Simple question...

i have so much modding stuff allready i feel my DT is too high, i am only lvl 15 so... uhm
anybody has a clue how much DT is appropriate for say... levels 10 , 20 and 30 ?

More than you can get in the vanilla game is probably cheating, so take it from there I guess.

For the unmodded game, at level 10 you'd probably only be able to get 10-14 DT, or 13-17 with Toughness. Somewhere around lvls 16-20 youd get Power Armor (in a normal playthrough without trying to get it early) so that'd be 25-30 DT + youd have the Subdermal Implant, so 29-37 depending on Toughness as well. Endgame the max is 46 unless you have Stonewall or Nerd Rage activated.

Anything over 21 at level 10. Combat armor, and 2 ranks of toughness. After that anything over 32 is overkill. I'd say a DT above 45 is cheating.

1.

I play on a character using a Grimy Pre-War Suit.
I have 0 DT.
Anything above 0DT is cheating. :disguise:

I like to use O DT clothing but mix in the implants, toughness, med - x. wasteland surgeon gear is one of my favs.

When I walk around in combat armor I feel like a god. I didn't even bother looking for how to get power armor training. I was guessing I had to get it from the brotherhood, but I was over being their lackey.

This. If it's more than you could conceivably acheive in-game, it's "cheating". But, who cares? It's your game - play it however you want.

Concur. I'm playing a stealthy cowboy type and never wear armor. Just got some implants, the A Skeleton perk (and take a lot of med x and psycho during the tougher conflicts).

Also only use lever action rifles, shotguns, revolvers and melee weapons. Pretty fun.

I never bothered with power armor either. Black combat armor then maybe the combat:reinforced seemed to be all I ever needed, and I prefer the look. I didn't even use helmets, except for Boone's beret. Power suits (well, the helmets) are fugly. imo.

Yeah, I never used them in FO3, either.

My first character in NV wore the Reinforced Leather for a long time, and then finally upgraded to the Vault 34 Security Armor. With one or two toughness perks. No implant.

I'd feel like a fool running around the desert in Star Wars stormtrooper armor. :twirl:

QFT

It also depends on what difficulty you play on. Normal or hard you can get away with 0 DT but on very hard, you really need some DT because you'll die in one or two hits form the hard hitters.

I'd say that if it's possible to get it in the game without using console commonds or exploits, it's not cheating, at most, it might be unbalancing. But since you're using mods, it's possible that you could get more defense than you were ever meant to be able to have in the original game, depending on what mods you have, since I don't know, I can't say how high your defense can go.

Though, I'm not sure how much is really a reasonable amount. Rather than naming a specific number, I'd say the best answer as to how much DT is too much is "Whatever makes the game feel too easy." So if you feel like your game is too easy, than I'd say change to weaker armor, unless you want to feel unstoppable, and if you did, I'd think you wouldn't be asking this. Though I'd still keep around whatever you're wearing now anyway, leave it in your Lucky 38 Suite, or your Novac hotel room if you haven't aquired the former yet, or something like that. Because while it might seem too powerful right now, once you start going up against stronger enemies, you might end up wanting that extra defense.



I'd feel like a fool running around in a world of high-tech power armor and plasma rifles wearing nothing more than a suit made out of tanned animal skins, myself.



What if your enemies also do more damage than in the unmodded game?

Some people believe using any kind of mod at all is cheating. I'm not one of those. I've gone through a game with leather armour nearly the entire time. Right now I'm playing as a special forces recon sniper with Boone. We both have combat armour type 2. If your DT is over the game max of 45 (I believe), then you're cheating. But then again, it's YOUR single person sand box game. Whatever you have fun at doing, do that.

EDIT: "What if your enemies also do more damage than in the unmodded game? "
Well it is what it is. I played with The FOOK & FOOK2 overhaul mods for FO3 for about 2 years. The mod changed everything as far as damage of weapons and amour effectiveness. Good mods that change things like that are balanced, not so good mods aren't.

Don't forget the whiskey rose perk!

BTW is toughness or the implant bugged?

The implant is supposed to give 4 points, and each toughness perk is supposed to give 3, but while naked I'm only at 8 DT instead of 10.

Well, I tried the reinforced leather armour at around 15 (?), but have returned to my usual 6 DT with the dusters....I don't really think that game (in my personal view, based on the way I play) is overly lethal...

The enormous spread of the potential damage inflicted on your character combined with the way DT works makes this basically impossible to really answer. The base game does not make it difficult at all to trivialize small arm impacts (DT of 30ish), but this barely slows down cazadors and deathclaws. So... instead of going by the numerical gameplay effects I'd have to quantify "cheating" as armor that is better than the game's existing strongest armor, without having significant drawbacks.