Pretty sure that's already guaranteed, considering what they've done to power armor. If PA isn't the big thing in the game, similar to Skyrim's Shouts, then they wasted a huge chunk on developer time by implimenting it the way we have seen thus far.

I'm more worried about schmucks calling this game Falloutfall or something dumb like that.

It'd be cool if we could like rip a power line post out of the ground and use it as a club while in power armor, and when done you can throw it away or break it down for crafting materials.

And? The settlement mechanic also took up a huge chunk of dev time, yet Beth made it clear its 100% optional, PA will in turn also be optional.

Cannon-Shield: too big and heavy for a person to wield but a devastating defensive weapon in the hands of someone in power armor.

http://static2.paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PIP/PIP33084_500.jpeg

Throw in an extended ripper-chainsword thing and it would be awesome

If anyone here has played Chaos Overlords(An old turn based strategy game. With a killer soundtrack I must add), I would like to see something like the Plasma Generator from that. That would be awesome.

It's basically this beastly plasma cannon that shoots massive powerful blast of plasma.

Also the monom rod from that game would be cool....actually most of the weapons from that game haha

And how much "look at this!" time does settlement building get in all the ads and promos we've seen thus far? How about it being directly related to an important quest?

If Power Armor isn't the next Shout system, I doubt the devs would stick a jetpack, specially-animated donning and exit system, condition tracked by part wear and tear, part customization, and an energy management system. This is in addition to the first promo material for the game of showing it in the garage partially disassembled.

Without the specific showing of it, we wouldn't even know settlement-building was an option. Bethesda also pointed out that it was optional. They did not do the same for Power Armor.

And shouts for all intent and purpose where optional, sure you still aquire some as part of the main quest, but ultimately you where never forced to use them. PA will act the same, it's there as a option, but the game will still allow you to play without using it, either because you never aquire it in the optional quest, or because ya got it and dumped it in ya garage forever.

The endings of Skyrim's Main Quest and Dragonborn DLC beg to differ.

You mean two small aspects compared to the hours of gameplay you didn't need to use shouts?

Way to move the goalposts there, buddy. You said that shouts weren't required. I pointed out they were.

Points still remains, PA will be a optional mechanic to use if you so wish, just like any other equipment.

Unless gamesas has outright said that somewhere, we'll see once the game is released.