Anyone else not really use Power Armor...?

[vonbleak]

To me it feels too tanky and easy in Power Armor and i feel it takes away from the 'wasteland wonderer' aspect of the game somewhat...

Curious to see what other people think...

[bobczes]

I feel claustrophobic in power armor. I use it about 25% of the time.

[ToadMilker]

I love the Power Armor. But I only use it if I'm in the Glowing Sea or if I find a set in the world I like and bring it home. They make good collection pieces though!

[YouDieNow]

I never use power armor. Too loud. I prefer my ballistic weave + multiple chameleon pieces for my stealth build.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Power armor has some very clever design that went into how it fits into the game.

A lot of people criticize Bethesda's decision to basically give you power armor at the beginning of the game, but actually it's a pretty smart move. Not one you have to like, but at least understand where they're coming from, let me elaborate:

Power Armor is, well Powerful. One of the common complaints about RPG's is the difficulty curve is actually inverse, with the most difficult bits of the game being the start, and the endgame is a breeze. This is runs counter to virtually every genre of games, as well as the design philosophy of easing players into the experience. (A designer assumes where reasonable, the player is a novice)

Power armor early moves the difficulty scale back, so that (if you choose to use it) Power Armor gives the player an advantage against most everything early on. This serves both a Narrative purpose (Fresh-from-the-vault prewar man/woman with unkown combat experience up against hundreds of monsters and Raiders makes a lot more sense if you have a huge advantage like Power Armor) and practical purpose of giving the player breathing room early on, letting you make otherwise fatal mistakes and learn from them without the irritating reload. Balance this out with the Fusion Cores and maintenance cost of Power Armor, as well as suffering an even larger hitbox, as you get better at the game, the allure of Power Armor for defensive purposes begins to wane

Later on in the game, when you start acquiring a large amount of Legendary armors, which have effects disabled while in Power Armor, it actually becomes (From a defense perspective) more effective to use legendary armor pieces instead of Power armor, not only because of Legendary effects, but because of how the Damage Reductions scale less at the higher ends. Here again, a Bethesda showed a surprising amount of Foresight by changing the endgame function of Power Armor from pure defense to utility through complex modifications like the Jet Pack.

Every element of the combat in Fallout 4 had a tremendous amount of care put into it, I don't think the game gets enough credit from the advancement in design and execution in combat. ITS NOT PERFECT, but weighed up against the still enormous amount of options provided by the character diversity in the game, I'd say it's one of the best ARPG combat experiences outside of Dark Souls.

[Xyzzy]

Used twice don't like. Game is already easy. [Dark Who? ]
Fo4 best game bar one.
edit, Souls, i have it, terrible 3rd person clunker. put it with witcher 3 and bury them deep under Atari's E.T. in the landfill.

[ayrtep]

I really cannot get into power armour.

It's really heavy to carry around, and while it does protect you, with ballistic weave, you can get all the protection you want from cloth armour.

I guess its useful for the exceptional mission when you need to jump from a height. I keep trying to build characters that use power armour, but it always ends up being easier not to bother.

Before survival mode, it had some utility, as you could fast travel to the action and save on power. But now with the reduced weight reduction, I just can't make it work.

[vonbleak]

Originally posted by TunaFlakes:

I love the Power Armor. But I only use it if I'm in the Glowing Sea or if I find a set in the world I like and bring it home. They make good collection pieces though!

Thats a good point - i have not gotten to that part of the world yet so it might come in handy there...

[Zee_]

I've never bothered to use it in Fo4. I actually like some of the changes they made to PA in the game, but its just... meh.

Once you get some good armor and clothes with ballistic weave you can easily outclass power armor's damage resistances, and on a personal note I preffer a more stealthy approach that PA just doesn't allow. I put my provisioners and some of the more heavily armed guards at my settlements in PA, but thats just for appearances and to make my provisioners easier to spot in the wasteland. PA with a bright blue headlamp makes em stand out from a distance and each settlement's provisioner is color coded the same way I do my robot provisioners.

[ⒸⒶⓁⒸⒾⓊⓂ]

me lmao. the reason why is because i always stealth (stealth in fo4 is flawed anyway). PA affects my stealthing ability.

[vonbleak]

Originally posted by CᴏʙʙʟᴇSᴛᴇɪɴᴇʀ:

me lmao. the reason why is because i always stealth (stealth in fo4 is flawed anyway). PA affects my stealthing ability.

I agree - i like to go in quiet if/when possible...

[Beast]

It depends on your build, and how you customize it. I've used it to great effect on certain characters and never on others. If you design a character around using it things can get fun, but other builds are just as viable. I enjoyed my time as a completely unsubtle melee monster, crashing into things from above with my jetpack and bull rushing through things at will. But I've also done a stealthy light armor melee assassin I found just as fun.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by Beast:

It depends on your build, and how you customize it. I've used it to great effect on certain characters and never on others. If you design a character around using it things can get fun, but other builds are just as viable. I enjoyed my time as a completely unsubtle melee monster, crashing into things from above with my jetpack and bull rushing through things at will. But I've also done a stealthy light armor melee assassin I found just as fun.

One of my favorite joke builds is sexually identifying as an Attack Helicopter (Specifically an AH64 Longbow Apache, but that's beside the point) using the Jetpack, Explosive Minigun and Big Boy MIRV. It takes a lot of Mirelurk Egg Omlettes to stay airborne though.

[Longhaul]

616 hours ingame and don't use power armor... dont like it. im always the sneaky kinda guy.

[RoxxasTheDemonslayer]

I only used it to kill the raider boss and the deathclaw, cause it was the only way i could kill them.
then i put hiked it into storage at the Red Rocket, along with the minigun.

[vonbleak]

Originally posted by RoxxasTheDemonslayer:

I only used it to kill the raider boss and the deathclaw, cause it was the only way i could kill them.
then i put hiked it into storage at the Red Rocket, along with the minigun.

Yeah exactly - i used it there too of course as part of the initial quest... Once done i just left it outside the hotel ... just took its power core so no nosey raiders could steal it :P