I don't really see any evidence of it being required, making things easier, sure.

I want to preface this post with saying that I am also a stealthy character and have never used power armor. BUT from what we saw with the jet pack like additions to it I might just start. The mechanics look fun to play with whether I need the armor protection or not.

that power armor reminded me of powered power armor

I'm scared of the opposite, it seems limited in use and function and I hope that does not hurt melee/unarmed builds on high difficulties.

I hope they find a good balance for playstyles and PA use.

Power armor SHOULD be completely overpowered for a good chunk of the game. The whole point of it is that it's the pinnacle of personal defense. The only tradeoff is that you have to sacrifice stealth. Of course, it should be relatively rare or altogether unavailable without a lot of hard work. And we shouldn't get power limits; with the exception of earlier model T-45d, those svckers are nuclear.

What last two games? New Vegas is the only game in the entire Fallout series where Light armor is actually viable.

Maybe given the fact that PA is customizable, we can engineer some to be faster and lighter.

Reduce difficulty if you really don't want to use it. But the game won't be tuned to "let's make the most challenging battles doable with light armor".

If it's like Fallout 3 then yeah, power armor will be your best buddy, like it or not, since light armor was kind of pointless. Anyway, I suspect the system is gonna be a little different now. I have reason to believe power armor parts can be destroyed during combat.

Something tells me that wearing power armor will actually trigger deathclaws to spawn in more frequently. So if you want Deathclaw senpai to notice you, break out the power armor.

Well considering Todd said that certain leveled creatures will be located in one area, and not another, I don't think that's something to worry about.

That might be in general. Notice how the deathclaw spawned in by lifting a hatch up and crawling through it? I'm thinking wearing power armor might increase the chances of that (like maybe they hear you more easily). My impression is that deathclaws were balanced to specifically take on power armor (which makes sense to a certain extent).

Could be, but I felt that scene was pretty scripted, it wasn't just some random event during that mission. It is early in the game, so people say, and that is probably to give your character a shock at some of the terrible creatures he/she will come across, aside from molerats and German Shepard's.

I definitely agree with you. However, the deathclaw cut that power armor to shreds. That makes me think that deathclaws are going to have even more death and more claws than the previous iterations. I'm thinking that each "faction" (animals, BOS, super mutants) will each have a type of fighter optimized to fight against someone in power armor. Take the behemoth, for example. I'd be willing to bet they were made smaller specifically to make fighting them in power armor more enjoyable. This is all speculation, of course, but that's what I think. I could, of course, be totally incorrect in what I'm saying.

What have you been smoking? (can I have some?) - Sorry, but Power Armor was never useless (sure it was hard to keep it well maintained in Fallout 3....) and stealth is possible (I hope it still is! - What I hated about that presentation (at E3) was that they turned the Power Armor into a Mech - like a vehicle, less like a suit...I mean in the previous games the armor didn't make you taller etc. (well, at least not much)!)

I do agree with that - if you get your hands on some, average wasteland creatures (scorpions, wolfs, ghouls) and raiders should no longer be a real threat (at least if they don't swarm you!)...and the earlier you do, the more impact it should have IMHO!

Indeed - in the games before that, wearing the heaviest armor you could get your hands on was generally the best idea!

I really hope that we can modify it like we could a weapon (stronger servos for example: more speed, more agility (I don't agree that the armor should carry a penalty to agility, after all that was exactly why it was created: to give soldiers the ability to carry heavy weapons while staying mobile and hanging in a fire fight longer and it's servos should boost agility and strenght - not penalize it! - after all, the suit reacts to your movement, it's not encumbering you (if you discount being heavier and having a larger silhouette which is a little easier to hit)) or nightvision for the helmet, a stronger reactor which can give additional power to energy based weapons etc.) and not just exchange pre-made parts!

greetings LAX

ps: This time I hope that it really does work like the description says and shields you from all radiation (it's an airtight self-contained system after all!)...hell, when I jump into a lake I don't want to need oxygen either (internal reserves plus filter system), same if someone attacks you chemically or biologically (it was after all designed to protect soldiers from all of that and other environmental hazards, like the cold in Alaska!)

Eh, I kind of doubt that. The previous two games (even with NV's DT system) certainly didn't require you to use power armor or reduce the difficulty. Non-PA might be "light" in comparison, but that includes everything up to Combat Armor.

(Of course, there might be a bit of confusion in the thread, depending on what each poster means when they say "Light" armor..... could be any armor that's not Powered, could be crappy Raider/Merc outfits. )

They definitely could have buffed Deathclaws and PA as well, to make fights like that more "epic". It wouldn't be too fun if a Deathclaw came and knocked out the PC wearing PA, or vise versa, in a few short hits. And Behemoth's were downsized because they were far too big in F3. The fire hydrant and human skulls were way too oversized, to match the Behemoth, so they likely downsized them to make the skulls more realistic and weapons too.

You know, I forgot about that. They actually upscaled the behemoths in F3, didn't they? So really, these are probably the correct size. Anyway, my point before is that these new deathclaws may very well be too dangerous to take on unless you have power armor or a good sniping position. Depending on how tough they are, having them pop up behind you randomly like they did in other games seems like an inescapable death, even for max level characters.

Yes, Behemoths in Fallout 3 were scaled up like 5x, which is why the car doors they use as shields, and the fire hydrants on poles they use as clubs are so comically oversized.

They were originally made and designed to be the size they are in Fo4.

The deathclaws in Fallout 4 seem to behave just like the ones in Fallout 3: Fast and high damage. Power Armour is absolutely not required in Fallout 3, you just need to use the terrain and VATS to your advantage when fighting them. You can lead them into a trap of landmines, you can get yourself up on some high place where he can't reach you very easily, which is common in the rocky CW. And then there's the use of explosives which synergize wonderfully with VATS since they are much more accurate using that than in real time, and a few explosions going off at his legs will cripple him enabling you to finish the deathclaw off with small arms. There's also the tried and true sniping tactic, where you leverage sneak attack criticals, headshots, and better criticals perks to create insane loads of damage. The same technique works even better with shotguns and sneak, since you can spec your character in a way to take out a behemoth with one blast from The Terrible Shotgun with the right build and conditions.

Power Armour may look more powerful in this game, but I really doubt it will be 100% required. I wander the Capital Wasteland in the armoured vault suit that I started the game with, and with some good knowledge of game mechanics and some forethought in your build there's a lot you can do to stay relevant without the biggest and baddest equipment. Especially important is speccing into explosives and getting those demolition expert perks. Bombs for hard targets and your assault rifle and pistol for everything else works great.

I'm hoping we run in to Power Armor fairly soon and at least get to try it out.

Course I'm also hoping there is some reason that we have to limit our power armor usage.

I don't want like previous Fallout game where power armor isn't useable till late in the game, but I don't want to be using power armor for every thing.

Could be because it take a lot of scavenging to keep repaired, or you have to recharge it constantly, or you need a Vertibird to pick up and drop you off if the target is any distance away.

And here to also hoping they also have some good light armors early in the game.

Enlighten us how would you balance power armor with medium or light armor? How much more protection should power armor provide then light armor?

Introduce a mixed DT-DR system where DR is only awarded to medium and Heavy, but not in amounts that exceed ~25%. This would provide Power armor with the superior protection, because for example if you had an incoming sniper round that dealt 100 damage and scored a headshot that doubled that for 200 damage, it would immediately drop to 150 and then DT would drop it to a further 125 or so. Comparatively, Light Armor would only reduce this to maybe 185 in a best case scenario, while a normal non-headshot hit would be 50 damage and 85 damage respectively. This would be most noticeable on Deathclaws, who'd hit a light armor target for 135 damage a hit while the Power armor guys would only take 87 damage. These are noticeable amounts that are neither too strong nor too weak, preventing the player from hitting a point where the game lacks any and all challenge, but also noticeable enough that yes, there will be plenty of occassions where having that power armor is the clear difference between life and death; a 400 HP character would survive only two hits from a deathclaw before the third one killed them. A power armor'ed character would survive four with the fifth hit killing them.

Meanwhile, provide Light armor and medium armor with alternative purposes via perks, or in some cases, stats purposefully tied into the better armors. Light armor for example could have additional movement speed, a slight boost to crit and slight crit resistance (not nearly as large as in New Vegas, maybe just 5%. Meanwhile, perhaps raise the crit bonus to 10%, though unaffected by multipliers) while Medium armor could get stuff like carry weight and action points alongside more modest amounts of DR (say 10%). Not neccesarily those two for medium, but ones like those.

This would provide players with incentives to use all three. A sneaky character would appreciate Light armor's better stealth and offensive capabilities. since their goal is to NOT get hit. A character who just wants protection would like Power armor and enjoy the fact that no perks are needed in order to take it. And for any players in the middle who can't decide between a more offensive or defensive bonus, Medium would provide a tempting middle ground with nice side-bonuses to help make a medium armor playthrough more welcoming and enjoyable.