Is gaining a character level the only way to upgrade skills in Wasteland 2? I've been playing for a bit, expecting some of my level 1 skills to bump up after repeated use, like they did in Wasteland 1, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

Really hope they didn't remove that mechanic from this game. I thought it was a great part of the core gameplay.

Well, that's a damn shame. Very few games implemented this function, and I always thought it made great sense. As long as the game was designed sanely, there wasn't any need to abuse the feature either.