I think that overall PA should be much more rare than shown in the FO games. Originally, pre-Apocalypse, it was pretty much 100% US Military. And probably no more common (given the cost per unit being a BIG drain on the Pentagon's budget) than, say, F-22s are today. (That is, @200 in 2015.) Even multiplying that by 100, the total would be scattered all across the country. Deducting attrition from the fighting in Alaska and the outright destruction of most of them when the military bases they were located at got nuked on A-Day, followed by the attrition over 200 years of being shredded by Deathclaws and blasted by mininukes, there really should be very few left in the world. But here we have every Paladin in the BoS in all its many chapters being fully armored with complete sets of T-51b. Plus all the sets found in FO, FO2, FO3, FONV, and now FO4. Bethesda seems to think that the US Military cranked out those VERY expensive suits like VW cranked out Bugs in its heyday.

As for the powering system, having some kind of limited power source is, I think, a step in the right direction. But a power supply that can be entirely depleted in the course of ONE prolonged battle? There's no way that the Pentagon would approve of that particular MilSpec. Maybe as little as a 72-hour to be depleted, provided it was rechargeable. Otherwise the Pentagon would be looking at billions/trillions of dollars of military hardware being made useless just because it ran out of million-dollar "batteries". That would be like having entire Armored divisions frozen in place because they ran out of gas. (Where's the Red Ball Express when you need it?)

Nuclear Physicist.

I just started to try out PA after about 80 hrs. game....The fusion core system doesn't matter much when you start getting in the 20's of fusion cores...however, I think they should have taken out the whole AP meter...to me, running in a PA suit should be unlimited, only costing you power from the core, not both AP and core..also should have a default jet-pack/jet boosters that are upgradable...also costing more from fusion cores when used...

at first they were rare, then they were plentiful than what I could use, now (with the jet pack svcking them like pixie sticks) I am reaching the point where I can see my self needing to go out of my way to acquire them.

One of the interesting uses of Power Armor is radiation protection.

They've taken something you really had to earn in Fallout 3, and made it a default way you can approach gameplay, right from the beginning.

Personally, I find the Power Armor over-powered. Also, both armor and cores are in abundance basically from the start of the game.

Half the time I'm not paying attention when I'm looting, but I'm finding cores in trash cans?!

For me, Power Armor doesn't fit with the stealth character I like to play, so I only use the armor as necessary.

You all contradict yourselves. You say new PA is a great balance, and at the same time that after few hours you get hundreds of cores and you never run out, which renders the mechanic useless.

It is not lore friendly, because it turns out that you always find a core that has few hours of it's lifetime left out of those 100-200 years, which is ridiculous probability. You can't defend that.

I think everyone here is into instant gratification, give OP armor at the beginning of them game, few hours into the game and you have enough cores to use it without limit, and that appears to be fine by everyone. No one remembers how amazing it was to find this armor after all the time and effort in first games. That feeling to deserve it and have something only few use.

For it to be lore and common sense friendly, it should be impossible to find it laying around unused after 200 years, cores should't work like cellphone batteries and range at anything from 1 minute, to 40 years of life left at this point in time and a savage like raider, born after the war shouldn't be able to get a degree in nuclear physics and know how to fix and improve PA.

But I see that now RPGs need to be all about fun and gameplay, just like Super Mario, I accept it but don't like it. Basic principle in RPG is about building your character and in Fallout character is built before you start playing.

The only power armors to use a low capacity energy source requiring frequent reloading according to lore was the T-45 series starting with the T-51 series onward to the Enclave Advanced Power Armor Mk.II and its sub models the Tesla and Hellfire used an internal fusion reactor to power the hydraulics. I don't know why Bethesda did that put personally I find it to be an interesting mechanic but I see how it can annoy people. Also anyone else notice the Nuka Cola bottle in the intro video for the great grandpa coming back from World War II even though nuka cola was not invented until 2044

The only power armors to use a low capacity energy source requiring frequent reloading according to lore was the T-45 series starting with the T-51 series onward to the Enclave Advanced Power Armor Mk.II and its sub models the Tesla and Hellfire used an internal fusion reactor to power the hydraulics. I don't know why Bethesda did that put personally I find it to be an interesting mechanic but I see how it can annoy people. Also anyone else notice the Nuka Cola bottle in the intro video for the great grandpa coming back from World War II even though nuka cola was not invented until 2044

Have to agree with this, I thought the FC mechanic was cool at first but then the cores started piling up. There's just no risk of ever running out of cores, they're more common than alarm clocks ffs, and always fully charged! And there's power armor sets everywhere, all over the early game areas. They really don't feel special anymore. This will be the first thing I'll change once the modding tools are released..

While there are suits all over the low level area, I believe they are just T45s and generally are incomplete or damaged. I had come across three partial T45s before I walked into a BoS/Supermutant battle and blagged a T60b from a fallen Knight.

YA man why do those 200+ year old Fusion Cores that have been left out in unideal situations without proper servicing by a qualified technician don't last another 500 years!!!!

I mean its not like War happened! Those Cores ouaght to be as good as the day they were first made, its not like this is a game world where manufacturers routinely cut corners and cost.

OH wait, manufacturer's always cut corners in the Fallout world. The Cores are hundreds of years old left in bad situations and never serviced but for some reason people just are clueless. Look the honest truth here is it doesn't matter that the batteries are rated for 5-10 centuries, if the game were more realistic you the Player would die because one of those fusion core cases happened to rapture when you got shot that last time remember you were carrying around 100 Fusion Cores I mean where do you store those 100 fusion cores on your person where they wont get hit by bullets that you are being hit by?

Getting real tired of people slamming Fussion Cores you know why? Cause your ignoring everything about why the Cores are not as good as day one Cores. What makes you think that the Power Armor is as good as Power Armor the day it came off the assembly line?

There is no reason why you should never have to face the chance that approaching a Fussion Core with a cracked casing would in fact be fatal. The amount of Radiation coming off that thing would not be something magic rad-X pills would handle, nor would I suggest using just a HazMat suit.

Well, except there is a good reason, its a video game and having well over half of your Fussion Core encounters having a Fatal outcome for the player probably wouldn't be entertaining.

The player facing random nuclear detonation when getting shot up in gunfights cause they were dumb enough to carry around 100 cores on their person into a gunfight well that might not be entertaining.

Unless your Lore, states that Fussion Cores are also bullet proof and perfect and prestine condition even after 250 years of being left unobserved by a qualified technician well I guess you guys are just complaining to complain.

I like the PA mechanic in general, though I personally feel the armor was given too early in the game. Sure you don't HAVE to use it, and I didn't for many many levels, but after awhile you do find suits around (partial mostly) from Raiders/Gunners/Super Mutants and I now have 6 suits just sitting idle. Most are T-45, with two partial T-60, and of course if you go with BoS you'll get more PA than you can possibly use.

The FC thing was hard to locate at first, but as I've leveled up I randomly find 4 cores in a box, even mini nukes are doing the same thing. It's weird. I do think the cores need to be more scarce/rare.

I do wish we could have worked harder to get the PA... basically have it as a side quest where you need to go look for it to help aid your game. I'm not talking about that full X-01 suit on top of that building either.

yes fusion cores are nessecary

using power armour is like playing the gzmr on easy , it gives you that huge advantage early in the game without the need of any perks

if it was me i would make fusion cores very rare and trioke the price when buying from vendors

Honestly, the running part is almost certainly an oversight. What I'd do if I knew how and we had the full GECK would be to remove core drain from simple actions like running (regular fast movement without sprinting), and make fully charged power cores last far longer - BUT change it so that power cores found in the world are almost never fully charged, and are rather found at a large range of different, weighted-rarity charges. 100 would be practically infinite for anything short of constant jetpacking, but on average, one would find... most likely the 20% range. They'd also likely be rarer; As it is now - easy come, easy go.

Mm. Well, in this game's case - this WAS the site of the military base that developed the Fat Man, and they were testing the T-51 suits. They also tend to be found near vertibirds and other crashed military hardware, one per 'bird or tank formation - so presumably a lot of the war effort was conducted here. Drills, outbound deployments, returning for maintenance... these are probably the sets that were still being worn when the bombs fell. The sets that took heavy damage are presumably the ones missing parts entirely, junked and repaired for use by Raiders (that said, raider PA is too common at high levels), etc. Keep in mind that there were still likely hundreds (expensive or not, you can't fight on multiple fronts with one suit, even if it does make one-man armies of people), so having 58 around the wasteland barring the game's respawn shenanigans is not quite unreasonable. The Brotherhood - not everyone has power armor, actually, only the higher ranked frontliners. That said, they have massively grown in power since 3; they might have found some storehouses that weren't nuked quite as hard. It's a big country.

As for the cores - they were likely rechargeable with maintenance. I'd like to see power armor charging as a feature of maxed Nuclear Physicist, honestly, but for now just assume we lost the technology, and the short shelf life is due to 200 years of degradation. Come to think of it - radioactive material does have a half-life. We're probably finding cores that have maybe five, ten percent of their nuclear fuel left.

I don't know... I love the new power armor, but it is just so overpowered. And there are so many fusion cores around that the whole mechanic is meaningless. After first couple of levels you are never in danger of running out of cores.

for those that say it's OP what difficulty are you playing on
i play on Xbox One hard difficulty and i get killed by deathclaws and the highest tier robots
hell a legendary bloatfly almost killed me because i wasn't taking it seriously becaus eit's a fly

I'll start by saying that the Power Armor system as it currently exists isn't lore-friendly. However, with the CIT, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the companies in Boston were experimenting with new technology for Power Armor. An improved ingress/egress system so a soldier could get in and out without needing a support team, freeing up troops for other purposes. Modular pieces for the ability to customize the suit to better fit the specific needs of that particular battlefield. Even the Fusion Core system could be explained as a modular energy source that could be changed on the fly by a soldier in the field. Sure, the existing system can provide power for a long time, but once that power is depleted, the suit is useless, and requires extensive service by highly trained scientists to be returned to full functionality. Fusion Cores, on the other hand, can be easily replaced by anyone, and a large supply of them could be carried easily.

Of course, it's been pointed out that the Fusion Cores deplete far too quickly, and that's true. However, if the technology was still experimental, that would be something that they would have been working on before rolling the system out to the entire military. The Great War simply ended that before it could happen.

All of this could have been explained in-game, and while it might be a bit of a stretch, it would have made the existing system lore-friendly.

More could be done with fusion cores.

Limit the number you can find then:

Recharge one at a time using a fusion core recharger you can make at a workshop and needs 50 power.

Crafting at Science 4

- craft cores from circuitry, radioactive material and lead

- recycle to get radioactive material and lead

- make mini nukes from fusion cores, aluminum, plastic

Just throwing out some ideas

I find the armor repair system to be worse, just makes me not want to use it if I need to repair it from adhesive, copper and aluminum I could use for a permanent mod.

I constantly use power armor and I use my gatling laser a lot and yet my stash of 145 fusion cores continues to grow.

They are too easy to obtain, they should be twice or three times the cost, they're really cheap at vendors.

OR, they should deplete 25% faster.

I like that. Since fusion cores are relatively easy to find, there should be more uses from them.

I like the idea of crafting mini nukes at the cost of a fusion core.

Here's the thing though, it has to be a fully filled fusion core. I've noticed that in the game, partially charged fusion cores seem to act similarly as fully charged fusion cores. Hell, you can sell a 1/100 fusion core at the same cost as a 100/100 fusion core.

i run PA all the time, and am always finding more cores than i use. For every one i use up, i find 2-4. They are everywhere. Personally, i love the cores. It adds to the immersion, and makes it more believable. I still think it should be introduced later in the game, and you should still have to aquire training for it.

if you are really careful, and watch it, you can actually run a core down to 0/100. If you stop moving at the right time, it will not auto exchange. 0/100 cores sell for full price but caps are way to easy to get anyways. Who needs to sell depleted cores as well?

The fusion cores aren't the end all of balance for the system. Like I said in an earlier post, the component degradation and need to repair the armor at a proper station with the proper materials is a much more limiting and balancing factor than are the fusion cores. At least, that's been the case in my game.

I would have made Power Armor without Fusion Cores but you can't use Stealth, V.A.T.S., dodge and have lower movement Speed. Dodge would mean that the accuracy from enemies decreases when you move.