What exactly do the attributes affect?

[MilitanttiTalitintti]

Intelligence, will, etc etc.

[trowftd]

They affect the skills you have, if you want to learn which affects which, you can look at it in ini_skills.txt file in the game folder. I personally don't know the formula in how the numbers affect the skills.

Things like strength also affect how much you can carry(if there is anything more correct me on that). This turned out to be wrong

Edit: And eyesight should help with your view distance in both zoomed in and zoomed out map.

[Matti-patti]

Mostly they affect your initial skills and your aptitude for skills (you get 1-3 stars, I believe that just makes it level faster). But some of them have major effects beyond that. Notably speed affects your walking/skiing and running speed, while endurance reduces the penalty you get for carrying stuff and makes you more resistant to fatigue. Few of them (like will) affect how well you can resist falling asleep or passing out from pain. And I have heard eyesight and hearing make your more likely to spot or hear things.

Strength doesn't, perhaps surprisingly, have any effect on damage beyond making you better with weapons that use strength. It doesn't have anything to do with how much you can carry either. Your maximum carrying capacity is based on your weight, while the penalty you get for carrying things depends on endurance.

[MilitanttiTalitintti]

That's perhaps a bit unintuitive but alright. I had a feeling some of them don't work in the traditional sense. Thanks for the information.

[Edico]

There's a dexterity check for when using weapons in combat too, if your dexterity is low you'll fumble more often.  Not sure if there's ever a dexterity check for performing other tasks.  Same with agility, you'll fall over in combat if your agility is bad, and  more likely to fall from a blow as well I think.