How would someone put on power armor in Fallout 1, 2 & NV?

[ImperialLegation]

Disregarding Fallout 4 lore that makes power armor into an exterior exo-frame, which requires no special training or clothing to be worn prior, how would power armor, whether it be T-45, T-51, or Enclave (advanced power armor) be put on?

I can assume that it's similar to the way a knight's armor was donned in the medieval ages, one piece at a time, over the layer of interactive servo-clothing. However, there doesn't seem to be any lore regarding this.

 

[Hassknecht]

Didn't Operation Anchorage show some sort of lifting/hoisting apparatus? Maybe it was just to keep it upright during repairs, but I always kinda assumed that these things were also used to put it on.

 

[peadar87]

There's a line in New Vegas when you get power armour training from the BoS which is something like "Think of it as a machine you operate, rather than an outfit you wear"

From a purely mechanical point of view, the FO4 way makes the most sense, as breaking it into sections would make the whole thing infinitely more complex (of course, then they instantly shoot themselves in the foot by making it possible to break the whole thing into sections!)

Assuming the armour has safeguards to prevent the servos from snapping the user's limbs, you would probably be able to use power armour without training (provided you can actually get it on and power it up without some sort of squire to help you). However, it would take a long time to figure out how to properly move in it on your own without it misinterpreting your inputs and flailing around like bambi having a seizure

 

[Atlas]

While I'm far from a fan of Fallout 4, I have to admit that the whole "Mech Suit" thing makes the most sense. I'd say peadar87 up there is mostly right, but in my own opinion I don' t think Power Armor is that difficult to use. In Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics you don't need any training to use it. The Pre-War Government most likely wanted it to be idiot proof, and while you might have had to get used to it, I don't think it would have been complicated enough to require anything beyond that.

 

[A Filthy Scavenger]

I believe when Power Armor was seen being repaired in Fallout 1's Lost Hills bunker, it was shown segmented in pieces; this was also the same for the sprite shown when the armor is dropped out of your inventory.

I'd assume then, that the suiting process was similar, or akin to, putting on medieval armor. (Possibly in a somehow more quick and efficient manner.)

 

[Deleted member 98605]

I thought it was like an Astronaut suit or a diving suit; you have the lower armor that you put your legs into, boots on that, then you fit on the upper armor, and then the helmet (or not, as Maxson erred). Nothing new or extraordinary, really.

 

[Borov]

To me it looks as if you first need to put the iner parts of the suit like the motors, the hydraulics and an actual suit that you can wear inside the armor, like a jumpsuit.Then comes a layer of this flexible sort of material to cover small parts of the suit.After that comes the metal plates which are all put one-by-one.Some of them might be already conected to the flexible material such as the metal kneecap or the metal boots.It would take awhile to put it on,yes, but like any other suit of clothing or armor, you don`t go putting it on during the battle.