What really has me confused is why so many people seem to want the same armor over and over no new armor designs just the same thing forever that to me just seems unimaginative and boring.

I'm sorry, which words tripped you up? Art design? Thematic cohesion? Lowest Common Denominator? I think a closer examination of these terms might just do wonders for our failure to communicate. Also, I think it is worth pointing out that "not looking like a big dork" is not an argument.

lol that's it? that's your big comeback? wow i just don't know how i will ever get over that you aren't arguing at all your just saying something like that's it you win your word is law.

Can we stop flaming each other and get back to the op's topic before the moderators lock the thread?

Hey i'm just trying to have a discussion he's the one who had to start the personal attacks on me by tryin to make me look dumb.

A flame war starts when all parties involved decide that it's a good idea to fling insults at each other. You're just as bad as they are for responding in kind and egging them on, rather than to calmly defend your point of view without stooping to their level, or better yet ignore them completely.

The downside of the internet- it tends to cause us to forget our self-control, since they guy we're yelling at can't walk over to us and knock us into next week.

you may be right but don't give me that holier than thou attitude.

In the original Fallout games, the inclusion of outlandish technology, born out of such completely naive optimism for the future, provided a nice contrast to the gritty environs, and served as a constant reminder of the failures of humanity. In Fallout 3, in keeping with current gaming trends, everything has a gritty, utilitarian look, and a lot of that feeling was lost. I think that is a lot of why the T-51b didn't relate to the setting, because so little of the visual style related to the story in any way.

I can respect Bethesda for wanting to make their own mark on the series, but overall the game didn't seem to be as aware of itself from a design standpoint, and seemed more concerned with market appeal. Sure the Pipboy returned, and they made a solid effort with the music, but in the end these were just decals added after the fact. There were some successes, such as the Protectron, but they were few and far between.

T-45D is for wimps. T-51B should be the standard.

Well like I said the Brotherhood doesn't have the capability to manufacture their own power armor, so how could one actually explain that? I could see a few elite Brotherhood Paladins using the Enclave's old power armor because it is for all intents and purposes superior to the T-51b. The T-51b would probably remain the mainstay though as they have an abundance of T-51bs while the Advanced Power Armor would likely be in more limited supply.

T-51b!!! http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090514214702/fallout/images/4/46/FO1_intro_soldiers.jpg, dudes look huge in it!

I think the T-51b is awesome coz it's bulky, low-tech and old-school. Back in the time when you reinforced armor with more armor. Nowadays you have armor made from some thin fabric instead. Too bad it looks weird in Fallout 3. I don't like the texture at all, and when you aim in the armor, your shouler pad hovers several inches from your shoulder. Obsidian should also change the idle standing animation, the character looks so slouched when standing and especially when he's wearing power armor it looks like the armor isn't keeping itself up but the character is carrying all the weight.

I'd also like the T-51b to have MUCH more damage resistance and also a high damage threshold. You shouldn't be able to aquire it too easily. Fallout 3 made fallout so easy to do. Getting power armor is one thing, along with earyl PA training with O:A. And blowing up Megaton as your first mission? In F1 & F2 it's the last thing you do in the game, and it took long time to get there aswell.

I also think it should go back to that a Brotherhood Combat Armor aswell. Only Paladins, Knights or whatever get to wear the might, and expensive, power armor. Initiates and the like uses a special Combat Armor.

You make it sound like the brotherhood is full of morons, plus like I said I remember hearing that fallout 3 wasn't the first place they've fought the enclave plus the BoS in the east were able to repair Liberty Prime and they were worse off than the western brotherhood you don't need to manufacture something in order to apply changes.

The BoS's mandate is collecting technology, not reproducing it. They wouldn't have the resources to remake power armor (if they even knew how), regardless of how smart they are.

So you're saying regardless of how many years they've been using and repairing it they wouldnt know how to apply subtle upgrades? to me that just sounds unrealistic.

The T-51B looks way better than that trashcan Fallout 3 calls Power Armor.

ok for the sake of argument how?

OK OK CALM IT DOWN GUYS we each have preferences i actually like both the armours from 1 and 2 and 3 i do agree though that the t51b needs to go back to what it used to be like heres how i think it should be.Initiates in brotherhood combat armour knights in t-45d andpaladins in t-51b but this time i want it to make you a walking tank like it used to in both armours a 10mm pistol shouldnt be able to damage me but make it really rare or make it really expensive like15000 caps expensive and dont make it so easy to get caps this time

are any other types of power armor employed by the bos in any of the fallouts?

apparently not.

Just for argument of weather or not the BoS can make Power Armor;

Power Armor, runs off of a MicroFusion Reactor. That means a radiation ore, most likely a refined form of Plutonium or Uranium. This needs to be mined in the ground, and raw ore needs to be refined so it can make a (servicable) job as a fuel rod. This goes beyond simple smelting-and-skimming-off-the-top that most metal ores undergo. It should be telling that the best thing that survived the nuclear holocaust is the Steel Refinery as seen in The Pitt DLC, which obviously lacks the equipment neccissary to refine Plutonium or Uranium.

Assuming that the BoS has somehow gained access to the ability to refine the ore, they now have another hurdle; miniturization. They need to turn that ore into something that somebody can wear on their backs without them exploding. That means that if the MicroFusion Reactor is like anything your average Nuclear Power Plant, requires turbines, pipes, a pool of water, and some method to add or remove fuel rods to said pool to generate more or less power. This isn't something somebody slaps together in their garage, at these scales a single slip of the hand could ruin the whole Reactor, or cause a high risk of it exploding. If a turbine is out of aligned by a few millimeters, it will most likely jam or not generate enough power for the armor.

Basically, they need to be machined.

That means they need a factory with precision machines to build these power packs. Unfortuantly, there are no working factories post-war that are not under Enclave control (indeed, the factories the Enclave use might actually be ones they built, not repossessed.)

So, they've got the fission reactors built, now how about those electronics and metal? Vaccum tubes need a pump, iron needs to be mined as well as refined into a steel alloy. Glass needs to be made. Copper for wire. Maybe they use Aluminum? Titanium? Those are harder to refine in any quantity; in fact Aluminum at one point was more valuable than gold.

The BoS can repurpose things they scavange (the Tesla Cannon being a good example) but there's a lot of infrastructure they need to have before they even think about making new suits of Power Armor; not to mention a precision greater than what your average human is capable of. Sure, they can build Power Armor from junk, but it won't be anywhere near as good as the T-51b or Advanced Power Armor. Even T-45d quality would be considered "top of the line" with the materials and methods available to them.

I'll admit i know very little about anything reguarding what it takes to build an microfusion cell, but Yucca mountain holds nuclear waste, which I believe can be weaponized.

I would also like to see new or even slightly modded armor, and it is not outside of the realm of possibility the BoS were able to modify their armor to addd increased anything. I mean They were able to reverse engineer tech and build a giant commie fighting robot, they should be able to make some obvious adjustments to their armor. and the necular batteries on the back of those things have a live of like 2000 years, i remember hearing that somewere. IDK if thats right or not

actually the brotherhood didnt build liberty prime they just found him and finished himthe U.S were gonna use him in anchorage but he wasnt finished in time

actually they didn't finish him they just had to find out how to manage his power consumption and i never said build a suit from the ground up i meant add a few things.

The BoS never fought the Enclave, the chosen one did. Wait scratch that they did fight the enclave and got Pwned in there SF branch bunker. BoS don't have Manufacturing plants to create fresh suits they can only maintain the ones they have now. The Enclave had full manufacturing workshops on the Oilrig.