upgrades that you hardly feel.
Yeah, that's terrible.
If I'm getting a perk every second level on the other hand, I have to be much more considered about making my choices count overall when building my character simply because perks are meant to be valuable and not dime-a-dozen.
I don't follow this in the least.
Assuming a perk is actually useful - and I don't know why anyone would assume it's not - then I don't understand why it's less important every level than it would be every two levels.
That would just mean every two perks would be just as important as one perk used to be - with the added bonus of having a lot more toys to choose from.
If your logic was sound - then surely the best design would have just one perk choice in the entire game, right? That would make it so important that the game would automatically be ten times more fun, right?
Then again, I don't automatically assume the worst- which is really what we're talking about here.
Let me guess, you think they're all superpowers that "blow shit up" - because Bethesda make cool but stupid games for stupid people - and bla bla.
No, I expect some perks to be what skills used to be - only with more significantly felt upgrades - and some perks to be what the old perks used to be, which would include both useful powers and "super powers" for the highest SPECIAL stat perks.
That said, I don't go into a Bethesda game expecting truly tough choices in the character system. They're not good at that - and they never were good at that.
But that's 100% separate from the concept of the system itself.