Armour types

B

brother bozar

First time out of the vault
... One of the biggest annoyances of all the fallout games was when playing as a female, putting on some power armour and suddenly losing my gender.
This'll probably be sorted in FO3 i imagine and i expect to see a greater variety of armour. It would also be nice to see the vault 13 rad suit again ... and basically lots of sexy armour for females.
So what kind of armour would players like to see?
 
It doesn't make sense that Power Armor would be differentiated between men and women. You are meant to be a walking tank. It's not form fitting, obviously, since you can pick up a 50 years-unused power armor and wear it without a hitch.

And it would be too expensive to manufacture to have multiple production lines that only produce small variations on the basic template.
 
I totally understand you... power armour is power armour, but just for the sake of aesthetics it would be nice to see some difference between a male and female wearer.... I suppose time has moved on a bit, maybe enough for a small evolution in the streamlining and bodyfitting aspects of power armour, but it should look mutch the same as it always did.
 
As Super Deadman Walking pointed out, a suit of power armor is not going to be form fitting unless it's some sort of really light scout unit... And then you're not going to want to have large breasts wearing it, they'd probably just be mashed down. That's how most armor works. When they start making Kevlar vests with built-in bras, let me know.

Another thing is that female... Form isn't very good at stopping impacts. Think of an egg shell cut in half and sitting on a table. It's a lot easier to destroy it from the sides than simply pushing down on it (ignoring the fact that you're a giant in regards to this egg). My point being: Form-fitting armor of the female persuasion introduces more weak points into the design unless you're just going for deflection (which is only used on armored vehicles really). - Colt
 
brother bozar said:
... One of the biggest annoyances of all the fallout games was when playing as a female, putting on some power armour and suddenly losing my gender.
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I haven't got any power armour in Fallout yet, playing as a female, and it's been such a long time since I've played FO2 as a female that I can't remember if you still get the same options while wearing power armour, like sleeping with male characters instead of paying them. It'd be better to have a set of androgynous reactions for when you are in power armour unless you remove your helmet so that the npc can tell if you are male or female.

brother bozar said:
This'll probably be sorted in FO3 i imagine and i expect to see a greater variety of armour. It would also be nice to see the vault 13 rad suit again ... and basically lots of sexy armour for females.
So what kind of armour would players like to see?
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I've got nothing against sexy armour for females, as to it not being realistic well Fallout isn't about realism and the biased view of women as sex objects would fit in with the 50's viewpoint.

However you'd need to have gender checks to say that a male player can't wear this armour and have different suits for males and females, though I'd prefer that the game has very few working suits of power armour. Otherwise you'd get another Dungeonsiege were you can pass the same armour between dwarves, giants, men and women and have it magically fit (and adapt to curves) one and all.

Perhaps all armour could have size and gender checks, so that a fat guy like vic couldn't wear the same armour as a runt like myron?

PS I get a little worried about someone who wants their videogame characters to look sexier. :wink:
 
Of course, we also have the problem with power armor being a relic from the old times. Besides, with armor that thick, investing in a belt to strap down would be far more cost-efficient than casting out a different model for females. I do agree that appearance should play a part in how you are received by the populace, if just for the fact of wearing power armor by itself since it is so rare.

Another thing about the 50's, a woman's place was in the kitchen. It was a boom in American consumerism, in particularly the home. Perhaps in Fallout's history, parallel to the absence of the semiconductor's invention, Jackie-O was never a role model for the American woman. Women only really played a support role in the military (as a whole, there were some exceptions), up to and including the Vietnam War era.

Therefore, I would REALLY doubt the presence of even schematics for a female-cast PA suit.
 
I would presume that power armour isn't form fitting inside anyway to allow room for different size recuits. Unless that's what the b stands for in T51-B. A, B, C being small, medium and Large. :)

You could always have to find a plumbing conversion kit for male or female use.

It'd be an idea to have armour like pa or the robes that hide the form, and generate androgynous reactions. That would allow options like a female character walking into a town, were all women were slaves, unmolested. But post war armour could be more personalised and adapted to gender.
 
brother bozar said:
and basically lots of sexy armour for females.
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Urgh, it's allready been done, in FO:POS, it's correct that realism didn't play a big part in Fallout, but dumbness didn't either.
For example, walking around in pants that allmost shows womens "special purpose" and having chainmail push-up bra's would leave the stomack area open, and thus an easy gut wound. And gut wounds hurt, I'm happy to say I've never had one, but imagine having to hold your innards on place with your hands while blood is flowing like hell from your open stomack...can't be much of a pleasure. Also when you see your uber sexeh female NPC dieing like that you'd wish you gave her a real armour :wink:
And as Colt said earlier: "Form-fitting armor of the female persuasion introduces more weak points into the design unless you're just going for deflection (which is only used on armored vehicles really)."
So, basicly, stupidness like that doesn't belong in Fallout.

EDIT: What I'd like to se is more custom armours, more varying types of armour, it would give NPC's a more sense of types instead of stereotypes...
 
Kahgan said:
And as Colt said earlier: "Form-fitting armor of the female persuasion introduces more weak points into the design unless you're just going for deflection (which is only used on armored vehicles really)."
So, basicly, stupidness like that doesn't belong in Fallout.
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Stupidness like that has been in Fallout from the beginning just look at all the female versions of the leather, metal and combat armours. I just hate it when you take a set of armour from a bloke and equip it on a woman and it magically grows a set of boobs. That said graphics are the least important part of the game for me, I could live with the armoured batsuit or the mutant deathgoats from tactics it's changes that effect gameplay or the plot that bother me. Talking deathgoats before F02 or ghouls that don't have the shambling zombie like movement.

If they want to add sexy armours fine, it's a long held pulp sci-fi tradition after all and if the enclave can design and manufacture a new type of power armour after the war then someone might of designed a prototype female armour, I'd prefer if they didn't but I'd prefer if there was a lot less stuff fullstop. I just hope that they keep the female armours seperate from the male armour and that power armour is very rare.

Ideally there would only be one suit available, having everyone in power armour and laser weapons by the end of FO2 or indeed Wasteland detracted from the post apoclayptical setting for me. It'd be nice if you found a small prewar shelter like the one in the toxic caves, inside there was several non-functioning suits of power armour and you'd need the mainenance manual, lots of repair skill, some quest items and to salvage the other suits for spare parts to get one suit working. Whether it's the T51-b or a lightweight gender specific scout armour I don't care. I know which one I'd repair.
 
Ok, when i said 'sexy armour for women' i didn't actally mean stuff like a chainmail bikini, i was thinking more along the lines of 'KOTOR 2' with a kind of segmented polymer type stuff, but i guess things need to be kept fairly basic/old school and less sci fi to fit in with fallout, i'm sure they could make leather and combat armour to look good on a woman.
Power armour (and all decent armour) should be rare i agree. However in fallout 2 i spent probably the whole 2nd half of the game (as a woman) in power armour , but to my eyes i looked like a man and it spoilt the role playing aspect of playing a different gender, i'm just suggesting a couple of small differences so to compromise this could include stance or the way they hold their weapon even. There's an opportunity for bethseda to create different looking Mk 2 versions of armours also and i'd very mutch like to see dermal implants return.
 
The main thing I'd like to see for armor is a really "cobbled together" look to it all, the sort of thing you would kind of expect to see in a world full of broken/destroyed things and no real means or time to create better stuff. Ideally I'd like to see this for combat/power armor as well - you might find a piece here or there, but the chances of you finding a complete, intact set should be next to nothing.

I don't know how hard it would be to implement and I haven't thought it through too thoroughly, but I'd like a kind of catch-22 system for the better armor as well: It offers you much better protection, but at the same time you're going to be more of a target because everyone else wants it for themselves. Maybe some kind percentage of having a combat encounter while you're sleeping or traveling, which is determined by the value of the items you have? Might be kind of annoying I guess but it has the possiblity of really adding to the atmosphere, kind of forcing you to think like someone in that world would - you go with only the essentials and you're pretty safe, travel around with tons of goods and you're going to be constantly fighting to keep them.
 
brother bozar said:
However in fallout 2 i spent probably the whole 2nd half of the game (as a woman) in power armour , but to my eyes i looked like a man and it spoilt the role playing aspect of playing a different gender,
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The answer to that is no one forces you to take power armour, except for the oil rig and navarro you don't have to use it and not even then. :) Or you are far to reliant on graphics to define your identity, even wearing the PA didn't you get reactions based on your gender, certainly they somehow still knew I was a tribal inside that suit.

Montez said:
but I'd like a kind of catch-22 system for the better armor as well: It offers you much better protection, but at the same time you're going to be more of a target because everyone else wants it for themselves.
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I thought they should of done that with the car, you'd be much more of a target and should of been ambushed far more.
 
I was just trying to think of things from a 50s era that could be worn as armour.

Cricket pads (would be cool)
Cycle,canoe,baseball ect helmets
All kinds of sporting defensive gear, shinpads,kneepads ect.
Did they have flak/bulletproof jackets in the 50's ?
Museum/collection pieces, steel cuiriass,armour ect
WWII helmets
Metalwork/forge gear and welding visor kind of stuff
Spacesuits
... crikey thats all i can think of.
 
A space suit in the game would be broken beyond belief. Space suits (not pressure suits, which are sometimes worn inside spacecraft) have to be bulletproof 100%, since they are subject to micrometeorite strikes, and they have to protect agains extreme heat, cold, and radiation. They would also require complex support equipment, and there really aren't that many of them even now, nevermind in the 50s! Maybe the player could find one, and have the option of wearing it, but it would be heavy (it's not powered armor) and clumsy (maybe the dreaded DEX penalty) while providing excellent protection. Sort of a "last resort" armor, for wading through the most hostile of environments only.
 
(imagines a man running naked into battle with the only thing in his armor slot being a helmet thats really a pot or pan) :lol:

Seriously Montez thats perfect. I've often thought of the Wasteland as not only having many scavengable things, but of better things being very rare. I could easily imagine the world with less guns and more homemade weapons like blunt clubs or pieces of wood with askew, dull parts of metal sticking out or tied to it. Helmets of kitchenware. Trashcan lid shields or even a manhole cover shield. (very heavy)

The applications are endless...

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
You guys need to remember that we're talking about the future of the 1950s, not THE 1950s. They of course would have developed things like bullet proof vests and the like. Flak jackets have been around since WWI. Some things are developed because there is a need. They fall into place like the pins in a lock. - Colt
 
Colt said:
You guys need to remember that we're talking about the future of the 1950s, not THE 1950s. ... Some things are developed because there is a need. They fall into place like the pins in a lock. - Colt
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And, due to the universe, they would not necessarily evolve in the same way. The PIP-Boy for lacking anything transistorized, the bulky plasma rifle instead of the sleeker phasers and ray guns of the 60's, the armors being very militaristic or from greaser style as the West loses its coherency again.
 
brother bozar said:
I was just trying to think of things from a 50s era that could be worn as armour.

Cricket pads (would be cool)
Cycle,canoe,baseball ect helmets
All kinds of sporting defensive gear, shinpads,kneepads ect.
Did they have flak/bulletproof jackets in the 50's ?
Museum/collection pieces, steel cuiriass,armour ect
WWII helmets
Metalwork/forge gear and welding visor kind of stuff
Spacesuits
... crikey thats all i can think of.
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Museum pieces has been argued before (the sword debate).

Cycle helmets didn't exist, besides maybe Biker helmets, which would work.

Yes. There were flak vests, and jackets in the fifties.

What's cricket? (America in the fifties is the basis for Fallout, football would be better (American football) and I guess similar.)
 
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