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About this mod
Recoil reduction, attack speed fix, fast travel fusion core drain, drink your own piss, ridiculous and ruinous repair costs, manual explosive impact landing from any height with a variety of mines as ammo, new clearly indicated stat effects on parts for gameplay depth, and many more radical changes to power armor. More transhumanism, less guilt.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
UPDATE 16/09/23 - new version 1.5 has some significant changes and there are now patches for third-party power armor mods.
There are new patches for:
- T 65 Power Armor ESL version by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima AND T 65 Power Armor - East Brotherhood of Steel Paint by pinedog, the patch requires both.
- Excavator Power Armor by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima.
These mods with the patches here integrate well with the effects of this mod and are highly recommended. See Section 17 for details on these patches.
This is a power armor mod. It adds radical new mechanics, and aims to re-imagine power armor gameplay and make it feel like it belongs.
'How power armor should have been' is the design philosophy.
This adds a lot of new utility and mechanics benefits to power armor.
But, this is NOT just buffs and cheats to make power armor even more overpowered.
The most important thing this mod will do is add new resource costs and challenges.
Actually, power armor fans might hate this mod, and people who didn't like power armor might start liking it with this mod.
There are small optional files to tweak this mod or things related to it.
I strongly recommend you do not use this mod on an existing save.
There is a smaller and more compatible version of this mod, Fundamental and compatible mechanics fixes for power armor.
This mod is big and will have conflicts with other power armor mods and might cause issues with existing saves. Get the smaller version if you want to be safe.
There is a lot of detail in this description - there needs to be for a mod of this scope - a lot of it is waffle explaining the arguments behind changes and can be skimmed.
Below is a section outline for the aspects of power armor changed by this mod.
The fun stuff
1 - Better gun handling in power armor
2 - Melee attack speed fix and melee rule-breaking
3 - Manual explosive impact landing and mine accumulation relief
The rebalance stuff
4 - Fusion core drain rate effects and formulaic fast travel cost
5 - Stats and effects overhaul
6 - Rebalanced resistances and protection values
7 - Huge new repair requirements
8 - Reduced linings and spawns
9 - Other miscellaneous changes
10 - X-01, or lack thereof
11 - Changes in context
12 - Usage details - If nothing else, please read this bit
The optional stuff - optional small tweak mods, not in main download.
13 - Heavy heavy weapons
14 - Nuka-World power armor spawn changes and immersive X-01 hunting
15 - Lower RADs with sealed suit
16 - No repair cost alternative
17 - Third-party power armor mods
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Power armor was already overpowered in the base-game.
But it didn't really directly translate the feeling of augmentation by power armor into combat, other than setting strength to 11.
That's what this section is about - the key ways this mod will make power armor feel like power armor in direct and core gameplay.
Power armor isn't just armor: it's a weapon, and a performance-enhancing exoskeleton, with new offensive and utility benefits.
The balance comes later.
"Inside that baby, super is the new normal."
- Sturges, on power armor
1 - Better gun handling in power armor
Power armor significantly reduces recoil on guns, and enables better handling of weapons.
This is a key part of lore on power armor.
The video shows power armor affecting gun handling.
Note the following:
At the beginning the player shoots a minigun with a lot of recoil and moves slowly.
At 10s the player enters a bare frame and shoots the minigun with reduced recoil.
At 40s the player enters a frame with modified armor parts and shoots the minigun without recoil or accuracy penalty, and moves faster with the heavy weapon drawn.
In some lore sources power armor's combat effectiveness is partially attributed to it allowing soldiers to handle heavy weapons and ammunition, not just the protective quality - now it aligns with the lore, as well as common sense.
The power armor frame does the following:
- reduces minimum/base recoil by 20%.
- removes maximum/runaway recoil - this is the value recoil increases to after a few shots - recoil stays at a steady minimum value.
- reduces hip-fire recoil by a further 30%.
- slightly reduces scope sway and sighted aim spread.
Recoil stays low and constant on sustained fire. It doesn't feel like weapons fire out of control after the first few shots. This is most effective on automatic weapons.
Nowadays there are lots of mods for heavy weapons, automatic battle rifles, or machine guns - power armor will immersively help you handle them much better.
You can also install a new arm mod to improve gun handling further,
Stabilized Series Elastic Actuators.
- One arm modded increases scope stability and accuracy, and removes all gun recoil.
- Two arms modded removes scope sway, improves accuracy further, and removes accuracy spread penalty from firing (stand still and aim stays tight when firing).
As shown in the above video when the player enters a frame with modified arms.
It's important to note how this is one of two drastic arm mod routes to change combat:
The trick to use arms with this mod is to be pragmatic and snipe even on full-auto - out-range enemies, sneak and stay still to shoot like you're a fixed turret with efficient firepower to avoid damage. Juxtaposed to the Parallel Direct-drive Actuators detailed below.
Also, heavy weapons had a speed reduction effect in the base game when drawn. In power armor this effect was removed so speed was normalised with all weapon types. But you probably didn't notice as you are always slow in power armor.
But with this mod, leg armor parts can now have movement speed bonuses depending on which armor type it is.
So now, you can actually move faster in power armor with heavy weapons than outside of power armor - if you keep your speed-boosting leg armor on. This is shown in the video, the player moves faster with the minigun in power armor with T-51 legs than without power armor. You can handle heavy weapons better in power armor than without it.
The effects of power armor parts, such as legs increasing movement speed, are detailed later on in section 5.
Funnily enough non-explosive heavy weapons are probably the worst weapons in the game. An optional download tweaks non-explosive heavy weapons to be better, detailed in section 13.
There is a 'bug' where melee attack speed is inconsistent between 1st and 3rd person. This mod fixes it, then goes even further.
In the base-game all 3rd person power armor melee animations are the same. In 1st person, fast and medium speed weapons will also both attack at 1.6s medium speed, using the medium speed animation. However 2h slow weapons in 1st person use the regular slow 2h animation at 2s duration, making them worse in 1st person.
This mod allows 2h weapons in 1st person to match all other attacks speeds.
This mod retains the two-handed 1st person animation type, it just uses an edited faster version with new animations added and switched by script, other animations are safe as it doesn't touch the animationmult actor value. See section 12 for details.
Melee attack speed in 1st person matches 3rd person now.
Power armor synergises with heavy melee weapons now.
As all melee weapons attack at the same rate in 3rd person in the base-game and 1st person with this mod now too, you get more damage and stagger with two-handed weapons for the same attack speed.
I like it better with attack speed normalised like this. It feels like the power armor frame is limitied by its agility on fast weapons, but not by its strength on slow weapons, which I think is immersive.
But that's just the bare frame...
The power armor frame now provides +5 STR when powered, instead of setting it to 11 in the base-game, so there is now a bonus even for high strength characters too.
Power armor parts can also provide further melee benefits:
- arms can increase unarmed, melee, and bash damage.
- torsos can increase strength.
- combinations of arms and torso can increase outgoing melee stagger.
- combinations of legs and torso can reduce incoming stagger.
This is indicated on the armor parts themselves. See section 5 for full details on power armor part effects.
Note that larger enemies deal more stagger and take less, with power armor you can too, and you can go toe-to-toe with larger enemies like deathclaws without VATS, that's the point, you will now feel like a large and powerful cyborg creature.
There is an emphasis on making power-armored melee feel like you are breaking the core mechanics, unlike just increasing damage or other base-game effects available. A giant nuclear powered exoskeleton isn't fighting fair - with this mod it certainly doesn't feel like it.
You can also upgrade arm parts for further melee benefits unlike any other in-game effects.

Parallel Direct-drive Actuators.
With this mod applied on the arms:
- Prevent recoil/stagger when an enemy blocks your attack. Continue attack swing animation despite an enemy protecting themself and immediately attack again. The enemy blocking will not take damage, but you won't be affected either, and you can carry on attacking.
- Increase attack speed with unarmed and all melee weapons with 1 arm modded.
- Increase unarmed and 2h melee speed even further with 2 arms modded.
- Gain armor penetration and limb damage with each arm modded.
- Enable sweep attack for multiple target hits with 2 arms modded, this is the same as the Big Leagues perk effect but accessible as an alternative to combat perk investment for alternative builds relying on power armor.
Note that the extended and cancellable block window effect has been removed in version 1.5 - if you want this it is now in a separate mod which is universal, and it is also fixed and working properly. See Extended and cancellable melee block window.
The video below shows power armor affecting melee attack speed with one arm modded with Parallel Direct-drive Actuators, just to show that it works.
It's important to note how this is one of two drastic arm mod routes to change combat:
The trick to use arms with this mod is to charge in and overwhelm enemies - go on the offensive regardless of them trying to block and stagger them repeatedly to avoid taking damage. Juxtaposed to the Stabilized Series Elastic Actuators detailed above.
3 - Manual explosive impact landing and mine accumulation relief
You weren't using all those mines you accumulated.
Explosive impact landing was cool but hard to pull off and it didn't make sense to only be able to use explosive charges from high up.
Here's a solution:
The player can manually enable explosive impact landing with an AID item with explosive vents modded onto leg armor.
The AID item 'Explosive Vent Controller' is added to your inventory if you have explosive vents modded onto your power armor when you enter it.
When the AID item is toggled ON, mines can be selected and consumed to enable a jump-slam attack that triggers an explosive impact landing from ANY HEIGHT with effects depending on the type of mine consumed. A simple jump landing can now trigger it.
If you have two explosive vents on both legs then 2 mines are loaded into 2 modded leg slots for more powerful effects.
You can toggle the AID item OFF again to get loaded mines back. Chosen mine type is remembered if you toggle it ON again so you quickly and easily enable or disable the effect in combat.
Fragmentation, Pulse, and Plasma mines can be used. Frag mines deal normal damage, pulse mines deal energy damage, plasma mines deal both.
The explosions have an inner radius with higher damage and an outer radius for less damage.
1 mine consumed by 1 vent has an inner radius with a stagger of 1, outer radius has no stagger.
2 mines consumed by 2 vents provide a bigger explosion with an inner radius stagger of 2 and outer radius stagger of 1.
Normal impact landing is much weaker, dealing less damage over a smaller area. You need to use the vents to use impact landing practically now. You will no longer perform explosive impact landings unless you have mines loaded.
Legs now have a new external mod slot to attach explosive vents or pockets, separate from servo/misc mods.
You can have both vents and another mod on legs now. This is to make this fun and engaging feature more accessible.
In the base-game:
A lot of players don't really use power armor nowadays because it feels like cheating and it actually reduces gameplay depth.
But also, there is not much interesting and engaging diversity between power armor types.
Repair costs are guilt-inducingly easy to meet and you can easily accumulate dozens of fusion cores with no drain rate modifiers.
There is no representation of the lore on power armor describing differences between power armor generations.
With his mod:
There are now expanded mechanics on every level of power armor.
But also, parts are individualised and reworked for immersive gameplay depth and alignment with lore, even old and obscure bits.
Most importantly, there are new meaningful resources costs to balance.
You can easily sustain basic raider armor parts with new drawbacks, but real power has a price.
You will now need to find a balance of what you can afford, or be forced to use power armor in moderation.
Power armor CAN be FAR more powerful, but FAR more costly.
Prior established lore to Fallout 4 described differences between power armor suits in terms of their energy efficiency.
With this mod armor parts and mods applied affect fusion core drain rate. This needs to be balanced against other factors detailed further on.
Fast travel did not drain fusion cores in the base-game, which seems inappropriate.
With this mod fast travel drains fusion cores, a formula is used which is a product of the modifiers on armor parts and mods, using the hidden drain rate actor value in the base-game.
Fast travel drains fusion cores now.
The video shows power armor draining fusion cores on fast travel.
- At the start of the video the player is using a partial suit of T-51 parts.
- The player fast travels to a nearby location.
- At 30s the player arrives. The fusion core went from near 100% to near 95%.
- The player fast travels to a distant location.
- At 55s the player arrives. The fusion core went from near 95% to near 70%. More core drain than the short distance.
- The player then enters a different suit of power armor - this suit is made up of fully modified T-45 parts. The fusion core in this suit is around 40% charge.
- The player then fast travels back to the starting location.
- At 1min30s the player arrives. The fusion core count went from 6 to 4 and the core is at near 90%. The player drained the 40% from the loaded core, an entire core after, and then 10% of another core, from a single journey!
Fusion core drain on fast travel scales with travel distance, armor parts, and mods applied.
The drain can be extreme if you use a primitive suit or a suit loaded with mods.

The change in fusion core drain rate is now indicated on an item's stats display in the UI. Look for 'F. Core Drain %'. This value is the percentage increase to drain rate.
Attaching mods to the armor part will increase this value.
This affects all types of power armor drain such as moving and sprinting, and now fast travel.
This mod also makes melee attacking and jumping drain cores.
Power armor limbs have the following drain effects:
- Raider has a low base drain but drain rate increases with armor lining upgrades - all that extra weight has a balance cost.
- T-45 has +20% drain on armor parts and +30% on mods. The lore says it is powerful but inefficient. Each part can go up to +50%!
- T-51 has a low 5% drain increase on limbs and 15% on mods. The lore says it is efficient. The torso reduces drain rate by 20%.
- T-60 has +10% drain on armor parts and +20% on mods. It is a balance of efficency and power. The torso reduces drain rate by 15%.
This needs to be considered and balanced against other factors detailed in the following sections.
Note that:
- T-45 may save on repair costs but costs more fusion cores instead.
- You may need to forego mods or mix suit parts to reduce core drain. A fully-modded suit will rapidly drain cores.
- You should feel more pressured to specialise your build into Intelligence for Nuclear Physicist perks if you want to use modded power armor regularly.
To briefly explain why drain rates vary: this mod is trying to assert power armor parts as being complex systems. This is elaborated in the next section. T-45 has its own motorics, but raider armor is just steel armor. Better armors have lower drain rate to reflect how more sophisticated mechatronic technology could have more precise actuator controllers, better efficiency, or energy-recycling systems etc. This satistfies the lore on power armor parts being different while also providing gameplay depth.
This mod makes changes to the frame and makes more significant changes to the armor parts themselves.
I am partial to the lore representing power armor as more than just armor plates.
This mod tries to establish power armor parts as complex systems, for example, limbs parts would have their own auxiliary mechatronic systems that could affect how the occupant moves and drains fusion cores.
Arguably this is also the case in Fallout 4, for example, there is a terminal entry in Fort Strong that described testing trials of T-51 where gyroscopic balancing mechanisms are added to the armor to stop the operators from tripping. This isn't reflected in the base-game, but this mod depicts it with reduced stagger when T-51 or better torso and legs are combined, see section 5.3 below.
This also provides an important justification for gameplay variation and challenge, a variety of effects are added and repair costs are complicated, particularly on more complex and high-tier armor.
There is also the gameplay argument that this shifts the benefits of power armor more to the parts themselves, that have real maintenance cost, rather than on the power armor frame which is free and easy.
This mod overhauls effects on the frame and every armor part to give variation and challenge between different levels of armor, with a roughly lore-aligned dressing on all changes made.
The power armor frame's effects have been changed:
- The frame alone now gives a flat +5 strength when powered. No more setting STR to 11 like in the base-game. Strength investment matters again for power armor, and you will need to specialise in strength if you want to regularly cope with repair costs to loot junk.
- As detailed in sections 1 and 2, the frame provides gun recoil reduction and benefits to 2H melee attack speed.
There are benefits to maintaining a full suit of 'sealed' armor:
- Halved incoming RADS.
- Reduced explosive damage.
- Immunity to acid and poison effects.
You can mix and match suit parts and gain the full-suit 'sealed' effects, other than raider parts.
Raider power armor doesn't count as sealed, because it clearly has holes, and it needs to be balanced against its cheap repair costs.
All power armor parts now provide effects using a similar system to legendary items.
The effects are detailed clearly with a text description like legendary items, see the above image, look above DMG resistances. The part in the picture is a T-45 leg increasing carryweight, movement speed, and sprint action point cost. Because a T-45 power armor leg in this mod is a mechanical exoskeleton supplementing the sub-frame.
The effects correlate with armor tier:
- Raider power armor parts provide all NEGATIVE stat effects.
- T-45 parts provide a combination of positive and negative effects.
- T-51 and T-60 are all positive effects.
Raider power armor is just basic amalgamated steel fixed over the frame. It is easy to repair but debilitating dead-weight.
T-45 or better power armor limbs are complex systems. They have powerful benefits but are costly to maintain.
Many effects are added:
- Helmets can affect perception and incoming explosive damage. The base-game effect of their long-range spotlight and extended underwater breath is elaborated too.
- Arms can affect VATS and power attack action point costs, reload speed, unarmed/melee/bash damage, and melee stagger combined with torsos.
- Torsos can affect agility and strength, incoming explosive damage, increased dealt melee stagger combined with arms, reduced incoming stagger combined with legs, and waste water recycling.
- Legs can affect carryweight, movement speed, sprint action point cost, stealth detection, and incoming stagger.
These are all base item effects, mods will further affect them.
These are not all linearly increasing - T-51 has some ergonomic benefits T-60 does not, and even T-45 has some powerful bonuses T-51 does not.
These effects need to be considered and balanced against fusion core drain and repair costs.
Note that incoming/outgoing stagger effects require parts to be combined:
- T-45 or T-60 torsos combined with T-45 or T-60 arms provide increased dealt stagger. In reference to Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas depicting T-45 with +2 STR and -2 AGI, these same SPECIAL effects are provided by the T-45 torso. Also, T-51 only had +1 STR in Fo3 and FNV, and so the T-51 torso in this mod provides just +1 STR but with no AGI penalty. I like the idea of T-45 being more powerful but T-51 having a design focus on being more efficient and ergonomic. T-45, T-51, and T-60 arms all provide melee damage, but T-51 arms provide less melee damage. Just increasing damage values doesn't feel as tangibly powerful as changing the visual effects of stagger.
- T-51 or T-60 torsos combined with T-51 or T-60 legs reduce incoming stagger. In reference to Fallout 4's Fort Strong terminal entry detailing T-51 having gyroscopic stabilizing mechanisms to prevent tripping, as well as prior lore on T-51 being more ergonomic, sophisticated, and agile than T-45, these effects are represented by reduced stagger.
Note that you can mix armor tiers, T-45 arms, T-51 legs, and a T-60 torso could provide both of these stagger benefits while spreading repair costs (hint).
"Did you know you could survive for weeks without water in a suit of powered armor?"
- Generic Paladin at Lost Hills in Fallout
Power armor recycling waste water is part of old Fallout lore, and with survival mode introducing bodily needs this would be a nice addition to have.
T-51 or better torsos will now simulate water recycling.
There is a hidden script counter, when it reaches 3, after a short in-game time you will be notified and water will be added to your inventory.
The following can trigger an increment of 1:
- You drink something - it can be beer, nuka cola, or vegetable soup.
- You use any type of blood pack while over 75% health.
- You go from the top 2 hydration states in Survival difficulty to a lower one. Remember that chems can trigger this as well as time passing.
After any combination of 3 a timer starts, and after a short in-game time the script checks the status of the torso part.
If the torso has >25% health you will receive Purified water.
If the torso has <25% health (red in the HUD) you will instead receive 'Dirty water'. Which you could also drink, if you're into that sort of thing.
The counter is reduced by 3 and then checks again. You could drink 12 beers at once like an absolute unit and you would slowly receive 4 waters one-by-one.
You must remain in the power armor for the entire process. The counter resets to 0 when you exit.
This may sound insignificant but this is incredibly useful in survival mode and might be as important as the damage protection, as such a life-support system in the post-apocalypse would be.
It makes sense that power armor is protective.
But the resistance values on armor apply to the WHOLE body.
It was too easy to have one or two parts for the full-body protection given by the massive resistance values.
You could wear a single torso piece and be nigh-invulnerable on normal difficulty by resistance values inflated far higher than weapon damage, which all seems to blend together and even overlap on high lining upgrades.
It is irritating and unimmersive to be shooting an exposed enemy body part on a power armored enemy and deal low damage - and it's important on hardcore difficulties/load orders to have a way to kill a power armored enemy.
So this mod changes resistances and damage reduction on parts:
- The resistance values have been decreased and rebalanced.
- New damage multipliers on each LOCAL BODY PART are applied by armor parts now.
Each armor part now has a new stat in the UI. Look for 'Dmg.Red.%' there will be values for the Head, Torso, L Arm, R Arm, L Leg, and R Leg.
These values represent the damage reduction percentage on the local body part. This is separate to the resistance values.
The DMG Resist values of all parts have been significantly decreased. Raider resistances are now worse than the best non-power armor. T-45A is barely better than the best non-power armor.
Arms, legs, and helmets provide the same damage and energy resistances, and Torsos provide double the resistances of other parts. This distribution more closely matches non-power armor.
You need to keep all body parts covered to stay properly protected, if a part is exposed you could take much more damage sporadically when an exposed area is hit.
There is a big proportional difference between armor tiers with the new Dmg.Red.% values.
This applies to enemies too, so hit them in exposed areas.
Dmg.Red.% values are lower for the head.
Dmg.Red.% values are higher for the torso.
Dmg.Red.% values increase with lining upgrades.
These damage multipliers also affect the amount of damage an armor part takes to its health stat. Therefore torsos take less damage and heads take more damage. T-45A lining loses part health faster than T-60B lining etc. This is effectively part health variety too.
I thought rad resistance on PA was way too high in the base game:
In addition to having high RAD resist power armor had a hidden 14% RAD reduction on each part. So you could get 1000+ RR and 84% reduced RADs with a full suit. When combined this is ridiculous.
It makes sense that power armor is protective against RADS, but it allows to effectively remove the RADS mechanic altogether.
But you could also just wear a single 150 RAD Resistance raider leg with its additional 14% reduction and be practically immune to the glowing sea. Raider power armor had the same rad resistance as X-01, and a single part giving 150 RR was too high in context with non-power armor.
Finally, because of the low base magnitude of many RAD hazards, and the resistance calculation being so steep, RAD damage is slashed from even small amounts of RR and all hazards seem to blend together with high RR. RR doesn't need to go as high as other resistances.
This mod changes RAD resistance of power armor so now:
- RAD resistance has been massively reduced on all parts.
- Raider PA parts have a measly 1RR on limbs, 2RR on the torso, and 16RR on the helmet to represent the breathing filter (1RR above the gas masks in the game). Raider power armor has holes in it that would let fallout particles settle on the skin, like how normal armors don't have any RR. Raider parts disqualify you from getting the sealed suit benefits of further RR reduction.
- T-45 arms and legs have 20RR, T-51 has 14RR, T-60 has 25RR. Rather than 150 on everything. Helmets have 15RR higher than the limbs to represent the breathing filter. Torsos have double limb RR. T-51 has less rad resist than other types as it is made from less dense constituent materials as per old lore, but a full suit of it is still very effective.
- RR slightly increases with lining upgrades, +1 RR on each lining upgrade, +2 for torsos. This scales particularly well on raider armor which has several new upgrade tiers and can become very protective despite the low base RR.
- You gain a 60% RAD reduction if you have a full suit of sealed armor (Raider doesn't count).
Other sources of RAD resistance matter again in power armor.
You cannot linger so long in the glowing sea even with power armor. You will still occasionally need anti-RAD aid items in power armor. You will see a difference on the RAD meter with every rank of the Rad Resistant perk - which is no longer redundant like in the base-game when you have power armor.
Note that the rad meter in power armor is actually more sensitive than it is outside of power armor, incoming RADs will read higher on the HUD with this mod due to less RR but you will not build up RADs and lose health as fast as the counter says if you were to take the same amount of displayed RADs outside of power armor.
There is an optional file for higher RAD reduction on a sealed suit multiplier - down from 40% to 20%. See section 15, under optional downloads, download is called 'Lower RADs with sealed suit'.
This is the most important part of the mod. There is an optional file download to remove these new costs, read on for details.
Note that as of version 1.5 these values have been changed and the screenshots are no longer accurate. But these still show how armor repair costs scale with tier.
Shown in this image are the repair costs for arms/legs. T-45 on the left, T-51 in the middle, T-60 on the right. Helmets and torsos have different costs, these images are just to illustrate difficulty tier.
Raider armor isn't shown and just remains as only a few pieces of steel for the limbs, explained later.
It is okay for power armor to be powerful, but it needs a more tangible cost to use, or be relegated to something that can only be occassionally used.
Remember, power armor is a peripheral part of the game. You don't need it and you don't need to meet its unique repair costs.
What's also peripheral is the resource-gathering aspect of the game. So I have leaned into the idea of making power armor only accessible if you fully utilise this optional aspect of the game and do extra work for it.
It should feel less like cheating and more like you are comprehensively and continously leveraging Fallout 4's resource gathering and crafting elements against the combat elements, and that you deserve the benefits. It is an alternative game mode. It doesn't suit everybody. I think it's more immersive for role-playing the type of character who would use power armor.
You will not be able to just unconciously cope with repair costs with only a couple of the most basic materials you accumulate.
T-45 is meant to be just about sustainable if you put all of the core components into it, note that it is only taking 1 or 2 of everything except steel, which isn't too bad. But it does force you to make compromises on what else you can make. If you can handle the extra fusion core costs. It's a fair way to get access to stat effects and powerful mods. Better armors are meant to force you to get creative to sustain.
Fundamentally this goes against the base-game making power armor accessible for every player, this mod is meant to gate power armor behind certain playstyles or to only occassional use.
IF YOU DON'T WANT HIGH REPAIR COSTS READ SECTION 16.
IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND ON AN EXISTING SAVE AND WANT LOWER REPAIR COSTS BACK ALSO CHECK SECTION 16.
7.1 - Perks required for repairs
Perk requirements are clearly indicated when you attempt to repair a part.
See the screenshots collage above - perk and rank required are shown at the bottom of the list.
Written as 'Perk: (Perk name) (Your Perk Rank/Required Perk Rank)'. So it shows what you have and what you need.
In this cropped screenshot the player doesn't have enough perks to repair a T-60 piece. They have 2/3 perk ranks.
Raider power armor parts require Armorer 1.
T-45 requires Armorer and Science! rank 1.
T-51 needs 2 of both.
T-60 needs 3 of both.
Maybe there's some other power armor out there that needs even higher perk ranks...
Requiring Science! perks notably harshly restricts T-45 or better power armor maintenance to high INT characters, which is intentional.
As briefly mentioned in section 5 I consider power armor parts to be complex systems, not just plates, and repair costs are a way to depict this and justify the benefits.
Except for raider power armor, which keeps a simple cost of steel, and is easy to maintain. Because raider power armor is just basic amalgamated steel scrap. In exchange for no access to complex mods because they can't be supported, stat reduction effects on all parts due to the cumbersome dead-weight, and lower part health and resistances due to poor integration and primitive materials.
But for T-45 or better:
The core electromechanical components are needed now:
Gears, springs, screws, oil, adhesive, copper, circuitry. They are needed in increasing amounts with armor tier to represent sophistication.
More complex materials are needed to represent the armor itself, advanced armor needs advanced constituent materials, not just a few of the most basic ones:
On T-51:
Old Fallout lore vaguely explicitly described T-51 as being composed of 'poly-laminate composites' with a silver 'ablative' layer.
Ballistic fiber and plastic are used in this mod as such composite components.
Silver could also be applied to electrical system optimization which is a key part of T-51 lore.
So, T-51 now requires plastic, ballistic fiber, and silver.
Aluminium is used instead of steel - aluminium is used in the titanium plating mod and other mods that generally seem to use it as a generic light / alternative / high performance metal.
On T-45:
T-45 remains crudely based on steel.
It now requires fiberglass to represent anti-spalling/anti-fragmentation sub-layers, as steel ballistic armor needs more than just steel, and this a cruder alternative to ballistic fiber needed in better armor.
Asbestos is also used in reference to Fo3 describing recon armor as an asbestos-based underlayer to T-45, this is questionable but I wanted a rare component that didn't overlap with T-51 to spread resource costs on mixed suits (hint). You would probably want some insulation layering on a bulk-metal-based armor anyway.
On T-60:
T-60 requires significant amounts of crystal.
This is used to represent ultra-hard crystalline ceramics, analagous of modern tank armor, to disintegrate kinetic energy penetrators or shaped charge jets. T-60's slab faced and edged visual design departure from the curved strike faces of T-51 mimics the real-world developments in tank armor as hard composite armors were adopted at the end of the 20th century. Fallout is a universe with abundant depleted uranium for projectiles and man-portable gauss weaponry, surely the plastic-based armor of the T-51 could be countered, as contemporary polymeric armor relying on fiber-engagement is weak to hard armor-piercing rounds that don't deform, hence T-60 following the developments of the Anchorage theater. Crystal could represent synthetic diamonds or alumina in its sapphire form, both of which have real world application, and would fit crystal being described as a transparent optical component.
I did not want to have the option to use the basic ceramic component as an alternative, as I think it would be too easy, you won't fix tanks with kitchen crockery.
Crystal is a rare component to escalate the challenge from T-51 to T-60.
Ballistic fiber is also required again with T-60.
T-60 is obvously very hard to maintain - you might decide it's not worth it.
Asbestos is also required for all helmets, as it is used for breathing filters.
T-51 and T-60 armors also introduce rare component costs for the sophisticated torso and head parts:
Fiber-optics and crystal for helmets.
Nuclear material and gold for torsos.
So almost every component is needed, and sustaining power armor will suffocate you out of almost everything else you could spend resources on, forcing you to make hard choices or sacrifices.
The real issue is that maintaining some of the most advanced in-universe technology through constant adversity, and effective access to godmode without the console, was so trivially easy. This was the prominent complaint from most of the fallout 4 community left, who haven't really used power armor for years.
Refer to section 11 on advice for managing power armor and these how this affects the role power armor can have.
It might not be worth it. You might neglect settlements and force them into deprivation trying to cope with maintenance.
It might just be frivolous spending on something selfish and fleeting, or it might be a lifeline in a hostile world and the ultimate expression of playing smart and using every resource to survive.
If you want to sustain power armor you will probably find a sweet-spot of mixed armor parts and mods. Personally, I find an immaculate suit that's easily maintained boring and a suit you put a lot of thought and effort into to be more interesting and immersive as a technician-themed character.
Compromise and sacrifice if you want to sustain power armor, it can be done, see section 11 for hints and tips if you want.
Lining upgrades are changed by this mod.
There are overall fewer lining upgrades with this mod.
Raider armor can now be upgraded more to mk5 or E equivalent.
T-45 can be upgraded to T-45D.
T-51 can be upgraded to T-51C.
T-60 can be upgraded to T-60B.
It made more sense to me from a lore perspective that there wouldn't be 6 iterations for all suits, especially when found sitting around everywhere in untouched-since-pre-war locations.
I also think it was too easy in the base-game to upgrade T-45 to F lining which had very high resistances for almost no repair cost.
Raider power armor has MORE lining upgrades. Just like normal raider armor it can be upgraded to Welded, Tempered, Hardened, and Buttressed lining.
T-45 had a D variant in Fo3/FNV and it would make sense for it to have many upgrades to keep parity with new models as it is the oldest type.
T-51B was prevalent during the Anchorage theater shortly before the end of the war, a C variant may have been conceived following lessons learned or to keep parity with new T-60, but more than that would be odd.
T-60 was introduced just before the end of the war, however it is quite common for military technology to have new variants/upgrades designed by the time current models are rolled-out, hence it can go up to T-60B.
The higher-level linings have been removed - they will not spawn and cannot be seen in the workbench. It is probably a mod conflict if they spawn in.
From a gameplay perspective - the mods are also altered so now upgrades are compacted and do not let an armor type get better than the next one up. T-45A is only a little better than the best non-power-armor. T-45D is worse than T-51A, T-51C is worse than T-60A - because otherwise that would invalidate the repair costs increasing with better armor types. This also helps with balance as linings need to get better but not so much better that it becomes too protective for a single piece.
Lining upgrades are less important than base armor type now.
Changes to power armor tier spawns:
- You will not find the best power armors everywhere.
- T-60 is the upper limit for normal partial suits.
- T-51C is the upper limit for normal full-suit spawns.
T-51 weighs less so it is easier to loot, as it is made from less dense materials as per old lore. Consider scavenging it as an alternative to repair costs - it will be more common now.
With high repair costs introduced by this mod consider that all those power armor suits around the commonwealth have a purpose: to avoid you having to spend so many components.
Lining upgrade names have been changed for cosmetic flavour and to reflect the armor composition types conjectured in section 7.2, but the armor part naming is the same as the base-game. These names are deliberately ambiguous and should be interpreted loosely.
Helmet spotlights have had their range increased and fall-off decreased and the angle of the beam has been slightly decreased. The power armor spotlights lets you see much farther but in a narrow beam.
This is notably the opposite to the pip-boy light - that is omni-directional but short range.
This contrast is partly just for the sake of contrast but also because I think it's thematically appropriate to miss things out of the corner of your eye and feel a bit less situationally aware in power armor.
They will now cast shadows as it's 2023.
They will help more to see with dark lighting/enviornment mods that seem to be very popular.
The bright headlamp now shines even further than the normal headlamps.
Fusion core drain rate per second running has been decreased slightly from 0.05 to 0.04.
Jumping, melee attacking, and impact landing now slightly drains the power armor fusion core.
The amount of drain for each is 0.1 or equivalent to 2.5 seconds of running.
Fusion core drain per spent action point has been decreased from 0.05 to 0.02.
This means baseline VATS and sprinting drains the core less.
However note that armor parts modify action point costs - noted in their legendary description text - which significantly modifies this.
T-51 can sprint for much farther for much less core drain and AP cost than T-45, for example.
Part health and scaling has changed. Lining mods increase part health by 10 per lining upgrade. Parts cannot be upgraded to have more health than the next armor tier. For example, T-45A limbs start at 100 health, and increase up to 130 health with T-45D, and basic T-51A starts at 140 health. This is a big change since version 1.4 - higher level armors last much longer.
Part damage rate has been reduced. Down to 30% for the player. Down to 50% for NPCs. (Note that in the base-game the player was at 100% and NPCs at 300% - so power armor will last relatively longer and NPCs take relatively less damage to power armor but also note some NPCs levelled lists spawn with half-health armor). So parts effectively have much more health than stated relative to the base-game and power armor enemies are much more dreadful to fight - this was done to make power feel like less of a rip-off to maintain - I also think players modding Fo4 are more often using mods that intensify combat nowadays.
Armor weights have been increased. T-51 is notably lighter to reflect its lore on lighter constituent materials and ergonomic design focus. Consider looting it in particular to save on repairs.
Unarmed power armor base damage increased to 15 (up from 10). It is inherently better than unarmed without power armor now. Combined with armor part effects unarmed can deal very high damage.
Raider power armor cannot accept misc. mods - this is to reflect its primitivity as it is just metal plating without any complex systems like auxilliary mechatronics - it is just a lot of dead weight. It has easy repair costs to balance this. It would be too easy to give it every mod feature and no real resource cost. Raider armor serves a role of easy access to the frame benefits or filling in for better parts you won't fix. There's nothing wrong with using it or some mixed parts of it in the late-game.
Legs and torsos have extra mod slots.
Legs now have an external mod slot for explosive vents or pockets for carry weight. You can now have servos and external leg mods on the same leg.
Torsos now have a new back slot for a jetpack, stealth boy, or extra carry weight. You can now have a back mod and the normal torso misc. mods on the same torso.
The optimized leg mod was removed - AP drain on varies with legs armor part tier, indicated in the legendary description text.
The power armor frame now reduces sprint AP cost by 40%.
T-45 parts have new mods available to reduce their fusion core drain rate. These are not available on other armor types - they are supposed to represent bringing T-45 mechatronics up to par with the more sophisticated armor types.
Overdrive servos have been renamed to 'Delimited tuned servos' and now increase jump height in addition to sprint speed. They generally serve a purpose to overcome movement restriction and improve it in power armor. One of these mods will allow you to jump over waist-high picket fences, two will allow you to jump over head-high chain link fences. It's important to note this also adds a lot of defensive value.
Calibrated shocks have been renamed to 'Ancillary hydraulic servos'. They have the same effect. They're very useful for looting scrap to maintain repair costs.
Arm mods from the base game have been removed because I didn't like them - you can only attach the two new mods for improved gun-based combat or melee-based combat, shown above, which simply and wholly cover all key combat mechanics. I did not believe so many misc mods for unarmed combat was useful, especially as you cannot select unarmed by hotkey so nobody uses it - the new melee oriented mod covers unarmed combat. The optimized arm mod effect has been made an intrinsic property of T-51 with AP drain rates modified by arm parts that vary by armor tier.
T-60 tesla and overboss power armor have had mod access restricted.
- T-60 Tesla arms have the tesla bracers effect built-in with other mods disabled, in addition to the normal energy damage bonus.
- T-60 Tesla torso has the tesla coils torso misc mod effect built-in with other mods disabled, in addition to the normal energy damage bonus.
- Overboss torso has the tesla coils torso misc mod effect built-in.
- Overboss armor cannot be modded with misc mods similarly to raider power armor.
The tesla coils torso mod has been removed - it is now an intrinsic property of T-60 Tesla and Overboss armor only. I felt it was too powerful and it made the tesla and overboss armor more unique this way.
The unique corporate livery suits in the DLC now spawn with some mods to make them more interesting and valuable.
Jet pack function has been significantly changed. Jet packs now have no initial velocity, and their sustained thrust is now slightly over the critical threshold to accelerate upwards. When you first activate a jet pack you will barely move and will slowly build up speed. You can get much higher but can't use it to quickly evade enemies. It is less like a double jump and more like a steady rocket thruster on a heavy physics object.
Downward velocity threshold for triggering an impact landing is slightly increased and equalised between 1st and 3rd person. You will need to fall from a greater height to trigger it. Now that explosive impact landing is manually triggered from any height it is less important for the impact landing fall height threshold to be accessible.
Impact landing without explosives now has a much reduced radius and effect. You need to use the new explosive vents and spend your mines to get much use out of it. Explosive landings will not trigger without explosive vents loaded with mines.
Fusion cores won't spawn in as-high quantities. Some levelled item entries are edited - but not enemy forms themselves to avoid incompatibility. The fusion core drop lists for automatron bots, which make up near-half of random encounters when the DLC starts, for example, don't drop multiple cores now.
Rusty textures are removed except for T-45.
In the base-game, all power armors had a rusty texture except for T-51. Some people thought this was an oversight or bug. It is stated in old lore that T-51 had a silver lining, this might be why it's the only power armor without a rusty texture on the base lining. I would imagine T-60 and X-01 would not have rust-susceptible outer layers as well.
You will not find X-01 around with the main mod file installed.
There wasn't a lore justification for its prevalence in the base-game. It could spawn in many places from as early as level 28, but with this mod it won't spawn in the Commonwealth at all.
There is an optional download to re-integrate X-01 spawns in a more immersive and challenging way. See section 14 for details on the optional download.
There is only one instance in-game of X-01 being explicitly referenced: Project Cobalt.
This should be the only definite place to find X-01. If you use the optional mod there are more sources.
Getting it is a hard challenge at the end of the game, so it feels more like a rare easter egg and reward rather than another choice of armor.
The Fallout Bible suggests some early enclave armor was actually worse than pre-war armor.
I do not consider X-01 to be Advanced Power Armor from Fallout 2 or Enclave Power Armor from Fo3 (which was worse than T-51b).
I prefer the idea that X-01 was a radical but unrealized prototype that was drastically different and superior to others, and that's elaborated on a bit in Fo76. I've implemented that by giving it absurd benefits on each part. For example, the arms have effects of both mod types detailed in sections 1 and 2 built-in. It is drastically different to the other armors, it's not just higher protective values.
But you probably won't maintain the repair costs, which are ridiculous and meant to stop you. If you did it sustain X-01 it would ruin the game by its sheer power, but that's a core part of its identity, it puts the fun in functionality.
Power armor provides new offensive and utility mechanics in direct real-time gameplay to feel more tangibly like power armor. You should feel like you are not so much playing by new rules, but also breaking or removing rules and constraints, like a kind of power-up mode.
But more importantly it is harder to access the benefits. Most players haven't touched power armor for years because it felt like cheating. As mentioned in Section 7: power armor is a peripheral part of the game, and you don't really need to use it, and it would ruin the game if it were too easy. You must comprehensively and continously leverage Fallout 4's resource gathering and crafting core-game elements against the combat ones. Not all players will like this.
The most important part of this mod is the repair requirements - all armor stats and effects, and reduced/narrowed lining upgrades, revolve around the repair costs. This brings the resource gathering aspect of the game into a new light, and I even think it complements the settlement building aspects of the game, as it's easy to reach a stable point with all needs met too soon and the new choice between settlement building and power armor maintenance is my idea of good gameplay.
This mod probably makes your ideal suit of power armor inaccessible, but I think that's a good thing, actually. I don't think power armor should've been so accessible in the first place, and that you should have to sacrifice and compromise to use it, or forego it almost entirely. If you really want to sustain power armor you can, you just need to get creative and accept you can't easily have the best suit. You'll have to spend a lot of caps on component shipments every once in a while for the best armor. You can build a sentry automatron to be your pack mule and carry hundreds of pounds in junk. You can set up scavenging stations for passive junk income. You need to be resourceful.
As in real life, it's easier to get something new than fix something broken, excessive power armor in the open world should be less obtuse and more useful as an alternative to harsh repair costs.
This mod was made with survival mode in-mind, wherein base carryweight is reduced and ammo has weight, power armor might be a bit too easy to maintain on non-survival mode.
If you're the type of player who likes resource gathering, steady exploring, and stumbling on Bethesda's trademark environmental storytelling, then you might enjoy this mod and its incentive to search locations through the whole game.
Don't take power armor as permission to fight like an idiot - repair costs are as severe as medicine costs now. You've probably realised this mod is trying to make power armor an offensive and utility tool as much as a defensive one.
Below is a section on tips on sustaining power armor constantly, which is inadvisable. You don't need to read it. I have hidden it behind a spolier tag as it is just game tips you may not want or need. You absolutely can sustain power armor, if you adjust how you play.
It should be hard. But if you really want to, you will figure something out. It's not for everybody, and trying could make your game miserable. So don't get hung up on it and remember that you don't ever really NEED it.
Firstly, don't expect to regularly use power armor without a specific build and playstyle. You should be role-playing a vacuum cleaner as much as a technician/scientist type. You will need to be resourceful yourself, not just playing a high INT character. You will have to take non-combat-oriented perks and use power armor to compensate for not building your perks directly for combat.
Consider looting parts as an alternative to repair costs. T-51 is notably lighter than other types due to less-dense constituent materials and it will be more common now. There are suits scattered all over the commonwealth, carry a spare core and use them.
It's quite normal that you accumulate a lot of excess caps and medicine/chems by mid-game, especially if you use power armor with damage reduction and carryweight bonuses. Caps should be spent on components. You will have to buy ballisitic fiber shipments for more advanced armor.
Re-evaluate components as your new sustenance, and you should be open to buying shipments for the more advanced armor and not just picking things up.
Settlements begin as a resource-sink, but turn into an asset: You can make scavenging stations and eyebot pods set to search for specific rare components, and you can sell expensive produce.
As it is almost practically impossible to maintain higher-tier armor, T-45 becomes the go-to power armor for much of the game, and it is very effective until end-game if upgraded. But T-45 has high fusion core costs instead of high repair costs.
You are almost forced to take a high INT Nuclear Physicist build to regularly use power armor from early on, and Nuclear Physicist is important for sustaining modded power armor with higher drain later on after you build up cores.
The scrapper perk is important as mid-late-game enemies have heavily modified armor and weapons, which are a great source of a wide range of components. Look for the name descriptors of specific high-tier mods to know which items to loot and scrap.
Don't be put off by raider armor's stat reduction and mod restriction - it serves a very important role as cheap access for power
armor body coverage. You really don't need to have the best, shiniest, and flashiest suit.
You will only really suffer when trying to maintain the best armors with maximum mods applied. It might be a good idea to have a low level area scavenging suit and a late-game area heavy-combat suit. Moderation is key.
Spoiler tips below.
In early-game:
You will want a SPECIAL and perk build focusing on Intelligence and Strength.
Don't make the mistake of fixing the Concord museum power armor when you get back to Sanctuary. You need to use your components to build up a power base first, you will need settlers to work for crafting adhesive and oil, to farm an excess of purified water to sell for caps, and for scavenging stations for more component income.
When Preston sends you to Tenpines bluff, pass by the robotics disposal ground and get the fusion cores.
Grab crops from Tenpines bluff to make a vegetable starch farm for adhesive. However, Tatos are the first food consumed by settlers, so early on, save Tatos to plant an excess of them to cover settler numbers, then afterwards use them for vegetable starch.
Grab as many junk items with bone as you can to craft cutting fluid for oil.
Go slightly further east to outpost Zimonja and get raider power armor parts from Boomer. He only has a helmet and arms, but that's all you need.
Grab the suit by the downed vertibird at the far north of the map, northeast of the robotics diposal ground and northwest of satellite station Olivia on your way back.
Use T-45 torso and legs with raider arms and helmet for a good mix of benefits and resource cost early-game.
Do not use mods on the parts until later.
Get nuclear physicist to cope with new core drain costs.
Save power armor for your first big raid like the Corvega assembly plant.
Loot everything when you use power armor to cope with repair costs. The powered frame provides +5 STR which gives +50 carryweight, T-45 torso and legs provide +60, and you should get strong back if you can.
Set up supply lines between settlements.
In mid-late-game:
Occassionally buy shipments of ballistic fiber and maybe others, you should have a lot of caps saved up by mid-game, especially if you save on medicine/chems, farm purified water, and use the power armor carryweight to loot a lot of items.
Get all ranks of the scrapper perk and use it on looted weapons and armor - look for mod name descriptors on modified weapons and armor that higher level enemies drop - this is a great source of core components and even rare ones like ballistic fiber on some torso mods.
You should meet a settlement's basic needs then build scavenging stations for passive component income.
Consider building a sentry bot automatron to be a pack mule for you, or give companions pocketed armor.
You can find jury-rigged eyebot pods as a random encounter from the automatron DLC, or you can search the mechanist's lair for the schematics to build them in your settlements. These eyebots can search for specific components, even rare ones like ballistic fiber.
Use a mixed suit to save on repair costs - T-60 torso, T-51 legs, T-45 arms, and T-45 helmet provide a good balance of effects with low resource costs.
High ranks of the Nuclear Physicist perk should enable you to use a fully-modified suit regularly.
I strongly recommend you do not use this mod on an existing save. It edits game settings, it could cause issues with some scripts and effects dissociated with base objects, and it changes armor and attached mods that may have already spawned in your game.
This will be incompatible with mods that edit:
- power armor frames
- power armor parts and objectmods
- power armor perk
- power armor workbenches
- power armor levelled items
It should not break custom power armor, the frame effects should remain, but custom armor will not have the effects and modifications added in this mod.
The main file contains:
- ESP flagged as an ESL, named ActualizedPA
- Scripts folder, contains 3 .pex scripts and also a file path to user .psc files if you want to access them
- meshes folder, contains a filepath for character animations, they are empty folders there for a file path for the additive race so they won't overwrite things, the only actual .hkx files are in the new file path for faster animations.
If this mod makes maintaining and repairing power armor too hard for you, maybe if you're playing on a hardcore playlist, see the following game settings and edit them in Fo4edit:
fPowerArmorPCArmorDamageMultiplier - this is how fast your armor is damaged, this mod sets it to 0.3 (base-game is 1.0)
fPowerArmorNPCArmorDamageMultiplier - this is how fast NPC armor is damaged, this mod sets it to 0.5 (base-game is 3.0)
If fast travel fusion core drain is too high for your liking, the formula for calculating it is a product of a global variable you can edit in Fo4edit, make sure it updates in the console too with get and set commands though:
PowerArmorExoFusionCoreFastTravelDrainConstantFactor, form ID is xx000038, - default value is 60,000.
In the console you could type,
set PowerArmorExoFusionCoreFastTravelDrainConstantFactor to 30000
This would reduce the fast travel drain by 50%.
If you don't like the high repair costs; I don't plan on reducing the extreme repair costs, this will probably be the main gripe for most people, it's supposed to restrict you but if you'd rather separate work and play I encourage you to remove or tweak the records in Fo4edit or the Fo4 Creation Kit.
Check the category for 'Constructible Objects'.
All the entries beginning with co_Armor_Power_ are the costs to repair power armor and are listed by body part. The DLC power armors start with co_DLC0x_Armor_Power_ where X is the DLC number.
You can simply right click and remove the record changes in Fo4edit and go back to having fun without having headaches.
Power armor has some 'features'. This mod also has some 'features'.
The effects on gun handling are managed by using a script to attach an invisible objectmod to a gun which has recoil reducing effects, like you would at a workbench with a normal mod attachment. It leaves the attach point as a null value to universally attach to any weapon (unironically thanks Todd) but if some other mod uses this technique it will conflict and remove it. When you equip a weapon it will check if a mod needs to be added or removed, depending on whether you are in power armor, have modded arms, or if you are outside of power armor. This might result in an extra equip sound when the weapon is equipped for the first time, but not again after that, it should be fast enough to not be noticeable, this is because a weapon needs to have its mesh reloaded to apply the effect. Unfortunately this reloads the gun, but you'd only notice that once when entering or exiting power armor. This is a player-only effect. If multiple weapons of the same type are in your inventory, the script has to do a different operation; as you cannot attach mods to a weapon if multiple of it exist in a container (the player is a container) the script will have to rapidly remove and re-add all weapons of the same base object type, this may interfere with favourites selection if you have favourited multiple weapons of the same base weapon, but I think most players won't.
The effects on melee attack speed are managed by using a script to switch 1st person animations to new copied and edited animation meshes that are referenced in a new additive race subgraph depending on actor keywords also attached by script. This is because Fallout 4 does not not have melee attack speed accessible like previous games. So a workaround is needed. I did this as the alternative was modifying the animationmult actor value but that intereferes with other animations. I have not done this for animations in 3rd person, because I couldn't be bothered, and because it would be ridiculous for enemies to have these benefits, and for a few reasons I don't recommend using 3rd person in power armor in general, detailed below. So while this mod fixes the discrepancy for the power armor frame between 1st and 3rd person it introduces a new discrepancy if you put mods on, just don't attach the arm mods and you won't be exposed to it. The melee attack speed effects will not be compatible with custom melee animations, as this mod only has alternate base-game sped-up versions.
Some negative SPECIAL stat effects don't read properly in the stats readout for armor parts. For example, T-45 torsos reduce AGI by 2 like in Fo3, but it doesn't read as negative in the stats display. This is because the game UI can read magnitude of enchantment effects but can't read if they are flagged as detrimental to reduce rather than add, and you can't set negative magnitude to get around that. If you alternatively tried to use the vaActorValues OMOD effect it will read correctly in the stats but negative values don't apply properly and -2 can result in -200 if you look up your stats. So SPECIAL effects can be misleading under the resistances and stat display, but check your character status in the pip-boy and you will notice the SPECIAL effects are applying properly. This is different to the negative fusion core drain rate entries because they're actually just unused dummy values for displaying integers because the real battery drain rate actor value modifiers are small decimal values that can't be displayed in the UI - drain rate effects are handled by separate hidden enchantment effects. Read the descriptions on each part as they are correct and clearly detail exactly what a part does.
In order to spoof perk requirements displayed in the crafting requirements list I edited the workbenches for power armor to use a different power armor workbench script. This will be incompatible with mod-added workbenches, as it will say you don't have the perks when you do. This is because perk requirements can't be displayed in the UI for repairs, so I got around it by adding a replacement script that adds fake perk tokens, listed as crafting materials, when you enter a workbench before it combines your inventory with the local workshop, and then removes them when you exit so you don't notice.
There are no 3d visual assets for the 'backpack' torso mod or 'thigh pocket' leg mod, sorry.
3rd person in the base-game is missing sideways melee attack animations in power armor. They exist in the meshes folder but don't seem to be used, and I haven't checked if they even work. If you are moving sideways in power armor in 3rd person and melee attack you just use the forward attack animations. This is annoying because movement control is essential in melee and you lunge forward several steps in the second forward melee attack chain animation. Also, in general, stagger is worse in 3rd person because small magnitude stagger locks movement in 3rd person, but in 1st person you can still move, the camera just tilts.
3rd person sprint does not consider changes to movement speed, overdrive servos were bugged in 3rd person and had no effect. This mod might make it worse as it also adds movement speed bonuses to armor parts that work in 3rd person running but not sprinting, so sprinting in T-51 in 3rd person barely changes movement speed. Might be fixable using a similar technique as the melee animations but I couldn't be bothered to try.
Many mod-added weapons with custom animations don't have 3rd person power armor animations. They should for 1st person as the power armor animations are often actually the same as non-power armor, just a floating camera with arms.
So generally I recommend you don't use 3rd person in power armor.
These are small optional mods, not part of the main download.
These are mods that compliment the main file and associated themes.
Asks in the Posts section if you want to suggest something.
These are some optional files to tweak heavy weapons. Search for 'HHW' under optional files.
You may have made the mistake of using the minigun past level 10, hoping to relive the Concord museum rooftop thrill. You will have no doubt noticed,
Non-explosive heavy weapons are the worst weapons in the game!
Usually when you see an enemy with a missile launcher or fatman you run for cover, but there is no such paint-soiling response inspired by other non-explosive heavy weapons, they mostly just tickle. This is principally to do with low base damage versus damage resistance, elaborated later.
I do not believe heavy weapons should be balanced as just another weapon option, they should instead be much more powerful. In exchange for reducing movement speed, heavy weight, rare ammo, but also by other core mechanical nerfs like minigun slow spin-up time or limited flamer range, like how launcher-type weapons have low projectile speed - they have an associated gimmick.
As heavy weapons are thematically appropriate for power armor, and this mod adds some synergy with movement speed and carry weight, I have added some small ESL-flagged ESPs to edit non-explosive heavy weapons to be more powerful to compliment the rest of this mod.
With these sub-mods:
- Now when you meet any kind of heavy weapon you should move to cover or target that enemy first. You will be thankful for minigun spin-up time or flamer range as you were thankful for low projectile speed on missile launchers and fatmans, because non-explosive weapons will also kill you just as fast, even with power armor.
- From the beginning to the end of the game heavy weapons are extremely powerful before considering upgrades, for both you and enemies. You should take them every once in a while, ideally with power armor, for the occassional big dungeon.
There are files for the Minigun, Flamer, Gatling Laser, and 'Assault Rifle'.
Above all, you should be open to tweaking damage values in Fo4Edit yourself as everybody has a different idea of balance, damage values are all over the place in the base game, and I deliberately made these weapons 'unbalanced'.
The problem with the minigun is its low base damage and how that scales with damage resistance, it's probably the best example of this. Fallout 4 has a problem with enemy scaling and bullet-sponginess, but that's not just hitpoints increasing: damage resistance has generally been treated as a second health stat, and DR scales massively with each levelled variant of NPC type, even if they look identical.
The minigun was doing around 2 damage per shot to everything since around level 20 because of how DR works - levelled enemies have intrinsic bloated DR, as well as bloated health, way higher than the minigun's low base damage. It isn't even particularly good during that concord museum opening sequence, and is practically tickling enemies to death ever since that, taking over 100 bullets to kill a lvl 26 bloodbug variant, before you even consider how many shots you will miss.
Fallout New Vegas got around this with damage threshold reduction to simulate armor penetration bonuses on the basic 5mm ammo type, not even just on the specialised 5mm AP ammo sub-type which had even more. The lore on 5mm rounds is that they were high-velocity rifle-profile bullets that were cheap for high volume fire, and even in FO4 the recipe for making 5mm rounds requires steel but not lead, they are not conventional soft-metal rounds that mushroom-out. They are lethal from sustained fire not individual effect, and they have limited anti-armor ability due to being steel-based.
In addition to this, the minigun clearly has a full-size barrel so I would expect it to have a particularly high muzzle velocity which would aid with armor penetration.
Generally, it's not meant to be damage-balanced against other weapons, it's meant to be a minigun. While you get it from early on, you can't easily use it, so I don't think it's too outrageous.
The following changes are made:
- Damage increased to 16 (doubled from 8).
- Doubled base fire rate to 544. (You will need to maintain 55fps as fire rate is capped by fps.)
- Increased weight (up from 18 to 45lbs, 250% of original).
- Reduced reload speed.
- Doubled ammo capacity to 1000.
- All barrels have a standard armor penetration effect (because long-barrel and 5mm lore) and a new bonus limb damage effect (to make it feel like enemies wither under sheer sustained fire even if base-damage is low).
- 5mm ammo weight increased to 0.017lbs (Fallout 4 basegame was 0.008, FNV was 0.017, a scaled down but proportional 5.56 0.035lbs round would be around 0.02. Given the ammo crafting recipe in Fo4 using steel and not lead it would be slightly lighter than 0.02, this was probably why it was 0.017 in FNV - this would offer a reason why standard 5mm had inherent armor penetration in FNV and affirms its status as a cheaply made steel-based round for high volume use).
- Changed barrel mods. The minigun is good from early to late-game without mods now. The mods are refocused for alternative ammo usage, not just damage output.
- Accelerrated barrel is now a 5.56mm barrel rechamber - deals 24 damage (+50% base damage) at same fire rate of 544, with 800 round capacity. The barrel model is slightly girthier anyway.
- Tri-barrel is now a .308 barrel rechamber - deals 36 damage (+125% base damage, or 50% above 5.56) at a halved fire rate of 272 due to halved barrel count, with 500 round capacity.
- Only the standard 5mm barrel is in the objectmod modcol that will determine which mods spawn on enemies' miniguns. You must craft other barrel types. This is to stop you from dying too fast and to keep a source of rare 5mm ammo.
- Changed 5.56 ammo levelled item drop used by sentry bots to 5mm. Sentry bots are a new source of the rare 5mm ammo now. I think sentry bot miniguns using 5mm makes sense and helps justify the low base damage of the standard sentry bot gun. Also, given the prevalence of modded 5.56mm rifle mods available you will need sources of 5mm more than 5.56mm with a modded load order. 5mm amounts dropped from sentry bots is increased.
- Changed vertibird minigun weapons. They now match normal minigun fire rate (doubled). NPC vertibird miniguns did a measly 5 damage per shot which has been raised to 16 - that's why the primary weapon of vertibirds was crashing. They may actually inspire the dread air support should now.
The flamer is relatively weak. A 10mm pistol with just an automatic receiver did 17% more damage per shot at a 40% higher fire rate for about 64% higher dps before damage resistance. The standard submachine gun also had about 17% higher dps before damage resistance than the standard flamer. Which is pretty emasculating for a supposedly heavy weapon.
The base-game flamer damage over time effects do not stack. This is the key problem. Non-stacking damage-over-time effects are practically useless on automatic weapons, and damage over time should be a defining trait of this weapon.
Additionally the low base damage of damage over time effects (magnitude of damage over time spell effect is written as the damage per second, not the total) means that very little damage is dealt over time as the low damage per second value is compared to energy resist.
This mod gives it damage over time effects that stack, similar to the wounding legendary effect, but actually considers energy resist unlike the wounding effect so its not nearly as powerful. If an actor is hit more, they take more damage over time. Stay away from a flamer. Sustained fire can quickly damn an enemy, consider trying to retreat away or switch targets early.
- Mods affect projectile behaviour. The standard and compression nozzle now fire moving and arcing projectiles rather than instant hit-scan damage. You will want to dodge these projectiles. This is the key balance element of the Flamer - it is short range and can be dodged to avoid taking huge damage. The vaporising nozzle retains its instant hitscan type damage application, but it has much-reduced range.
- Base damage tripled to 27 (up from 9).
- Standard tank deals stacking 12 damage every second for 4 seconds.
- Napalm tank deals stacking 12 damage every second for 6 seconds.
- Fire rate increased by 25%.
- Range has been multiplied by 2.5 for all nozzle types and now have a mid-range point at which they deal reduced damage, like other guns. Flamethrowers having a tiny effective range is a common misconception, often propagated by videogames trying to balance them.
- Standard and compression nozzle projectiles now fly and arc. Vaporisation nozzle retains its hitscan flame type projectile data.
- Base weight is doubled to 30lbs (up from 15) - but mods can make it a lot heavier. For comparison, portable backpack flamethrower systems in WW2 were about 40lbs empty and 60lbs filled, so the one in vanilla fallout 4 was very light. It doesn't have a backpack but it does have fuel tanks attached.
- Reload speed slightly decreased.
The gatling laser was good in the vanilla game but I didn't think it was good enough for a late-game and impractical heavy weapon that uses such expensive ammo. An upgraded gatling laser is probably the best weapon in the game with this mod, arguably it should be anyway.
- Damage increased to 26 per shot (up from 14). Equivalent to a laser gun with a long barrel, which the gatling laser barrel visually resembles.
- Fire rate increased to 363 (33% increase) on standard barrel.
- Fire rate increased to 272 (old base fire rate) on charging barrel.
- Charging barrel increases damage by 25% (base-game quadrupled damage which I thought was excessive). Consider ammo efficiency per shot, armor pen vs base damage etc as balancing factors.
- Base weight tripled to 54lbs. It looks massive and also because fusion cores are a very weight-efficient ammo type and this counters it.
- Improved accuracy.
It's not technically a heavy weapon, but it was originally one of the first few assets for Fo4 made alongside a redesigned power armor (a new take on T-45 that would later become T-60), and it was conceptualised as a gun that would "look right in the power armor's oversized hands", there is even a leftover script and quest fragment in the game files suggesting you were supposed to get this gun instead of the minigun for the concord museum sequence where you first get power armor.
Several of its unusual design features like the bulky build and cooled barrel make more sense in light of that. It could have it's unusual air/water cooling jacket over the barrel because power armor hands might be too clumsly to do the dextrous work of swapping out an overheated barrel and maintaining the operation, or maybe the gun itself is actually armor plated for use under heavy fire. It also uniquely doesn't need the charging handle pulled in its animations, so maybe it's a kind of motorised chaingun for the same reason.
Additionally there are a lot of great 5.56 assault rifle mods available which leaves the vanilla assault rifle obselete and oddly named, so this is also for people who have a lot of weapon mods and no use for the assault rifle. It's actually called the Machine Gun in some game files anyway, and it was probably supposed to remain that way if the cut assault rifles weren't removed from the game.
This is meant to be a powerful but impractical weapon fit for power armored troops. There are many versatile, tactical, and extensible assault rifles available in popular mods, this isn't one of them.
- Name changed to Machine Gun.
- Rechambered to .308. Seemed appropriate. Also there are fewer semi/full auto .308 guns from popular mods so it fills this role better. It spawns with a new levelled item for .308 rounds, which results in more ammo being dropped by enemies than other .308 weapons like hunting rifles.
- Damage increased to 36 (up 20% from 30). This does not seem like much but it's hard to balance with other .308 weapons. You should probably tweak it in fo4edit to fit.
(The root of several gun balance issues is the hunting rifle damage is too low and so it's hard to objectively balance rifle rounds - it's lower than the upgraded .44 pistol even with a .50 receiver and the most powerful .308 hunting rifle receiver is lower than the faster semi-auto combat rifle .308 receiver. Again, you should probably tweak it in Fo4edit to fit yourself.)
- Semi-auto receiver fire rate increased by 25%. Automatic receiver fire rate increased by 40%. More MG34 than M60.
- Recoil values increased and recoil direction arc narrowed.
- Reload time increased by 25%.
- 50% heavier. Real .308 machine guns are around twice as heavy as a standard assault rifle in-game and a few pounds heavier than a fully upgraded assault rifle in-game. But then this gun seemingly has a water-cooled barrel and a very bulky design on top of that.
This optional download changes power armor spawned in Nuka-World. Search for 'NukaWorld power armor spawn changes' under optional files.
Notably, this is a new way to find X-01 armor.
This does not affect the unique X-01 quantum suit or the full T-51 Nuka Cola livery suit.
Now the power armor spawned in Nuka-World, whether left unused or worn by enemies will spawn with a new set of rules for parts.
A new levelled item rolls to determine each power armor part on the frame, it goes as follows:
- 20% chance for a part to be X-01
- if not above, 40% chance for a part to be modded Nuka Cola paint T-51C.
- if not above, 60% chance for a part to be plain T-51.
- if not above, 80% chance for a part to be raider mk2.
- if none of the above, part will be half-damaged plain raider.
So suits in Nuka-World are a hectic mashup of parts. These suits are de-leveled, they will be the same at lvl 1 as at lvl 100.
To explain why this is,
- A loading screen in Fo4 states that the Nuka Cola company had a 'formidable security force' and access to military technology thanks to Nuka-World's sponsorship by the US military, this loading screen shows the T-51 in Nuka Cola livery, and explains its origins. So, the Nuka Cola painted T-51C modded parts that spawn in this mod are leftovers of the original 'security' unit. The plain T-51 parts that spawn represent degraded and badly maintained parts of the original unit. I've embraced this lore tidbit but I know many people hate it. I actually like this lore - I think it's a mistake to conflate what's realistic with what's immersive - of course the satirical McCarthyist-corporatist-caricature universe of Fallout has a soda company with a private supersoldier division.
- Project Cobalt is described in terminals as a research initiative in Nuka-world and at some point 'quantum' technology was used to 'enhance' one of the military's power armor suits, which seems to be the Quantum X-01 armor. This arguably contravenes the loading screen in the base-game saying X-01 was engineered post-war. So, the X-01 parts put in by this mod could be interpreted as a few leftover parts supplied as part of the project, not the final quantum armor product, and they somehow got around over the years.
- And the raider parts are parts improvised by locals since then as other parts were lost.
I consider this a somewhat lore-aligned way to reintegrate X-01. Above all, remember that while lore needn't be realistic it should be consistent, and lore on power armor has been about as stable as enriched uranium, so don't get too worked up and personally invested because even the devs make exceptions.
- Additionally, X-01 can be found in the Nukacade prize list.
X-01 is not guaranteed to be in any of these places, it will only have a chance to be there. You have a good chance of finding a single X-01 part on each suit, you might find 3 at once or none, though.
You will have to scavenge around Nukaworld to get a set of X-01, it is supposed to be a challenge.
This is how you can get X-01 in this mod, I think it's a bit more immersive and fun than seeing it everywhere past level 30.
This involves some edits to a couple of NPCs and cells/worldspaces in Nuka-world to make this specific new power armor furniture spawn. This mod is optional partly because of this. It won't break precombines. If you have mods that affect Nuka-world too then you should check it for conflicts or adjust load order - I don't think it's particularly offensive.
There is an optional file to change the sealed suit multiplier on incoming RADs down to 20%. See under optional downloads, download is called 'Lower RADs with sealed suit'.
This has been changed as of 22/04/23 - this optional file no longer changes armor values - it just affects the sealed suit multiplier - the changes to RAD resistances have been put into the main file.
I have taken a harsh approach to reducing RAD resistance, this optional download can make RADs more tolerable.
Admittedly low RAD resistance doesn't work well with the base-game power armor HUD because the RAD counter is made more sensitive for the same radiation hazards, but it is actually not as bad as it seems, the health bar is consumed at the same rate even if it reads higher in the sensitive power armor HUD than if you were outside power armor - the power armor HUD has been designed for the 1000+ RR and 84% rad reduction of a full suit in the base-game, which is extreme.
This optional file makes the incoming RAD multiplier on a sealed suit go down from 0.4 to 0.2.
You still need to keep a sealed suit for good RAD reduction - I still think making it dependent on a full suit is a good idea.
You could think of it as the RAD counter in PA is made more sensitive as it's made for a sealed suit, and as soon as it is breached incoming RADs go well above what it is designed for.
There are two optional files to have all features of this mod except for the repair costs. I recommend you keep the main file's repair costs as they are the primary balance factor, but maybe you'd rather just have fun. If you want to get rid of repair costs read below.
There are two optional files to avoid repair cost changes.
One optional file is a replacer that can be switched with the main file.
One optional file is an alternative that can be downloaded for everything except repair costs but should not be switched out in an existing save.
Do not combine these optional mods with the main file or you will still have repair costs.
IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND AND SWITCH BETWEEN THIS FILE AND THE MAIN FILE YOU COULD CAUSE BUGS. But you can avoid them.
In order to fake perk requirements being displayed on the repair costs screen I edited the power armor workbench forms - I replaced a script on the power armor workbench, as you can't normally display perks for repair costs. If you remove the mod in a save-game the script on workbenches that exist in your save will be bugged. Newly made workbenches or newly spawned ones will be okay but you'll still have bugged scripts in your save file. This is the biggest reason you shouldn't use the main file on an existing save with existing workbenches, and should start a new game. It is generally good advice to avoid uninstalling files with scripts unless you know exactly what you're doing.
There is one optional file with the same .esp name and scripts as the main file - this can be used to overwrite the main file and switch out repair costs or put them back in as you see fit. This keeps the workbench script to avoid bugs so you still need to avoid uninstalling entirely but you can switch between the main file and this one safely. This file is called 'No Repair cost replacer WITH Script'.
There is another optional file with a different .esp name and no workbench script - this does everything the main file does except no repair cost changes and no workbench script change. Use this one if you are sure you'll never want repair costs changed and don't want conflicts with other mods that add new types of workbenches etc. Do not switch between this file and the others. This file is called 'No Repair Cost alternative - No WB Script'.
17 - Third-party power armor patches
There are patches available for two third party power armors. T-65 and Excavator Power Armor.
These two armors add a suitable tier in between other armors in the base-game and I highly recommend you use them with this mod. They integrate well with the effects of this mod.
This patch is based on, and requires:
- T 65 Power Armor (ESL version) by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima
and
- T 65 Power Armor - East Brotherhood of Steel Paint by pinedog
You need both for this patch to work properly.
There are a number of changes:
T-65 is removed from normal power armor spawns - you will not find it around the commonwealth. T-65 is a challenge to obtain.
The static power armor underwater near the castle is replaced with a damaged but modified set of Minutemen T-45 Power Armor. - it's still a good idea to get it - especially if you're there to retake the castle with the Minutemen.
There are only a few places you can get T-65:
- There are two hidden suits in secret locations that agents may have conceivably left them. One is in Boston guarded by newly buffed robots. One is in the glowing sea. These suits are already modified.
- There are parts for a third suit split between three power armored gunner bosses occupying Quincy. The fight there will be much more difficult now.
- A faction leader wears T-65 in their faction colours - to help distinguish them and befitting their higher station.
T-65 armor parts have the best effects of T-51 and T-60 combined.
T-65 is between T-60 and X-01 in armor values and repair cost.
I envisioned T-65 to be a suit made proprietarily on a small scale for elite federal agents - with no expense spared and the best elements of T-51 and T-60 combined together, unlike the mass-produced suits for soldiers. Because of this it's difficult to repair - combining the rare materials of T-51 and T-60, and static suits will even be found with mods, as though custom-fitted for agents.
It's notably not as good or as radical as X-01 - this contrasts Fo76 which made T-65 better than X-01, which, frankly, I suspect had armor values scale as they did for gameplay power-creep so that new content was better than existing content and motivated players to grind for it. I regard T-65 as the best that could be made without cost-concern at the time - but X-01 was a radical re-imagining prototype that didn't exist except for a few lab samples by the end of the war.
This patch is based on, and requires:
Excavator Power Armor by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima
The excavator armor is an interesting subversion of normal power armor:
It has lower resistances and health than T-45.
But it has HUGE benefits on each part, and even has the effects of mods built-in.
Don't think of excavator power armor as actual armor - think of it as a performance-enhancing exoskeleton.
It does not require a lot of rare types of components to repair.
It requires a lot of basic materials to repair.
It's repair costs might be sustainable if you leverage its huge carryweight bonuses to loot component items.
It's good for component gathering in lower level areas. But you probably don't want to bring it into the glowing sea - remember that higher level areas have hidden damage multiplier perks and more modded weapons on levelled enemies.
The suit is rare. You will not find it on enemies.
There are only 3 places it spawns:
2 suits spawn in the same locations as the base mod. 1 extra spawn location is added to tunnels beneath Goodneighbour.
The parts on the suits are badly damaged when you find them.
To explain this odd direction taken with EXC-17 armor parts:
Note that this mod is trying to establish power armor parts as their own complex systems, not just plates.
There are a lot of lore entries in Fo76 about excavator power being overengineered / overmechanised, mostly framed as developmental difficulties.
For example,
- The early excavator prototype suits' mechanical components were breaking apart when mining until 'black titanium' was used instead of the standard construction materials.
- The excavator suit was fitted with an 'ultracite reactor' because they 'exceeded specifications' on the 'repurposed t-45 reactor'.
These issues will be represented with in-game mechanics with this mod.
Bearing the above in mind, the effects on Excavator power armor parts in detail are as follows:
- Generally the parts are inefficient and have high drain rate increases - but not as high as modded T-45.
- The repair costs are high on basic mechanical components like gears but there are no rare materials needed except a few on the torso. This represents that it's heavily mechanised but has little 'armor'.
- Aluminium is the component needed most for repairs - the excavator armor in fo76 used a lot of 'black titanium', and in a few places in fo4 aluminium seems to be used as a generic light/expensive metal. For example, the titanium plating mod for all power armor requires aluminium, so that's why I used it here, steel by comparison is so abundant it's practically meaningless as a resource cost. Nuclear material and some other rare components are needed for the torso to represent the more powerful reactor used, like T-51 or better torsos.
- The helmet has an added scrap-radar like scrapper rank 2 but much longer range. It will highlight items and containers with items with components you have favorited and tagged for search. This is to represent the lore on ore-sniffing and establish in gameplay that the excavator suit is thematically about resource gathering.
- The arms have the bonuses to melee and stagger as per t-45 and t-60 but also have BOTH actuators mods built-in. They improve melee speed and power and improve gun handling. This is to represent the overengineered mechanisation of the suit - it's arms are built for smashing and hauling rocks but also for dampening hand operated impact hammer drills for hour-long shifts, and it makes it feel powerful in gameplay without just adding armor value.
- The arms, torso, and legs have the stagger bonuses when combined - more dealt stagger with arms and torso, less taken stagger with legs and torso.
- The torso has +3 strength and water-recycling.
- The carryweight bonus for a full suit now only applies to the torso and legs being combined, you don't need the full suit.
- The legs have +100 carryweight each - this is effectively the +50 bonus of t-60 combined with the +50 hydraulic servos mod effect built-in intrinsically. There's no movement speed effect unlike other leg armor types.
- Mod options are restricted on arms and legs, there's no actuators or servos slots respectively, because they're already overengineered: effectively modded and given better effects than other parts can be.
-
I may add more optional stuff / small tweak plugins. Ask in the Posts section if you'd like something.
Current plans for the future:
- Make simple 3d models for the backpack and thigh pocket mods.
Why are you still reading this essay on Power Armor, when you could be in-game roleplaying a close-in weapon system or a combine harvester? Get ACTUALIZED!
There are new patches for:
- T 65 Power Armor ESL version by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima AND T 65 Power Armor - East Brotherhood of Steel Paint by pinedog, the patch requires both.
- Excavator Power Armor by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima.
These mods with the patches here integrate well with the effects of this mod and are highly recommended. See Section 17 for details on these patches.
This is a power armor mod. It adds radical new mechanics, and aims to re-imagine power armor gameplay and make it feel like it belongs.
'How power armor should have been' is the design philosophy.
This adds a lot of new utility and mechanics benefits to power armor.
But, this is NOT just buffs and cheats to make power armor even more overpowered.
The most important thing this mod will do is add new resource costs and challenges.
Actually, power armor fans might hate this mod, and people who didn't like power armor might start liking it with this mod.
There are small optional files to tweak this mod or things related to it.
I strongly recommend you do not use this mod on an existing save.
There is a smaller and more compatible version of this mod, Fundamental and compatible mechanics fixes for power armor.
This mod is big and will have conflicts with other power armor mods and might cause issues with existing saves. Get the smaller version if you want to be safe.
Core features overview
There is a lot of detail in this description - there needs to be for a mod of this scope - a lot of it is waffle explaining the arguments behind changes and can be skimmed.
Below is a section outline for the aspects of power armor changed by this mod.
The fun stuff
1 - Better gun handling in power armor
2 - Melee attack speed fix and melee rule-breaking
3 - Manual explosive impact landing and mine accumulation relief
The rebalance stuff
4 - Fusion core drain rate effects and formulaic fast travel cost
5 - Stats and effects overhaul
6 - Rebalanced resistances and protection values
7 - Huge new repair requirements
8 - Reduced linings and spawns
9 - Other miscellaneous changes
10 - X-01, or lack thereof
11 - Changes in context
12 - Usage details - If nothing else, please read this bit
The optional stuff - optional small tweak mods, not in main download.
13 - Heavy heavy weapons
14 - Nuka-World power armor spawn changes and immersive X-01 hunting
15 - Lower RADs with sealed suit
16 - No repair cost alternative
17 - Third-party power armor mods
-
The fun stuff
Power armor was already overpowered in the base-game.
But it didn't really directly translate the feeling of augmentation by power armor into combat, other than setting strength to 11.
That's what this section is about - the key ways this mod will make power armor feel like power armor in direct and core gameplay.
Power armor isn't just armor: it's a weapon, and a performance-enhancing exoskeleton, with new offensive and utility benefits.
The balance comes later.
"Inside that baby, super is the new normal."
- Sturges, on power armor
1 - Better gun handling in power armor
Power armor significantly reduces recoil on guns, and enables better handling of weapons.
This is a key part of lore on power armor.
The video shows power armor affecting gun handling.
Note the following:
At the beginning the player shoots a minigun with a lot of recoil and moves slowly.
At 10s the player enters a bare frame and shoots the minigun with reduced recoil.
At 40s the player enters a frame with modified armor parts and shoots the minigun without recoil or accuracy penalty, and moves faster with the heavy weapon drawn.
In some lore sources power armor's combat effectiveness is partially attributed to it allowing soldiers to handle heavy weapons and ammunition, not just the protective quality - now it aligns with the lore, as well as common sense.
The power armor frame does the following:
- reduces minimum/base recoil by 20%.
- removes maximum/runaway recoil - this is the value recoil increases to after a few shots - recoil stays at a steady minimum value.
- reduces hip-fire recoil by a further 30%.
- slightly reduces scope sway and sighted aim spread.
Recoil stays low and constant on sustained fire. It doesn't feel like weapons fire out of control after the first few shots. This is most effective on automatic weapons.
Nowadays there are lots of mods for heavy weapons, automatic battle rifles, or machine guns - power armor will immersively help you handle them much better.
You can also install a new arm mod to improve gun handling further,
Stabilized Series Elastic Actuators.
- One arm modded increases scope stability and accuracy, and removes all gun recoil.
- Two arms modded removes scope sway, improves accuracy further, and removes accuracy spread penalty from firing (stand still and aim stays tight when firing).
As shown in the above video when the player enters a frame with modified arms.
It's important to note how this is one of two drastic arm mod routes to change combat:
The trick to use arms with this mod is to be pragmatic and snipe even on full-auto - out-range enemies, sneak and stay still to shoot like you're a fixed turret with efficient firepower to avoid damage. Juxtaposed to the Parallel Direct-drive Actuators detailed below.
1.1 Heavy weapon synergy.
Also, heavy weapons had a speed reduction effect in the base game when drawn. In power armor this effect was removed so speed was normalised with all weapon types. But you probably didn't notice as you are always slow in power armor.
But with this mod, leg armor parts can now have movement speed bonuses depending on which armor type it is.
So now, you can actually move faster in power armor with heavy weapons than outside of power armor - if you keep your speed-boosting leg armor on. This is shown in the video, the player moves faster with the minigun in power armor with T-51 legs than without power armor. You can handle heavy weapons better in power armor than without it.
The effects of power armor parts, such as legs increasing movement speed, are detailed later on in section 5.
Funnily enough non-explosive heavy weapons are probably the worst weapons in the game. An optional download tweaks non-explosive heavy weapons to be better, detailed in section 13.
2 - Melee attack speed fix and melee rule-breaking
There is a 'bug' where melee attack speed is inconsistent between 1st and 3rd person. This mod fixes it, then goes even further.
In the base-game all 3rd person power armor melee animations are the same. In 1st person, fast and medium speed weapons will also both attack at 1.6s medium speed, using the medium speed animation. However 2h slow weapons in 1st person use the regular slow 2h animation at 2s duration, making them worse in 1st person.
This mod allows 2h weapons in 1st person to match all other attacks speeds.
This mod retains the two-handed 1st person animation type, it just uses an edited faster version with new animations added and switched by script, other animations are safe as it doesn't touch the animationmult actor value. See section 12 for details.
Melee attack speed in 1st person matches 3rd person now.
Power armor synergises with heavy melee weapons now.
As all melee weapons attack at the same rate in 3rd person in the base-game and 1st person with this mod now too, you get more damage and stagger with two-handed weapons for the same attack speed.
I like it better with attack speed normalised like this. It feels like the power armor frame is limitied by its agility on fast weapons, but not by its strength on slow weapons, which I think is immersive.
But that's just the bare frame...
2.1 Not fighting fair
The power armor frame now provides +5 STR when powered, instead of setting it to 11 in the base-game, so there is now a bonus even for high strength characters too.
Power armor parts can also provide further melee benefits:
- arms can increase unarmed, melee, and bash damage.
- torsos can increase strength.
- combinations of arms and torso can increase outgoing melee stagger.
- combinations of legs and torso can reduce incoming stagger.
This is indicated on the armor parts themselves. See section 5 for full details on power armor part effects.
Note that larger enemies deal more stagger and take less, with power armor you can too, and you can go toe-to-toe with larger enemies like deathclaws without VATS, that's the point, you will now feel like a large and powerful cyborg creature.
There is an emphasis on making power-armored melee feel like you are breaking the core mechanics, unlike just increasing damage or other base-game effects available. A giant nuclear powered exoskeleton isn't fighting fair - with this mod it certainly doesn't feel like it.
You can also upgrade arm parts for further melee benefits unlike any other in-game effects.
Parallel Direct-drive Actuators.
With this mod applied on the arms:
- Prevent recoil/stagger when an enemy blocks your attack. Continue attack swing animation despite an enemy protecting themself and immediately attack again. The enemy blocking will not take damage, but you won't be affected either, and you can carry on attacking.
- Increase attack speed with unarmed and all melee weapons with 1 arm modded.
- Increase unarmed and 2h melee speed even further with 2 arms modded.
- Gain armor penetration and limb damage with each arm modded.
- Enable sweep attack for multiple target hits with 2 arms modded, this is the same as the Big Leagues perk effect but accessible as an alternative to combat perk investment for alternative builds relying on power armor.
Note that the extended and cancellable block window effect has been removed in version 1.5 - if you want this it is now in a separate mod which is universal, and it is also fixed and working properly. See Extended and cancellable melee block window.
The video below shows power armor affecting melee attack speed with one arm modded with Parallel Direct-drive Actuators, just to show that it works.
It's important to note how this is one of two drastic arm mod routes to change combat:
The trick to use arms with this mod is to charge in and overwhelm enemies - go on the offensive regardless of them trying to block and stagger them repeatedly to avoid taking damage. Juxtaposed to the Stabilized Series Elastic Actuators detailed above.
3 - Manual explosive impact landing and mine accumulation relief
You weren't using all those mines you accumulated.
Explosive impact landing was cool but hard to pull off and it didn't make sense to only be able to use explosive charges from high up.
Here's a solution:
The player can manually enable explosive impact landing with an AID item with explosive vents modded onto leg armor.
The AID item 'Explosive Vent Controller' is added to your inventory if you have explosive vents modded onto your power armor when you enter it.
When the AID item is toggled ON, mines can be selected and consumed to enable a jump-slam attack that triggers an explosive impact landing from ANY HEIGHT with effects depending on the type of mine consumed. A simple jump landing can now trigger it.
If you have two explosive vents on both legs then 2 mines are loaded into 2 modded leg slots for more powerful effects.
You can toggle the AID item OFF again to get loaded mines back. Chosen mine type is remembered if you toggle it ON again so you quickly and easily enable or disable the effect in combat.
Fragmentation, Pulse, and Plasma mines can be used. Frag mines deal normal damage, pulse mines deal energy damage, plasma mines deal both.
The explosions have an inner radius with higher damage and an outer radius for less damage.
1 mine consumed by 1 vent has an inner radius with a stagger of 1, outer radius has no stagger.
2 mines consumed by 2 vents provide a bigger explosion with an inner radius stagger of 2 and outer radius stagger of 1.
Normal impact landing is much weaker, dealing less damage over a smaller area. You need to use the vents to use impact landing practically now. You will no longer perform explosive impact landings unless you have mines loaded.
Legs now have a new external mod slot to attach explosive vents or pockets, separate from servo/misc mods.
You can have both vents and another mod on legs now. This is to make this fun and engaging feature more accessible.
The rebalance stuff
In the base-game:
A lot of players don't really use power armor nowadays because it feels like cheating and it actually reduces gameplay depth.
But also, there is not much interesting and engaging diversity between power armor types.
Repair costs are guilt-inducingly easy to meet and you can easily accumulate dozens of fusion cores with no drain rate modifiers.
There is no representation of the lore on power armor describing differences between power armor generations.
With his mod:
There are now expanded mechanics on every level of power armor.
But also, parts are individualised and reworked for immersive gameplay depth and alignment with lore, even old and obscure bits.
Most importantly, there are new meaningful resources costs to balance.
You can easily sustain basic raider armor parts with new drawbacks, but real power has a price.
You will now need to find a balance of what you can afford, or be forced to use power armor in moderation.
Power armor CAN be FAR more powerful, but FAR more costly.
4 - Fusion core drain rate and formulaic fast travel cost
Prior established lore to Fallout 4 described differences between power armor suits in terms of their energy efficiency.
With this mod armor parts and mods applied affect fusion core drain rate. This needs to be balanced against other factors detailed further on.
Fast travel did not drain fusion cores in the base-game, which seems inappropriate.
With this mod fast travel drains fusion cores, a formula is used which is a product of the modifiers on armor parts and mods, using the hidden drain rate actor value in the base-game.
Fast travel drains fusion cores now.
The video shows power armor draining fusion cores on fast travel.
- At the start of the video the player is using a partial suit of T-51 parts.
- The player fast travels to a nearby location.
- At 30s the player arrives. The fusion core went from near 100% to near 95%.
- The player fast travels to a distant location.
- At 55s the player arrives. The fusion core went from near 95% to near 70%. More core drain than the short distance.
- The player then enters a different suit of power armor - this suit is made up of fully modified T-45 parts. The fusion core in this suit is around 40% charge.
- The player then fast travels back to the starting location.
- At 1min30s the player arrives. The fusion core count went from 6 to 4 and the core is at near 90%. The player drained the 40% from the loaded core, an entire core after, and then 10% of another core, from a single journey!
Fusion core drain on fast travel scales with travel distance, armor parts, and mods applied.
The drain can be extreme if you use a primitive suit or a suit loaded with mods.
The change in fusion core drain rate is now indicated on an item's stats display in the UI. Look for 'F. Core Drain %'. This value is the percentage increase to drain rate.
Attaching mods to the armor part will increase this value.
This affects all types of power armor drain such as moving and sprinting, and now fast travel.
This mod also makes melee attacking and jumping drain cores.
Power armor limbs have the following drain effects:
- Raider has a low base drain but drain rate increases with armor lining upgrades - all that extra weight has a balance cost.
- T-45 has +20% drain on armor parts and +30% on mods. The lore says it is powerful but inefficient. Each part can go up to +50%!
- T-51 has a low 5% drain increase on limbs and 15% on mods. The lore says it is efficient. The torso reduces drain rate by 20%.
- T-60 has +10% drain on armor parts and +20% on mods. It is a balance of efficency and power. The torso reduces drain rate by 15%.
This needs to be considered and balanced against other factors detailed in the following sections.
Note that:
- T-45 may save on repair costs but costs more fusion cores instead.
- You may need to forego mods or mix suit parts to reduce core drain. A fully-modded suit will rapidly drain cores.
- You should feel more pressured to specialise your build into Intelligence for Nuclear Physicist perks if you want to use modded power armor regularly.
To briefly explain why drain rates vary: this mod is trying to assert power armor parts as being complex systems. This is elaborated in the next section. T-45 has its own motorics, but raider armor is just steel armor. Better armors have lower drain rate to reflect how more sophisticated mechatronic technology could have more precise actuator controllers, better efficiency, or energy-recycling systems etc. This satistfies the lore on power armor parts being different while also providing gameplay depth.
5 - Stats and effects overhaul
This mod makes changes to the frame and makes more significant changes to the armor parts themselves.
I am partial to the lore representing power armor as more than just armor plates.
This mod tries to establish power armor parts as complex systems, for example, limbs parts would have their own auxiliary mechatronic systems that could affect how the occupant moves and drains fusion cores.
Arguably this is also the case in Fallout 4, for example, there is a terminal entry in Fort Strong that described testing trials of T-51 where gyroscopic balancing mechanisms are added to the armor to stop the operators from tripping. This isn't reflected in the base-game, but this mod depicts it with reduced stagger when T-51 or better torso and legs are combined, see section 5.3 below.
This also provides an important justification for gameplay variation and challenge, a variety of effects are added and repair costs are complicated, particularly on more complex and high-tier armor.
There is also the gameplay argument that this shifts the benefits of power armor more to the parts themselves, that have real maintenance cost, rather than on the power armor frame which is free and easy.
This mod overhauls effects on the frame and every armor part to give variation and challenge between different levels of armor, with a roughly lore-aligned dressing on all changes made.
5.1 - Power armor frame changes
The power armor frame's effects have been changed:
- The frame alone now gives a flat +5 strength when powered. No more setting STR to 11 like in the base-game. Strength investment matters again for power armor, and you will need to specialise in strength if you want to regularly cope with repair costs to loot junk.
- As detailed in sections 1 and 2, the frame provides gun recoil reduction and benefits to 2H melee attack speed.
5.2 - Sealed suit benefits
There are benefits to maintaining a full suit of 'sealed' armor:
- Halved incoming RADS.
- Reduced explosive damage.
- Immunity to acid and poison effects.
You can mix and match suit parts and gain the full-suit 'sealed' effects, other than raider parts.
Raider power armor doesn't count as sealed, because it clearly has holes, and it needs to be balanced against its cheap repair costs.
5.3 - Effects on armor parts
All power armor parts now provide effects using a similar system to legendary items.
The effects are detailed clearly with a text description like legendary items, see the above image, look above DMG resistances. The part in the picture is a T-45 leg increasing carryweight, movement speed, and sprint action point cost. Because a T-45 power armor leg in this mod is a mechanical exoskeleton supplementing the sub-frame.
The effects correlate with armor tier:
- Raider power armor parts provide all NEGATIVE stat effects.
- T-45 parts provide a combination of positive and negative effects.
- T-51 and T-60 are all positive effects.
Raider power armor is just basic amalgamated steel fixed over the frame. It is easy to repair but debilitating dead-weight.
T-45 or better power armor limbs are complex systems. They have powerful benefits but are costly to maintain.
Many effects are added:
- Helmets can affect perception and incoming explosive damage. The base-game effect of their long-range spotlight and extended underwater breath is elaborated too.
- Arms can affect VATS and power attack action point costs, reload speed, unarmed/melee/bash damage, and melee stagger combined with torsos.
- Torsos can affect agility and strength, incoming explosive damage, increased dealt melee stagger combined with arms, reduced incoming stagger combined with legs, and waste water recycling.
- Legs can affect carryweight, movement speed, sprint action point cost, stealth detection, and incoming stagger.
These are all base item effects, mods will further affect them.
These are not all linearly increasing - T-51 has some ergonomic benefits T-60 does not, and even T-45 has some powerful bonuses T-51 does not.
These effects need to be considered and balanced against fusion core drain and repair costs.
Note that incoming/outgoing stagger effects require parts to be combined:
- T-45 or T-60 torsos combined with T-45 or T-60 arms provide increased dealt stagger. In reference to Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas depicting T-45 with +2 STR and -2 AGI, these same SPECIAL effects are provided by the T-45 torso. Also, T-51 only had +1 STR in Fo3 and FNV, and so the T-51 torso in this mod provides just +1 STR but with no AGI penalty. I like the idea of T-45 being more powerful but T-51 having a design focus on being more efficient and ergonomic. T-45, T-51, and T-60 arms all provide melee damage, but T-51 arms provide less melee damage. Just increasing damage values doesn't feel as tangibly powerful as changing the visual effects of stagger.
- T-51 or T-60 torsos combined with T-51 or T-60 legs reduce incoming stagger. In reference to Fallout 4's Fort Strong terminal entry detailing T-51 having gyroscopic stabilizing mechanisms to prevent tripping, as well as prior lore on T-51 being more ergonomic, sophisticated, and agile than T-45, these effects are represented by reduced stagger.
Note that you can mix armor tiers, T-45 arms, T-51 legs, and a T-60 torso could provide both of these stagger benefits while spreading repair costs (hint).
5.4 - Drink your own piss (canon)
"Did you know you could survive for weeks without water in a suit of powered armor?"
- Generic Paladin at Lost Hills in Fallout
Power armor recycling waste water is part of old Fallout lore, and with survival mode introducing bodily needs this would be a nice addition to have.
T-51 or better torsos will now simulate water recycling.
There is a hidden script counter, when it reaches 3, after a short in-game time you will be notified and water will be added to your inventory.
The following can trigger an increment of 1:
- You drink something - it can be beer, nuka cola, or vegetable soup.
- You use any type of blood pack while over 75% health.
- You go from the top 2 hydration states in Survival difficulty to a lower one. Remember that chems can trigger this as well as time passing.
After any combination of 3 a timer starts, and after a short in-game time the script checks the status of the torso part.
If the torso has >25% health you will receive Purified water.
If the torso has <25% health (red in the HUD) you will instead receive 'Dirty water'. Which you could also drink, if you're into that sort of thing.
The counter is reduced by 3 and then checks again. You could drink 12 beers at once like an absolute unit and you would slowly receive 4 waters one-by-one.
You must remain in the power armor for the entire process. The counter resets to 0 when you exit.
This may sound insignificant but this is incredibly useful in survival mode and might be as important as the damage protection, as such a life-support system in the post-apocalypse would be.
6 - Overhauled resistance and protection values
6.1 - Local damage multipliers
6.1 - Local damage multipliers
It makes sense that power armor is protective.
But the resistance values on armor apply to the WHOLE body.
It was too easy to have one or two parts for the full-body protection given by the massive resistance values.
You could wear a single torso piece and be nigh-invulnerable on normal difficulty by resistance values inflated far higher than weapon damage, which all seems to blend together and even overlap on high lining upgrades.
It is irritating and unimmersive to be shooting an exposed enemy body part on a power armored enemy and deal low damage - and it's important on hardcore difficulties/load orders to have a way to kill a power armored enemy.
So this mod changes resistances and damage reduction on parts:
- The resistance values have been decreased and rebalanced.
- New damage multipliers on each LOCAL BODY PART are applied by armor parts now.
Each armor part now has a new stat in the UI. Look for 'Dmg.Red.%' there will be values for the Head, Torso, L Arm, R Arm, L Leg, and R Leg.
These values represent the damage reduction percentage on the local body part. This is separate to the resistance values.
The DMG Resist values of all parts have been significantly decreased. Raider resistances are now worse than the best non-power armor. T-45A is barely better than the best non-power armor.
Arms, legs, and helmets provide the same damage and energy resistances, and Torsos provide double the resistances of other parts. This distribution more closely matches non-power armor.
You need to keep all body parts covered to stay properly protected, if a part is exposed you could take much more damage sporadically when an exposed area is hit.
There is a big proportional difference between armor tiers with the new Dmg.Red.% values.
This applies to enemies too, so hit them in exposed areas.
Dmg.Red.% values are lower for the head.
Dmg.Red.% values are higher for the torso.
Dmg.Red.% values increase with lining upgrades.
These damage multipliers also affect the amount of damage an armor part takes to its health stat. Therefore torsos take less damage and heads take more damage. T-45A lining loses part health faster than T-60B lining etc. This is effectively part health variety too.
6.2 - Reduced RAD resistance
I thought rad resistance on PA was way too high in the base game:
In addition to having high RAD resist power armor had a hidden 14% RAD reduction on each part. So you could get 1000+ RR and 84% reduced RADs with a full suit. When combined this is ridiculous.
It makes sense that power armor is protective against RADS, but it allows to effectively remove the RADS mechanic altogether.
But you could also just wear a single 150 RAD Resistance raider leg with its additional 14% reduction and be practically immune to the glowing sea. Raider power armor had the same rad resistance as X-01, and a single part giving 150 RR was too high in context with non-power armor.
Finally, because of the low base magnitude of many RAD hazards, and the resistance calculation being so steep, RAD damage is slashed from even small amounts of RR and all hazards seem to blend together with high RR. RR doesn't need to go as high as other resistances.
This mod changes RAD resistance of power armor so now:
- RAD resistance has been massively reduced on all parts.
- Raider PA parts have a measly 1RR on limbs, 2RR on the torso, and 16RR on the helmet to represent the breathing filter (1RR above the gas masks in the game). Raider power armor has holes in it that would let fallout particles settle on the skin, like how normal armors don't have any RR. Raider parts disqualify you from getting the sealed suit benefits of further RR reduction.
- T-45 arms and legs have 20RR, T-51 has 14RR, T-60 has 25RR. Rather than 150 on everything. Helmets have 15RR higher than the limbs to represent the breathing filter. Torsos have double limb RR. T-51 has less rad resist than other types as it is made from less dense constituent materials as per old lore, but a full suit of it is still very effective.
- RR slightly increases with lining upgrades, +1 RR on each lining upgrade, +2 for torsos. This scales particularly well on raider armor which has several new upgrade tiers and can become very protective despite the low base RR.
- You gain a 60% RAD reduction if you have a full suit of sealed armor (Raider doesn't count).
Other sources of RAD resistance matter again in power armor.
You cannot linger so long in the glowing sea even with power armor. You will still occasionally need anti-RAD aid items in power armor. You will see a difference on the RAD meter with every rank of the Rad Resistant perk - which is no longer redundant like in the base-game when you have power armor.
Note that the rad meter in power armor is actually more sensitive than it is outside of power armor, incoming RADs will read higher on the HUD with this mod due to less RR but you will not build up RADs and lose health as fast as the counter says if you were to take the same amount of displayed RADs outside of power armor.
There is an optional file for higher RAD reduction on a sealed suit multiplier - down from 40% to 20%. See section 15, under optional downloads, download is called 'Lower RADs with sealed suit'.
7 - Huge new repair requirements
This is the most important part of the mod. There is an optional file download to remove these new costs, read on for details.
Note that as of version 1.5 these values have been changed and the screenshots are no longer accurate. But these still show how armor repair costs scale with tier.
Shown in this image are the repair costs for arms/legs. T-45 on the left, T-51 in the middle, T-60 on the right. Helmets and torsos have different costs, these images are just to illustrate difficulty tier.
Raider armor isn't shown and just remains as only a few pieces of steel for the limbs, explained later.
It is okay for power armor to be powerful, but it needs a more tangible cost to use, or be relegated to something that can only be occassionally used.
Remember, power armor is a peripheral part of the game. You don't need it and you don't need to meet its unique repair costs.
What's also peripheral is the resource-gathering aspect of the game. So I have leaned into the idea of making power armor only accessible if you fully utilise this optional aspect of the game and do extra work for it.
It should feel less like cheating and more like you are comprehensively and continously leveraging Fallout 4's resource gathering and crafting elements against the combat elements, and that you deserve the benefits. It is an alternative game mode. It doesn't suit everybody. I think it's more immersive for role-playing the type of character who would use power armor.
You will not be able to just unconciously cope with repair costs with only a couple of the most basic materials you accumulate.
T-45 is meant to be just about sustainable if you put all of the core components into it, note that it is only taking 1 or 2 of everything except steel, which isn't too bad. But it does force you to make compromises on what else you can make. If you can handle the extra fusion core costs. It's a fair way to get access to stat effects and powerful mods. Better armors are meant to force you to get creative to sustain.
Fundamentally this goes against the base-game making power armor accessible for every player, this mod is meant to gate power armor behind certain playstyles or to only occassional use.
IF YOU DON'T WANT HIGH REPAIR COSTS READ SECTION 16.
IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND ON AN EXISTING SAVE AND WANT LOWER REPAIR COSTS BACK ALSO CHECK SECTION 16.
7.1 - Perks required for repairs
Perk requirements are clearly indicated when you attempt to repair a part.
See the screenshots collage above - perk and rank required are shown at the bottom of the list.
Written as 'Perk: (Perk name) (Your Perk Rank/Required Perk Rank)'. So it shows what you have and what you need.
In this cropped screenshot the player doesn't have enough perks to repair a T-60 piece. They have 2/3 perk ranks.
Raider power armor parts require Armorer 1.
T-45 requires Armorer and Science! rank 1.
T-51 needs 2 of both.
T-60 needs 3 of both.
Maybe there's some other power armor out there that needs even higher perk ranks...
Requiring Science! perks notably harshly restricts T-45 or better power armor maintenance to high INT characters, which is intentional.
7.2 - Constituent complexity rationale
As briefly mentioned in section 5 I consider power armor parts to be complex systems, not just plates, and repair costs are a way to depict this and justify the benefits.
Except for raider power armor, which keeps a simple cost of steel, and is easy to maintain. Because raider power armor is just basic amalgamated steel scrap. In exchange for no access to complex mods because they can't be supported, stat reduction effects on all parts due to the cumbersome dead-weight, and lower part health and resistances due to poor integration and primitive materials.
But for T-45 or better:
The core electromechanical components are needed now:
Gears, springs, screws, oil, adhesive, copper, circuitry. They are needed in increasing amounts with armor tier to represent sophistication.
More complex materials are needed to represent the armor itself, advanced armor needs advanced constituent materials, not just a few of the most basic ones:
On T-51:
Old Fallout lore vaguely explicitly described T-51 as being composed of 'poly-laminate composites' with a silver 'ablative' layer.
Ballistic fiber and plastic are used in this mod as such composite components.
Silver could also be applied to electrical system optimization which is a key part of T-51 lore.
So, T-51 now requires plastic, ballistic fiber, and silver.
Aluminium is used instead of steel - aluminium is used in the titanium plating mod and other mods that generally seem to use it as a generic light / alternative / high performance metal.
On T-45:
T-45 remains crudely based on steel.
It now requires fiberglass to represent anti-spalling/anti-fragmentation sub-layers, as steel ballistic armor needs more than just steel, and this a cruder alternative to ballistic fiber needed in better armor.
Asbestos is also used in reference to Fo3 describing recon armor as an asbestos-based underlayer to T-45, this is questionable but I wanted a rare component that didn't overlap with T-51 to spread resource costs on mixed suits (hint). You would probably want some insulation layering on a bulk-metal-based armor anyway.
On T-60:
T-60 requires significant amounts of crystal.
This is used to represent ultra-hard crystalline ceramics, analagous of modern tank armor, to disintegrate kinetic energy penetrators or shaped charge jets. T-60's slab faced and edged visual design departure from the curved strike faces of T-51 mimics the real-world developments in tank armor as hard composite armors were adopted at the end of the 20th century. Fallout is a universe with abundant depleted uranium for projectiles and man-portable gauss weaponry, surely the plastic-based armor of the T-51 could be countered, as contemporary polymeric armor relying on fiber-engagement is weak to hard armor-piercing rounds that don't deform, hence T-60 following the developments of the Anchorage theater. Crystal could represent synthetic diamonds or alumina in its sapphire form, both of which have real world application, and would fit crystal being described as a transparent optical component.
I did not want to have the option to use the basic ceramic component as an alternative, as I think it would be too easy, you won't fix tanks with kitchen crockery.
Crystal is a rare component to escalate the challenge from T-51 to T-60.
Ballistic fiber is also required again with T-60.
T-60 is obvously very hard to maintain - you might decide it's not worth it.
Asbestos is also required for all helmets, as it is used for breathing filters.
T-51 and T-60 armors also introduce rare component costs for the sophisticated torso and head parts:
Fiber-optics and crystal for helmets.
Nuclear material and gold for torsos.
So almost every component is needed, and sustaining power armor will suffocate you out of almost everything else you could spend resources on, forcing you to make hard choices or sacrifices.
The real issue is that maintaining some of the most advanced in-universe technology through constant adversity, and effective access to godmode without the console, was so trivially easy. This was the prominent complaint from most of the fallout 4 community left, who haven't really used power armor for years.
Refer to section 11 on advice for managing power armor and these how this affects the role power armor can have.
7.3 - Is it even worth it?
It might not be worth it. You might neglect settlements and force them into deprivation trying to cope with maintenance.
It might just be frivolous spending on something selfish and fleeting, or it might be a lifeline in a hostile world and the ultimate expression of playing smart and using every resource to survive.
If you want to sustain power armor you will probably find a sweet-spot of mixed armor parts and mods. Personally, I find an immaculate suit that's easily maintained boring and a suit you put a lot of thought and effort into to be more interesting and immersive as a technician-themed character.
Compromise and sacrifice if you want to sustain power armor, it can be done, see section 11 for hints and tips if you want.
8 - Reduced linings and spawns
Lining upgrades are changed by this mod.
There are overall fewer lining upgrades with this mod.
Raider armor can now be upgraded more to mk5 or E equivalent.
T-45 can be upgraded to T-45D.
T-51 can be upgraded to T-51C.
T-60 can be upgraded to T-60B.
It made more sense to me from a lore perspective that there wouldn't be 6 iterations for all suits, especially when found sitting around everywhere in untouched-since-pre-war locations.
I also think it was too easy in the base-game to upgrade T-45 to F lining which had very high resistances for almost no repair cost.
Raider power armor has MORE lining upgrades. Just like normal raider armor it can be upgraded to Welded, Tempered, Hardened, and Buttressed lining.
T-45 had a D variant in Fo3/FNV and it would make sense for it to have many upgrades to keep parity with new models as it is the oldest type.
T-51B was prevalent during the Anchorage theater shortly before the end of the war, a C variant may have been conceived following lessons learned or to keep parity with new T-60, but more than that would be odd.
T-60 was introduced just before the end of the war, however it is quite common for military technology to have new variants/upgrades designed by the time current models are rolled-out, hence it can go up to T-60B.
The higher-level linings have been removed - they will not spawn and cannot be seen in the workbench. It is probably a mod conflict if they spawn in.
From a gameplay perspective - the mods are also altered so now upgrades are compacted and do not let an armor type get better than the next one up. T-45A is only a little better than the best non-power-armor. T-45D is worse than T-51A, T-51C is worse than T-60A - because otherwise that would invalidate the repair costs increasing with better armor types. This also helps with balance as linings need to get better but not so much better that it becomes too protective for a single piece.
Lining upgrades are less important than base armor type now.
Changes to power armor tier spawns:
- You will not find the best power armors everywhere.
- T-60 is the upper limit for normal partial suits.
- T-51C is the upper limit for normal full-suit spawns.
T-51 weighs less so it is easier to loot, as it is made from less dense materials as per old lore. Consider scavenging it as an alternative to repair costs - it will be more common now.
With high repair costs introduced by this mod consider that all those power armor suits around the commonwealth have a purpose: to avoid you having to spend so many components.
Lining upgrade names have been changed for cosmetic flavour and to reflect the armor composition types conjectured in section 7.2, but the armor part naming is the same as the base-game. These names are deliberately ambiguous and should be interpreted loosely.
9 - Other miscellaneous changes
Helmet spotlights have had their range increased and fall-off decreased and the angle of the beam has been slightly decreased. The power armor spotlights lets you see much farther but in a narrow beam.
This is notably the opposite to the pip-boy light - that is omni-directional but short range.
This contrast is partly just for the sake of contrast but also because I think it's thematically appropriate to miss things out of the corner of your eye and feel a bit less situationally aware in power armor.
They will now cast shadows as it's 2023.
They will help more to see with dark lighting/enviornment mods that seem to be very popular.
The bright headlamp now shines even further than the normal headlamps.
Fusion core drain rate per second running has been decreased slightly from 0.05 to 0.04.
Jumping, melee attacking, and impact landing now slightly drains the power armor fusion core.
The amount of drain for each is 0.1 or equivalent to 2.5 seconds of running.
Fusion core drain per spent action point has been decreased from 0.05 to 0.02.
This means baseline VATS and sprinting drains the core less.
However note that armor parts modify action point costs - noted in their legendary description text - which significantly modifies this.
T-51 can sprint for much farther for much less core drain and AP cost than T-45, for example.
Part health and scaling has changed. Lining mods increase part health by 10 per lining upgrade. Parts cannot be upgraded to have more health than the next armor tier. For example, T-45A limbs start at 100 health, and increase up to 130 health with T-45D, and basic T-51A starts at 140 health. This is a big change since version 1.4 - higher level armors last much longer.
Part damage rate has been reduced. Down to 30% for the player. Down to 50% for NPCs. (Note that in the base-game the player was at 100% and NPCs at 300% - so power armor will last relatively longer and NPCs take relatively less damage to power armor but also note some NPCs levelled lists spawn with half-health armor). So parts effectively have much more health than stated relative to the base-game and power armor enemies are much more dreadful to fight - this was done to make power feel like less of a rip-off to maintain - I also think players modding Fo4 are more often using mods that intensify combat nowadays.
Armor weights have been increased. T-51 is notably lighter to reflect its lore on lighter constituent materials and ergonomic design focus. Consider looting it in particular to save on repairs.
Unarmed power armor base damage increased to 15 (up from 10). It is inherently better than unarmed without power armor now. Combined with armor part effects unarmed can deal very high damage.
Raider power armor cannot accept misc. mods - this is to reflect its primitivity as it is just metal plating without any complex systems like auxilliary mechatronics - it is just a lot of dead weight. It has easy repair costs to balance this. It would be too easy to give it every mod feature and no real resource cost. Raider armor serves a role of easy access to the frame benefits or filling in for better parts you won't fix. There's nothing wrong with using it or some mixed parts of it in the late-game.
Legs and torsos have extra mod slots.
Legs now have an external mod slot for explosive vents or pockets for carry weight. You can now have servos and external leg mods on the same leg.
Torsos now have a new back slot for a jetpack, stealth boy, or extra carry weight. You can now have a back mod and the normal torso misc. mods on the same torso.
The optimized leg mod was removed - AP drain on varies with legs armor part tier, indicated in the legendary description text.
The power armor frame now reduces sprint AP cost by 40%.
T-45 parts have new mods available to reduce their fusion core drain rate. These are not available on other armor types - they are supposed to represent bringing T-45 mechatronics up to par with the more sophisticated armor types.
Overdrive servos have been renamed to 'Delimited tuned servos' and now increase jump height in addition to sprint speed. They generally serve a purpose to overcome movement restriction and improve it in power armor. One of these mods will allow you to jump over waist-high picket fences, two will allow you to jump over head-high chain link fences. It's important to note this also adds a lot of defensive value.
Calibrated shocks have been renamed to 'Ancillary hydraulic servos'. They have the same effect. They're very useful for looting scrap to maintain repair costs.
Arm mods from the base game have been removed because I didn't like them - you can only attach the two new mods for improved gun-based combat or melee-based combat, shown above, which simply and wholly cover all key combat mechanics. I did not believe so many misc mods for unarmed combat was useful, especially as you cannot select unarmed by hotkey so nobody uses it - the new melee oriented mod covers unarmed combat. The optimized arm mod effect has been made an intrinsic property of T-51 with AP drain rates modified by arm parts that vary by armor tier.
T-60 tesla and overboss power armor have had mod access restricted.
- T-60 Tesla arms have the tesla bracers effect built-in with other mods disabled, in addition to the normal energy damage bonus.
- T-60 Tesla torso has the tesla coils torso misc mod effect built-in with other mods disabled, in addition to the normal energy damage bonus.
- Overboss torso has the tesla coils torso misc mod effect built-in.
- Overboss armor cannot be modded with misc mods similarly to raider power armor.
The tesla coils torso mod has been removed - it is now an intrinsic property of T-60 Tesla and Overboss armor only. I felt it was too powerful and it made the tesla and overboss armor more unique this way.
The unique corporate livery suits in the DLC now spawn with some mods to make them more interesting and valuable.
Jet pack function has been significantly changed. Jet packs now have no initial velocity, and their sustained thrust is now slightly over the critical threshold to accelerate upwards. When you first activate a jet pack you will barely move and will slowly build up speed. You can get much higher but can't use it to quickly evade enemies. It is less like a double jump and more like a steady rocket thruster on a heavy physics object.
Downward velocity threshold for triggering an impact landing is slightly increased and equalised between 1st and 3rd person. You will need to fall from a greater height to trigger it. Now that explosive impact landing is manually triggered from any height it is less important for the impact landing fall height threshold to be accessible.
Impact landing without explosives now has a much reduced radius and effect. You need to use the new explosive vents and spend your mines to get much use out of it. Explosive landings will not trigger without explosive vents loaded with mines.
Fusion cores won't spawn in as-high quantities. Some levelled item entries are edited - but not enemy forms themselves to avoid incompatibility. The fusion core drop lists for automatron bots, which make up near-half of random encounters when the DLC starts, for example, don't drop multiple cores now.
Rusty textures are removed except for T-45.
In the base-game, all power armors had a rusty texture except for T-51. Some people thought this was an oversight or bug. It is stated in old lore that T-51 had a silver lining, this might be why it's the only power armor without a rusty texture on the base lining. I would imagine T-60 and X-01 would not have rust-susceptible outer layers as well.
10 - X-01, or lack thereof
You will not find X-01 around with the main mod file installed.
There wasn't a lore justification for its prevalence in the base-game. It could spawn in many places from as early as level 28, but with this mod it won't spawn in the Commonwealth at all.
There is an optional download to re-integrate X-01 spawns in a more immersive and challenging way. See section 14 for details on the optional download.
There is only one instance in-game of X-01 being explicitly referenced: Project Cobalt.
This should be the only definite place to find X-01. If you use the optional mod there are more sources.
Getting it is a hard challenge at the end of the game, so it feels more like a rare easter egg and reward rather than another choice of armor.
10.1 - X-01, not T-01
The Fallout Bible suggests some early enclave armor was actually worse than pre-war armor.
I do not consider X-01 to be Advanced Power Armor from Fallout 2 or Enclave Power Armor from Fo3 (which was worse than T-51b).
I prefer the idea that X-01 was a radical but unrealized prototype that was drastically different and superior to others, and that's elaborated on a bit in Fo76. I've implemented that by giving it absurd benefits on each part. For example, the arms have effects of both mod types detailed in sections 1 and 2 built-in. It is drastically different to the other armors, it's not just higher protective values.
But you probably won't maintain the repair costs, which are ridiculous and meant to stop you. If you did it sustain X-01 it would ruin the game by its sheer power, but that's a core part of its identity, it puts the fun in functionality.
11 - Changes in context
Power armor provides new offensive and utility mechanics in direct real-time gameplay to feel more tangibly like power armor. You should feel like you are not so much playing by new rules, but also breaking or removing rules and constraints, like a kind of power-up mode.
But more importantly it is harder to access the benefits. Most players haven't touched power armor for years because it felt like cheating. As mentioned in Section 7: power armor is a peripheral part of the game, and you don't really need to use it, and it would ruin the game if it were too easy. You must comprehensively and continously leverage Fallout 4's resource gathering and crafting core-game elements against the combat ones. Not all players will like this.
The most important part of this mod is the repair requirements - all armor stats and effects, and reduced/narrowed lining upgrades, revolve around the repair costs. This brings the resource gathering aspect of the game into a new light, and I even think it complements the settlement building aspects of the game, as it's easy to reach a stable point with all needs met too soon and the new choice between settlement building and power armor maintenance is my idea of good gameplay.
This mod probably makes your ideal suit of power armor inaccessible, but I think that's a good thing, actually. I don't think power armor should've been so accessible in the first place, and that you should have to sacrifice and compromise to use it, or forego it almost entirely. If you really want to sustain power armor you can, you just need to get creative and accept you can't easily have the best suit. You'll have to spend a lot of caps on component shipments every once in a while for the best armor. You can build a sentry automatron to be your pack mule and carry hundreds of pounds in junk. You can set up scavenging stations for passive junk income. You need to be resourceful.
As in real life, it's easier to get something new than fix something broken, excessive power armor in the open world should be less obtuse and more useful as an alternative to harsh repair costs.
This mod was made with survival mode in-mind, wherein base carryweight is reduced and ammo has weight, power armor might be a bit too easy to maintain on non-survival mode.
If you're the type of player who likes resource gathering, steady exploring, and stumbling on Bethesda's trademark environmental storytelling, then you might enjoy this mod and its incentive to search locations through the whole game.
Don't take power armor as permission to fight like an idiot - repair costs are as severe as medicine costs now. You've probably realised this mod is trying to make power armor an offensive and utility tool as much as a defensive one.
Below is a section on tips on sustaining power armor constantly, which is inadvisable. You don't need to read it. I have hidden it behind a spolier tag as it is just game tips you may not want or need. You absolutely can sustain power armor, if you adjust how you play.
Spoiler:
Show
11.1 - Sustaining power armor
It should be hard. But if you really want to, you will figure something out. It's not for everybody, and trying could make your game miserable. So don't get hung up on it and remember that you don't ever really NEED it.
Firstly, don't expect to regularly use power armor without a specific build and playstyle. You should be role-playing a vacuum cleaner as much as a technician/scientist type. You will need to be resourceful yourself, not just playing a high INT character. You will have to take non-combat-oriented perks and use power armor to compensate for not building your perks directly for combat.
Consider looting parts as an alternative to repair costs. T-51 is notably lighter than other types due to less-dense constituent materials and it will be more common now. There are suits scattered all over the commonwealth, carry a spare core and use them.
It's quite normal that you accumulate a lot of excess caps and medicine/chems by mid-game, especially if you use power armor with damage reduction and carryweight bonuses. Caps should be spent on components. You will have to buy ballisitic fiber shipments for more advanced armor.
Re-evaluate components as your new sustenance, and you should be open to buying shipments for the more advanced armor and not just picking things up.
Settlements begin as a resource-sink, but turn into an asset: You can make scavenging stations and eyebot pods set to search for specific rare components, and you can sell expensive produce.
As it is almost practically impossible to maintain higher-tier armor, T-45 becomes the go-to power armor for much of the game, and it is very effective until end-game if upgraded. But T-45 has high fusion core costs instead of high repair costs.
You are almost forced to take a high INT Nuclear Physicist build to regularly use power armor from early on, and Nuclear Physicist is important for sustaining modded power armor with higher drain later on after you build up cores.
The scrapper perk is important as mid-late-game enemies have heavily modified armor and weapons, which are a great source of a wide range of components. Look for the name descriptors of specific high-tier mods to know which items to loot and scrap.
Don't be put off by raider armor's stat reduction and mod restriction - it serves a very important role as cheap access for power
armor body coverage. You really don't need to have the best, shiniest, and flashiest suit.
You will only really suffer when trying to maintain the best armors with maximum mods applied. It might be a good idea to have a low level area scavenging suit and a late-game area heavy-combat suit. Moderation is key.
Spoiler tips below.
In early-game:
You will want a SPECIAL and perk build focusing on Intelligence and Strength.
Don't make the mistake of fixing the Concord museum power armor when you get back to Sanctuary. You need to use your components to build up a power base first, you will need settlers to work for crafting adhesive and oil, to farm an excess of purified water to sell for caps, and for scavenging stations for more component income.
When Preston sends you to Tenpines bluff, pass by the robotics disposal ground and get the fusion cores.
Grab crops from Tenpines bluff to make a vegetable starch farm for adhesive. However, Tatos are the first food consumed by settlers, so early on, save Tatos to plant an excess of them to cover settler numbers, then afterwards use them for vegetable starch.
Grab as many junk items with bone as you can to craft cutting fluid for oil.
Go slightly further east to outpost Zimonja and get raider power armor parts from Boomer. He only has a helmet and arms, but that's all you need.
Grab the suit by the downed vertibird at the far north of the map, northeast of the robotics diposal ground and northwest of satellite station Olivia on your way back.
Use T-45 torso and legs with raider arms and helmet for a good mix of benefits and resource cost early-game.
Do not use mods on the parts until later.
Get nuclear physicist to cope with new core drain costs.
Save power armor for your first big raid like the Corvega assembly plant.
Loot everything when you use power armor to cope with repair costs. The powered frame provides +5 STR which gives +50 carryweight, T-45 torso and legs provide +60, and you should get strong back if you can.
Set up supply lines between settlements.
In mid-late-game:
Occassionally buy shipments of ballistic fiber and maybe others, you should have a lot of caps saved up by mid-game, especially if you save on medicine/chems, farm purified water, and use the power armor carryweight to loot a lot of items.
Get all ranks of the scrapper perk and use it on looted weapons and armor - look for mod name descriptors on modified weapons and armor that higher level enemies drop - this is a great source of core components and even rare ones like ballistic fiber on some torso mods.
You should meet a settlement's basic needs then build scavenging stations for passive component income.
Consider building a sentry bot automatron to be a pack mule for you, or give companions pocketed armor.
You can find jury-rigged eyebot pods as a random encounter from the automatron DLC, or you can search the mechanist's lair for the schematics to build them in your settlements. These eyebots can search for specific components, even rare ones like ballistic fiber.
Use a mixed suit to save on repair costs - T-60 torso, T-51 legs, T-45 arms, and T-45 helmet provide a good balance of effects with low resource costs.
High ranks of the Nuclear Physicist perk should enable you to use a fully-modified suit regularly.
12 - Usage details - IMPORTANT
I strongly recommend you do not use this mod on an existing save. It edits game settings, it could cause issues with some scripts and effects dissociated with base objects, and it changes armor and attached mods that may have already spawned in your game.
This will be incompatible with mods that edit:
- power armor frames
- power armor parts and objectmods
- power armor perk
- power armor workbenches
- power armor levelled items
It should not break custom power armor, the frame effects should remain, but custom armor will not have the effects and modifications added in this mod.
The main file contains:
- ESP flagged as an ESL, named ActualizedPA
- Scripts folder, contains 3 .pex scripts and also a file path to user .psc files if you want to access them
- meshes folder, contains a filepath for character animations, they are empty folders there for a file path for the additive race so they won't overwrite things, the only actual .hkx files are in the new file path for faster animations.
If this mod makes maintaining and repairing power armor too hard for you, maybe if you're playing on a hardcore playlist, see the following game settings and edit them in Fo4edit:
fPowerArmorPCArmorDamageMultiplier - this is how fast your armor is damaged, this mod sets it to 0.3 (base-game is 1.0)
fPowerArmorNPCArmorDamageMultiplier - this is how fast NPC armor is damaged, this mod sets it to 0.5 (base-game is 3.0)
If fast travel fusion core drain is too high for your liking, the formula for calculating it is a product of a global variable you can edit in Fo4edit, make sure it updates in the console too with get and set commands though:
PowerArmorExoFusionCoreFastTravelDrainConstantFactor, form ID is xx000038, - default value is 60,000.
In the console you could type,
set PowerArmorExoFusionCoreFastTravelDrainConstantFactor to 30000
This would reduce the fast travel drain by 50%.
If you don't like the high repair costs; I don't plan on reducing the extreme repair costs, this will probably be the main gripe for most people, it's supposed to restrict you but if you'd rather separate work and play I encourage you to remove or tweak the records in Fo4edit or the Fo4 Creation Kit.
Check the category for 'Constructible Objects'.
All the entries beginning with co_Armor_Power_ are the costs to repair power armor and are listed by body part. The DLC power armors start with co_DLC0x_Armor_Power_ where X is the DLC number.
You can simply right click and remove the record changes in Fo4edit and go back to having fun without having headaches.
12.1 - Shortcomings, inner workings, and 'features'
Power armor has some 'features'. This mod also has some 'features'.
The effects on gun handling are managed by using a script to attach an invisible objectmod to a gun which has recoil reducing effects, like you would at a workbench with a normal mod attachment. It leaves the attach point as a null value to universally attach to any weapon (unironically thanks Todd) but if some other mod uses this technique it will conflict and remove it. When you equip a weapon it will check if a mod needs to be added or removed, depending on whether you are in power armor, have modded arms, or if you are outside of power armor. This might result in an extra equip sound when the weapon is equipped for the first time, but not again after that, it should be fast enough to not be noticeable, this is because a weapon needs to have its mesh reloaded to apply the effect. Unfortunately this reloads the gun, but you'd only notice that once when entering or exiting power armor. This is a player-only effect. If multiple weapons of the same type are in your inventory, the script has to do a different operation; as you cannot attach mods to a weapon if multiple of it exist in a container (the player is a container) the script will have to rapidly remove and re-add all weapons of the same base object type, this may interfere with favourites selection if you have favourited multiple weapons of the same base weapon, but I think most players won't.
The effects on melee attack speed are managed by using a script to switch 1st person animations to new copied and edited animation meshes that are referenced in a new additive race subgraph depending on actor keywords also attached by script. This is because Fallout 4 does not not have melee attack speed accessible like previous games. So a workaround is needed. I did this as the alternative was modifying the animationmult actor value but that intereferes with other animations. I have not done this for animations in 3rd person, because I couldn't be bothered, and because it would be ridiculous for enemies to have these benefits, and for a few reasons I don't recommend using 3rd person in power armor in general, detailed below. So while this mod fixes the discrepancy for the power armor frame between 1st and 3rd person it introduces a new discrepancy if you put mods on, just don't attach the arm mods and you won't be exposed to it. The melee attack speed effects will not be compatible with custom melee animations, as this mod only has alternate base-game sped-up versions.
Some negative SPECIAL stat effects don't read properly in the stats readout for armor parts. For example, T-45 torsos reduce AGI by 2 like in Fo3, but it doesn't read as negative in the stats display. This is because the game UI can read magnitude of enchantment effects but can't read if they are flagged as detrimental to reduce rather than add, and you can't set negative magnitude to get around that. If you alternatively tried to use the vaActorValues OMOD effect it will read correctly in the stats but negative values don't apply properly and -2 can result in -200 if you look up your stats. So SPECIAL effects can be misleading under the resistances and stat display, but check your character status in the pip-boy and you will notice the SPECIAL effects are applying properly. This is different to the negative fusion core drain rate entries because they're actually just unused dummy values for displaying integers because the real battery drain rate actor value modifiers are small decimal values that can't be displayed in the UI - drain rate effects are handled by separate hidden enchantment effects. Read the descriptions on each part as they are correct and clearly detail exactly what a part does.
In order to spoof perk requirements displayed in the crafting requirements list I edited the workbenches for power armor to use a different power armor workbench script. This will be incompatible with mod-added workbenches, as it will say you don't have the perks when you do. This is because perk requirements can't be displayed in the UI for repairs, so I got around it by adding a replacement script that adds fake perk tokens, listed as crafting materials, when you enter a workbench before it combines your inventory with the local workshop, and then removes them when you exit so you don't notice.
There are no 3d visual assets for the 'backpack' torso mod or 'thigh pocket' leg mod, sorry.
3rd person in the base-game is missing sideways melee attack animations in power armor. They exist in the meshes folder but don't seem to be used, and I haven't checked if they even work. If you are moving sideways in power armor in 3rd person and melee attack you just use the forward attack animations. This is annoying because movement control is essential in melee and you lunge forward several steps in the second forward melee attack chain animation. Also, in general, stagger is worse in 3rd person because small magnitude stagger locks movement in 3rd person, but in 1st person you can still move, the camera just tilts.
3rd person sprint does not consider changes to movement speed, overdrive servos were bugged in 3rd person and had no effect. This mod might make it worse as it also adds movement speed bonuses to armor parts that work in 3rd person running but not sprinting, so sprinting in T-51 in 3rd person barely changes movement speed. Might be fixable using a similar technique as the melee animations but I couldn't be bothered to try.
Many mod-added weapons with custom animations don't have 3rd person power armor animations. They should for 1st person as the power armor animations are often actually the same as non-power armor, just a floating camera with arms.
So generally I recommend you don't use 3rd person in power armor.
Optional stuff
These are small optional mods, not part of the main download.
These are mods that compliment the main file and associated themes.
Asks in the Posts section if you want to suggest something.
13 - Heavy heavy weapons
These are some optional files to tweak heavy weapons. Search for 'HHW' under optional files.
You may have made the mistake of using the minigun past level 10, hoping to relive the Concord museum rooftop thrill. You will have no doubt noticed,
Non-explosive heavy weapons are the worst weapons in the game!
Usually when you see an enemy with a missile launcher or fatman you run for cover, but there is no such paint-soiling response inspired by other non-explosive heavy weapons, they mostly just tickle. This is principally to do with low base damage versus damage resistance, elaborated later.
I do not believe heavy weapons should be balanced as just another weapon option, they should instead be much more powerful. In exchange for reducing movement speed, heavy weight, rare ammo, but also by other core mechanical nerfs like minigun slow spin-up time or limited flamer range, like how launcher-type weapons have low projectile speed - they have an associated gimmick.
As heavy weapons are thematically appropriate for power armor, and this mod adds some synergy with movement speed and carry weight, I have added some small ESL-flagged ESPs to edit non-explosive heavy weapons to be more powerful to compliment the rest of this mod.
With these sub-mods:
- Now when you meet any kind of heavy weapon you should move to cover or target that enemy first. You will be thankful for minigun spin-up time or flamer range as you were thankful for low projectile speed on missile launchers and fatmans, because non-explosive weapons will also kill you just as fast, even with power armor.
- From the beginning to the end of the game heavy weapons are extremely powerful before considering upgrades, for both you and enemies. You should take them every once in a while, ideally with power armor, for the occassional big dungeon.
There are files for the Minigun, Flamer, Gatling Laser, and 'Assault Rifle'.
Above all, you should be open to tweaking damage values in Fo4Edit yourself as everybody has a different idea of balance, damage values are all over the place in the base game, and I deliberately made these weapons 'unbalanced'.
13.1 - Minigun
The problem with the minigun is its low base damage and how that scales with damage resistance, it's probably the best example of this. Fallout 4 has a problem with enemy scaling and bullet-sponginess, but that's not just hitpoints increasing: damage resistance has generally been treated as a second health stat, and DR scales massively with each levelled variant of NPC type, even if they look identical.
The minigun was doing around 2 damage per shot to everything since around level 20 because of how DR works - levelled enemies have intrinsic bloated DR, as well as bloated health, way higher than the minigun's low base damage. It isn't even particularly good during that concord museum opening sequence, and is practically tickling enemies to death ever since that, taking over 100 bullets to kill a lvl 26 bloodbug variant, before you even consider how many shots you will miss.
Fallout New Vegas got around this with damage threshold reduction to simulate armor penetration bonuses on the basic 5mm ammo type, not even just on the specialised 5mm AP ammo sub-type which had even more. The lore on 5mm rounds is that they were high-velocity rifle-profile bullets that were cheap for high volume fire, and even in FO4 the recipe for making 5mm rounds requires steel but not lead, they are not conventional soft-metal rounds that mushroom-out. They are lethal from sustained fire not individual effect, and they have limited anti-armor ability due to being steel-based.
In addition to this, the minigun clearly has a full-size barrel so I would expect it to have a particularly high muzzle velocity which would aid with armor penetration.
Generally, it's not meant to be damage-balanced against other weapons, it's meant to be a minigun. While you get it from early on, you can't easily use it, so I don't think it's too outrageous.
The following changes are made:
- Damage increased to 16 (doubled from 8).
- Doubled base fire rate to 544. (You will need to maintain 55fps as fire rate is capped by fps.)
- Increased weight (up from 18 to 45lbs, 250% of original).
- Reduced reload speed.
- Doubled ammo capacity to 1000.
- All barrels have a standard armor penetration effect (because long-barrel and 5mm lore) and a new bonus limb damage effect (to make it feel like enemies wither under sheer sustained fire even if base-damage is low).
- 5mm ammo weight increased to 0.017lbs (Fallout 4 basegame was 0.008, FNV was 0.017, a scaled down but proportional 5.56 0.035lbs round would be around 0.02. Given the ammo crafting recipe in Fo4 using steel and not lead it would be slightly lighter than 0.02, this was probably why it was 0.017 in FNV - this would offer a reason why standard 5mm had inherent armor penetration in FNV and affirms its status as a cheaply made steel-based round for high volume use).
- Changed barrel mods. The minigun is good from early to late-game without mods now. The mods are refocused for alternative ammo usage, not just damage output.
- Accelerrated barrel is now a 5.56mm barrel rechamber - deals 24 damage (+50% base damage) at same fire rate of 544, with 800 round capacity. The barrel model is slightly girthier anyway.
- Tri-barrel is now a .308 barrel rechamber - deals 36 damage (+125% base damage, or 50% above 5.56) at a halved fire rate of 272 due to halved barrel count, with 500 round capacity.
- Only the standard 5mm barrel is in the objectmod modcol that will determine which mods spawn on enemies' miniguns. You must craft other barrel types. This is to stop you from dying too fast and to keep a source of rare 5mm ammo.
- Changed 5.56 ammo levelled item drop used by sentry bots to 5mm. Sentry bots are a new source of the rare 5mm ammo now. I think sentry bot miniguns using 5mm makes sense and helps justify the low base damage of the standard sentry bot gun. Also, given the prevalence of modded 5.56mm rifle mods available you will need sources of 5mm more than 5.56mm with a modded load order. 5mm amounts dropped from sentry bots is increased.
- Changed vertibird minigun weapons. They now match normal minigun fire rate (doubled). NPC vertibird miniguns did a measly 5 damage per shot which has been raised to 16 - that's why the primary weapon of vertibirds was crashing. They may actually inspire the dread air support should now.
13.2 - Flamer
The flamer is relatively weak. A 10mm pistol with just an automatic receiver did 17% more damage per shot at a 40% higher fire rate for about 64% higher dps before damage resistance. The standard submachine gun also had about 17% higher dps before damage resistance than the standard flamer. Which is pretty emasculating for a supposedly heavy weapon.
The base-game flamer damage over time effects do not stack. This is the key problem. Non-stacking damage-over-time effects are practically useless on automatic weapons, and damage over time should be a defining trait of this weapon.
Additionally the low base damage of damage over time effects (magnitude of damage over time spell effect is written as the damage per second, not the total) means that very little damage is dealt over time as the low damage per second value is compared to energy resist.
This mod gives it damage over time effects that stack, similar to the wounding legendary effect, but actually considers energy resist unlike the wounding effect so its not nearly as powerful. If an actor is hit more, they take more damage over time. Stay away from a flamer. Sustained fire can quickly damn an enemy, consider trying to retreat away or switch targets early.
- Mods affect projectile behaviour. The standard and compression nozzle now fire moving and arcing projectiles rather than instant hit-scan damage. You will want to dodge these projectiles. This is the key balance element of the Flamer - it is short range and can be dodged to avoid taking huge damage. The vaporising nozzle retains its instant hitscan type damage application, but it has much-reduced range.
- Base damage tripled to 27 (up from 9).
- Standard tank deals stacking 12 damage every second for 4 seconds.
- Napalm tank deals stacking 12 damage every second for 6 seconds.
- Fire rate increased by 25%.
- Range has been multiplied by 2.5 for all nozzle types and now have a mid-range point at which they deal reduced damage, like other guns. Flamethrowers having a tiny effective range is a common misconception, often propagated by videogames trying to balance them.
- Standard and compression nozzle projectiles now fly and arc. Vaporisation nozzle retains its hitscan flame type projectile data.
- Base weight is doubled to 30lbs (up from 15) - but mods can make it a lot heavier. For comparison, portable backpack flamethrower systems in WW2 were about 40lbs empty and 60lbs filled, so the one in vanilla fallout 4 was very light. It doesn't have a backpack but it does have fuel tanks attached.
- Reload speed slightly decreased.
13.3 - Gatling Laser
The gatling laser was good in the vanilla game but I didn't think it was good enough for a late-game and impractical heavy weapon that uses such expensive ammo. An upgraded gatling laser is probably the best weapon in the game with this mod, arguably it should be anyway.
- Damage increased to 26 per shot (up from 14). Equivalent to a laser gun with a long barrel, which the gatling laser barrel visually resembles.
- Fire rate increased to 363 (33% increase) on standard barrel.
- Fire rate increased to 272 (old base fire rate) on charging barrel.
- Charging barrel increases damage by 25% (base-game quadrupled damage which I thought was excessive). Consider ammo efficiency per shot, armor pen vs base damage etc as balancing factors.
- Base weight tripled to 54lbs. It looks massive and also because fusion cores are a very weight-efficient ammo type and this counters it.
- Improved accuracy.
13.4 - 'Assault Rifle' / Machine Gun
It's not technically a heavy weapon, but it was originally one of the first few assets for Fo4 made alongside a redesigned power armor (a new take on T-45 that would later become T-60), and it was conceptualised as a gun that would "look right in the power armor's oversized hands", there is even a leftover script and quest fragment in the game files suggesting you were supposed to get this gun instead of the minigun for the concord museum sequence where you first get power armor.
Several of its unusual design features like the bulky build and cooled barrel make more sense in light of that. It could have it's unusual air/water cooling jacket over the barrel because power armor hands might be too clumsly to do the dextrous work of swapping out an overheated barrel and maintaining the operation, or maybe the gun itself is actually armor plated for use under heavy fire. It also uniquely doesn't need the charging handle pulled in its animations, so maybe it's a kind of motorised chaingun for the same reason.
Additionally there are a lot of great 5.56 assault rifle mods available which leaves the vanilla assault rifle obselete and oddly named, so this is also for people who have a lot of weapon mods and no use for the assault rifle. It's actually called the Machine Gun in some game files anyway, and it was probably supposed to remain that way if the cut assault rifles weren't removed from the game.
This is meant to be a powerful but impractical weapon fit for power armored troops. There are many versatile, tactical, and extensible assault rifles available in popular mods, this isn't one of them.
- Name changed to Machine Gun.
- Rechambered to .308. Seemed appropriate. Also there are fewer semi/full auto .308 guns from popular mods so it fills this role better. It spawns with a new levelled item for .308 rounds, which results in more ammo being dropped by enemies than other .308 weapons like hunting rifles.
- Damage increased to 36 (up 20% from 30). This does not seem like much but it's hard to balance with other .308 weapons. You should probably tweak it in fo4edit to fit.
(The root of several gun balance issues is the hunting rifle damage is too low and so it's hard to objectively balance rifle rounds - it's lower than the upgraded .44 pistol even with a .50 receiver and the most powerful .308 hunting rifle receiver is lower than the faster semi-auto combat rifle .308 receiver. Again, you should probably tweak it in Fo4edit to fit yourself.)
- Semi-auto receiver fire rate increased by 25%. Automatic receiver fire rate increased by 40%. More MG34 than M60.
- Recoil values increased and recoil direction arc narrowed.
- Reload time increased by 25%.
- 50% heavier. Real .308 machine guns are around twice as heavy as a standard assault rifle in-game and a few pounds heavier than a fully upgraded assault rifle in-game. But then this gun seemingly has a water-cooled barrel and a very bulky design on top of that.
14 - Nuka-World power armor spawn changes and immersive X-01 hunting
This optional download changes power armor spawned in Nuka-World. Search for 'NukaWorld power armor spawn changes' under optional files.
Notably, this is a new way to find X-01 armor.
This does not affect the unique X-01 quantum suit or the full T-51 Nuka Cola livery suit.
Now the power armor spawned in Nuka-World, whether left unused or worn by enemies will spawn with a new set of rules for parts.
A new levelled item rolls to determine each power armor part on the frame, it goes as follows:
- 20% chance for a part to be X-01
- if not above, 40% chance for a part to be modded Nuka Cola paint T-51C.
- if not above, 60% chance for a part to be plain T-51.
- if not above, 80% chance for a part to be raider mk2.
- if none of the above, part will be half-damaged plain raider.
So suits in Nuka-World are a hectic mashup of parts. These suits are de-leveled, they will be the same at lvl 1 as at lvl 100.
To explain why this is,
- A loading screen in Fo4 states that the Nuka Cola company had a 'formidable security force' and access to military technology thanks to Nuka-World's sponsorship by the US military, this loading screen shows the T-51 in Nuka Cola livery, and explains its origins. So, the Nuka Cola painted T-51C modded parts that spawn in this mod are leftovers of the original 'security' unit. The plain T-51 parts that spawn represent degraded and badly maintained parts of the original unit. I've embraced this lore tidbit but I know many people hate it. I actually like this lore - I think it's a mistake to conflate what's realistic with what's immersive - of course the satirical McCarthyist-corporatist-caricature universe of Fallout has a soda company with a private supersoldier division.
- Project Cobalt is described in terminals as a research initiative in Nuka-world and at some point 'quantum' technology was used to 'enhance' one of the military's power armor suits, which seems to be the Quantum X-01 armor. This arguably contravenes the loading screen in the base-game saying X-01 was engineered post-war. So, the X-01 parts put in by this mod could be interpreted as a few leftover parts supplied as part of the project, not the final quantum armor product, and they somehow got around over the years.
- And the raider parts are parts improvised by locals since then as other parts were lost.
I consider this a somewhat lore-aligned way to reintegrate X-01. Above all, remember that while lore needn't be realistic it should be consistent, and lore on power armor has been about as stable as enriched uranium, so don't get too worked up and personally invested because even the devs make exceptions.
- Additionally, X-01 can be found in the Nukacade prize list.
X-01 is not guaranteed to be in any of these places, it will only have a chance to be there. You have a good chance of finding a single X-01 part on each suit, you might find 3 at once or none, though.
You will have to scavenge around Nukaworld to get a set of X-01, it is supposed to be a challenge.
This is how you can get X-01 in this mod, I think it's a bit more immersive and fun than seeing it everywhere past level 30.
This involves some edits to a couple of NPCs and cells/worldspaces in Nuka-world to make this specific new power armor furniture spawn. This mod is optional partly because of this. It won't break precombines. If you have mods that affect Nuka-world too then you should check it for conflicts or adjust load order - I don't think it's particularly offensive.
15 - Lower RADs with sealed suit
There is an optional file to change the sealed suit multiplier on incoming RADs down to 20%. See under optional downloads, download is called 'Lower RADs with sealed suit'.
This has been changed as of 22/04/23 - this optional file no longer changes armor values - it just affects the sealed suit multiplier - the changes to RAD resistances have been put into the main file.
I have taken a harsh approach to reducing RAD resistance, this optional download can make RADs more tolerable.
Admittedly low RAD resistance doesn't work well with the base-game power armor HUD because the RAD counter is made more sensitive for the same radiation hazards, but it is actually not as bad as it seems, the health bar is consumed at the same rate even if it reads higher in the sensitive power armor HUD than if you were outside power armor - the power armor HUD has been designed for the 1000+ RR and 84% rad reduction of a full suit in the base-game, which is extreme.
This optional file makes the incoming RAD multiplier on a sealed suit go down from 0.4 to 0.2.
You still need to keep a sealed suit for good RAD reduction - I still think making it dependent on a full suit is a good idea.
You could think of it as the RAD counter in PA is made more sensitive as it's made for a sealed suit, and as soon as it is breached incoming RADs go well above what it is designed for.
16 - No repair cost alternative
There are two optional files to have all features of this mod except for the repair costs. I recommend you keep the main file's repair costs as they are the primary balance factor, but maybe you'd rather just have fun. If you want to get rid of repair costs read below.
There are two optional files to avoid repair cost changes.
One optional file is a replacer that can be switched with the main file.
One optional file is an alternative that can be downloaded for everything except repair costs but should not be switched out in an existing save.
Do not combine these optional mods with the main file or you will still have repair costs.
IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND AND SWITCH BETWEEN THIS FILE AND THE MAIN FILE YOU COULD CAUSE BUGS. But you can avoid them.
In order to fake perk requirements being displayed on the repair costs screen I edited the power armor workbench forms - I replaced a script on the power armor workbench, as you can't normally display perks for repair costs. If you remove the mod in a save-game the script on workbenches that exist in your save will be bugged. Newly made workbenches or newly spawned ones will be okay but you'll still have bugged scripts in your save file. This is the biggest reason you shouldn't use the main file on an existing save with existing workbenches, and should start a new game. It is generally good advice to avoid uninstalling files with scripts unless you know exactly what you're doing.
There is one optional file with the same .esp name and scripts as the main file - this can be used to overwrite the main file and switch out repair costs or put them back in as you see fit. This keeps the workbench script to avoid bugs so you still need to avoid uninstalling entirely but you can switch between the main file and this one safely. This file is called 'No Repair cost replacer WITH Script'.
There is another optional file with a different .esp name and no workbench script - this does everything the main file does except no repair cost changes and no workbench script change. Use this one if you are sure you'll never want repair costs changed and don't want conflicts with other mods that add new types of workbenches etc. Do not switch between this file and the others. This file is called 'No Repair Cost alternative - No WB Script'.
17 - Third-party power armor patches
There are patches available for two third party power armors. T-65 and Excavator Power Armor.
These two armors add a suitable tier in between other armors in the base-game and I highly recommend you use them with this mod. They integrate well with the effects of this mod.
17.1 - T-65 Power armor
This patch is based on, and requires:
- T 65 Power Armor (ESL version) by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima
and
- T 65 Power Armor - East Brotherhood of Steel Paint by pinedog
You need both for this patch to work properly.
There are a number of changes:
T-65 is removed from normal power armor spawns - you will not find it around the commonwealth. T-65 is a challenge to obtain.
The static power armor underwater near the castle is replaced with a damaged but modified set of Minutemen T-45 Power Armor. - it's still a good idea to get it - especially if you're there to retake the castle with the Minutemen.
There are only a few places you can get T-65:
- There are two hidden suits in secret locations that agents may have conceivably left them. One is in Boston guarded by newly buffed robots. One is in the glowing sea. These suits are already modified.
- There are parts for a third suit split between three power armored gunner bosses occupying Quincy. The fight there will be much more difficult now.
- A faction leader wears T-65 in their faction colours - to help distinguish them and befitting their higher station.
T-65 armor parts have the best effects of T-51 and T-60 combined.
T-65 is between T-60 and X-01 in armor values and repair cost.
I envisioned T-65 to be a suit made proprietarily on a small scale for elite federal agents - with no expense spared and the best elements of T-51 and T-60 combined together, unlike the mass-produced suits for soldiers. Because of this it's difficult to repair - combining the rare materials of T-51 and T-60, and static suits will even be found with mods, as though custom-fitted for agents.
It's notably not as good or as radical as X-01 - this contrasts Fo76 which made T-65 better than X-01, which, frankly, I suspect had armor values scale as they did for gameplay power-creep so that new content was better than existing content and motivated players to grind for it. I regard T-65 as the best that could be made without cost-concern at the time - but X-01 was a radical re-imagining prototype that didn't exist except for a few lab samples by the end of the war.
17.2 - Excavator Power Armor
This patch is based on, and requires:
Excavator Power Armor by NewerMind43 and Captain-Ultima
The excavator armor is an interesting subversion of normal power armor:
It has lower resistances and health than T-45.
But it has HUGE benefits on each part, and even has the effects of mods built-in.
Don't think of excavator power armor as actual armor - think of it as a performance-enhancing exoskeleton.
It does not require a lot of rare types of components to repair.
It requires a lot of basic materials to repair.
It's repair costs might be sustainable if you leverage its huge carryweight bonuses to loot component items.
It's good for component gathering in lower level areas. But you probably don't want to bring it into the glowing sea - remember that higher level areas have hidden damage multiplier perks and more modded weapons on levelled enemies.
The suit is rare. You will not find it on enemies.
There are only 3 places it spawns:
2 suits spawn in the same locations as the base mod. 1 extra spawn location is added to tunnels beneath Goodneighbour.
The parts on the suits are badly damaged when you find them.
To explain this odd direction taken with EXC-17 armor parts:
Note that this mod is trying to establish power armor parts as their own complex systems, not just plates.
There are a lot of lore entries in Fo76 about excavator power being overengineered / overmechanised, mostly framed as developmental difficulties.
For example,
- The early excavator prototype suits' mechanical components were breaking apart when mining until 'black titanium' was used instead of the standard construction materials.
- The excavator suit was fitted with an 'ultracite reactor' because they 'exceeded specifications' on the 'repurposed t-45 reactor'.
These issues will be represented with in-game mechanics with this mod.
Bearing the above in mind, the effects on Excavator power armor parts in detail are as follows:
- Generally the parts are inefficient and have high drain rate increases - but not as high as modded T-45.
- The repair costs are high on basic mechanical components like gears but there are no rare materials needed except a few on the torso. This represents that it's heavily mechanised but has little 'armor'.
- Aluminium is the component needed most for repairs - the excavator armor in fo76 used a lot of 'black titanium', and in a few places in fo4 aluminium seems to be used as a generic light/expensive metal. For example, the titanium plating mod for all power armor requires aluminium, so that's why I used it here, steel by comparison is so abundant it's practically meaningless as a resource cost. Nuclear material and some other rare components are needed for the torso to represent the more powerful reactor used, like T-51 or better torsos.
- The helmet has an added scrap-radar like scrapper rank 2 but much longer range. It will highlight items and containers with items with components you have favorited and tagged for search. This is to represent the lore on ore-sniffing and establish in gameplay that the excavator suit is thematically about resource gathering.
- The arms have the bonuses to melee and stagger as per t-45 and t-60 but also have BOTH actuators mods built-in. They improve melee speed and power and improve gun handling. This is to represent the overengineered mechanisation of the suit - it's arms are built for smashing and hauling rocks but also for dampening hand operated impact hammer drills for hour-long shifts, and it makes it feel powerful in gameplay without just adding armor value.
- The arms, torso, and legs have the stagger bonuses when combined - more dealt stagger with arms and torso, less taken stagger with legs and torso.
- The torso has +3 strength and water-recycling.
- The carryweight bonus for a full suit now only applies to the torso and legs being combined, you don't need the full suit.
- The legs have +100 carryweight each - this is effectively the +50 bonus of t-60 combined with the +50 hydraulic servos mod effect built-in intrinsically. There's no movement speed effect unlike other leg armor types.
- Mod options are restricted on arms and legs, there's no actuators or servos slots respectively, because they're already overengineered: effectively modded and given better effects than other parts can be.
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I may add more optional stuff / small tweak plugins. Ask in the Posts section if you'd like something.
Current plans for the future:
- Make simple 3d models for the backpack and thigh pocket mods.
Why are you still reading this essay on Power Armor, when you could be in-game roleplaying a close-in weapon system or a combine harvester? Get ACTUALIZED!