Fallout 4's biggest retcon: T-60 power armor

[Geo]

Am I the only one bothered how akwardly they forced the T-60 power armor into this game?

In all previous games, T-51 was the pinnacle of power armor in production before the war (yes there was the predecessor to the Advanced Power Armor, aka the X-01, being worked on, but they were not produced beyond testing models). But in FO4 we suddenly have the T-60. It was stated as being rolled out just before the nukes hit, with only some select units getting them. This was never referenced in any prior game.

I know that the T-45 was kind of retconned into Fallout 3, but it was more graceful than this: being some boneyarded suits found in the ruins of the pentagon and other military sites across the US. (this is pretty normal as the US often has stockpiles of outdated weapons, vehicles, and equipment in storage JUST INCASE they need them).

I digress. What annoys me most about this is that they already had a better reason for the BoS to have those suits: the spoils of their war with the enclave. They could have easily written the suits as being the result of the BoS combining the tech from captured Enclave suits with their much more easily produced tech (as steel plating is much easier to produce that ceramic plating). They could have even mentioned the BoS having gained control of the Pitt to secure a source of steel for the new suits. It would also explain why the T-60 basically looks like modified T-45 armor.

Gameplay wise. I know this would make it harder to explain why you might find sets of T-60 out in the commonwealth wasteland, but that random generation of power armor was a bad gameplay choice. FO4 would have benefitted from power armor suits spawning in set locations as a set type of suit, with most suits being T-51. T-45 could have been MUCH rarer, even if it was weaker, but at the benefit of being much cheaper to repair. T-45 being only found in a few of the military facility basements as likewise boneyard relics. T-60 should have only been found with the Brotherhood. The only ways to get T-60 sets being to join the BoS, killed a BoS and take his armor, or scavange the armor off of already dead BoS members. The Atom Cats should have also been using T-51 sets, not T-60

Atleast X-01 was treated decently well, there are...what....3 preset suits through the entire game? (not counting the Quantum Armor, which I'm not so mad at).

[Dux]

Honestly I don't have much to add to this. Makes sense to me what you're saying, and I can only agree.

[Flippy]

That there are like 25 sets of X-01 in Nuka World drives me up the wall, as if the rest of that DLC wasnt enough.

Nuka World need a massive update.

Far Harbour is an amazing DLC and almost makes up for Nuka World, but not quite. Nuka World would be great with a really good update/balance/good character option pass.

That T-60 is in game doesnt bother me at all.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

This is the problem with treating Lore as dogma.

In reality, there's no reason why T60 armor can't exist, because in the real world, information tranfer is imperfect. Do you think the F22 Raptor, the "Pinnacle of Modern aircraft" is really the US's best fighter jet? Of course not, Lockheed Martin is quietly testing prototypes like the MQ101. If the nukes dropped today, the people of the future would think the F22 was the best fighter jet America ever made, but it wasn't.

Now consider in a nuclear war, vast tracts of data will be erased, it may come to pass that people of the future think the F15 or F16 were the best fighters ever made. After all, the F22 hasn't been used in its proper service role of Air Superiority. It is effectively the T60. A novelty deployed at airshows or shows of force/escort, but the F15E Strike Eagle is the T51, the last and best aircraft used in a real theatre of war.

[Scheneighnay]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

This is the problem with treating Lore as dogma.

In reality, there's no reason why T60 armor can't exist, because in the real world, information tranfer is imperfect. Do you think the F22 Raptor, the "Pinnacle of Modern aircraft" is really the US's best fighter jet? Of course not, Lockheed Martin is quietly testing prototypes like the MQ101. If the nukes dropped today, the people of the future would think the F22 was the best fighter jet America ever made, but it wasn't.

Now consider in a nuclear war, vast tracts of data will be erased, it may come to pass that people of the future think the F15 or F16 were the best fighters ever made. After all, the F22 hasn't been used in its proper service role of Air Superiority. It is effectively the T60. A novelty deployed at airshows or shows of force/escort, but the F15E Strike Eagle is the T51, the last and best aircraft used in a real theatre of war.

Prewar jet.

Bethesda doesn't nor have they ever cared about Fallout lore because they only bought the IP. At least they give a ♥♥♥♥ about Elder Scrolls lore, though I have a bad feeling about VI.

[Geo]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

This is the problem with treating Lore as dogma.

In reality, there's no reason why T60 armor can't exist, because in the real world, information tranfer is imperfect. Do you think the F22 Raptor, the "Pinnacle of Modern aircraft" is really the US's best fighter jet? Of course not, Lockheed Martin is quietly testing prototypes like the MQ101. If the nukes dropped today, the people of the future would think the F22 was the best fighter jet America ever made, but it wasn't.

Now consider in a nuclear war, vast tracts of data will be erased, it may come to pass that people of the future think the F15 or F16 were the best fighters ever made. After all, the F22 hasn't been used in its proper service role of Air Superiority. It is effectively the T60. A novelty deployed at airshows or shows of force/escort, but the F15E Strike Eagle is the T51, the last and best aircraft used in a real theatre of war.

Except that the T-60 can be found all over the Commonwealth. So much so that the Atom Cats, a small group of gear heads, have several sets (while having none of the others). Conversely, T-60 sets are also used by Raiders (when they aren't using their improvised junker sets). The Gunners have sets of T-45, when T-51 should have been much more plentiful. Yet it is not seen anywhere else.

The BoS fields exclusively T-60s, despite its supposed rarity. Besides a few scouts they sent, who wouldn't have been able to retrieve an armory's worth of power armor, the BoS's invasion of the Commonwealth is their first. So how did they get so many suits? Again, the T-51 should have been the most plentiful, being the only one still in mass production before the war yet noone is seen using it.

There is a striking conflict between gameplay and lore. As far as FO4 is concerned, the T-45 and the T-60 were the ones in use at the time, with very few T-51s to be found.

Also, information can still travel across the wastes, like the Lone Wanderer's and Moira's Wasteland Survival Guide making it all the way to the Mojave, or Dr. Zimmer and Dr. Li traveling to and from the Commonwealth and Capital Wasteland.