So just questioning how power armour actually gets its power from a core.

Take a look at the core:

http://i.imgur.com/TTsvdPN.png?1

Makes sense. Plugs in and power comes out from the contact points.

But look at the port for the core. Its hollow. You can see the inside of the front of the suit...

http://i.imgur.com/1wY9EXt.png?1

There is no contact point where the cores outlets meet the suit itself. If anything it just plugs into your back.

But thats just me nit picking and looking to deep into the "WHOO YEA POWER ARMOR".

Concept believability > Concept gimmick

And heres what it looks like with no power core in the suit with a companion in it.


http://i.imgur.com/SdzXNPO.png?1

(Please do not get me started on the whole companion doesn't even need a core to power the suit...)

Yea I noticed that too. Kinda stupid that wasn't noticed in testing or by any of the designers.

And heres what it looks like with no power core in the suit with a companion in it.


http://i.imgur.com/SdzXNPO.png?1

(Please do not get me started on the whole companion doesn't even need a core to power the suit...)

Yes. The hole. This is the issue.

Not that this supposedly self-contained, environmental body-suit...splits open along every seam across its entire frame.

Not that it can fall from any height -- literally ANY height -- without suffering the least amount of damage.

Not that the tens-of-thousands of servos and power transistors and electronic gimbals and...whatever ultra high-tech robotics go into a machine this complex...can be kept in perfect repair using tin cans, rusted hand tools, and a propane torch.

It just doesn't make sense that I would be able to go toe-to-toe with that giant, sentient, mutated iguana Deathclaw...using my portable, gatling plasma gun...if the geometry of the hand-held fusion battery...doesn't line up in the hole.

It's the hole that makes no sense. Look at that hole.

I'm getting a sense of hostile misunderstandings here.

Allow me to clarify.


In a world where noble crusaders of ye olde tech build suits of highly advanced mechanical servos and armour to allow the wearer to take down iguanas that have been force evolved by a super virus and radioactive waste with weapons specifically designed to shoot plasma, there is no connection for the power.

When you create such rich lore and cohesive art style by leaving out a fact like 'core doesn't plug in', it stands out.

They have gone to the trouble to make power armour a thing you jump into rather than an armoured onezy you just put on. It opens from the back to allow you to get in and out, it is said by a Brotherhood npc (wont spoil to much) that falling more than 3 storys destroyed their legs. Its gameplay that allows you to fall from the moon and survive.

In a realistic lore sense, more than 3 story and you risk injury.

All the effort to make power armour more realistic and they just leave a gaping hole in the back. 1 mesh of texture is all it would have taken to make something go from a little off to believable.


If that makes sense.

I say those FC connectors connect directly to the wearer's spine and I will leave it with that.

And I will finish it off since I was already writing it when you made your post. The Fusion Core's contacts hook up to the pilot's spine. The nervous system is then used as the wiring for the Power Armor. This is why Power Armor Training was necessary in previous Fallout games. Power Armor Training doesn't teach you how to pilot Power Armor, but to insert painful implants.

ugh deathclaws are mutated Jackson's Chameleons not iguans get your facts straight omg jeez

Ha ha ha ha ha...! No -- I'm busting your chops, Hobbits. It was specifically the "believabilty > gimmick" comment. That was a door left wide open and I decided to fire a rocket through it. (You didn't pick up on the double entendre of my references to the "HOLE" in your argument?)

I get what you're saying. I partially agree, but I'm not bothered by it at all. The fact of the matter is that power armor as presented in the game is about as possible as the Deathclaw: a completely unfeasible, sci-fi idea. The whole concept of power armor being so common-place and easy to use / maintain is just pure fiction. Not to mention the idea that anything containing a fusion reaction could be contained in a hand-held "battery".

The argument about the visual impact of a gaping hole in the back of the armor...this I understand. Personally, I like how the animation "plugs up" the hole and sort of puts the finishing touch on the suit. NPCs and companions should only be able to use power armor that has a core already installed. I know they drove one of my suits out to the middle of nowhere once (chasing bandits), then just hopped out and left it there after the core ran out.

Also...has anyone tried targeting the fusion core in the back of a suit of armor using VATS? It might be a separate mesh for a reason...

That can mimic human speech using a method similar to parrots...yes, I remember.

Chameleons...iguanas...whatever.

They're all going to be dinner after the bombs fall. I see a deathclaw, I think: "MMMmmm... Multi-hued beef... aaaggghhhaaaggghhh..."

Sorry. Sarcasm dosn't translate through text well.

No. It doesn't. Not even when you try to use boldface/italics and various fonts/sizes for effect.

We need an app for this, dammit!

This is kind of funny, lets all get our money back, we may well cancel the next Elder Scrolls game too, after all magic isn't real right?

I understood you

Hooray

I haven't actually bothered doing so myself, but my understanding is that if you can get an angle behind them, you can actually target the Fusion Core of someone wearing Power Armor. Apparently, when you "cripple" the Fusion Core, it explodes much like a mini-nuke, and the person piloting the suit gets forced out (assuming they're still alive, of course). The only issue is getting a line on the back of the person. However, the Penetrator perk allows you to target the Fusion Core even from the front, so if you have enough Perception to get that perk, you can just target the core from any angle.

Its a safety feature. The fusion core insert end and contacts are symmetrical. What would happen if it was inserted backwards, reverse polarity? It might blow up rendering the armor, user and possible bystanders/property severely damaged or dead, it is a nuclear device after all. So anyways, the contacts are hidden, also a safety feature as if they were sticking out then they could be possibly damaged or contaminated when no core is installed. So once a core is inserted the system anolyzes the core to see if it the proper device and inserted correctly, once the system determines this it then initiates the "contact" to power the suit.

Frig that!!! What about day-to-day household activity!? They used these things to power neighborhoods!

"Jimmy! JIMMY!!! I am not going to tell you again -- you stick that fork in there, you're gonna regret it!"

I understand your point with fusion core and its terminals.


What I would say though is remember it's not a cell (like a battery with set DC style positive and negative) it's a core. Cores can essentially dissipate energy via induction or being in close proximity, in this case I'd suggest that the core is universal, it can power machines, armour, weapons and plant, that would suggest maybe the different holes for different applications allowing different amounts of power drawer and cycling! The power armour more likely utilises the slit like terminals around the lower part, guns probably use the pin hole terminals for tight fit and the plant uses the large terminals so that the core can be cycled, purged and used!


Just my opinion but I do use heavy duty cores and cells for my living (not fusion or fission obviously lol) and some do have multiple connection points.


Let me know what you think of my theory

I understand your point with fusion core and its terminals.


What I would say though is remember it's not a cell (like a battery with set DC style positive and negative) it's a core. Cores can essentially dissipate energy via induction or being in close proximity, in this case I'd suggest that the core is universal, it can power machines, armour, weapons and plant, that would suggest maybe the different holes for different applications allowing different amounts of power drawer and cycling! The power armour more likely utilises the slit like terminals around the lower part, guns probably use the pin hole terminals for tight fit and the plant uses the large terminals so that the core can be cycled, purged and used!


Just my opinion but I do use heavy duty cores and cells for my living (not fusion or fission obviously lol) and some do have multiple connection points.


Let me know what you think of my theory

I just handwave it as something slides away when the armor unfolds to let you in, and then slaps over the 'head' of the battery, hence why Curie cautions you about aligning your fusion core correctly.

To be fair, if we were gonna go realistic, the Sole Survivor would be blind at the very least for looking directly at a nuclear explosion...

Fallout games rely upon a helluva lot of hand-waving to work, from my experience. I find the current game to be the most immersive of the games with how the tech and biology works.

That's an interesting find; however, for me I can suspend my disbelief about if a battery makes contact with the device. But I'll add it to the list of things that don't quite make sense in Fallout:


1. Gas powered generators that don't require gas.

2. How are my guns being reloaded if I switch weapons?

3. If fusion cores are inserted from the back, how do I load them from inside?

4. Where do I keep all the stuff I'm carrying? Where does my equipped weapon vanish to? How do the guns I'm carrying on my person, get outside the power armor for use?

...

103. Why are there caps & pipe weapons in safes that haven't been opened since before the war? Also why are there caps in cash registers that do not appear to have been in use since before the war?

104. Why do settlers treat me like a stranger, when I personally welcomed them to the settlement, personally showed them where they could sleep, and personally showed them where they could lend a hand.

...

574. Everyone in the wasteland seems to smoke and there are tons of unopened cigarettes around Boston. Who is making them and packaging them?

...

862. Why are there so many cores still powering machinery that serve no purpose? Have people not thought to take them out & sell them? (for example raider filled USAF Satellite Station Olivia)

863. Fusion core contacts don't make contact with power armor.

Just another reason not to use power armor i guess. Logic for the win.

Also, why does T-51 use fusion cores when the lore clearly goes against that?

Because its a game, and gamplay trumps realism and lore.

Just like "why does PA require specialized training in Fallout 3 when Fallout 3 itself states using A is so smple even a child can do it!" its called balancing.

1. Obviously due to dwindling resources, pre-war governments demand better fuel efficiency, so now engines run for decades on a single tank full.

2. Due to the magic back pack which enables the user to carry many times their own weight, because its magic.

3. You don't the machine knows you have more so it automatically removes and places them, from your magic back pack.

4. see answer 2

103. Just because they are locked doesn't mean you are the first to open. I've visited the same safes before and although I unlocked and cleaned them out, they were locked and full again. Caps are cash, so why not store them in a cash register?

104. Rad storms, over the years the radiation effect have depleted most short term memory functions.

574. It'll all be explained in future DLC.

862. The only use so far seems to be to power up the power armor, not everyone has power armor and those that do probably got them from military check points. Game notes say that these check points are great for finding cores, yet everyone I found seemed to have no cores.

863. see my explanation in above post.

Here's my question: How does a fusion core actually provide power? Is there a mini power plant in each one? Now correct me if I'm wrong. Electricity from a nuclear power plant comes from generators that are spun up by steam turbines, which in turn get their steam from boiled water that gets boiled by the heat that the reaction creates. No actually electricity comes from the reaction, just heat.