To handicap them even more against the Enclave?

Bethesda probably intended that FO3 would not be like FO and FO2, but rather their own spin on the world of Fallout. As the T-51b armor was the iconic Power Armor of Fallout, it had to go (for the most part) to help represent this fact- basically, a new iconic power armor for the reboot of the series. After all, before there was FO3, there WAS no such thing as the T-45d Power Armor.

Granted, it was mentioned in the Fallout Bible, but it was never mentioned in the games, nor was it ever officially "seen," except (supposedly) in the VB Tech Demo (which made it look like a T-51b armor.)

Yes, I was going to include this reason in the poll but I wasnt sure if the T-45d Power Armor was Bethesda's baby - design wise anyways. Im going to go ahead and add it.

Well they were losing a ton of men from combating the mutants and the T-51b's they were using were starting to wear out. They had more of the T45-d's and had to use them instead.

I recall this actually being explained by Bethesda themselves around the time of the game's release.

They wanted the T-51b the iconic armor of the fallout series to be special not a common piece of loot easily acquired off dead members of the Brotherhood of Steel. Thus they came up with the idea of the Brotherhood using older model power armor and putting a unique suit up at Fort Constantine.

Additionally, the T-45d design was originally done for Van Buren.
Which can be seen http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Corporal_Armstrong.

this

They could've at least given the Lyon's Pride T-51b's though. Every other chapter has them.

Alot of people will probably tell you they like having T-51b, it makes them feel more special. Granted, I'd like to see more T-51b fitted troops, but I can understand Bethesdas reasoning.

Why not just make it so that power armor is unlootable, like in the first two games?

From what I can understand, the lore reasoning behind the T-45ds is that Lyon's pride came over with them from the west, since they were likely outfitted with realtively outdated armor due to the nature of their mission. Once they got to the CW, they found enough T-45's to keep them going indefinietly, but it seems that the Pengtagon had no t51-bs on hand and the only one in the CW was at Fort Constantine.

Perhaps in lore, T-51b is absent due to the US forces fighting it's way up the Yangtze at the time of the War, and the Food Riots in the US, which, as I recall, they deployed T-51b units in order to help quell rioters..

That is the most likely explanation, and is actually quite reasonable.

Any available T51-Bs would have been sent to the front lines to fight a war that was becoming stalemated, what remained would have been the outdated (but still viable) T45-ds.

I think that they gave it no mind initially... as the sprites were 70x 29 pixels or so, and 'nobody would really care'; I think the game was likely mostly in place when they added a closer version that better matched the original.

Nothing in FO3 looks like it did in FO1 or FO2 ~which is a shame IMO because its a game heavily based around its own history; and full of antiques. The engine doesn't care, it could actually run the close up head graphics as the realtime game assets and the weapons and item would be no more difficult to model new, than to model familiar. :shrug:

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/mr-handy2-1-1.jpg was http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/Mr-Handy31.jpg, and was featured in the first game's opening title ~yet they made it completely different, and named it the same (even though that's not what it looked like, and the the fans would notice). The vast majority of players would be none the wiser, for having never played the series before (but series fans would notice).

**Edit: That Mr.Handy model in action (animation test).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUslVGxW_WE

As much as I understand where you're coming from, I kinda prefer Betheda's version of the robots. :tongue:

Fu@$in right..

Are they more appropriate? (a lot of members say they prefer listening pop & death metal when playing the game.)

Regardless of my own preferences, I would say that accurate depictions of past [established] artifacts were more appropriate to a sequel of an established series.

**Meaning, that while I like http://images.wikia.com/robotech/images/1/13/Monster.png better than the Sierra Depot http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Sentry_Bot_%28Fallout_2%29... I consider them more appropriate for the game, and personally would prefer accurate 3d versions to merely cool looking ones..

Agreed, I don't hate the old robots, but the robots in Bethesdas idea of a retro-future Fallout are more, what's the word, 'ideal' I guess? I mean, the robots in Fallout look clunky and made of scrap. But the ones in Fallout 3 have this weird yet functional high quality yet retro design that fits in quite well. Especially Mr. Handy. I mean, they look so clean with their white exteriors. Like a remnant of a perfect world forever lost. Ah, unintentional narratives in Fallout seem to happen alot. :laugh:

I think they were more appropriate to "Bethesda's" style of Fallout, ie. more of an emphasis on the "World of Tommorow". The Fallout 3 version of the robots seem to fit that profile to a T, with the protectron being the best example (modeled after "Robby the Robot").

Whether or not they were more appropriate to the series as a whole is another matter.



I would agree in principal yes, but I would be lying if I said I didn't prefer the new designs.



My thoughts exactly Colonel. :foodndrink:

I think that Bethesda should have scrapped their style and matched the style of the series. (I consider it EGO, not to have.)

Nothing should stop them from making new artifacts, and new monsters... but when depicting a relic, IMO it should look like the relic they are depicting.

I won't argue with you here, as that is your opinion, and you have every right to state it.

But again, I must say, that I prefer the new "style" that Bethesda gave the series. This is not to say however, that I dislike the "old style" or the "true style" its just a personal preference.

Indeed. ~but this is where the snag of 'sequel vs spin-off' rears up it's head...

(and I'll let it drop, undiscussed.)

**Mods make fixes (personal fixes) possible, and that's appreciated. :tops:


~But I have to ask... Why does Mr. Handy have only three arms and one hand? :laugh:
(when the original had six of each ~and when there are insect models that have six legs)
Bethesda's Mr.Handy cannot actually do, what Mr. Handy was seen doing in the opening title of Fallout 1.

All these reasons provided are nice and everything but they still do not justify depriving at least the elite BoS foot soldiers of the T-51b's. Bethesda could've easily had it to where they a had few suits saved for extreme circumstances, like the assault on the Purifier. This would not in any way hurt the credibility of the story especially since there are plenty of other more significant aspects of the game that do that.

I'm more concerned with why Bethesda decided to nerf the elite "Advanced Power Armor MK II" in Fallout 3. As it stands, the APA is not much better than the T-45'ds.

No kidding! (But the reason may be the same given by J.E. Sawyer on a similar note ~months back).

[Very] Loosely put: Its simply that the goal is to design for functionality and not create an object that eclipses all others of it's kind ~so they nerf to enforce a kind of item equality, regardless of its past description.

PA's cannot make the PC a walking tank because it means they'll never use the light armor again ~so both armors become pointlessly close enough to equal out.

Yes, that's definetely another disparity in continuity. The only thing that made it better was that it only decreased your agility by 1 instead of 2. The Advanced Power Armor is somehow far better than the more advanced version but the T-45d in New Vegas is still basically the same as the F3 version.