Power Armour dominating late game

[CaptainPatch]

Would it be infinite power on tap. or would it be an infinitely regenerating charge (that could be depleted if used too quickly)... Would the weapon that drains it not come with the risk of a shutdown of the suit if the user carelessly overextended it by firing a laser Gatling gun or plasma/pulse cannon hooked to the power-pack etc... ?

Definitely factors worth contemplating! Like in the ME games, a weapon cool-don would have to be factored in. Program in an automatic cut out when auxiliary power draw endangers the power system's primary function (powering the suit itself). Like in ME, for a short amount of time, the user would be carrying a useless weapon while the "energy cache" refreshes. Encourages the user to employ single shots and _short_ bursts rather than going full auto. Hmm. Make sure you keep a conventional slug-thrower in the weapons suite to use during involuntary downtime.

One of the things during the long war between Offense and Defense has been that Defense usually leads for a _short_ time, but then Offense develops to a power level to overcome Defense. Like how Firearms so defeated Heavy Armor that armor was dispensed with entirely, making soldiers wearing cloth "armor" stand and take volley fire. PA = "man-tank", shrugs off most projectile weapons. But then, most likely plasma fire will simply slag something as limited in its Agility as PA is likely to be. Facing that kind of threat, I would expect that the Defense reaction would be the same as when Heavy Armor met Firearms. That is, dispense with the PA entirely in order to maintain high Agility, enough to at least attempt to dodge plasma fire.

[Gizmo]

The regenerating charge sounds best to me, but honestly I'd not really want the suit's power supply to be of concern to the player, and not an electrical resource, without damaging or destroying the suit if so used. But if it were, then that seems the way to do it IMO.

Make sure you keep a conventional slug-thrower in the weapons suite to use during involuntary downtime.

I'd say that power armored infantry should all carry sawed off shotguns as a side arm for use in close quarter fighting with agile non PA wearing opponents; a squad could fire bird shot with reckless abandon in the dark and not worry about hurting their squad members.

[RoboRevolution]

On the other hand, a car or an Apache aren't human shaped and scaled pieces of armor. Frankly, putting it on would probably be the most complicated part. These aren't mechs, after all. And while I tended to picture them as being like Battletech Clan Elementals, they probably aren't even that big.

For a suit of armor to be any use in the field, it really needs to essentially be "fire and forget". Wear and forget, if you will. Maybe without training you can't use the built in helmet radio or the sweet HUD or the targeting computer, but you should be able to get in and walk around and soak bullets.

Now, maintaining a suit a power armor, that would require training, but the maintenance is always the tricky part anyway.

All I'm saying is that if the developers feel that using Power Armor would require training to properly use, there's plenty of justification for that.

But then, most likely plasma fire will simply slag something as limited in its Agility as PA is likely to be.

No one here feels that Power Armor will inhibit the users movement, as any encumbrance would be at least compensated by the motor servos.

[Gizmo]

No one here feels that Power Armor will inhibit the users movement, as any encumbrance would be at least compensated by the motor servos.

I believe that it should restrict the wearer's movement ~not due to agility issues, but rather that it restricts where they can move while wearing it. Perhaps they should not be able to climb a fire escape or descend into a manhole while wearing a suit that is physically too big to fit through the hole.

[happy04]

No one here feels that Power Armor will inhibit the users movement, as any encumbrance would be at least compensated by the motor servos.

I believe that it should restrict the wearer's movement ~not due to agility issues, but rather that it restricts where they can move while wearing it. Perhaps they should not be able to climb a fire escape or descend into a manhole while wearing a suit that is physically too big to fit through the hole.

The existence of power armor requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. We extend this to the inventory system allowing it to take no physical space to hold several hundred pounds of gear and random junk with us on our journey.

Do you think someone who's not wearing power armor but is carrying three shotguns, five rifles, a rocket launcher, five bricks of c4, a medical kit, twenty clips of smg ammo, ten rockets, a lockpick, a wrench, three days worth of food and water, twenty misc pieces of plastic/paper for quests, as well as four books as well as wearing combat armor should be able to climb down the manhole?

Honestly i'd prefer to be in power armor and have a hard squeeze down the tube than really worry about realism here.

[Gizmo]

Do you think someone who's not wearing power armor but is carrying three shotguns, five rifles, a rocket launcher, five bricks of c4, a medical kit, twenty clips of smg ammo, ten rockets, a lockpick, a wrench, three days worth of food and water, twenty misc pieces of plastic/paper for quests, as well as four books as well as wearing combat armor should be able to climb down the manhole?

Honestly i'd prefer to be in power armor and have a hard squeeze down the tube than really worry about realism here.

What I don't want, is a 'stream of consciousness' game like Skyrim ~not a problem since WL2 will be turn based; but on the mechanics side I would prefer a design that used logical limitations to direct gameplay. For instance, the manhole could lead to an area where they don't want you to use power armor ~and so you can't fit through the hole wearing it.

IMO (for those that care about balancing each and every weapon and armor to be equally useful throughout the game)... if they made PA work like a motorcycle, then it would be of benefit in suitable areas and not something you stuff in your pocket for later; (other armors would still be useful after getting PA). It's like after driving a motorcycle upstairs to the roof, you can't climb across a rope to the next building and bring the bike with you; in fact... the stairs themselves could be the obstacle; you can't chase a fellow up some old rickety stairs while wearing a heavy PA suit ~or you break through the stairs.

[happy04]

It's like after driving a motorcycle upstairs to the roof, you can't climb across a rope to the next building and bring the bike with you; in fact... the stairs themselves could be the obstacle; you can't chase a fellow up some old rickety stairs while wearing a heavy PA suit ~or you break through the stairs.

First off, it's not like driving a motorcycle. A motorcycle is a vehicle. Power armor is a suit. Iron Man can go inside with his powered armor, he can also walk on roofs. Also, why would you try to drive a motorcycle inside, let alone up a stairway? For realism sake taking off power armor would probably take 10 minutes to an hour depending on the complexity. Hell putting on nice roller blades takes 5 minutes.

I guess I see what you mean, you don't want to play with power armor always as soon as you get it, but imo any structure that is standing years after nuclear war and devastation and no maintenance for years would likely be made of steel or concrete. It could handle having an average weight dude wearing 80 pounds of some synthetic metal armor on. Otherwise it'd collapse in on its self over time. You ever watch american pickers? They climb into rotted out barns and walk across broken boards with collapsed roofs. Nothing happens. If a building remains standing after 50 years of no maintenance, the part that is left standing has a lot of structural integrity.

Addressing the issue of power armor becoming the end all be all of gear is much more simple and less of a bitchy annoyance than making people take it off. I am ABSOLUTELY against the game ever making me do anything I don't want to do, unless its to directly save my own life at the expense of someone I like.

1.) Make other gear that has bonuses to skills, but less effectiveness as armor. (Ideal for snipers?)
2.) Make weapon effects that impair power armor. (EMP Grenades, industrial plasma cutters?)
3.) Make a competitive armor to power armor. Power armor can be better in some situations, the competitor better in others.
4.) Make it weigh a real bitchy amount compared to the amount of weight a character can carry.
5.) Make lots of sweet looking gear, that may not be more powerful than power armor.
6.) Make NPC's react to you in a silly fashion. (Angela in New Reno wont have sex with you if you have power armor on)
7.) Limited number of suits makes you want to equip only your meele fighters with PA.
8.) Enemies understand the strength of power armor so they focus PA wearers. (Blessing and a curse because you can more easily keep your followers alive but it will be more difficult to keep yourself alive.)
9.) Electromagnetic field vision goggles for raiders on the lookout? Idk its kinda far fetched but some sea creatures have senses for EMFs.

I'm sure that inXile could come up with good reasons not to always wear PA, because i just thought of those 8 reasons in about 2 minutes. The issue is that power armor was INTENDED to dominate late game. You are supposed to be a walking tank. How does that not seem like it should dominate? This argument to me seems like someone complaining; "It's so unfair that guns are in the game. Nobody wants to use spears and rocks because guns wreck too much."

[Gizmo]

First off, it's not like driving a motorcycle. A motorcycle is a vehicle. Power armor is a suit. Iron Man can go inside with his powered armor, he can also walk on roofs. Also, why would you try to drive a motorcycle inside, let alone up a stairway? For realism sake taking off power armor would probably take 10 minutes to an hour depending on the complexity. Hell putting on nice roller blades takes 5 minutes.

Well... my post had a description of exactly in what way it would be 'like' a motorcycle, and it did not mention the vehicular aspect; but since you did, yes I'd say that it is a vehicle; in the same way the loader in Aliens is a vehicle, in the same way that mecha [like in robotech] are vehicles. What is distinctly different is the way they are piloted. In an exo-suit the machine reacts to operator movement ~though not with a steering wheel. This wasn't my point though; I was saying that the suit could be 'like' a motorcycle in that the user eventually steps away from it and returns to it rather than hauling it around all the time when not on use. And that there could be places in the game where if the PC wants to enter, then clearly they cannot bring the suit with them.

** Ironman, starcraft, and W40k power armor are each far beyond anything in Fallout or Wasteland; and as such can be ignored as examples of power armor.

I guess I see what you mean, you don't want to play with power armor always as soon as you get it, but imo any structure that is standing years after nuclear war and devastation and no maintenance for years would likely be made of steel or concrete. It could handle having an average weight dude wearing 80 pounds of some synthetic metal armor on. Otherwise it'd collapse in on its self over time. You ever watch american pickers? They climb into rotted out barns and walk across broken boards with collapsed roofs. Nothing happens. If a building remains standing after 50 years of no maintenance, the part that is left standing has a lot of structural integrity.

Steps... plain old wooden steps; it was an example, not a rule. There are thousands of buildings that could be left standing yet have weak rickety staircases in them; steps that could break on a man carrying two pack of shingles (for example).

I am ABSOLUTELY against the game ever making me do anything I don't want to do,

This is immersion breaking IMO...

unless its to directly save my own life at the expense of someone I like.

... And this [to me] is a little bizarre; or I should say discombobulating.

2.) Make weapon effects that impair power armor. (EMP Grenades, industrial plasma cutters?)

Agreed; I've recently mentioned both.

The issue is that power armor was INTENDED to dominate late game. You are supposed to be a walking tank. How does that not seem like it should dominate? This argument to me seems like someone complaining; "It's so unfair that guns are in the game. Nobody wants to use spears and rocks because guns wreck too much."

I agree with this too.

[CaptainPatch]

But then, most likely plasma fire will simply slag something as limited in its Agility as PA is likely to be.

No one here feels that Power Armor will inhibit the users movement, as any encumbrance would be at least compensated by the motor servos.

Hmm. I guess that _I_ am here is a figment of my imagination then.

Not only do people want their PA to have infinite power to facilitate constant operation, AND be of a density that it can shrug off conventional projectile weapons, AND be of a weight so insignificant as to not be concerned about walking across rotting floorboards, it must also be so close to a "second skin" as to inhibit movement and Agility not at all. All <<those^^ factors without the slightest shadow of a downside.

When did we migrate from SciFi over to Fantasy?

Ever hear of a robot (Powered Armor with a machine inside) that can both break dance AND take the Gold medal in Gymnastics at the Olympics? Apparently PA as some people envision it should be able to do just that with ease.

[happy04]

** Ironman, starcraft, and W40k power armor are each far beyond anything in Fallout or Wasteland; and as such can be ignored as examples of power armor.

Steps... plain old wooden steps; it was an example, not a rule. There are thousands of buildings that could be left standing yet have weak rickety staircases in them; steps that could break on a man carrying two pack of shingles (for example).

Not sure how much more advanced it is. I guess iron man power armor is more advanced cause it can fly and is collapsable enough to fit in a big breficase (fallout power armor fits in my pocket though haha, 4 sets at once actually, so idk about that), but really other than a HUD and looking a little sleeker i don't see too much difference between starcraft and w40k's PA and wasteland/fallout's. They are both made of fantasy metals/alloys with fantasy power sources as far as i'm concerned.

Starcraft's power armor is actually almost always permanent and used on convicts with death penalties, only more advanced suits are able to be removed easily. Neosteel with a cold fusion power cell is essentially equivilant to advanced polymers with a fusion power cell in fallout. For example jim raynor's, which explains his better combat skill versus a typical marine who is a beefier convicted felon on a life sentence for murder who went through painful military training. Jim raynor's ex mercenary friend from starcraft 2 cant take his suit from the mobius corporation (or whatever its called) off, even with all the resources on the hyperion. While at the same time a marine is the weakest terran unit of all (only stronger than a zergling or scourge) and can be killed by 4 shots from a hydralisk (IMO the high velocity equivilant of a plant spike). Zealot power armor is far beyond terran, wasteland, fallout, and i'd say equal to iron man power armor. (life support to hundreds of years after severing the head from the body in the case of the goo inside dragoon suits + regenerating sheilds with infinite energy + generators that power lightsaber blades able to cut any material and never run low except in the cinematic with fenix in the temple which i attribute to battle damage rather than low power + in the case of dark templar create gravity fields that bend light)

By the time you get power armor are you really going to be investigating two story shacks in wasteland 2's main quest? Hopefully not. I can see situations where power armor would not be ideal due to weight, but those situations dont seem like they would happen by the time power armor is actually required to survive. If there is a creature that can damage power armor hiding in a building that is not structurally sound enough to support power armor, why would it support that creature in the first place? It stands to reason that it would take quite a hefty robot to deal with someone in power armor.

If a stairway does collapse, and im wearing power armor, in real life i'd rip a couple pipes out of the floor and do a little sketchy pole vault action. in wasteland 2, hopefully there is another set of stairs, or 1.) reload 2.) put PA in pocket 3.) walk up stairs 4.) put PA back on. which probably a lot of frustrated players would do. Okay maybe not the best role players but lots of people.

To me optional side quest areas could lock out power armor, but they better be doable before getting power armor too in that case. Kind of a way of saying "alright buddy you're a little OP to be doing this quest, in order to make it more challenging you cant use your PA here" I guess going upstairs in the shack might be necessary, but early on, not at the end of the game. I like my exploits to grow into more and more epic trials rather than "oh another fallen apart building, cools." Hopefully the end boss wont live in a shack lols. Apparently that would be the ultimate strategy for beating the lone wanderer "OH SHIT THE PC IS COMING, better hide upstairs in this sketchy building so that he has to take off his armor and i can wreck his shit"

I just think its silly for a major feature of power armor to be an inconvenience going upstairs. I'm all for it if it happens once in a while on random side quests though.

Ever hear of a robot (Powered Armor with a machine inside) that can both break dance AND take the Gold medal in Gymnastics at the Olympics? Apparently PA as some people envision it should be able to do just that with ease.

I don't envision it to do it with ease, but i do envision it to do everything near the same amount of effort as doing it without the armor. It's not designed to be a hassle, its designed to make you the ultimate killing machine. I think a team of engineers would say "hrmm, i cant bend over or chase after bad guys wearing this, maybe it needs adjustments" rather than leave serious impairments and design flaws in a military grade battle suit.

Weight on floors, slowed reflexes, and being a big ass target are about the only flaws i see power armor having.

Win a dance contest? Probably not. Do the robot like a boss? Probably yes.

[CaptainPatch]

Not sure how much more advanced it is. I guess iron man power armor is more advanced cause it can fly and is collapsible enough to fit in a big briefcase .

But, the Iron Man suit required the resources of a multi-billionaire with a "Money is no object" mentality, just to produce that single super-sleek model. I should imagine that regular off-the-rack PA would be MUCH closer to that first suit that Tony Stark used to break out of the terrorists' cave.

A suit would have to literally fit the user like a second skin, rather than "like a glove". The least little bit of slack or internal binding/chafing would seriously throw off gross movements. Imagine what happens when you don a pair of tennis shoes 4 sizes too large, or pants 4 sizes too large, and then try to move around smoothly. [Once tried using a pair of ski boots only two sizes too big; not a pretty sight. I was lucky I didn't break an ankle or two.] That's pretty much what you are doing when you let ANYONE don ANY suit of PA. That's why I would expect that any functional PA suit would be super-personalized to just ONE user.

[happy04]

Any military preparing for nuclear war in the near future has a "money is no object" mentality. Battlecruisers cost tens of billions of dollars to build let alone design and the united states has many and they are frequently updated. The united states is presently not afraid of nuclear annihilation so a money is no object mentality on military spending is not unreasonable given that was the case.

Wasteland's military was building a defensive space station that had the capability of destroying an storm of asteroids, so considering the vast cost that would incur, i'm going to assume wasteland's america was already at the point of money is no object when it came to military spending.

One of my favorite mods for fallout 3 addressed this by requiring you to fit power armor at a repair bench before you can wear it.

It stands to reason that our power armor that was definitely designed by a team of army scientists for generalized use by the marines, being a one size fits all type suit, has adjustable settings and is able to be tightened and loosened and raised and lowered to fit most any user other than the most awkward sized basketball players or fat couch potatoes.

[Woolfe]

Any military preparing for nuclear war in the near future has a "money is no object" mentality. Battlecruisers cost tens of billions of dollars to build let alone design and the united states has many and they are frequently updated. The united states is presently not afraid of nuclear annihilation so a money is no object mentality on military spending is not unreasonable given that was the case.

Wasteland's military was building a defensive space station that had the capability of destroying an storm of asteroids, so considering the vast cost that would incur, i'm going to assume wasteland's america was already at the point of money is no object when it came to military spending.

One of my favorite mods for fallout 3 addressed this by requiring you to fit power armor at a repair bench before you can wear it.

It stands to reason that our power armor that was definitely designed by a team of army scientists for generalized use by the marines, being a one size fits all type suit, has adjustable settings and is able to be tightened and loosened and raised and lowered to fit most any user other than the most awkward sized basketball players or fat couch potatoes.

This is all true, but the suggestion I have gotten from the background available which is admittedly light. Is that the Power Armour and energy weapon type tech was actually pretty rare at this point. Presumeably it did have a very high bill attached and budgetry requirements etc meant that they could only have so much available, and not in the general military populace. Perhaps it even required resources that were needed in a variety of areas. They are not actually on a war footing when it all goes wrong, so there is no reason the military budget on it would be endless.

Not only do people want their PA to have infinite power to facilitate constant operation, AND be of a density that it can shrug off conventional projectile weapons, AND be of a weight so insignificant as to not be concerned about walking across rotting floorboards, it must also be so close to a "second skin" as to inhibit movement and Agility not at all. All <<those^^ factors without the slightest shadow of a downside.

When did we migrate from SciFi over to Fantasy?

In all fairness the original game had it pretty much like this. All bonus no penalty.
I can deal with that, but I would prefer a bit of give and take on it. Which is why I started this thread

My original idea was simply to make using the PA cost Powerpacks(or whatever they are called), but then it exploded into conversations about what powerarmour is etc. Which is fair enough as there are certainly more than one definition.

At this point I think the devs will decide it. I'd liek to get a feel for how they would go with power armour, but no one seemed to like my idea of putting together some questions for the devs

[happy04]

I never really understood if the wasteland universe did actually reach the point of contained cold fusion reactors. Did they? How do they power laser weapons anyways? Traditional batteries or some type of fuel cell or a fusion reaction?

[Drool]

It's never explicitly said, and there's precious few clues to guess by.

Base Cochise most likely runs on fission power, or it uses some other power source and just has an enormous radioactive sludge pit in the middle of a factory for no discernible reason.

The Servants of the Mushroom Cloud Temple seems to run by a fission plant. There's a "nuclear reactor" right in the middle.

Max is powered by something call a "fusion cell", but what that is, exactly, isn't stated. It could be a micronized fusion reactor or it could be some kind of catalyst to work with materials stored elsewhere in his body.

Something in Base Cochise is powered by a device that requires a "plasma coupler" to work. It's not critical to base operation, but is required for the self destruct sequence, meaning that it's possible the AI had it removed for just that reason. Fusion power is related to plasma physics, so Cochise might be run by a Fission/Fusion system.

Energy weapons of all types are loaded with "power packs". They are rare and non-reproducible, as evidenced by no stores carrying them, despite carrying all kinds of other things that require some level of manufacturing know-how and facilities (matches, bullets, armor, engines, flamethrowers, explosives, etc). Since different energy weapons get different numbers of shots from a power pack, and the ones with more shots do less damage, power packs are probably some kind of battery or single-charge capacitor.

Sleeper One and the Darwin Facility both have power 70+ years after the apocalypse, which means they probably have some kind of on-site power plant, either some kind of nuclear power or geothermal (although Sleeper One could theoretically be using hydroelectric, but you'd think that'd make it easy to spot). Sleeper One has a large generator on level 3, but of what type is a mystery. It could also just be a substation, as opposed to an actual generator.

Highpool has a powered water pump, presumably diesel. Although who knows where they're getting diesel fuel. Perhaps it was converted to run on vegetable oil or some other biofuel.

Vegas, Quartz, Needles, Darwin Village, the Ranger Center, and (possibly) the Guardian's Citadel all have power from somewhere, but it's never explained. Probably backup/portable generators running on biofuels.

[CaptainPatch]

Wasteland's military was building a defensive space station that had the capability of destroying an storm of asteroids, so considering the vast cost that would incur, i'm going to assume wasteland's america was already at the point of money is no object when it came to military spending.

If a nation has ANY kind of Economy, the Government cannot simply declare "Build EVERYTHING; price is no object." That would effectively instantly turn all currency into worthless paper and bits of metal because of the horrendous runaway inflation. All of those items that the Government demands be built regardless of price WILL cost more money than the Government has available to spend. And the Military is only one segment of the Budget; everything else can't simply be set aside "for the duration" because all that other stuff is what runs the country. The people making the stuff essentially become slaves, laboring for "wages" that don't buy anything because the money is now worthless. Manufacture of the required material is then complicated by a thoroughly demoralized workforce.

All this is to say that Military allocations will be under a priority list. With all of the things that MUST be built (Citadel Starstation for instance), I can't imagine that the development of Powered Armor would have been that high of a priority. Perhaps enough of a budget to develop a few prototypes (think of Tony Stark's Mark I, II and III models for the Iron Man suit), but enough to outfit an entire squad? Doubtful.

[happy04]

I suppose if the country knew it was going to keep going, but didn't it say in the wasteland manual that the people who detected the asteroids didn't tell the public? That mass spending was in self preservation, and power armor could have been a preventative measure in case the citadel system didn't work 100%. I'm only saying that spending would not be an issue to the US or any other major nation if the apocalypse was coming. Soviets would probably be doing everything they can with all of their resources and the resources of the nearby nations as well. If the end of the world was coming and we needed more of any resource i'm pretty sure the government would be buying or seizing it all from citizens and nearby nations. It's likely that many scientists would continue working to save their own lives even if they were not getting paid as long as they knew their deaths were pending if they did not succeed. Military seizure of resources would not be unheard of, because fear of human rights groups giving backlash would be nonexistant. A president would not be worried about re-election because if he "saved the world" he'd be pretty damn sure that he would get a second term. You can't apply normal economic policies to a near-apocalypse world.

[Drega]

Well after reading 10 of the 17 pages of posts in this thread I do feel much more enlightened concerning power suit/armor technology. Unfortunately I don't see much progression with the original problem stated in this thread. Maybe it occurred in the middle pages I skipped and this discussion has just tailed off into a powersuit tech thread...

So perhaps this has already been mentioned but most RPGs I have played use parties of 4-6 with well rounded races/classes and skills/technologies to best complete the various game encounters. Not taking diverse routes can create a much harder situation and a good game should exploit this. Also one needs to remember that the armor issue is a Fallout one and not so much with Wasteland were I seem to remember dying real quick even late game.

Power armor should cause problems in completing the game if overused. If your entire party had power armor some of the following things could happen:

Smaller skillset due to training and knowledge to effectively use.

Increased consumption of power and/or party resources.

Inability to maneuver effectively in certain areas.

Reduced capabilities with certain weapons.

lower initiative during combat.

Unable to use many devices while encumbered with this armor.

Repair and replacement parts could be an issue.

Sure you could try to create a party of Power Rangers but it should be much harder and some things downright impossible to achieve. But you could try. And even have fun doing it. I know I have. But a good game should have a decent counter for this problem so I wouldn't worry about it.

[RoboRevolution]

Not only do people want their PA to have infinite power to facilitate constant operation, AND be of a density that it can shrug off conventional projectile weapons, AND be of a weight so insignificant as to not be concerned about walking across rotting floorboards, it must also be so close to a "second skin" as to inhibit movement and Agility not at all. All <<those^^ factors without the slightest shadow of a downside.

I don't agree with Power Armor being lightweight, form-fitting, or having infinite power, just that it wouldn't be inhibitive to the users movement.

Wasteland's military was building a defensive space station that had the capability of destroying an storm of asteroids, so considering the vast cost that would incur, i'm going to assume wasteland's america was already at the point of money is no object when it came to military spending.

If a nation has ANY kind of Economy, the Government cannot simply declare "Build EVERYTHING; price is no object." That would effectively instantly turn all currency into worthless paper and bits of metal because of the horrendous runaway inflation. All of those items that the Government demands be built regardless of price WILL cost more money than the Government has available to spend. And the Military is only one segment of the Budget; everything else can't simply be set aside "for the duration" because all that other stuff is what runs the country. The people making the stuff essentially become slaves, laboring for "wages" that don't buy anything because the money is now worthless. Manufacture of the required material is then complicated by a thoroughly demoralized workforce.

Obviously "Money is no object" means that they have so much money to throw it's not something that's a big concern, which is a pretty good summation of the US military's defense budget.

At any rate, I'm for Power Armor making you a big, huge, tank smashing, armored badass, but also having other armors, such as lighter armored suits with finer servos, serving the role for extra mobile types, etc. However, it consumes energy with continued use, the bulky variety inhibits your fine motor skills, makes you the very opposite of stealthy, and requires maintenance over time.

[CaptainPatch]

I suppose if the country knew it was going to keep going, but didn't it say in the wasteland manual that the people who detected the asteroids didn't tell the public?

Which pretty much means that the Government can't start behaving like "The end of the world is nigh!", right? What does the American public do when its Government declares, "We are going to give the Military an unlimited Budget, even if that means that we have to gut _everything_ else"? If the Military starts to arbitrarily invade neighboring nations to seize the resources it needs to pursue the projects it desires? If the employees at critical industries are forced to labor longer and harder -- or else? It would be obvious to all that what is purported to be a democracy has just become a tyrannical dictatorship on a path of runaway aggression. And why that sudden drastic change in behavior? THE GOVERNMENT ISN'T SAYING, because it's keeping the approach of the meteor swarm Ultra Top Secret. That means that all of those people being forced to rush-rush equipment development aren't being told why it is necessary to do so.

Further, with celestial devastation on the way, just who is going to be saying, "With the sky about to fall and all the world going to war, what we really, really, really need is mobile man-tanks!"? Especially when it is patently obvious that a multi-million/billion dollar suit of Powered Armor can be destroyed by just ONE blast from a plasma rifle or missile weapon that costs only thousands or tens of thousands of dollars? Not at all cost effective. If your choice was between ONE suit of Powered Armor, or a thousand plasma rifles, which would you take -- when you know that the other team will take what you didn't?