Dynamic feat selection?

Just wondering if anyone has come across or has tried doing a system that would allow for a more dynamic, character-based feat selection process? Here’s what I’m thinking.

Started playing a Dusk Blade from PHB II. I admit, I personally always have trouble choosing feats-never know what to do. Min/max? Choose a feat that somehow relates to my character’s personality? Combat feat or non-combat feat? Pick one of the +2-to-a-skill feat to boost something I think might need improvement in?

I looked and looked at the list (just the core PHB, at that), trying to guess what would be the best pick. Combat Casting? Yes, that looks promising for a Dusk Blade. No, wait. I get that as a bonus feat later. Combat Expertise? Wait, let me see what that feat is the prerequisite for—which meant I had to guess several levels in advance which feat I might want at 6th level so I could take the right feat at 3rd level to get the right feat that I think I will want/need at 6th level. To me, that’s a little complex.

I *think* the above example illustrates a dilemma in 3.5 between giving a player a lot of customization options, but at the same time, adds a great deal of complexity to the system. Is there a happy balance? For instance, I had all kinds of choices in feats, but the task of choosing and predicting the future was way too complex, and feats chosen now lock me into certain choices later. How do I know at 3rd level what my character will learn/encounter/experience at 6th level, and what direction I will want to take him in?

I’ll give one more brief example from when I was DMing a session that leads to the original question. We had a really well-developed rogue character. I was experimenting with ways to make combat more cinematic, and the player did a great, imaginative job. It became obvious to us both right away that the character should have the Spring Attack feat, but of course he didn’t have the prerequisite feats.

Now, as one of our players states, and correctly I think, the feat prerequisites are there for a reason, so we hesitate to ignore them. On the other hand, the system seems complex and somewhat non-responsive in allowing feats to be chosen dynamically or being character driven. For instance, instead of choosing a feat every three levels, what about something in which the character would “earn” or “learn” a feat through the course of play? If the character does something remarkable, or the player has a moment of brilliant or insightful play, perhaps he could acquire Spring Attack on the spot as a result, or Alertness, or Acrobatic, or even Toughness?

Does anyone know of a system, or what might a system look like, that somehow allowed for character/play driven feat selection or assignment?

Cf. retraining, PHB2.

For a quick fix method without going through all the trouble of completely rehauling the entire feat system,
it sounds like you might want to utilize some fashion of Hero Point or Action Point system and allow the use of them to grant a short term feat.
The player has a moment of brilliant or insightful play, you can award them with an Hero point. Spending that Hero point allows them the use of an appropriate feat.

A slight rethinking of the feat system led me down this train of thought.
A possibility for a more fluid feat choice could be a system where you gain floating feats. These floating feats can be chosen when you need them and then they last for the rest of the day. (This was lifted straight from the Man at Arms class of Iron Heroes, Go Mearls! ) If you want even more versatility you could allow floating feats to be rechosen after meditating/practicing for an hour.
You would have to play around and see how many of the feats you want to make floating. I would probably even make a decent number of the fighter feats floating to allow them to be a much more versatile character. This would allow them to fill the prerequisite feats and still obtain the feat they wanted to get, while still allowing specialization through the longer feat chains that would be hard to obtain through just floating feats.