Don't rely on armor and just wear what you want. If you're dying all the time because you aren't wearing good armor.. I'd say to change up your tactics. The game has cover and best of all it has "run away!" Don't just stand there getting shot and then blame the armor. That's all you.. just standing there getting shot.

Same here. I've had the game since release and I never use power armor. Well, that's not entirely true. I like collecting it, so I wear it long enough to get it back to my base. I'm also sitting on 75+ useless fusion cores. The radiation suit (-1000 rads) is all I need for certain areas. It helps that my first character is a stealth build, so being able to sponge massive amounts of damage isn't that big of a problem.

I also agree with you OP. Not only do I wish the full armor sets were a bit beefier, I wish there was a larger variety.

You can hang out in the elevator and snipe them all, but I wanted to see the dialogue so I went for one of the persuades... got the quest giver alive, but my quest was bugged anyway.

Yep. Exactly what happened to me at level 48. Consoled in a replacement, but, well, no more legendary star for that one.

Indeed - I've died in full X-01 power armor mainly because I was being an absolute derp and sitting around getting shot instead of hiding behind objects.

Hopefully this will get a mod fix since I right now I can't finish that quest line thanks to the Monsignor CTD and I am now up to lvl 42

That person was suggesting a rework to armor, I believe.

Also, yes, ballistic weave is woefully limited, but some mods already exist to expand it - to basically every outfit. Which is great. Not sure if it works on things like raider armor, but at least one version should.

I am level 42, and I don't know what you are talking about. I have a few outfits sitting on a table because they are too under-powered to wear. Please send me a pm with the Quest Giver's name. Thanks!

I don't really get the bullet sponging issue. I've played on survival since I started and playing smart, as you said yourself. has worked fine for me. The damage ratios in this game are like 3x on survival vs 6x in obliv or skyrim (rough estimation) so it's comparably less spongy. The principal difference with survival is low healing rate. This has a secondary drawback for me in making most food useless because you survive fights by losing less health, not using more aid items. However the game needs to be more challenging imo.

You'll know when you've found the aforementioned quest armour and headgear because they are quest items and will be stuck in your inventory

I have run into this issue in every RPG I've ever played. I almost always prefer low-level armors in RPGs. I rarely like higher-level armors. I just wear whatever I think looks best on my character. I choose to see it as a way of increasing the difficulty without adjusting the slider.

It puts them in a conversation with you, but you're not obliged to return the favour. If you head in and start the conversation, but instead of picking a reply, just keep moving around behind them, they go hostile - but they prioritise you, not the hostage, and you can take them out while leaving him alive.

For what it's worth, I went back and got my second armour upgrade at level 38, so (for me at least) it doesn't have to be done at precisely the level breaks.

Can anyone explain why a (for example) "Leather Chest Piece" looks more like a bandolier than a "chest piece?"

This is really my main complaint, much of the armor doesn't look like "armor" it looks like harness or LBE. Not all of it, the Combat Chest Piece _does_ look like a chest piece (though a tad small).

I agree with the complaints expressed above that:

1. Too many things are not upgradeable and

2. Too many things are not layerable

But the fact that some of the visuals for some pieces of armor are just ridiculous trumps those complaints for me. Here are my thoughts on what Bethesda should have done, or should do in a patch/update:

1. Make anything that is not "armor" layerable with armor. If I want to wear a fricking flannel shirt and jeans under my combat armor, why not!? It makes absolutely no sense what is and is not layerable.

2. Make everything that should be upgradeable upgradeable.

3. Stack certain clothing bonuses with power armor. Not everything should stack, strength, charisma and agility bonuses from clothing for example should NOT stack (your strength becomes irrelevant once you put that exoskeleton on, and how can a garment boost your charisma if no one can see it on you!?). But some bonuses like LCK, END, INT, definitely should stack and arguably PER bonuses might stack in some instances (e.g., spectacles, though not caps).

4. I also tend to think that armor benefits should stack with power armor DR, ER, PR (poison resistance), RR (rad resistance), etc., but I suppose that might be over-powered. Still, it makes no sense that: if you are wearing an upgraded vault suit and armor layers with a total of 65DR, 50ER, 25PR, 25RR and you climb into a power armor that suddenly all your resistances from your clothing/armor disappear and all you get is what the PA confers.

Yes I was very tempted by Courser Armor especially since you can (I believe) put ballistic weave on it when I got it.

As to your Spoiler..............

Nah, one thing that power armor is bad at is SPECIAL stat boosting things. Paint is limited and only the torso and head have possible SPECIAL stat boosting mods.

Clothing and regular armor on the other hand have a chance to increase one's SPECIAL stats on a massive scale. The only massive boost PA gives is strength.

That being said, I personally like wearing X-01 all the time because I think it looks cooler than everything else in the game and the bulkiness and tank-like feeling of power armor is great for me personally.

Hoping for an Update for non-layerable armor to be modded. Most pieces get a couple modable slots, just do the same for regular armor.
2-3 slots for upgrading, cosmetic changes optional, and just go.
That's allI want really.

Your #4 point is hypocritical for the very reason that you point out in your #3 point that you should not receive strength or charisma bonus, because it is UNDER your PA, thus the DR should be rendered pointless (as it rightly is). If you should get no bonus for being inside a powered frame....why would you get the added dmg bonus from a piece of leather you are wearing inside a giant metal suit?

Edit: they should either give you all available bonuses of your gear or none. It would make no sense why some bonuses would carry over and others wouldnt. Personally I dont think you should get any extra bonuses while in PA. That's why you use power armour.... to GAIN bonuses you wouldn't have just running around the wastes like a normal dude.

Edit again: and by that I mean that you should not get any more bonuses from your gear that you are wearing inside PA, ASIDE from the bonuses that wearing PA already gives you

Edit yet again(I am the worst): I wholeheartedly agree with points #1 and #2 however. It makes no sense that you can ballistic weave some clothes, and not others, or wear extra armour over some outfits and not others. Now there should be some unique outfits that you can't put extra armour on, but make that piece look cool, and effective to use, not vastly overpowered or underpowered, just a different option.