I mean, we are put into a situation where if you want to go into melee, you HAVE to do stealth initially or get cut down by bullets. I wont even get into the shotgunned mini nukes, there needs to be a minimum distance enemies fire those damn things. Riot shields, junk shields, etc. I mean, is it that much of a leap to have someone take some scrap metal and piece together a shield for himself if he knew he was going to run into an enemy sporting a submachine gun?

They could be one of the other durability items like the power suit, each shot it takes busts up its HP durability, and eventually it breaks and only stops some shots. I just find the lack of melee defense disturbing, and any one handed weapon be it melee, or a pistol should be usable with it. Just makes sense honestly.

From least to greatest could be:

Scrap Shield

Car Door

Riot Shield

Combat Shield

Then some special named ones, even maybe a Viking Shield prop from somewhere, or a special shield for Power Armor only that takes the place of the left arm.

Mods being:

Scrap Patched

Kevlar Lining

Steel Reinforced

Secondary being:

Lead Lining = rads protection

Mirror Polish = energy protection

Tesla Rails = electric damage to melee attackers or shield bash victims

Cork Lining = lighter shield

I cant think of many others, but for a start those would make melee so much more fun for those of us who dont want to go complete stealth and want to rush in and kick some butt.

Probably be looking at modders taking care of that. Beth doesn't seem to be paying too much attention to melee. They made improvements to the previous system but I wouldn't expect much else.

Personally, melee in a ballistic world seems silly to me. I usually waste a melee raider long before they've gotten close to strike. But to each their own

I think its only resonable if you run out of ammo completely ,otherwise you either need a strong armor or wear a PA.

Right and the new 'bash' function helps for those "oh [censored] they got too close" situations

I love this, especially when a raider runs at me and I bash their [censored] out.

I appreciate not having to switch weapons or waste ammo on roaches and molerats. If you're hitting the raider right when they're about to die it seems like you can 'bash' a finishing move of sorts. Gives them a right then a left and they're dead

Yup, sometimes this happens if they're lower lvl than you and even have full hp.

To be honest, I'd have loved to see Shield and Pistol setups. With some limitations, like, you can't throw grenades. And a special staggering shield bash, yes.

I suppose you could pick up an object in the game, like a body or car door and use that as a shield to close the distance eh.

The point I am trying to make is they did a whole shield system in Skyrim that could be easily usable in FO4 with a little tweaking. If I knew I was about to run at someone with a gun, and I had a knife, I wouldnt just charge them and hope for the best, I would pick up something solid and hold it in front of me. Any enemy could do the same, of course some would be ill equipped, but others smart enough to grab something would have that extra challenge.

I realize that guns are super cool and you need to showcase them all, but some people like the melee aspect, and shields are just a no brainer in that case. Go in slow with a pistol and pop off some rounds, holster it and bring out your bladed tire iron and finish the job, the common sense on this is staggering and yet still does not exist.

Nice idea

I suspect they wanted to avoid the fantasy RPG vibe (and especially a Skyrim vibe)

Idk- Adding shields to melee might be TOO much like Skyrim for my liking.

So riot police with riot shields are archaic? Modern combat shields with pistol ports? They exist now, and lacking in a supposed advanced technology timeline.

Shields do not make a game like Skyrim, they existed for years before. Modernizing them is just common sense, especially when one of your combat types is melee weapons. Of course it would be limited to the one handers, but I am tired of having to build all stealth to effectively melee, because if I dont and run headlong into the enemy, I wind up getting a mini nuke to the teeth. I am not saying a shield should protect me from a mini nuke, but it would help to think of other tactics than sprint in, attack furiously until the enemy dies, rinse, repeat.

When I think melee combat, I think a roman or viking with a weapon and shield, be it a spear, sword, or axe. The modern variation adds pistols, but the aspect is the same, hell Rainbow Six Siege, Battlefield 4, and I am pretty sure Call of Duty employ tactical shields, it just makes more sense here.

What is fantasy about a guy protecting himself with a car door shield? Pretty sure car did not exist in Skyrim, nor did riot or tactical shields. I said the aspect of shield fighting was there, not that it is a Skyrim exclusive thing, that is a silly concept.

Hell, just off the top of my head, hub cap shield, wood scrap shield for a super beginner one, barbed wire upgrade for the wood shield. There are so many different things in the modern era that can be slapped together for a makeshift protective instrument.

The parry idea for melee is okay, but it leaves much to be desired, and makes sense if you do not want to use a shield, but be stealthy and have the one weapon. I think parrying would be more rewarding in that regard because it should have a chance to disarm, where the shield would just be a block and bash, and again, have a durability health like parts of the PA, making using them more challenging, as once they break, there is a % chance of shots going through cracks in the shield to hit you.

With all that scrap about, I think shields would be entirely appropriate.

I think it's a good idea.

Not likely. These kinds of mechanics are hard coded.

The lack of shields is the only thing that has actually bothered me at all with Fallout 4.

It's the only complaint if its properly called a complaint...Hmm

I would have thought they would have borrowed more of the combat mechanics from Skyrim like shield animations and such.

It really wouldn't be out of place in the Fallout world for these.

Using a Raider or Ghoul as a body shield would have just been too spectacular for Bethsada haha.

The Gruesome wall, a shield with a bunch of ghoul heads impaled into rebar welded to the shield. Come on, I can think of about 1000 different shield designs that would fit into FO4 like butter.

No one doubts that modern shields exist, nor is it hard to imagine shields being a thing in the future in cool ways, but the problem with them being added to melee in FO4 for me is that it would make the game PLAY too much like Skyrim. I'm not questioning the literal possibility or presence, just that from a gameplay angle I associate sword and board, that rhythm of attack, block, movement, etc., with Skyrim and that's not what I want.

Someone else earlier in the thread said something to the effect of, what sense does sword and board make in a ballistic world? I agree with that. To me FO is energy weapons, VATS, robots, turrets, etc.

We do have shields. Its called power armor.

Enemies have shield. It's called their bare fists. Disarming ranged enemies is my worst nightmare. They spam block with their hands and take 0 damage from my rocket propelled hammer.....

Nice one Todd.

Its not the design of the shield, but the very concept of using something on ya of hand to guard based that Beth most likely feel comes a bit to close to copy pasting Elder scrolls combat.

Then in that regard, why even put melee weapons in the game? According to you and the previous poster there is no use for them, when in fact a shield in a ballistic world makes the most sense. If that is true, then once the bow and arrow and/or crossbow was invented and used, shields should have been discarded, when they were in fact even more useful.

So, being common sense, tactical and ballistic shields fit exactly into this world. If not even for melee weapons, then as a secondary for small arms, maybe even shields with deployable upgrades that you can rest 2h weapons on for increased accuracy.

Saying shields do not fit into a ballistic world is easily the most ironic thing I have ever heard, and on top of that, incredibly false.