Better Power Armor

There is the old power armor in the game.

 

Personally, I just plan on modding the existing power armor to be better in terms of damage reduction, durability, and bonuses. It might still drain agility if I can't make the armor itself slow your movement a bit, to set it apart from lighter armors.

Given that you need to get to a certain point in the main plot just to get the ability to wear it, I don't think making the existing versions better will be unbalancing. It will also have the added side effect of making power armored opponents tougher.

 

I see power armor not being a supreme god item as an improvement, but I agree that it could do for +2 st instead of +1

 

At the very least it should compensate for its own weight while you have it equipped.

 

Sneaking and lockpicking should be penalized, but not agility.

 

considering most power armor is at low durability, its really worthless because higher quality combat armor has more dr

 

I dont like the power armor in this game anyway because it doesnt suitably show off my characters sweet sweet ass

 

While I haven't fully explored all the different sets out there, I have a fully repaired set of power armor waiting in my homestead that I vultured from some fallen Brotherhood of Steel rubes that died valiantly in the defense of yours truly. Obviously they recognized the magical camera floating behind my shoulder and realized that I was the main character of the story and that their lives would only become meaningful to me if they became martyrs to the plot. They didn't, but that's beside the point.

Unfortunately, that armor looks like it's only going to be a trophy of my adventures because I'm decked out in some swanky stuff that Reilly of Reilly's Rangers (a subsidary of Reilly LLC and represented by the Law Offices of Reilly & Reilly) gave me and it's looking like that's the best I'm going to manage. Ready for the punchline?

I'm playing a melee fighter who only touches guns when he's picking them off the flaming, dismembered corpses (Shishkabob: Great melee weapon, or greatest melee weapon?) in his wake and getting ready to sell them for more Stimpacks and Med-X to patch himself up in anticipation of another suicidal dash through bullets, missiles, shrapnel and body parts hurled by my enemies who all apparently suffer from the worst strain of leprosy imaginable.

So to put shortly what I've already put extremely longly, this needs to be resolved. Power Armor is the friggin' Holy Grail of the Fallout series; a veritable gift from on high that allows you to transcend into the halls of superhumans and do what no one else can. So what does that entail? Here's a comprehensive list of what I agree the Power Armor should be made to do by the all-powerful modding community:
- Absorb bullets. What's the highest Damage Resistance/Reduction/Rebukement (I have no idea what that R stands for, but it's good stuff.) in the game? 85%? Good. That's what Power Armor gives you. No questions asked. A critical hit will still ruin your day, since it's implied that the enemy hit your weak point (which even the mighty Power Armor has), and a swarm of enemies will still be able to overwhelm you eventually, but otherwise, no questions asked.
- Move mountains. I appreciate that Power Armor improves your Strength. Gold star, Bethsoft. Way to grasp the most basic concept behind the idea. However, the stumbling block is that the Power Armor stubbornly refuses to improve your Strength if you're already the strongest man on the planet. Apparently the mechanics in the suit watched me tear out a Raider's spine and strangle him to death with it, and said to themselves, "Well, he looks like he's doing fine on his own so I guess we'll just shut that function down and wait for him to start losing his kick in twenty some-odd years when he's officially over-the-hill." A score of ten in any one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes is the peak of human ability. I can dig it. Power Armor can potentially put a weakling on the level of Rambo's skull-crushing tenacity. Awesome. What people forget, however, is that Power Armor makes you superhuman, so there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be pushing my pristine Strength over the 10 point limit, other than some idiot forgetting to program that possibility into the game. This must be fixed.
- Carry its own weight. The Power Armor's strength improvements (see the previous point) gives you extra carrying capacity, which implies that it's doing some of the work of being a pack mule for you. It's implied that the armor's own weight is included in that; otherwise, what's the point of wearing it? That said, ammunition doesn't weigh anything, so maybe making this armor weightless while equipped is one advantage too many. That's for greater men than myself to decide.
- Not hinder your Agility. I don't honestly see people sneaking about in these behemoths, and a 50 Sneak S.P. Minus wouldn't be unreasonable to demand as a price for being a walking, rocking man-tank. Also, unless they were working on a space station in orbit, I don't see people fine-tuning their car engines or picking locks while wearing the suits (Though 50 points from each of those abilities would be a bit ridiculous. 15's fine.). That said, people wage war in these things, and what makes them better than an extra-large set of Metal Armor is the fact that they make you harder, better, stronger, and also faster. If anything, they should grant you a small bonus to Agility, just because it's easier than ever to swing massive weapons around and let loose a barrage from an automatic weapon. More A.P. for more dakka'!

I hope this has been educational and inspirational. Look my avatar in his beady little eyes and you'll know that saving the Power Armor from my character's dusty closet is the right thing to do.

 

I signed up just to add this:

The Power Armor should, if anything, increase your agility! Those motors in the armor (forgot what their called, but I know they already exist) that enhance your strength when you lift should also have the same effect when running! Who cares if it makes you heavier? They compensate for that anyway...

 

Welcome to the community! I also signed up just to add my needlessly wordy input to a topic like this one. Best decision I made that whole day.

 

I would be happy about just a bit more damage defense. Also the enemys in PAs should have the higher damage defense.

 

I think that might make the escape from the jefferson memorial too hard

 

Or it could make the escape vaguely challenging, the feral ghouls were tougher than the Enclave in their papier mache armour.

 

A better power armor would be less steampunk looking, and more retro 50's robotic. Does not have to look like the old T-51b, but still within the same flavour.

 

I just signed up to answer this post actually...

You can get the Energy Power suits from the Enclave I don't think it had any negatives to it... but huge DR to it.

 

Yes, the Tesla Armor - but it only *looks* like Power Armor.
It adds nothing but rad resistance and a bonus to energy weapons - no strength bonuses, etc. What's the point of Power Armor if it isn't *Powerful?*

Facing Enclave guys in Power Armor should never be easy, yet it's *always* easy, even when I've got it cranked up to really hard its not that hard.

Honestly, just reducing the extent to which so many existing items are screwed up would really improve the game.
Power Armor needs to be *BAD ASS* instead of the 'meh' status it has now. Bar None, killing guys wearing Power Armor should depend heavily on good solid headshots with powerful guns. As it is, its no harder to kill them than SM masters or later Talon Company guys.

 

Talon Company is a joke

first encounter "You're too nice, and we can't have nice people in the wasteland! Prepare to die!"

3 shots later the squad is in nice little chunks

The endless enclave at jefferson would have been hard... but if you stand next to optimus... err liberty prime he kills them all in one burst


there isnt really ANY challenge in the game

 

Talon company is not a joke at level 2 when one is armed with a combat shotgun. On very hard settings, it means you die in one or two shot

The only way I can see to restore the Power Armor glory would be to reintroduce the damage thresholds system. I honestly wouldn't care if my armor reduced damage by 75% or 90%, if a lowly pistol could still hurt me.

Let's take an example :

Let's compare two weapons : a 10mm pistol, and a Nuka-Grenade.

I have about 300 health points.
The 10mm does 10 damage.
The Nuka-Grenade does 500 damage.

If I have 50% DR, it will take 60 pistols shots to kill me (5 damage per shot). That's three raiders emptying their clip on me, not that much actually. However, it would also take 2 Nuka-Grenades (250 damage per grenade) to blow me up. Anything and everything can hurt me, but really powerful things are not as threatening as they should.

If I have 15 damage threshold and 0% DR, the 10mm can never kill me (provided it doesn't do any critical), even if there's a whole army of raiders shooting at me. However, the Nuka-Grenade still blow me up to bits (485 damage) as should any Nuclear Explosion. Small things now bounce off the armor, but large damage still does what it's supposed to do : hurt.