Power armour, how SHOULD it work?...

[R.Graves]

Disassembling it makes the volume far smaller, and thus make it semi-reasonable to stuff in bags.

And even pre-war, what if a suit is broken in combat? And the only way to keep it from enemy hands is to carry it back from the front lines?

Pre-war armies in fallout are a little silly, we never see a vast amount of mechanisation.

The whole point of power armor is that it is extremely difficult to penetrate and/or break. You have still yet to give a good in-game reason as to why you believe power armor can be disassembled for transport as it's not stated or implied in any of the games.

 

[Greed]

Given that we see fully assembled suits of PA on racks on the Operation Anchorage simulation, and it being transported fully assembled(in locked cages OFC) on trains and trucks in Fo4, it was most likely moved around in that state.

Nothing suggests it was moved around in pieces.

 

[DR_LaZer]

Fallout 4's power armor is a bit strange. On the one hand I love because it makes you feel like a hulking monstrosity. A force to be reckoned with. That is until people start shooting at you. Then pieces chip off like its nothing and thus the immersion is destroyed.

Exactly. When I first got into power armor and ignored the crushing depression of fighting in power armor with a mini-gun against a death claw, it felt fucking amazing to be chinky chunking around in what is basically Mark 1 Iron Man armor. Which has always been my dream.

But then the previous depression further sinks in when you realize that all forms of power armor don't even do much. Because Damage Resistance is terrible. I'm in a suit of god damn adamantium fuck you armor, yet the bullets seem to be phasing through the plates. WHY?! Why can't Bethesda give me one single joy!

Even the X-01 MOCK Enclave MRK2 Power Combat Armor is complete trash. I don't get anything!

 

[Greed]

WHY?! Why can't Bethesda give me one single joy!

Same reason Obsidian slapped an unavoidable 20% damage bleedthrough on DT in New Vegas, which, hilariously enough, made high DT armors like power armor reduce so little more damage compared to light armors that Sawyer had to give them DR in his personal mod to actually make them able to reduce more damage compared to lesser armors.

Which is too say, because Fallout 1/2's PA were hilariously over powered and broke the game balance, and any dev will tell you that balance > lore.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

In NV, I modded the bleedthrough to 1%, so power armour makes you nigh invincible to gunfire.

 

[cruddas]

My thoughts on power armor is that it should not have been similar to an actual vehicle, more a type of frame (not that bulky monster fallout 4 has), more of a basic wire frame type idea for the arms, back and legs to do all the lifting and movement work provided you have proper operating instructions like new vegas explains, and the armor plates that attach to the frame for that minor boost in defense, not so much defence in my mind like some of the large thick armored and heavy tanks from ww2, but something similar to metal or combat armor sized pieces.

The suit as explained in fallout 3/NV was more of a way for infantry types to get more serious firepower to the front and use it quickly and possibly far more affordable to outfit a team of trained soldiers with the power armor and strong weapons than using a single tank.

Though the one good idea bethesda added to power armor lore is the possibility of the earlier models using thicker armor to compensate for how much defense was required (the t-45), and as new and better materials are created they could be used to make the armor lighter and thinner while keeping a high defense (t-51 and enclave APA).