Future Fallout Power Armor Ideas

Einhanderc7

Einhanderc7

Vat dipped, grown and still oozing with perfection
Hello everyone,
Its been a while since I was active, but I figured I might as well engage with some new ideas. While I know I'm setting myself up for failure in opening a discussion of a future Fallout title (We all know how its likely to turn out), but I figured I'd be optimistic for a change.

So for this discussion I'm curious to know how you all would approach power armor mechanics and uses in a future Fallout title. This can be simple ideas, quality of life changes, or whatever you would like to see.

If I had the opportunity to design the next iteration of power armor I would take from three different points of inspiration.

  1. Original Fallout Titles
  2. Fallout 4
  3. Real world weapon systems
I did enjoy the way power armor was handled (for the most part) in Fallout 4. Specifically the function of entering and exiting the armor, as well the modification and upgrading of the armor itself. If I designed a future power armor the first thing I would do is remove the finite fusion core mechanic. Lets be honest, it doesn't fit in the game and typically the armor will get destroyed before the core runs out if the player uses power armor for its intended purpose.

A lot of people forget the basis of design or the reason power armor was developed. Its designed to be basically a walking tank allowing those inside to soak up terrible amounts of damage before being eliminated as a asset. What's the point of that if you run out of FUEL in the middle of a fire fight? Plus refueling Fallout 4 power armor while wearing it makes no darn sense. (The battery is on the outside...)

So I have pointed out the fusion cores would no longer be an issue and crafting related to the armor is still viable. So what next?

How about turning power armor into a mobile fire base? I'm sure we have all figured out by now the EXTREME sponginess of Bethesda enemies in their titles. To the point that you are basically taking on Godzilla style creatures with a peashooter in Fallout 4. However maybe if giving players some serious hardware could make such sponginess viable? The point I'm trying to make is let Bethesda keep their unbalanced spongy enemies, but for the late game.

If balanced properly the game could be set up to introduce the player to the game with weak well rounded enemies, but later on let Bethesda keep their bullet sponges. The difference in this case is giving the player reasonable tools to combat the overtly lazy balancing attempts of Bethesda.

This would be great for the next mechanic I have in mind for power armor. The ability to modify it to augment or support. Give players the ability to augment the armor in such a way that it can allow players to increase their weapon damage, rate of fire, ammo capacity, range, etc... Another approach which should be added to such a system is a dedicated weapon system. In this case the player can incorporate a devastating weapon system supported by the armor itself. When such a weapon system is installed they would then be forced to use it or a side arm due to the nature of the weapons installation.

My ideas for power armor weapon systems that could be installed through modification and crafting:
  • An anti tank cannon
  • A Plasma cannon
  • Heavy gattling laser
  • Area effect weapons such as a radiation field or something of similar destructive potential
  • Mine layer
  • Mortar Launcher
  • Rocket/missile launcher
  • Point defense
Depending on how this is approached other parts of the armor itself could be set up to boost the weapons stats as well, such as leg stabilizers that anchor the armor itself. Range finders, tracking systems, etc...

What if the player doesn't want such a weapon system? Then they don't need to use it, just set the armor up to buff what weapons the player wants. In this case the armor itself is a custom augmentation of how the player would like to play the game rather than just a hunk of walking metal. This would also prevent introductions such as the "Magic Mary Sue" weapons added in Fallout 4.

If they really wanted to make it interesting I would also suggest adding in different ammo types to further augment the uses of the ideas mentioned above.

The way I would introduce such an armor would be to have a faction holding off some kind of terrible threat. With the use of such an armor though the conflict is at a stalemate. In such a scenario the armor itself would not be over powered and would fit within the context of the current in game conflict.

I also strongly suggest letting such an armor be late game, rather at the beginning of the game.

So what what do you all think?
 
I've had similar thoughts about having weapons normally used only with a tripod or when vehicle mounted, but PA shouldn't become some kind of mech. I could see wastelanders making weird stuff that might be objectively silly if it doesn't work like magic. Kind of like the jetpack mod. I mean, why is the only working jetpack in Fo4 attached to something that probably doubles your weight (counter to lore)? Though ignoring the downsides would be an easy thing to do with video game logic, like adding spikes without making the player constantly bump them into things. IIRC adding mods to PA in Fo4 doesn't make them move slower. Nor does asymmetry put you off balance.

I suppose mods could allow players to have more weapons at their immediate disposal, but they'd probably have to be gimped versions. Say, dragon's breath with a back mounted flamethrower and a nozzle that comes out 'at your mouth', or gauntlets that add an electric affect to conductive melee weapons. I suppose a mounted grenade launcher wouldn't be too impractical aiming wise when outdoors.

I usually imagine someone sacrificing the armor to do something other than become a walking tank. The mobile frame without anything weighing it could give the player a higher top speed, at a slower rate of acceleration, as well as the ability to jump at least one floor. That way it would alter playstyles significantly rather than just allowing more dakka.
 
Hmm... Well, first things first. I don't want the same mechanics that were used in disgrace 4, though some of them were not the worst thing in the world.

Entering and exiting the Power Armour is annoying, but at the same time, just putting it on like in New Vegas and it behaving like a Heavy Armour is not much better.

In my opinion, Power Armour should act like in 1/2 or New Vegas, in some ways: being able to hack pcs, without leaving the armour, or picking the lock, etc. At the same time, no fusion cores, no bullshit frames, no protection from falling from the highest building in the game.

At the same time, Power Armour should feel more special, like walking or similar to disgrace 4 is nice. The entering sequence should happen once, when you first get it or when you put it on, like Doom. I mean, at one point, I honestly didn't want to leave the Armour, just to not play the same animations.

Alternatively, you could just toggle the animations in menu or something, or hold the button longer to see it.

Next DT and DR, if you can't penetrate the outer shell, the durability should not drop.

No bullshit upgrades like jetpack, or being forced to install upgrades, just to be able to sprint.

So basically, let it work like in New Vegas, but make it feel more akin to disgrace 4.
 
What I hate about PA in Fallout 4 is: being useless.
Yes. Power armor is useless. Nobody ever uses it anymore unless they're going to Glowing Sea or just using it to "roleplay" as a member of the BoS (though even then the PA doesn't add BoS reputation since the reputation system is gone for whatever reason) and even then that's all it does. Why do people think that turning it into a literal fucking vehicle makes it good? Like fuel? Seriously? It's not only bad that the almighty fuel is already really common, it's just another unecessary bump in the way when you have to deal with repairing each individual part of the armor. I want the fuel part to disappear and I hope they make a good reason in the lore for it. Like the BoS replacing the whole stupid fusion core bullshit for like electrcity or something, I don't know. But the fusion cores need to go away.

The last thing that pissed me off about FO4 Power Armor is this: You get it in the first 15 minutes. With a minigun. Without any Power Armor training even as Nora who is a L A W Y E R. Maybe her husband might make sense, maybe, but making it so easy is just boring and makes it feel like I did nothing for the Power Armor. That's why I leave it and never use it. I treat it like early-game junk which will be useless for the late-game. I know that other Power Armors are better like the X-01 but to be honest it didn't make much difference. PA is good for collecting its sets. And putting them up in your settlement that you wasted 100 hours to build on one character like they belong on some fucking museum. This is what they should fix in the next Fallout game. Add back Power Armor Training, stop using "THIS CHARACTER COVERED WARS, YOU KNOW????" excuses for built-in training. Also not make the PA easy to get and actually make it useful and hard to get. Fuck this mainstreaming shit. If Bethesda wants a mainstreamed series, they'd better make a new IP because I don't want my Fallout to be this typical, easy, shooting gallery with barely any RPG elements bullshit. If I want a FPS game with RPG elements, I'll go and play Far Cry 3 and beyond. Oh, and speaking of easy, turn off the protection against falls. Gravity can't be defied like that.

Things to add to PA in the next Fallout game, like something new? Nothing, to be honest. I'll let the devs think of that. But I'd expect them not to pull up stuff like what I said above.
 
While I'm certainly not hopeful about any future Fallout-branded title, the idea of powered armor does not have to be exclusive to the series. Let's look at what it had going for it as a concept.

Power armor is an amazing late-game reward in the Fallout series because it makes the player feel as though they've progressed significantly on their adventure. Enemies that once posed a threat to them at an early level are rendered virtually harmless once this suit is equipped. Contrary to what you'd think, power armor doesn't even negatively impact balance too much, because generally by the time the player gets their hands on it, most enemies would probably only be dishing out minimal damage anyway. The fact that foes now do next to nothing though just gives you this feeling of safety that almost no other reward can match. It's like a getting a star in Mario, only you're allowed to keep it.

There's a reason this shit's always on the game box, too. Power armor just looks awesome. Everybody wants to be that fucking guy. It's the ultimate symbol that you've arrived, like driving a Ferrari. It gives players motivation. They want to become a mechanical walking badass.

Ultimately, the particulars of power armor aren't really what's important. It's the way it's implemented. In the original Fallout, you have to go through a ton of bullshit to even think about getting power armor training. The same is true for Fallouts 2, 3, and New Vegas. The initial hassle that the player is forced to put up with just makes that fresh new set of T-51b feel all the more rewarding when it's over, though.

This understanding of the item was apparently lost by the time Fallout 4 was developed, but in true Bethesda fashion, we got a bunch of other features in its place that nobody knew they needed.

Power armor in Fallout 4 feels great. You have a sense of being heavy, you can take a ton of direct fire in addition to radiation, and fall damage is entirely negated. This is exactly what this item should be. The ultimate power trip.

Fusion cores, while a complete retcon story wise, were a good addition to the series from a gameplay perspective. They give the player a resource to manage and add depth where there previously was none.

What was botched is the execution. These developers, for some ungodly fucking reason, decided to give players the best item in the game immediately. I'd call this decision retarded, but that'd be an insult to retarded people's intelligence. Anybody who has ever designed or even played a video game in history knows you are supposed to save the best equipment for the end. Christ, a literal synonym for a something powerful in video games is a 'late-game item'. How this fact somehow eluded a team of people who make video games for a living just fucking boggles my mind. I'm still in shock years after Fallout 4's release.

On a side note, while the customization is neat, it's extremely unnecessary and basically only serves to distract from the focus of the game, which appears to be a running theme in Fallout 4. Settlement building in a game about character creation and dialogue choices. Just what everybody was asking for... :clap:

Too Long; Didn't Read:

Fallout 4's power armor is good, but was abysmally misused. Future installments just need to hold back a little longer before they blow their hydraulic load.
 
Power Armour doesn't make sense any more. The bombs dropped centuries ago, it's all broken. All of it. At best, you could find some shitty NCR salvaged armour that doesn't really work anymore, forcing you to begin again, let go.

Or alternatively, give us a massive quest line where you hear rumours of the location of power armour, and spend hours tracking it down. When you find it, it's broken...but it's also the only piece of power armour anyone has seen for years. It's useless as armour, but nobody else knows that. Your AC remains the same, your agility drops, but you get new dialogue options because now you scare the shit out of everyone. That'd be neat.
 
At most, I would have expected some Enclave-tier product of research like the APA, but with completely new designs and made by completely new factions. Bethesda could've done it with the Institute researching for a completely different type of power armors, with completely different designs and functionality (maybe even producing something akin to Crysis's combat suit especially considering they've been doing SCIENCE! and stuff for over 200 years, but supposedly without getting deranged like their peers-in-science at the Big MT), or hell, even the new T-60 Power Armor could've been an upgrade to T-45d Power Armor made from the research conducted by Capital Wasteland's BoS, but NOPE. T-60 gotta be a pre-War, and the Institute did fuck all except of replacing average wastelanders with synths because.... reasons?
 
Hey, do you suppose the Chicoms ever actually made any power armor of their own? The possibility gets mentioned in a certain quest in F:NV I believe.
 
Pariah Dog said:
Hey, do you suppose the Chicoms ever actually made any power armor of their own? The possibility gets mentioned in a certain quest in F:NV I believe.
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The T-60 honestly looks like it could pass as a Chinese attempt, just change the helmet around a bit and you have a commie set of power armour that exposes half the chest and invites the enemy to blow off your ankles. I could also see China taking a leaf from the NCR's book and wearing salvaged sets stripped of the tech.
 
Beardy Unixer, I don't agree with you that all Power Armor in Fallout should have been broken.
The Brotherhood knows how to maintain suit and I am pretty sure that there are other factions and people who know so as well. Building new suits should of course be more difficult because the industrial infrastructure for it is gone.
Any new suits should be at best a hodge podge of available materials and tech and not something that can be produced in large numbers.

Regarding the original topic. I am really divided on this one, personally I think there should be any new suits outside the T-51b and Enclave Advanced Power Armor. Well the Institute could probably have developed new versions but I have difficulty with them and anything Bethesda introduced in their own Fallout games that they did not nick from Fallout 1 and 2.

Customizing existing suits should be possible, with various results of capabilities.
Adding build in weapons? I would have to see it first to determine if it would work or not.

Power Armor being a cross between that of FNV and FO4 (being very powerful and making people like a tank but still being able to sit down and hack computers or lock pick doors), yeah that works better than either making it a heavy armor or the tank like thing of FO4 that limited some of the gameplay while the player wears it.

I would definitely like to see the whole armor parts stuff being dropped. If a weapon can penetrate Power Armor it is probably rendered useless.

Fusion cores. This is mostly done for gameplay reasons. I do not see it as an improvement or more realistic that fusion cells from Fallout 1 and 2.

Introducing more Pre War PA designs? The T-45 was already pushing it, but mostly on how awful it looks because we know from earlier Fallout games that it does exist. If anything that one should have been run on small energy cells, forcing the player to carry a supply of replacements with him/her
 
The Brotherhood is dead, or dying. Lost Hills is gone, the Mojave chapter is gone. The Enclave are gone. NCR demonstrably can't repair power armour.

If the Courier happened to form the NCR/Brotherhood truce, the Brotherhood reclaims all the power armour anyway. There's none left for you. And then they die a slow death until nobody is around to fix it.

Christine, Veronica, and maybe the mid-Western Brotherhood are the only people who could possibly repair power armour for anyone else. Possibly Big Mountain too - but if you have access to Big Mountain, you don't need Power Armour - nobody is getting close enough to you for armour to be useful Even if it's not completely gone, it has to be exceptionally rare by this point. Properly, exceptionally rare - not "exactly enough available to provide one each for every party member" rare.

I suppose this changes if you start accepting things like the East Coast Brotherhood, or the Institute, or add a new faction or something, though.
 
Oh I agree with you that Power Armor should be rare in the game, not something you can strip of every member of a high tech faction.

Fallout 1 and 2 got this right. Power Armor was this rare almost mythological high tech item you really wanted to own but would only be able to find near the end of the game.

Fallout 3 and 4 spread it around the map and undid what made it so special.

I would not mind new high tech factions, but ones that make sense, that are capable of repairing power armor.
I find the Institute an Enclave and Big Mountain rip off even if I do like the idea of some post war scientific community somewhere in the wasteland working on all kinds of secret projects.
 
Beardy Unixer said:
The Brotherhood is dead, or dying. Lost Hills is gone, the Mojave chapter is gone. The Enclave are gone. NCR demonstrably can't repair power armour.

If the Courier happened to form the NCR/Brotherhood truce, the Brotherhood reclaims all the power armour anyway. There's none left for you. And then they die a slow death until nobody is around to fix it.

Christine, Veronica, and maybe the mid-Western Brotherhood are the only people who could possibly repair power armour for anyone else.
Click to expand...

Why are Brotherhood of Steel members the exclusive fixers of power armor, though? What if one really smart guy figured out how to fabricate new joint servos in his garage or something? There would always be a universal incentive to innovate on defense technology in a reality where being attacked by mutated animals is as common as high blood pressure. Power armor might be complicated, but it's not magic. It was designed by humans once. The only reason the NCR couldn't fix it during the war was because they were both preoccupied and strapped for resources.

The Dutch Ghost said:
Fallout 3 and 4 spread it around the map and undid what made it so special.
Click to expand...

I don't know, I feel like Fallout 3 did at least a passable job of forcing you to work for what power armor there was. From what I remember, you could only get the training perk by completing either a huge portion of the main quest or the entirety of Operation Anchorage.

Fallout 4 doesn't even have power armor training. You get a set of T-45d in like the first mission. Trash.
 
TerminallyChill said:
Why are Brotherhood of Steel members the exclusive fixers of power armor, though? What if one really smart guy figured out how to fabricate new joint servos in his garage or something? There would always be a universal incentive to innovate on defense technology in a reality where being attacked by mutated animals is as common as high blood pressure. Power armor might be complicated, but it's not magic. It was designed by humans once. The only reason the NCR couldn't fix it during the war was because they were both preoccupied and strapped for resources.
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Indeed. Especially since there's this item that exist in Fallout 2: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Technical_manual, even though it wasn't used at all in the game (its involvement in any quest is probably a cut content), Fallout of Nevada TC mod for Fallout 2 takes inspiration from this item's existence, split it into 2-parts manuals, and is required to repair a suit of T-51b Power Armor WITH a help from an NPC.
Even then, it's still should be REALLY difficult to gain access to a fully-working piece of power armor suit at all considering Enclave's total annihilation at the Oil Rig (where the majority of their APAs were stored) and BoS's being condemned to a slow death (where it's unlikely for the NCR to gain access to their bunkers, or in case of them succeeding in accessing one, we can assume the BoS ruining their techs to prevent it from falling into NCR hands), because without the know-hows needed to maintain working ones and fix broken ones, not only you'll have NCR's version of salvaged armor, you'll also get this:
latest

Also, I still think any kind of power armor-esque equipment in future installment should be completely new ones, if not completely different in its functionality, like Advanced Power Armors that were mass-produced after Enclave's successful research into it, or Chinese Stealth Suits.
 
I personally enjoy Wasteland 2's take on Power armor, at least aestethically. Maybe Fallout should have something similar too?
 
If there is gonna be new kinds of PA, they ought to be PA manufactured by post-apoc factions rather than being some unheard-of PA like with 4.

The PA's design should also be based on how technologically advanced the factions are (i.e NCR-level only capable of salvaging rather than properly assembling PA etc).

Plus, they ought to be extremely rare.
 
I here read a lot of complaining about the availability and general uselessness of the PA. Just try using Better Power Armor and Some Assembly Required mods together. Bwhooom. Mind blown. Yea, that combo is just that good. You will laugh at vanilla PA implementation and will never wanna play without those two mods for PA playthroughs again.
 
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