It'd be nice if the weapon damage itself could be a scripted result ~but I can understand why it might by a bad idea in a game that has such a tremendous focus on weapons fire... I bet it could become a real problem to resolve by the round.

IWD2 was a 3E D&D game. I didn't design that mechanic.


Because it removes decision-making from high end armor. "Would you like to wear power armor or some other armor that is worse in every practical way?" is basically the question asked in F1/F2.


Again, that's not the point. If I, as a designer, have the ability to balance high end armor so a player has pros and cons for wearing one suit or another, why would I not do so?

Fiat.

As dumb as a bb gun hurting someone in Power Armor is, making it so that the player can hurt someone in Power Armor with a bb gun while an enemy can't is even more dumb.

Designer's prerogative; I'm not contesting or disagreeing with it.
Still... "Would you like to wear power armor or some other armor that is worse in every practical way?" is the truth. I do not [personally] see why one would choose to retain (bolster?) the incentive to use leather armor when PA is available.

It'd be like making sure that the Pipe rifle remains a viable alternative to the sniper rifle for the duration and into the endgame.

Nowhere have I stated that leather armor should be a viable alternative to power armor, only that there should be viable alternatives to power armor. The varmint rifle is not competitive with the anti-materiel rifle, but the minigun and the anti-materiel rifle are both very powerful late-game guns with different applications/pros and cons.

True. (I did not intentionally mean to imply that... I just picked the extremes in both cases. )

There is (I'm guessing) more than one type of Power armor? [rhetorical]

+1

Cons are Good, trade-offs are Good, having a suit of SuperMan armor that weighs nothing and yet imparts upon me the powers of a God? Not so Good.

To me the most entertaining levels are 1-10, when your struggling for everything and acutally Need stuff. Once doped-up with AP and 20 guns it's still fun, but not as challenging.

Sounds like hardcoe mode is the mode for you then. Simple bullet weights alone mean that you won't be able to carry 20 guns... Unless you don't want to have more than a magazine of ammo for each.

Agreed.
The challenge part brings a question: To what extent is there levelscaling "to-the-player" in the game and in what magnitude does it work?

There's supposedly zero level scaling outside of the main quest. You have to watch out for signs like BEWARE DEATHCLAW when you're out roaming.

I think this guy is correct

Yeah, I've heard that and it's good. Should've been clearer about that in my post. The MQ areas are what worry me more since the wastes' dangers are confirmed.

Is there anything in particular that worries you?
or is it just the idea itself?

A Sticky Sanctuary. 'He's back, and this time, he's multiplied' :laugh:

That the MQ is a "follow-the-questcompass-cakewalk" requiring not effort whatsoever since all the enemies in those areas are scaled to me. That much I worry.

Different types of Power Armor that are only viable to each other? No thanks.

I loved switching between Chinese Stealth Armor, T51B, and Paulsons Outfit. (Stealth, Firefight, Free Roaming). Those I consider viable alternatives to each other. I'm happy to see that I'll be able to do the same in the core game of New Vegas.

I like this, personally. :shrug:

IMO power armor should impose fairly significant restrictions on Agility and stealth, minor restrictions on Charisma...possibly even restrictions on Perception. I can't imagine, no matter how good the technology is, that anything short of a neural uplink and a ton of practice could ever allow someone to be as agile in a walking tank as they would be in a leather tunic...much less able to sneak at all. If your character is a bruiser/heavy weapon user then power armor is the way to go. If your character is a sneaky type or otherwise relies on their Agility then power armor should have major drawbacks.

I like the idea of having some armor choices that suit certain late-game play styles better than power armor.

Ok for stealth, not for charisma and perception. Also, Darrel say in Fallout 1 that the T-51B is like a second skin and not impose penalty or restrictions of agility. I think PA should be just hard to get, and for the T51B, the death of a member of the Brotherhood can not get it or they should be very very hard to kill.

I think that having a maximum agility cap for PA's would be plausible and incentive to not wear it at times. Say... a max AG of 5 (meaning average agility). What this would mean in real terms is that the armor cannot keep up with an above average PC, so to wear it, they must bear the restriction. With strength, realistically a person need only be able to move (IE. STR = 1 or 2), and the armor would bear the load (effectively meaning the PC has a strength == the armor's ~could be 9).

I think we all realize that its way too late to do serious changes to the game though; but it would be nice [IMO] to see an overhaul style mod that reworked PA's.

**I should say, that this idea would refer to a heavy self containing PA suit like seen in the FO1 title scenes. There could still be minor exo-assist whose benefit is not so extreme, but could perhaps even be worn while wearing conventional armor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdK2y3lphmE

Why not? Even if there are cameras in the helmet it would likely be disorienting to the user. I think the Charisma implications are pretty obvious. :shrug:


That's fine, but I don't buy it. Yeah, I played Fallout 1 and 2 when they were released...I even played Wasteland in the '80s (just using that as a reference...there was no PA in that game). I know that the power armor was supposed to be a "second skin." Personally, though, I just don't buy it. Huge walking tank with a very agile person inside controlling it, no matter how good the interface tech, is not going to be as agile as that same person wearing regular clothing. The interface between the person and the armor would have to be extremely intimate, IMO.

Sounds good, Now the Wasteland will actually be a scary place to explore all on your lonesome. :tops:

As I understand it, there is no interface. You move, it moves (it handles its own).

**Interesting concept is that it could be that a trained operator has the ability to adjust the suits default settings to suit themselves better. (meaning that trained OP's might get a slight bonus vs. the untrained). (or have access to advanced features ~like a targeting computer interface)

That was my understanding as well, and that makes it even more difficult for me to believe that the wearer's agility could come anywhere close to translating directly into the suit's agility. :shrug: Not only does the suit need to react to the wearer's muscle movements against the inside of the suit (which would be far from a perfect translation of the neural impulses from the brain as well as being delayed), but the wearer would also be lacking the tactile feedback necessary for human reflexes to function properly.

Maybe I just need to suspend my disbelief a little more.

Wait... Its not Dawn of War though... All of the exo-suit prototypes I've seen in print and video are puppets; manipulated by the resistance of the operators limb on an interior control surface.
(I guess that I always assumed the ones in Fallout were the same)

**BTW, I do think this tangent should become its own topic, rather than take over this one about Ausir's review. (but I just don't think it would get but a few more posts )

***Ausir has updated his blog post.