aboniks
Still Mildly Glowing
I'm just thinking out loud. If I offend your sensibilities, feel free to call me on it, but please don't be a jerk. I'll try to return the favor.
I'm making the assumption that the FO games are intended to be RPG's in the sense that they offer the *ability* to role play. From my perspective, this ability is essentially founded in the depth of the possible player interaction with the environment. Based on that assumption, more complex, rational interactions make for more options, thus creating more space in which to become immersed in a role.
If you don't agree with those assumptions, I can dig it. Just letting you know where I'm coming from.
I'm sure some of this has been addressed, but I'm new to NMA.
Where to start... Let's face it, Power Armor is an iconic part of the fallout universe, but in-game it's reduced essentially to a handful of basic stat modifiers. None of the real benefits or disadvantages of it are well treated. It could be so much more than it is...
1. Batteries: Why don't we need to charge them? It's bizarre to posit a 100 year power plant that fits in a suit of armor, especially when your car runs out of juice on a regular basis. Suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but you're getting near godlike power in return for...well...nothing. TANSTAAFL
2. Helmets/Sensors: More useful, please. A fully functioning PA helmet should be much more than just a plate steel noggin shield. Perception modifiers, night vision, party radio contact, enemy radio interception, jamming, weapon interfaces, spotlights, IFF, compass, etc.
Make a certain number of slots available for those extra functions and make the player choose which, if any, of the functions they will use. Find a way to make the BoS armor a viable role-playing option once you've discovered Enclave armor. What extra functions would the BoS gear have that the Enclave would not? Who has access to the GPS sats, the best targeting software, or thermal imaging, etc. What sort of power armor did the Chinese whip up before they lost the war? Have the outcast BoS retrofitted stealth systems to their armor that the enclave hasn't figured out?
And then there's the recognition factor... "Aren't you a little short to be a storm trooper?" If you're wearing a full suit that covers your face, how is anyone supposed to know it's you? FO2 at least partially addressed this by letting you blend with Enclave troops, but dropped the ball with all the other NPC's. If I roll into the NCR bazaar in full Enclave kit, the first response should be hot lead, not an offer to watch my car or sell me iguana on a stick.
3. Durability: Applicable to all types of armor, but particularly vital for very high tech stuff. Rationalize the process of damaging and repairing armor. Rather than ignoring durability, or going half way with a blanket "condition" for a suit of armor, critical mechanical damage to body parts should require a replacement of that specific part.
If you blast the arm off of Joe Enclave with a Bozar, that part of his armor should be damaged when you loot it, so maybe those called shots will get a little more important. Component level failures for sensor systems; if you take a shotgun blast to the face, some of your helmet electronics should be degraded or completely destroyed. Repair/science and appropriate replacement parts remedy the situation.
A serious battle where you take direct mini nuke hits or critical plasma hits could easily render that fancy BoS rig into nothing more than a well ventilated pile of scrap with a few salvageable components. You find a suit of PA in a military base. Is it perfectly preserved? Unlikely. Which components have failed? Can you scrounge replacements? Is your science/repair skill high enough to recognize the components if you found them on a shelf? Do you even know how to turn PA on? Who do you go to to learn about it?
4. Training: Make it skill based, and hold the skill back as a goal to be attained. You do X for Y and now you can suddenly use power armor like an expert? That's just irrational. Better if you can receive basic PA training at some point and then spend skill points to improve it, like anything else.
Even better if your skill only improves as you spend time wearing it and making use of it in applicable tasks. Higher skill reduces logical PA associated penalties and increases associated bonuses. Remember those technical manuals? How about technical manuals that confer the ability to use certain PA functions?
5. Protection: PA should provide more protection, or combat armor should provide less. The relative armor class of the two just doesn't make sense, as it stands.
6. Weight: Yeah, this shit should be way heavier. If you're wearing PA, you should be able to carry out a buddy in PA who has been incapacitated. That's just common sense, from a military perspective. If you're an average human, carrying a full suit in inventory should be a hell of a stretch. Carrying two or three full suits off to the local merchant should be impossible.
TL;DR This isn't just a bullet-proof vest on steroids, it's a complex prosthetic weapon system at the pinnacle of human technical achievement in the Fallout universe; If you're going to include it at all, treat it as such.
Thanks for reading; Any thoughts?
I'm making the assumption that the FO games are intended to be RPG's in the sense that they offer the *ability* to role play. From my perspective, this ability is essentially founded in the depth of the possible player interaction with the environment. Based on that assumption, more complex, rational interactions make for more options, thus creating more space in which to become immersed in a role.
If you don't agree with those assumptions, I can dig it. Just letting you know where I'm coming from.
I'm sure some of this has been addressed, but I'm new to NMA.
Where to start... Let's face it, Power Armor is an iconic part of the fallout universe, but in-game it's reduced essentially to a handful of basic stat modifiers. None of the real benefits or disadvantages of it are well treated. It could be so much more than it is...
1. Batteries: Why don't we need to charge them? It's bizarre to posit a 100 year power plant that fits in a suit of armor, especially when your car runs out of juice on a regular basis. Suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but you're getting near godlike power in return for...well...nothing. TANSTAAFL
2. Helmets/Sensors: More useful, please. A fully functioning PA helmet should be much more than just a plate steel noggin shield. Perception modifiers, night vision, party radio contact, enemy radio interception, jamming, weapon interfaces, spotlights, IFF, compass, etc.
Make a certain number of slots available for those extra functions and make the player choose which, if any, of the functions they will use. Find a way to make the BoS armor a viable role-playing option once you've discovered Enclave armor. What extra functions would the BoS gear have that the Enclave would not? Who has access to the GPS sats, the best targeting software, or thermal imaging, etc. What sort of power armor did the Chinese whip up before they lost the war? Have the outcast BoS retrofitted stealth systems to their armor that the enclave hasn't figured out?
And then there's the recognition factor... "Aren't you a little short to be a storm trooper?" If you're wearing a full suit that covers your face, how is anyone supposed to know it's you? FO2 at least partially addressed this by letting you blend with Enclave troops, but dropped the ball with all the other NPC's. If I roll into the NCR bazaar in full Enclave kit, the first response should be hot lead, not an offer to watch my car or sell me iguana on a stick.
3. Durability: Applicable to all types of armor, but particularly vital for very high tech stuff. Rationalize the process of damaging and repairing armor. Rather than ignoring durability, or going half way with a blanket "condition" for a suit of armor, critical mechanical damage to body parts should require a replacement of that specific part.
If you blast the arm off of Joe Enclave with a Bozar, that part of his armor should be damaged when you loot it, so maybe those called shots will get a little more important. Component level failures for sensor systems; if you take a shotgun blast to the face, some of your helmet electronics should be degraded or completely destroyed. Repair/science and appropriate replacement parts remedy the situation.
A serious battle where you take direct mini nuke hits or critical plasma hits could easily render that fancy BoS rig into nothing more than a well ventilated pile of scrap with a few salvageable components. You find a suit of PA in a military base. Is it perfectly preserved? Unlikely. Which components have failed? Can you scrounge replacements? Is your science/repair skill high enough to recognize the components if you found them on a shelf? Do you even know how to turn PA on? Who do you go to to learn about it?
4. Training: Make it skill based, and hold the skill back as a goal to be attained. You do X for Y and now you can suddenly use power armor like an expert? That's just irrational. Better if you can receive basic PA training at some point and then spend skill points to improve it, like anything else.
Even better if your skill only improves as you spend time wearing it and making use of it in applicable tasks. Higher skill reduces logical PA associated penalties and increases associated bonuses. Remember those technical manuals? How about technical manuals that confer the ability to use certain PA functions?
5. Protection: PA should provide more protection, or combat armor should provide less. The relative armor class of the two just doesn't make sense, as it stands.
6. Weight: Yeah, this shit should be way heavier. If you're wearing PA, you should be able to carry out a buddy in PA who has been incapacitated. That's just common sense, from a military perspective. If you're an average human, carrying a full suit in inventory should be a hell of a stretch. Carrying two or three full suits off to the local merchant should be impossible.
TL;DR This isn't just a bullet-proof vest on steroids, it's a complex prosthetic weapon system at the pinnacle of human technical achievement in the Fallout universe; If you're going to include it at all, treat it as such.
Thanks for reading; Any thoughts?
