As I'm sure you noticed, in the trailer we see a raider veteran equipped with power armor. He was literally named "Veteran Raider". Similarly, we saw in Oblivion how Marauders would sometimes be found equipped with full daedric armor - basically breaking the game's economy and balance. As well, it broke the atmosphere/immersion because theres no way a Marauder/Raider would find Daedric/Power armor that easily. Do you think the devs just equipped that raider with power armor for demo purposes or do you think we will see the return of dramatic leveled lists causing the least significant people in the game to have the same stuff our veteran protagonist does? Do you think they gave the raiders power armor because our power armor is obviously being overhauled and it needs some competition? Will this be a rare sight to find a raider or when we reach level 30 will we see them everywhere we go? To me, this can make or break late-gameplay. I'm usually not so dramatic, but nothing makes me more upset than a Beth game throwing rare armor around just because you're high leveled.

On a side note, do you think we can use power armor from the beginning or are we going to have to unlock it like FO3?

one of the very first missions in the game has you using a set of power armor to clear concord of enemies.. however it is unknown if we will get to keep the power armor or not.

If you can keep it id imagine it would be very expensive and hard to maintain early on.

Also the main protagonist this time around already seems to have power armor training as they were a veteran in the pre-war era and probably already know how to operate power armor.

It's just nice seeing Raiders in sensible armor, rather then the bondage gear they have been sporting.

remember though, that we have a layered armor system now.. and power armor is comprised of many parts... The raider probably cobbled parts together to make his armor, and it won't be actual power armor.

We don't know when that mission is, we only know it was in the trailer (as far as I know). If I'm wrong, I'm assuming we can't keep it because our character wouldn't have a place to store it early game and we would have no way to deliver it to other locations.

Either way, I don't think thats an excuse for giving raider power armor.

This, it doesn't actually seem like real power armor.

True, but as far as I know power armor requires at least one type of each part (you can mix and match but all parts ) need to be power armor so the raider would have to find it. And that would be fine, except if it follows suit with Oblivion, we would see every raider in a small dungeon area have a full set which is just stupid.

EDIT: I totally misread your post, my apologies. That is a possibility and I would honestly be fine with that. Still, I wouldn't like to see raiders that scavenged from power armor everyday, but it would be a lot better.

  

concord is literally right next to where vault 111 is right past the gas station where you meet the dog... so it is very likely it is one of the starting missions.. or at least part of the starting chain of missions. Most likely to give you a sense of power as most games like to do early on.. right before taking it away from you.

Or it is a mainquest that brings you back to somewhere near the starting location...

For example, going back to Vault 101 halfway through the story in Fallout 3. The only thing we know for sure as far as the timeline goes is we start off in a small town, go to a vault, then we can go back to that small town and adopt 2 companions.

It didnt seem that way though with how the npcs were talking to you as though they met you for the first time (they showed actual footage of the mission including meeting the npcs for the mission)

I dont recall any raider in power armor.

Only what appeared to be metal armor.

I don't think we'll see it often... I think we'll see more traditional looking raider armor, while some of the more experienced raiders... like veterans may have a better armor... but it won't be to the levels of actual power armor.

I seriously doubt it. Bethesda saw how badly that went in Oblivion and changed things so that it was never a problem in Fallout 3, New Vegas (yes, Obsidian made it, but also didn't change that aspect) or Skyrim. I see absolutely no reason to think that they're suddenly going to turn around and start doing it again in Fallout 4. If the raider is in something that resembles power armor, there is probably a perfectly good explanation for it. It might not even be actual power armor, just armor with a lot of metal pieces. At this point we really don't know.

When launching the fat man at a raider veteran keep pausing and unpausing and when the launcher gets really close you see something that looks exactly like BoS style power armor. Like they said, it could just be scavanged pieces of power armor, but theres definitely power armor pieces present.

Logically i would assume that much like the Centurions in NV that some very skilled/lucky Raiders have killed a power armored enemy or raided a pre-war armory and now have access to the equipment. I imagine only the highest ranking "alpha raider" would be allowed to use such valued equipment so that would mean the "boss" of some fortified raider camp is likely a worthy foe.

I feel like Todd Howard was reading my mind when i was thinking of all the cool mods i wanted to find/make for FO3 and NV when they did this. I always wanted to see more scrap-armor on Raiders including the Tribal Power Armor from the Pitt, just to mix it up a bit

You know there are a couple of places in the Capitol Wasteland where raiders can get access to power armor after a certain point in the game and will use it if they have it. (I am guessing when you become a raider, the first thing you are taught in raider boot camp is power armor training).

Nothing immersion-breaking about a seasoned Raider that actually raided and fought long enough to earn the right to call himself, a Veteran. No surprise he'd be able to piece together an incomplete set of Power Armor for himself.

Where-as, the Marauders in Oblivion really did just have a standard lvld list to draw their gear from. Bland and simple.

The Raider sub-types we see in the demo seem to use completely different armor and equipment depending on their status. (Raider Scum wear simple poor-man's gear. Raider Psychos are imposing melee brutes that wear sturdy heavy armor, etc.) I expect you'll only find Raider Veterans in key Raider territories that they may maintain and defend as strongholds, or as personal guards for Ringleaders and the like.

He might have killed somebody and taken it from them. This happened for me in FO3, an enclave outpost had spawned a bit to close to some raiders so they had clashed and the raiders won. One raider had the armor the other had the helmet. was three dead enclave, one in underwear and some dead raiders I did not shoot.

Pretty funny, looking over and try to figure out that had happened.

Indeed, it would be possible if the power armor were the same as it was in Fallout 3/NV... but as it stands now... it's vastly different... Also, the raider didn't look like he was a tank/taller than average height. Nah, with the armor system now... it'd make more sense if they just cobbled it together like other raider armors.

2 possibilities on that

1] It is like Heavy Trooper NCR armor and is just being used a blunt-plating without the added bonuses

2] Power Armor training isnt "required" to wear it in this game but perhaps it is far more effective with the training

I agree. I really don't see them reverting to this problem. It went over horribly and they've fixed it for 3 games in a row.

To be honest, I like this idea.

It's not like Bethesda will give some personality to the Raiders in this game, they will only be those giant XP in your screen, so that at least they are good challenges.

Option one, is the most probable. I see them using it as just your basic armor plates, over a shell of other armor. Like the basic raider armor, which looks much much cooler now I might add.... With armor layering being used, I can see the armor possibilities to be a little more vast than simply having a full suit of armor. We will see more in the coming months and at release... because as it stands, I'm as well as others, just piecing information together. The raider in question was only on screen 5 seconds or so... just long enough to get nuked from a distance.

Considering our PC's military background, he probably had power armor training.

I guess a leader of raiders might have access to a broken down power armor that wouldn't work properly and just use the chest-piece like Immortan Joe. We live in a world where ISIS is driving M1 Abrams so I wouldn't rule out the possibility. Recall that we used PA as a vault dweller, a tribal and a courier. As long as it's rare enough, it wouldn't bother me.