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International Power Armor: A Nick Valentine Agency Report

  • June 27, 2017

    So, with our initial look into Power Armor and it's several itinerations, the query has been posed by a client about International Power Armor and what other countries used Power Armor suits.

    Luckily I had made several notes about this in my initial report, that just didn't seem to fit into that client's request; so this was a matter of pulling out my notes and revisiting several people that I interviewed in the initial article for some insight and clarification for our new client.  Nick, here's what I was able to find out.

    The T-51 Power Armor model was the backbone of the American Power Armor service pre-war.  In fact, the T-51b model was the most advanced Pre-War version American military had.  The Chinese, in response to America's develop of PA (Power Armor), developed their own version designation Hei Gui (aka Black Ghost).  This kept the Chinese "near" the same level as the United States...albeit not by much.  It is important to note, however, that the Hei Gui was not a Power Armor suit, rather it was a "stealth suit".  Details on this are limited. 

    Research into these Stealth Suits of the Chinese are interesting in what limited information was able to be found.  The US was able to utilize these Hei Gui suits to reverse engineer them and create the Stealth Boy which are well known throughout the Commonwealth.  The reason that the Chinese went with the Stealth Suit rather than actual power armor was, to put no fine a point on it, related directly to the technology gap when America ceased/refused to share technological advances with the Chinese which led to the Great War. 

    My apologies, Nick, but that is all that I was able to ascertain regarding any government and/or military in their use of anything remotely approaching PA technology.  It seems, per research, that PA suits were leading to American breakthroughs everywhere prior to the launch of nuclear arms by the Chinese.  The Chinese were in the early stages of R&D into PA suits but would not have them ready in time to stem the American attacks and so, reverted to conventional nuclear arsenals for the attack and the Great War to neutralize the American Power Armor advantage. 

    Regards,

     

    RaginCajun, Valentine's Agency Detective

     

    Nick, I was browsing through some data over the last few days and actually stumbled across an old Defense Intelligence Agency terminal that had some data pertaining to some of this information.  While not truly Power Armor, it does tie in with the Hei Gui so I figured I would amend my report for our client to give this new information.

    According to Top Secret research notes from an entity named "Switchboard", the DIA had worked with synth and AI constructs to create a thinking maching named PAM.  Prior to the Great War, PAM suggested that Chinese stealth technology was extremely advanced when compared to anything the United States had in their arsenal. 

    As I previously noted, our own Stealth Boy technology was small scale and based on reverse engineering of the Hei Gui suits captured by US Troops.  However, PAM theorized that there was a 91% chance that the Chinese had successfully conducted "large scale" tests with their stealth tech. 

    PAM referenced something called the "Ghost Fleet", an actual Chinese Naval fleet that was supposedly spotted by two US stations in Alaska...and then suddenly disappeared.  Every last ship in the fleet.  PAM further theorized that the Chinese had moved well beyond "personal stealth suits" and were involved in "stealth ships" including "stealth submarines".  There were references to large influxes of key synthetic compounds and complex polymers to the Shannxi Province, in sufficient quantity to lead to this assumption that these large scale projects were underway.  However, it's worth noting that the US had failed to receive even one piece of actionable data from the Province in over three years. 

    Commanders from the DIA/Switchboard refused to bring this information to the Joint Chiefs without "hard data".  Of course it does appear that stealth technology played some role in the October bombing of the United States as the Chinese were able to launch a first strike without any knowledge or foresight by the entire US military.  This positively ties in with PAM's theories about Chinese tech.  And if the Chinese were able to stealth entire ships and fleets of ships, then why would they worry about Power Armor technology.  You cannot fight what you cannot find or see.

    Thanks Nick, sorry I had not come across this data beforehand.

     

    RC/VAD

  • Member
    June 27, 2017
    Love me some power armor! Very cool RaginCajun thanks!
  • Member
    June 27, 2017

    Hey great work Rajun, its always tough to make something from very little information but you still did splendid. Would be very cool if in one of the future games we get a better insight into the China side of things and maybe even some more information on these Hei Gui suits. Great work!

  • June 27, 2017

    MaddMannatee said:

    Hey great work Rajun, its always tough to make something from very little information but you still did splendid. Would be very cool if in one of the future games we get a better insight into the China side of things and maybe even some more information on these Hei Gui suits. Great work!

    Thanks.  You know, that's an interesting talk point.  As the world becomes more "global" and we know video games are played world wide, would a Fallout taking place outside of the US be a viable game in the international market and would it be viable in America?  I mean if people in Japan and China can play Fallout 4 taking place in Boston and still enjoy the game, wouldn't it be the same that we could play Fallout: Moscow and enjoy the scenery just the same?  Granted the music may need tweaking to fit the locale but I love the architecture of Russia (the onion top buildings) or Fallout Europe with old castles and stuff.  I think I could still enjoy the game from that perspective even if the game were not taking place in the US. 

  • Member
    June 27, 2017

    I would certainly say that the concept of the setting wouldn't matter too much for people enjoying it, the main problem would simply be the lack of Fallout related lore on those places which would mean a game taking place there would be pioneering a lot of new info. But in all honesty, that sounds pretty cool to me. I'll miss the American vibe that is a staple of the Fallout games, but something new would be refreshing

  • June 27, 2017

    I think allowing the expansion of lore into more places deepens the game.  I mean, in TES we have Skyrim and Oblivion and Daggerfall and...you get my point.  There is life, and lore, happening in all of those places.  It would certainly make for a deeper world seeing things going on parallel to the US during all this time. 

    Still, I see your point but if we already know China lauched the nukes then we know the world was affected so it shouldn't have to be a US only game.  Plus as you noted it allows better insight into other areas of the world and what they were doing/dealing with prior to and post Great War.

  • Member
    June 27, 2017
    I think an expansion/add-on that takes you other places in the world similar to Far Harbor and Nuka-World. Just need a good reason how you get there. Perhaps if you had a game set in California you could travel across the Pacific (having irradiated pirate adventures along the way) then do some main mission in China. Or Europe if it was an east coast main setting. Would be cool to see other places and how they faired. Even post bombs Alaska and how Anchorage has done the past two hundred years would be cool. We do have an air ship nowadays depending on your choices....
  • June 27, 2017

    I imagine any Fallout game that took place outside of the U.S. would be a shock to the fans of the series and a massively impractical undertaking for Bethesda. We would almost certainly lose every part of the lore we've come to know. The Brotherhood and Enclave were created from the remnants of the U.S. military -- they'd be absent in whatever country Fallout took place in. One can assume that other countries will have devised things like Rad-X, Rad Away, Psycho, Jet, etc., but they'd have different names, appearances, and be available in different quantities. A non-U.S. Fallout would be what Bloodborne is to Dark Souls. That is, the same concept, but with different names for everything, different aesthetics, different creatures, different factions, different weapons, accents...it would be starting the franchise from scratch to move it to a different country. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I just don't see us ever getting a non-U.S. Fallout because it would mean building an entirely new world when they could (and should) add depth and complexity to the world they've built already. It's also why I imagine we'll never see an ES game in Akavir. It's just not realistic. 

    *pop*

    Sorry. Here's 99 more balloons. 

  • June 28, 2017

    Legion's a party pooper.

  • June 28, 2017