One-Stop Shopping Durability for Power Armour
—What it Does and Why—
Tired of fixing your armour after every mission? Downloaded mods for armour durability but you’re *still* fixing your companions’ armour at a faster rate? Come on over.
I loved the idea of the power armour durability mechanic but the vanilla values make it a huge pain in the ass. Personally, I like to troll around with the Unlimited Followers mod and repairing 4 sets of power armour after every mission was just ridiculous. Moreover, the T-51 suits are described in game as being able to “chew through Chinese infantry and tanks,” something that is completely implausible given how fragile power armour is in the game.
So there are already mods that affect power armour durability, specifically “More Durable Power Armor,” and “Companion and NPC Power Armor Damage Reduction.” There’s a third called “ICPA – Invincible Companion Power Armor,” however this is apparently bugged.
Included are separate files, one to affect the PC and one to affect *all* NPCs — this includes Raiders, Brotherhood, etc. in addition to your companions. There are separate levels for different durability levels — you can set it to 25%, 50%, 75% or 95% damage reduction. The esp’s that don’t have a specified percentage will make power armour unbreakable. There are separate .esp’s to affect the PC and all NPCs in all variations, this way you can set PC durability to 25% while all NPCs are set to unbreakable, PC and NPCs matching at 95%, etc.
—How it Works—
Power armour durability is a function of two variables — one that affects the PC (“More Durable Power Armour,”) and one that affects all
NPCs (“Companion and NPC Power Armor Damage Reduction.”) Not sure how ICPA works, given the “fixes” section in the updates listing fixes for separate companions, I assume the author is editing character-specific variables. This would be good if you’re looking to
*only* affect your companions’ armour. This is not what this mod does.
The vanilla settings has PC armour durability set to 1.00, while NPCs are set to 3.00 — this makes sense as a gameplay balance choice from Bethesda, making it feasible to take on a group of PA-equipped hostiles with a single companion. Again, affecting the global NPC power armour variable will change not just your companions but enemies as well. Fighting groups of PA-equipped NPCs will become a bit more difficult as you won’t be able to exploit the durability mechanic to attack unarmoured limbs by damaging unrealistically fragile power armour pieces.
Note that “Companion and NPC Power Armor Damage Reduction,” only changes the NPC value to 1.00, down from 3.00 — this will bring NPC durability in line with the vanilla value for the PC, however if you’re also using “More Durable Power Armour,” you will still be repairing your companions’ armour at a faster rate than your own. This mod exists to address this inequity.
Personally, I use the setting with both PC and NPCs at 95% durability. The mechanic is still present but the suits will last through several engagements and offer the kind of protection that makes you believe you could chew through a few Chinese tanks. Mix and match with whatever you like.
—Updates, Compatibility—
There will be no updates, this mod has accomplished what it needs to. There should be no compatibility issues, these .esp’s only mod two variables, each associated with the durability of power armour. I put this last in my load order after a dozen PA-associated mods and have no issue.
—Installation—
No NMM installer, I’m lazy. Pick the .esp’s you want — only use one for PC and one for NPC — then throw them in your FO4 /Data/ file with the rest of your .esp’s.
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