My charming dandy NV char only uses suits and light pistols. And Im play in very hard.

this make things more dificult? Yeah, but I dont care, because I have save/load.

Gonna play F4 in the same way, if I want.

I dont think id want to be taking on hordes of deathclaws or climbing aboard a BoS zepplin in something like an upgraded leather overcoat.
I think, for some points, you'll be thrust into using the power armour systems because theres simply too many or too strong enemies to do it in decent time with conventional means.
I'm sure power armour will incorporate different playstyles depending on how youve set it up; maybe even some form of stealthing.. Theres obviously additions you can put on them aside from the armour, since one had a jetpack attatched in one gameplay trailer..

For me it's always been a tricky balance between "rule of cool", "suspending disbelief", and logic.

If the systems are done well it's possible to approach almost any situation and come out on top regardless of gear. If you've only got a 9mm pistol and some leather armour and you're facing a squad of eight power armoured adversaries with laser rifles, well of course you're going to be at a disadvantage. The idea that a 9mm pistol should penetrate power armour or leather stop a laser beam is preposterous. It shouldn't be done that way. But you could sneak around, or land shots in weak part of the armour in guerilla attacks and whittle them down. Stuff like that. That's the right way of doing it.

Many people have mentioned viability, and it's probably the best term to use. If it's viable, but difficult that's fine. If basic equipment that is never realistically going to match higher tiered stuff all of a sudden manages to perform the physically impossible, then the effort that went into making a believable world is for naught.

Not to mention the "Hollywood" factor of a Fallout game; generally, drama trumps realism. I see the Armored Vault Jumpsuit as the Fallout equivalent of Link's green tunic, or Mad Max's jacket; it's not the best, but the badass hero wears it and comes out on top.

What I want to see is a reason to use almost anything, even in the lategame. And Fallout is the last RPG that should include be-all end-all "Ultimate Armor"; it's contradictory to say that our characters' stats and perks should be unique and specialized at the end of their development, but that they should all be using the same end-game gear.

If you want to wear low quality scavenger armor you should be able to, just make sure that you never get hit

I really really hope that they do not make an overpowered crafting system like Skyrim had where you could make any armor as good as the very best. That made it into dress up dolls. Luckily mods came that closed the loop holes and inserted sanity back into the armor system so that better armor was needed to reach the cap, not necessarily the best armor but good armor with high skills could equal best armor with low/no skills.

The DR system will likely be something where average DR makes for a challenge and the highest DR will make for a snoozefest. If the highest DR can still be killed in three or four hits then anything less will just get one shot.

This hits the nail square on the head.

Games like Fallout and ES should be anything but grinders. There's very little challenge and roleplaying in grinding away at levels and better gear. Someone brought up AD&D as an example of why that is still popular and to that I'll say, yeah, I played AD&D as well, when I was 15, and then I discovered that there are better systems out there. Just because a chunk of people haven't moved beyond the mere basics doesn't mean that games should stay in the stone age, evolution wise.

...which was nigh-perfect, since it meant you could, if you wanted, pick the armor that "fit" your character concept the best without being totally crippled in-game.

("if you wanted" being key. The person who doesn't care about that, and who likes the progression of finding better loot, was perfectly free to do that. The person who wanted to use crafting, as their skill improved, to make new & better gear, was free to do that. The person who wanted to use crafting to keep their favorite gear relevant, could do that. It's only the obsessive-compulsive "This system is terrible, because I Must Always Use The Most Effective Whatever, and the game isn't preventing me from making myself OP!" crowd that had any real issues.)

Now, obviously, the Fallout series has a scavenging/survival aspect to it that TES doesn't normally. I wouldn't expect one to be able to obtain (via loot, via crafting, whatever) "the best" armor at the beginning - you need to work your way up to it, find the materials/train the skills/learn the schematics. (edit: not that you didn't have to do that in Skyrim as well....) But having multiple viable paths that you can work your way along is a great way to do that - rather than the standard MMO/loot-grinder way, where every "endgame" character has the same exact set of "best" gear.

In FO:3, NV, and Skyrim I'd always have my strongest set of armor hotkeyed as well as something weak and fashionable. I'd switch to the strong set for tougher fights and stick with the regular clothing for exploring and easy battles.

Im a sentimental old fool, and I like the idea of taking that one weapon that runs me right for the whole journey.
"This Rifle? Saved my life big time. She's gone through a few tinkerin's but her spirits in there. Been through hell and back. Call her Norah."
Later on...
Wife: "you named your gun after me. I'm not sure if that's romantic or creepy, John..."

Not sure if I was clear in what I was trying to say.

What I mean is that if you want to stand toe to toe with a deathclaw you should need to be wearing power armor to have a chance of surviving. If you want to wear scavenger clothes and fight the deathclaw you should be prepared to stealth kill, snipe from a distance or be so quick and accurate that you shoot it down before it gets to hit you. These are the multiple gameplay styles that can be supported for multiple levels of armor. At the end everyone won't be in the same power armor as some playstyles will want different, probably lighter and more stealthy armor. Some might choose to stay in their vault suit for the extra challenge.

What I don't want is to be able to add so much armor to the scavenger clothes that it is as strong as power armor via crafting.

The system was terrible because it allowed you to butcher any semblance of internal consistency as far as weapon and armor progression was concerned. Case in point: no matter how much you harden the leather of a leather cuirass; the resulting piece will never be as tough as an iron cuirass. By ignoring that logic, Skyrim's smithing system catered to people who like to play dress up games without facing the consequences of their choices. I thought choices and consequences was what roleplaying was about.

A tabletop pen and paper game where you can't see your character doesn't have the problem of aesthetics.

And I have no idea what your second sentence is trying to say.

Make an quick config mod to change item to be better, more advanced make an crafted item who look similar but require stuff like combat armor to make.

In Skyrim I regularly found myself deep in an dungeon wearing crafting gear, blacksmith apron, cloth gloves, leather boots and jewelry who boosted crafting skill

If you're worrying about min/max, meta game and other stuff over who your character inherently is, you're not role playing.

Also, worrying about garbage like that gets away from what Bethesda RPGs do (or should do) best and that is allowing you to create as many unique characters as you can think up. All of which have their own strengths, weakness, and stories.

Stormwind Fallacy, look it up

HATE IT when people think this, not true in ANYWAY and you have to be ignorant to believe it.

You can EASILY Roleplay and min-max.

... Yeah, it's true.

Turning every character into the same min/max meta isn't roleplaying. Doing what you would do and not what your character would do isn't role playing. It's linear action/adventure game playing.

Good thing Bethesda usually allows most things to be viable and never tries to turn their game into a linear dungeon crawl RPG or action game like you want.

First off, Optimization HAS ZERO to do with doing what you want, that is stupid on so many levels, All optimization really means is that you do make a useless character that is worthless and cannot be helpful to anyone or anything.

Only a REAL, REAL stupid person or someone with a deathwish would ACTUALLY go out and fight a deathclaw in a shirt and pants for example, it is not realistic, and no REAL person would ever be stupid enough to do that.

secondly:

I don't care about some fake, made up fallacy.

Meanwhile, like I said it's a good thing Bethesda sees it my way and continues to allow lower stat items viability mid and late "game."

Customization, unique creations and role playing> Min max action gaming.

so what you are saying is that a realistic person would rather go out and fight against a deathclaw in a shirt and pants, instead of wearing the best armor they can find?

yeah, that makes TOTAL sense.....wait, no, because only a REALLY stupid person would actually do that............

Also, since stats are still a thing, it means it is an RPG, and thus things will be better then other things.

...You're acting like fighting deathclaws is mandatory, or that anything is mandatory in a Beth RPG title. Hell, I've ran away from deathclaws before, something you don't even mention.

It's real simple. Worrying about what you would do and not what your character would do is not, by definition, role play.

well, yes getting into fights, even to survive and run away IS a mandatory thing in EVERY RPG...............

there is no avoiding it. even if you DID just run away, once again, if you can get better protection, common sense dicates only someone REALLY dumb or with a deathwish would not wear some form of protection.

Now that's a fallacy. A strawman as I say deathclaws, not fighting anything. I say anything in itself is not mandatory. Do a quest, don't, start the MQ, don't, just go around and RP, etc.

But in the end there's no debate as Bethesda sees it my way and continues to allow lower level things, "clothes" items as viable. And the games are all the more better for it.

A system that was entirely optional....

I preferred it, and hope they do something similar here. I can tailor the armor I want to give me the DR/DT I want.

Options are good.

On 1 hand a t-shirt isnt gonna stop a sniper round from imploding your heart, on the other hand aesthetics always trump effectiveness for me. I would never imply that the T-shirt "should" be equivalent to plate armor however, but playstyle/tactics should always make weaker gear more viable later on. Just because my pistol is weak doesnt mean it shouldnt be able to hit a weak point and do tons of critical damage, also ammo types and armor add-ons make this work out much better. My Mercenary character in NV wore casual clothing on a normal basis but threw on some combat armor when i knew i was heading for a fight, this fit his style however more than it being "needed" to survive. He could have fought most of that stuff without the armor but i chose to wear it for style

Ah, yes. "If you're not powergaming / following The One True Build, your character is trash and isn't welcome in our group/dungeon/raid/pvp/etc...." Or the ever popular "Everyone (who matters) just copies the correct builds from Elitist Jerks/Diablo Wiki/etc, so it doesn't matter if they remove all the 'bad' options from the talent trees. Only losers picked those."

Thanks for reminding me why I don't play online games with other people anymore.

edit: yeah, I missed the old talent trees in WoW, back when you could actually try interesting combinations.