Why doesn't my body armor cover me?

[Farmer Fred]

So I wear a vault suit and armor over that. Thing is the armor I put on my arms and legs don't really cover me. They cover my food and shin, and my wrists. Same goes with my chest piece, it covers just my neck. What gives?

[Vardis]

Artistic license.

[Zekith]

I thought the same thing. But it turns out there are three 'levels' of most armor type. And later versions of armor cover more.

You have normal (Example: Leather)

You have sturdy (Example: Sturdy Leather)

Finally, you have Heavy (Example: Heavy Leather)

Heavy armor types almost completely cover you.

For more info (Including pictures of what the sets look like) visit the wiki.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_4_armor_and_clothing

[Chop]

Just wait, you will get better armor, the armor you have now is garbage...just saying ;)

[Vardis]

Originally posted by Chop:

Just wait, you will get better armor, the armor you have now is garbage...just saying ;)

It's not garbage! I can make perfectly good leather scraps with it. Great for making mods for my leather armor, so I can get more leather from it when scrapping it.

[Syd Khaos]

Even real-life body armor of military grade does not offer head to toe protection...but rather offers the most protection around the important bits....that being your vital organs and whatnot.

For some reason this makes me think of that one Eastwood movie (think it was 'josie Wales...maybe not...) where he uses the steel plate to guard his chest....guess its good spegettie western cowboys dont go for headshots lmao..

[ImHelping]

Like people said, the "Heavy" combat armor actually covers you up.

I guess it's to add more of a visual difference between the grades.

At least the Sturdy and Heavy ones look nice. But I can agree the normal combat armor is kinda oddball with it's square foot of chest armor.

[Farmer Fred]

So is heavy, sturdy, and what not random stats that drop or can I mod that to make them look better? From what I recall all I've gotten is the "light" then. I have some synth stuff, and it's "light" as well.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Farmer Fred:

So is heavy, sturdy, and what not random stats that drop or can I mod that to make them look better? From what I recall all I've gotten is the "light" then. I have some synth stuff, and it's "light" as well.

Light is a Modification.

"sturdy" and "Heavy" are actually different grades of armor. (Apparently using console spawns, will spawn a random one because they share the same ID)

Item names are also iffy because mods will often override the heavy or sturdy prefix.

For example. I have a modified full set of heavy armor. The default item name right now is "Ultra-Light BOS Combat Armor". It's heavy type combat armor, but you'd never know just from the name it has.

EDIT: Unrelated. For whatever reason, synth and combat armors, one leg weighs extra. because ???

Synth armor is offers both more ballistic, AND energy protection than combat armor, but only when fully upgraded. And all Synth armor needs armor crafting rank 4. While combat armor needs 2/3/4 for normal, sturdy, and heavy for the polymet defense upgrade.

[Hex]

Yeah, there are 3 levels for every single armour type. The higher ones cover more to the point that heavy combat armour covers you pretty much completely.

[coledragonknight]

wait there is heavy variants?! Where!? I love metal armor for the absostos chest peice, and i want it to look liek real metal armor

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by coledragonknight:

wait there is heavy variants?! Where!? I love metal armor for the absostos chest peice, and i want it to look liek real metal armor

It's level based and random chance. Though I don't think I've seen heavy metal armor offhand. (I know ive seen sturdy leather)

I've seen heavy RAIDER armor... but, meh.

[Hex]

Originally posted by coledragonknight:

wait there is heavy variants?! Where!? I love metal armor for the absostos chest peice, and i want it to look liek real metal armor

At around 50+ you start to see them regularly. There is almost a full suit of heavy combat early on with the gunner boss near Finch Farm up on the bridge. Be prepared though, you'll get 2 Assaultrons, 2 missile launcher gunners and a fat man gunner up your ass when you engage them.

[coledragonknight]

Originally posted by Hex:

Originally posted by coledragonknight:

wait there is heavy variants?! Where!? I love metal armor for the absostos chest peice, and i want it to look liek real metal armor

At around 50+ you start to see them regularly. There is almost a full suit of heavy combat early on with the gunner boss near Finch Farm up on the bridge. Be prepared though, you'll get 2 Assaultrons, 2 missile launcher gunners and a fat man gunner up your ass when you engage them.

Note to self, Lots of psycho and jet. And missiles.
Hey do pulse weapons work like they used to? They just seem like weaker plasma nades now