What would happen, assuming of course power armor stations and power cores were available? Would it break certain quests, not having your power armor in your inventory when you need it? (I can't think of anything off hand.) I actually like fallout 4's way of handling power armor (other than that it's handed out too early and too easily and without training.) I mean, it moves like it's actually powered and big, and not just a bigger suit of combat armor or something. Sure, it's a hassle to have to power it or go get it, but I still liked it more than "just another suit of armor."

I remember from fallout 2 that the little pixelated people in power armored looked bigger, bulkier, and most notably, taller. They weren't just wearing armor, they were inside of something that was a little larger than man-sized.

Once you've seen power armor in fallout 4, the idea of stashing it in your inventory is laughable ( I mean, even more laughable than inventory already can be.)

Obviously, Dragbody's Power Armour Mod comes extremely close to this, by porting the Fallout 4 power armour to FNV and FO3 (TTW) - even going as far as the scorched sierra power armour and ashur's power armour.
It pretty much ticks everything you're looking for, par the frames and fusion cores; but nonetheless, it does make power armour actually look more akin to what you would expect.
I think everyone can get behind the fact that the Fallout 4 / 76 versions of power armour were much better than previous games, but I doubt an exact replica (with fusion cores/frames/customisation etc) would work with New Vegas, especially with the ways that fusion cores would work - Dragbody's port did it perfectly for me.

To answer your question though, it wouldn't change the game that much, other than scavenging for fusion cores, and I'm fairly certain that quests would be just the same.

Ah, all this time I thought it was "just" a texture mod.

IIRC I used a combination of Drag's FO4 Power Armor Overhaul for FNV and Powered Power Armor. It sorta replicated the Power Armor feel in FO4 in FNV plus some more added features but I can't remember how the batteries worked.

@Sirdanest Drag's replacer is just a retexture and replacer for the power armor in game, but I think the distinction between both games (NV/4) is the difference in "Power" armor and "Powered" armor.

I'll admit I do like the idea and thought that went into the power armor for 4, I get it. But how many of us sacrificed modded armor/clothing for a big sheet of steel? For me its more of a customisation issue. You sacrifice fitting into a world to become a towering giant. Ashur's armor and the NCR power armor in the earlier fallouts are a good example of scavenged power armor. You wouldn't be ridiculously out of place in public wearing it. In 4, you feel like a walking tank.

I guess it's just preference, but I just prefer the old-school approach to power armor. I ended up just selling all the fusion cores I came across

@ Sirdanest (Original Post)

I absolutely positively despised what Bethesda did with the Power Armor in Fallout 4. It changed from armor to mechanized infantry. Because to me, power armor is like modern knight armor. It's supposed to give you some massive defense, but still allowing the wearer to get around easily. This would be especially useful when getting in vehicles, because they would be able to accommodate you. Similar to how spartan armor works in halo.

So if those same mechanics where in Fallout 3 / New Vegas. I don't think they'd go over too well. Because while wearing power armor in Fallout 4, you can't even carry out basic actions anymore. For example, if you want to hack a terminal while sitting down, you wouldn't be able to do that. So you would have to jump out of your power armor, then get right back in it. Just to do something simple. Plus, I like the ridiculousness (which in turn is simplicity) on how in Fallout 3 / New Vegas while wearing power armor. Things just worked. It was no different than wearing normal armor.

Plus, I don't think you would be able to fit everywhere. You'd be as big as a super mutant or a death claw. Which would mean that you'd get stuck in doorways, probably on stairs, and at worst, you would clip through the floor upon loading an interior because you where too big to fit in it. That would be disastrous!

Fallout 4,at least in some ways, was closer to fallout 2, in that the powered armored people were larger than the unarmored people. It wouldn't be possible for people to get noticeably taller if it was just thick combat armor, it would have to be some kind of mechanized larger-than-man suit. It's supposed to be mechanized, that's why there's a strength bonus. To me, it was (at least in some ways) an old school approach to power armor as a big bulky thing, rather than just another suit.

But yeah, it was kind of annoying that things like hacking couldn't be done. If I'd designed it in game I probably wouldn't have done that; it'd hassle too many people.

It did seem impractical, though, from a military standpoint, that the power armor sucked up power cores so quickly. That wasn't part of the lore in _any_ of the previous games as far as I know. Maybe that's what happens if you try to use power armor without the right training.

But I liked actually feeling bigger and stronger (crashing right through sandbag walls like they were nothing.) I never got stuck in any doors, though. I didn't feel like I was wearing something huge and powerful in New Vegas, and I should have, if even the little pixel people of fallout 2 tried to show this at least a little.

I like to pretend Fallout 4 is the Fever dream of the Sole Survivor while being stuck inside the Cryo pod stuck inside his own mind and reliving a dream over and over again imagining what the world would be like probably and playing thought in his mind fearing he might never see his son till its too late the world being burned to a crisp but some people are going to rebuild it the power armors being so OP during his time but he knows they eat the cores too quickly in his mind they become useless after a while and that jazz yade yade yada

I do not know how well the FO3 and FNV remake in FO4 are going along but if anything if you want to play on a upgraded engine I am sure the folks working on those mods would have asked the same question how would FNV fare with the new power armor and BOS as a whole in a way its a love and hate relationship one way they are tanky otherwise they are a nuisance when I decided to give energy weapons a go a while back I noticed ammo for them is quite a pain so something like that as well I guess [ disclaimer yes I know you can craft the ammo and more and so on but I have been using guns for years] I am sure some master of modding will come along and make Power armor in FNV lovely and somewhat less buggy till then ey dreams to dreams

Minus the retconning to the canon that both T-60 and fusion cores did to the lore, the way Power Armor was implemented in FO4 was imo, one of the only good things about that game. I'm not a modder, but overall I don't think it would be easy to re-create the way Power Armor functions in FO4 in New Vegas. Even if you did, I don't think gameplay would change that much.

Gameplay wise, I feel like it would be easier. You are right when you say that getting it too early is kind of a bad thing, but even then the armor itself just makes the game easier.

Although stuff like Operation Anchorage and Broken Steel would be pretty cool with these big suits of armor fighting around!

A universal hate I have for power armor is how it changes the weapons. In F3/NV I hated that any back mounted holstered weapon was upside down, it bothered me that much to never use it. I also hate Fallout 4's animations for using a pistol in power armor, it just looks so ridiculous

In defense of Bethesda, the FO4 power armor is actually inline with the lore around it. It was meant to be a smaller mechanized armor which is what gave the Americans an advantage during their war with China.

Even if you look at the old assets of the PA in the original Fallout and Fallout 2, they tend to make your player character bigger and buffer, not changing its shape regardless of your gender, which means the armor was not really wearable armor but more a vehicle with a unusual set of controls.

Heck even the way the NPCs that speak to you when they train you on how to use PA indicates this as well.

It would be a good addition with the exception of it braking all the time. First thing I do in Fallout 4 is to install a power armor damage mod. Because its a pain in the ass to see a red outlined arm or leg after battling a swarm of bugs. If that was removed, it might be a good addition with a training requirement.

stoobygacks wrote:

It would be a good addition with the exception of it braking all the time. First thing I do in Fallout 4 is to install a power armor damage mod. Because its a pain in the ass to see a red outlined arm or leg after battling a swarm of bugs. If that was removed, it might be a good addition with a training requirement.  

I felt that only very powerful attacks and weapons should be able to turn a piece red. Radroaches? Probably not without a few weeks to gnaw on it at least. But rockets, yeah, maybe. New Vegas had equipment conditions, which was fine so long as we're dealing with 200 year old weapons and armor, but recently and properly made weapons should be pretty durable.