Legate Armor Mateiral

Post by **EnderDragonFire** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 4:52 am

The Fallout wiki lists the legate armor as steel, but does not cite any sources. Based on the color of the armor, the high weight, and low DT, I personally feel that it is likely bronze. What do you guys think?

Post by **Shardoom** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 6:47 pm

Probably unobtanium.

Post by **NILLOC 916** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 7:36 pm

[quote=Shardoom]

Probably unobtanium.

[/quote]

It would make sense, it's quite a common metal.

Post by **Shardoom** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:25 pm

That was my thinking too, goes with the commonality of the Legates Armour.

Post by **EnderDragonFire** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 11:57 pm

Haha, but really, it's stats are relevant, as you do have to kill the guy. I still think it is brone.

Post by **MarchUntoTorment** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:16 am

As someone who's reasonably knowledgeable about blades and armour, bronze isn't a great metal to make armour out of - it's substantially softer and heavier than steel plate, for starters. Whether it's better than iron is a matter of some debate, but compared to steel, it's far inferior.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the Legate wears bronze armour just for aesthetics. It's more than apparent that his DT comes from his superhuman toughness, not his armour (I take the armour's stats as non-canon).

Post by **Decker** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:57 am

My guess would be that the armor is mostly made out of some fairly basic steel alloy, but is thinly plated (for decorative purposes as well as for preventing rust perhaps) with another metal, bronze or gold (or a bronze-gold alloy, whatever works). Any DT the armor provides is actually due a thickness of steel, not bronze.

At any rate, Legate's armor is obviously made of less advanced materials (propably handcrafted by Legion armourers at a forge) than Combat Armor or Powerarmors (which were produced in an advanced pre-war factory); While it may provide protection comparable to Combat Armor, it does so with considerably more weight and thickness - Legate's Armor is functionally more similar to the Metal Armor, Reinforced than any of the more advanced armors.

Post by **EnderDragonFire** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 3:20 am

Well, if you look at the armor's statistics, it has a measly 15 DT, an extreme weight of 45 lbs, and a poor durability of 100. These statistics are reasonable for a suit of bronze armor (which does exist in real life, and would provide decent protection) as bronze is inferior to steel in terms of hardness and strength, and is far heavier.

(and I agree that he is probably wearing it for the aesthetic, I generally accept the fan film "Fallout: Lanius" as the "real" legate, that is to say an intelligent, psychotic, and very, very strong)

Post by **Decker** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 4:35 pm

[quote=EnderDragonFire]

Well, if you look at the armor's statistics, it has a measly 15 DT, an extreme weight of 45 lbs, and a poor durability of 100. These statistics are reasonable for a suit of bronze armor (which does exist in real life, and would provide decent protection) as bronze is inferior to steel in terms of hardness and strength, and is far heavier.

(and I agree that he is probably wearing it for the aesthetic, I generally accept the fan film "Fallout: Lanius" as the "real" legate, that is to say an intelligent, psychotic, and very, very strong)

[/quote]

45Lbs would actually have been too light for a full suit of historical bronze plate armor (80+ Lbs or so is more likely for a full suit). In general, ancient bronze armors tended to weigh slightly more than comparable iron pieces of the iron age. For such an outfit, DT in 5 to 6 range would be likely in Fallout terms, which is to say completely inadequate protection against most firearms.

The protective value DT:15 is not IMHO measly; in Fallout setting this value represents decent overall protection from most conventional small-arms ammunition and lesser threats, it is fairly resistant to 5.56mm FMJ NATO rifle rounds even. Relatively soft bronze-alloy armor material simply will not plausibly offer this level of protection, not at only 45Lbs of the material spread over the full surface area of a human body, much less so while spread over a Lanius sized very large human body. For a DT:15 Bronze armor full suit, I'd expect a weight in the range of 150 to 200 Lbs - Way too much for any practical unpowered armor suit.

So, to summarize these points; DT:15 protection combined with only 45Lbs of weight definitely means that this armor is not bronze-alloys throughout. For the weight and DT, some kind of steel alloy is the most likely core armor material.

Post by **EnderDragonFire** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:42 pm

You are correct about the weight. However, relative to to other armors in the game it is not unreasonable. In real life a suit of steel armor would weight more than 35 Lbs, yet that is all the Armor of the 87th weighs, regular metal armor is even lighter. In general, all fallout weapons are far too heavy and all armor is far too light.

As far as DT goes, I disagree. In new Vegas, simple leather armor proves 6 DT, to suggest that bronze plate should have comparable, let alone less, is simply not historically accurate. Bronze may be inferior to steel, but it is still better than anything else found in the ancient world. At 15 DT, it is better than any cloth or leather item in the game, and is slightly better than the Metal armor, which is not full plate and is likely made from rusty, low quality steel. The Reinforced metal armor, and all forms of combat and power amor beat it.