I remember first playing TNM when it came out; but then after a while I just cleaned all my games off my desktop. Then later I got nostalgic and got Deus Ex back and of course TNM.

I installed TNM 1.0.4 (made sure I ran Deus Ex at least once first), and then did the 1.0.4+ patch. But when I launched a new game, something felt off. (As an aside I'm also running Shifter on top of this)

I remember having enough skill points to have Computers, Electronics, Lockpicking, and Pistols all at Trained from the start. Now with 5000 pts to begin with, this is an impossibility for me. If I recall, that means that Pistols being defaulted to Trained at the beginning has now been taken out. Is this intentional? I guess it could be argued that as a balance issue it wouldn't make sense to already start out with one weapon skills at level one.

It's still being defaulted to trained at start.

Shifter will not run correctly with TNM. Don't use Shifter when playing TNM.

Yeah I hate to make assumptions but what you're describing is probably something Shifter is doing. Since we're also doing something with the way the pistol skill works at startup, that may create undesirable results.

I was never able to change the pistol skill level to untrained.