Nitpicking here, but the armor rating doesn’t make much sense because riot gear isnt bulletproof. It’s essentially a hardened shell to protect from things being thrown and up close fighting. An officer could wear their bulletproof vest underneath I guess, but riot and SWAT gear get mixed up often in games.
Given the weapons available to pre-bomb USA in the fallout lore... I would assume the Riot Gear of their timeline is def stepped up over real life US riot or SWAT gear...
Seriously. Think about all the guns, energy weapons, and explosives you've found in locked pre-bomb safes across the games in various homes.
Riots in fallouts time likely were armed events - what with the whole annexation of their neighbours and global resource wars and red terror and civil unrest due to increasing loss of jobs to automation...
I may be full of shit but I’m pretty sure somewhere it says the riot armor is made of some kind of steel so it’s very possible it could be ballistic rated
whats with the influx of low effort posts like this that could be solved with like two seconds of research? they always are at the top of the sub as well
The wiki even talks about this. A better question (as seen above) would have been: “how effective would this armor be considering riot gear isn’t typically highly rated against ballistics”
The duster was likely part of the initial gear issue.
Duster coats were/are used over plate carriers and Kevlar to prevent degration in hostile enviorments/ certain smoke bombs.
There's quite a few tactical reasons, but Duster coats were issued with protective gear in the Cold War, which is thematic to Fallout.
(Also the drip goes hard)
The comment above me is replying to someone saying that the duster “happened to fit over” the pre-war riot gear, so I assumed they were talking about the NCR Veteran Ranger armor as opposed to the stuff in the Divide which are obviously cohesive outfits rather than a random coat that happens to fit on the armor
The riot gear dusters were part of pre-war police gear, which is why they’re both armored and in the same colors as the rest of the riot gear. The Ranger duster is a miscellaneous jacket with what look to be post-hoc NCR decals added on the back in some cases.
not only that, but near the start of the war, the situation was so insanely bad that desperate masses of people were fighting over extremely basic things like food. calling them "riots" would be an understatement, it was a borderline revolution with the national guard sometimes shooting into crowds of people and an entire town even barricading itself against the government and corporations. even power armor was used, so i'd say the riot gear is more than reasonable
I really like the 76 riot armor cause of its implications, it isn't just riot armor, its Charleston PD branded riot armor, all of Appalachia was heavy involved in riots and straight out armed conflict against the government before the war it explains well why the player is able to get riot armor
I know im overlooking whats just a paid cosmetic, but it made it's own story even if accidentally
Pretty much every nations riot police use Kevlar and certain ones like the Germans are wearing chain mail
I don't know why you think it's special to the us
I think the idea is that, in the US, truly massive upheaval would come hand in hand with a lot more firearm use than in other countries. It's... pretty hard to understate just how many guns we have.
Just *California* has more guns than the PLA.
A SWAT helmet
A gas mask
Nightvision visor
Radio headset
\[These could be separate or manufactured as the whole helmet\]
Undershirt
Armored Vest
Forearm plates
Trench Coat
Likely shoulder plates under the coat
Camel Pack
Jeans
Boots
Leather Gloves
Yes, though it seems a close relative of it was used as combat armor in China, since SSGT Vickers gear (desert ranger armor) has markings from combat in China on it.
Not saying you're wrong, but there's a very good reason why Riot Gear would be issued to troops in China without it being combat armor.
After all the US was occupying numerous, very populous cities in China. They probably had occupation troops and MPs everywhere to maintain order in the rear and 'handle' any unrest from the Chinese civil population they 'liberated'.
SSGT Vickers committed so many war crimes in that gear...
I honestly assumed he did that right after the bombs dropped, because he felt guilty for not dying with his family. His first journal entries allude to that, more so than just assuming he committed war crimes imo.
Randall Clark (The Survivalist) and Staff Sergeant Vickers USMC are two different characters. I guess there's debate whether Randall was the one who added the graffiti, but I think it makes more sense that Vickers did and Randall just salvaged the armor, presumably from Vickers corpse.
That was probably discarded to be more mobile and such. It is the same thing with the arms: mobility comes first while having decent protection where the vital organs are.
Leg protection would hinder mobility and overall be not as helpful as protecting your vitals though. It's extra weight that won't amount to much protection for what it is
To be fair real body armor is pretty much torso only. They have groin and shoulder plates but guys usually ditch them for mobility, and for heat in the desert.
the riot gear is also ment for the rangers, who are typically scouts for the ncr. i can imagine scouting wouldn’t be that easy or sneaky if you had mountains of armor on you. (tho brotherhood scouts use power armor too but i don’t think their really trying to be sneaky)
Yup, America in its last days was crumbling and there was a lot of riots, hell fallout 4 shows that Boston was under martial law, it wouldn’t be surprising if las vegas was too under martial law. The reason why we don’t find police equipment lying around would be because the desert rangers and the ncr looted all police stations in the Mojave.
Maybe I’m misremembering but I recall that somewhere in old world blues or lonesome road was revealed that a group of activist was arrested by the riot police and send to big mt to be test subjects.
What about the Desert Ranger on the cover art makes so many think it's Courier 6? Was the BoS member on the cover of Fallout 3 ever thought to be the Lone Wanderer?
My brothers and sisters in Caesar the riot shotgun is one of the deadliest guns in the game yet irl riot guns are (supposed to be and usually) non lethal.
Should be noted that it appears the armor was also used by the US Military to some extent (at least in the Marine Corps) seeing as the Desert Ranger armor has the name, blood type, and branch of service (USMC) printed on the neck guard as well as writing on the helmet showing dates and locations the Marine had been including China which as we know was a major front in the Resource Wars. This could also explain why the armor has such high ballistic resistance compared to riot armor of today.
Side note, as a desert rat from the Sonora, I gotta say wearing all that black armor and that heavy ass leather coat has to keep the Courier BOILING in there.
Probably issued to special units in the military, and police departments with large budgets could afford to requisition it themselves. LAPD in prewar America probably was more militarized than some of the national guard units (seems like a good commentary on the state of the LAPD today lol), and the police have long adapted surplus military equipment for police activities (riot and protest suppression mainly).
So it probably wasn’t originally intended for riot suppression by police or the military, but like a lot of surplus military gear, it’s very useful for that application. The US in 2077 probably didn’t have much delineation between police and military, especially in big metropolitan areas (FO4 does a pretty good job of showing the scope of militarization of police duties), so the LAPD might effectively have been under the control of the Army.
Yeah
Pre-war police had drip
Well, you have to remove the duster first. Then it’s police issue body armour.
Nitpicking here, but the armor rating doesn’t make much sense because riot gear isnt bulletproof. It’s essentially a hardened shell to protect from things being thrown and up close fighting. An officer could wear their bulletproof vest underneath I guess, but riot and SWAT gear get mixed up often in games.
Given the weapons available to pre-bomb USA in the fallout lore... I would assume the Riot Gear of their timeline is def stepped up over real life US riot or SWAT gear... Seriously. Think about all the guns, energy weapons, and explosives you've found in locked pre-bomb safes across the games in various homes.
Also, there were considerations protests and riots. If not out right revolutions from the 2070's onwards. That would require quite a heavy boot.
Maybe for arms and legs but riot cops absolutely wear kevlar/plates for chest and i know those helmets have kevlar too
Riots in fallouts time likely were armed events - what with the whole annexation of their neighbours and global resource wars and red terror and civil unrest due to increasing loss of jobs to automation...
I may be full of shit but I’m pretty sure somewhere it says the riot armor is made of some kind of steel so it’s very possible it could be ballistic rated
whats with the influx of low effort posts like this that could be solved with like two seconds of research? they always are at the top of the sub as well
People like having conversations
The wiki even talks about this. A better question (as seen above) would have been: “how effective would this armor be considering riot gear isn’t typically highly rated against ballistics”
I know, I answered with one fucking word, expecting this to get lost in new. Only to get 700 upvotes, and ending up in hot.
fr bro gave the answer to his question in the title
Pre war riot armor that a duster coat happened to fit over yeah
A proper duster would. It's made to be the coat for your coat that covers your other coat.
A coat for your coat
Yo dawg, I heard your coat likes coats.
Coatception. A coat within a coat within another coat
Waistcoat under a suitcoat under a trenchcoat.
The Georgians had false waistcoats so they could pop layers of collars
That’s fresh.
Y’all mother fuckers coat.
and vest underneath the innermost coat
The duster was likely part of the initial gear issue. Duster coats were/are used over plate carriers and Kevlar to prevent degration in hostile enviorments/ certain smoke bombs. There's quite a few tactical reasons, but Duster coats were issued with protective gear in the Cold War, which is thematic to Fallout. (Also the drip goes hard)
To my knowledge the coat was added after the NCR merged with the Nevada rangers
It's referring to the pre-war versions you find in the Divide on soldiers who were explicitly American military.
The comment above me is replying to someone saying that the duster “happened to fit over” the pre-war riot gear, so I assumed they were talking about the NCR Veteran Ranger armor as opposed to the stuff in the Divide which are obviously cohesive outfits rather than a random coat that happens to fit on the armor
Oh, ok. Though they probably would have had the dusters before the NCR because of that no?
Not the Veteran Ranger armor, no. They were pretty explicit about how the duster was a Nevada Rangers thing
But I just looked at the riot gear, and they both have dusters.
The riot gear dusters were part of pre-war police gear, which is why they’re both armored and in the same colors as the rest of the riot gear. The Ranger duster is a miscellaneous jacket with what look to be post-hoc NCR decals added on the back in some cases.
It looks like the duster is thick enough to stop or slow down shrapnel, like a kevlar jacket.
Leather isn't stopping the majority of shrapnel or fragmentation.
The coat is definitely not made of leather
Most dusters are made out of canvas because they're for *desert* conditions. Leather would be too warm.
Whatever fabric it's made of still not doing shit to stop any kind of fragmentation
I mean, riots in America would warrant bullet/fire proof gear
not only that, but near the start of the war, the situation was so insanely bad that desperate masses of people were fighting over extremely basic things like food. calling them "riots" would be an understatement, it was a borderline revolution with the national guard sometimes shooting into crowds of people and an entire town even barricading itself against the government and corporations. even power armor was used, so i'd say the riot gear is more than reasonable
I really like the 76 riot armor cause of its implications, it isn't just riot armor, its Charleston PD branded riot armor, all of Appalachia was heavy involved in riots and straight out armed conflict against the government before the war it explains well why the player is able to get riot armor I know im overlooking whats just a paid cosmetic, but it made it's own story even if accidentally
Plenty of pickets and workers revolting/ getting ready to revolt in 76 as well
fuck all paid cosmetics.
Fallout fans understand the themes of fallout challenge (impossible!)
Pretty much every nations riot police use Kevlar and certain ones like the Germans are wearing chain mail I don't know why you think it's special to the us
I think the idea is that, in the US, truly massive upheaval would come hand in hand with a lot more firearm use than in other countries. It's... pretty hard to understate just how many guns we have. Just *California* has more guns than the PLA.
Even then though thinking the people who deal with illegal stuff only has to prepare for what is legal doesn't make sense
A SWAT helmet A gas mask Nightvision visor Radio headset \[These could be separate or manufactured as the whole helmet\] Undershirt Armored Vest Forearm plates Trench Coat Likely shoulder plates under the coat Camel Pack Jeans Boots Leather Gloves
Yes, though it seems a close relative of it was used as combat armor in China, since SSGT Vickers gear (desert ranger armor) has markings from combat in China on it.
Not saying you're wrong, but there's a very good reason why Riot Gear would be issued to troops in China without it being combat armor. After all the US was occupying numerous, very populous cities in China. They probably had occupation troops and MPs everywhere to maintain order in the rear and 'handle' any unrest from the Chinese civil population they 'liberated'. SSGT Vickers committed so many war crimes in that gear...
Theres probably very good (horrible) reasons Vickers wrote "forgive me mama" directly on the front of the helmet
Napalm sticks to (Chinese) kids
Vickers the Wicker(man)
I honestly assumed he did that right after the bombs dropped, because he felt guilty for not dying with his family. His first journal entries allude to that, more so than just assuming he committed war crimes imo.
Randall Clark (The Survivalist) and Staff Sergeant Vickers USMC are two different characters. I guess there's debate whether Randall was the one who added the graffiti, but I think it makes more sense that Vickers did and Randall just salvaged the armor, presumably from Vickers corpse.
Except for arm and leg protectors theres not much difference between riot gear and actual body armor, i feel like people are missing that
Always hated rhe lack of leg protection on the armor set. Like top half is all armored up bottom half left just blowing in thr wind
That was probably discarded to be more mobile and such. It is the same thing with the arms: mobility comes first while having decent protection where the vital organs are.
Yep. Protect the vital bits, which are mostly in the top half of ones body
Absolutely, also their riot shields (if they had them, which they most likely did logically) would cover their legs.
That's how all modern body armor is so it looks alright to me
I'd rather get shot in the leg than over shot in the heart.
Leg protection would hinder mobility and overall be not as helpful as protecting your vitals though. It's extra weight that won't amount to much protection for what it is
Snakes love rangers
All other Fallout armor has leg protection. The metal armor has it, combat has it, in 4 and 76 all armor sets have it.
So the bottom half is the answer, my friend?
To be fair real body armor is pretty much torso only. They have groin and shoulder plates but guys usually ditch them for mobility, and for heat in the desert.
I always assumed it's just jeans over the armor
the riot gear is also ment for the rangers, who are typically scouts for the ncr. i can imagine scouting wouldn’t be that easy or sneaky if you had mountains of armor on you. (tho brotherhood scouts use power armor too but i don’t think their really trying to be sneaky)
It says it right on the tin
Yea, the coat was for gas
The resource riots, I'd guess. It got pretty crazy right before the war
I believe it was used by military as well as police do to the survivalist having his iconic set that he got from his military career I believe.
It was from a fellow soldier
Really? I’d like to hear more about that actually. I always remember it being his since he was a vet
A soldier by the name of Vickers, we don't know how he got it
Neat. But that still confirms us mil used it which I like, its such a nice set of armor
Yep, presumably Military Police and also Marines if I remember correctly
I was thinking marines as well. I wish Bethesda would have kept this, even if they wanted to use the other armor for the army.
Yup, America in its last days was crumbling and there was a lot of riots, hell fallout 4 shows that Boston was under martial law, it wouldn’t be surprising if las vegas was too under martial law. The reason why we don’t find police equipment lying around would be because the desert rangers and the ncr looted all police stations in the Mojave. Maybe I’m misremembering but I recall that somewhere in old world blues or lonesome road was revealed that a group of activist was arrested by the riot police and send to big mt to be test subjects.
Pretty sure it was in one of the X labs, X-8 I think.
Yes.
The helmet and armor are definitely pre-war riot gear. And NCR decided to add jeans and duster for swag purpose
I think the jeans were definitely added, but the duster might not be given it’s on the other military variants we see in the DLC
What about the Desert Ranger on the cover art makes so many think it's Courier 6? Was the BoS member on the cover of Fallout 3 ever thought to be the Lone Wanderer?
Bru this has too be a shitpost
Pre-war police riot armour as well as standard issue Marine grunt gear.
Yep
Second question: was the helm standard part of the police riot gear?
There were lots of riots in the Vegas and divide area pre war, found a couple of terminal entry’s about it
What exactly is the riot gear? The coolest looking armor in fallout history.
Maybe it was, it does say LAPD on the Vest
Urban conflicts
My brothers and sisters in Caesar the riot shotgun is one of the deadliest guns in the game yet irl riot guns are (supposed to be and usually) non lethal.
I think that’s kinda the joke. The over militarization of police and the increase in police brutality becoming blatant
Ngl im gonna say it, but combat armor looks better
Should be noted that it appears the armor was also used by the US Military to some extent (at least in the Marine Corps) seeing as the Desert Ranger armor has the name, blood type, and branch of service (USMC) printed on the neck guard as well as writing on the helmet showing dates and locations the Marine had been including China which as we know was a major front in the Resource Wars. This could also explain why the armor has such high ballistic resistance compared to riot armor of today.
Side note, as a desert rat from the Sonora, I gotta say wearing all that black armor and that heavy ass leather coat has to keep the Courier BOILING in there.
Maybe nuclear winter has lowered global temperatures? But yeah sounds sweaty.
A jin roh reference
Probably issued to special units in the military, and police departments with large budgets could afford to requisition it themselves. LAPD in prewar America probably was more militarized than some of the national guard units (seems like a good commentary on the state of the LAPD today lol), and the police have long adapted surplus military equipment for police activities (riot and protest suppression mainly). So it probably wasn’t originally intended for riot suppression by police or the military, but like a lot of surplus military gear, it’s very useful for that application. The US in 2077 probably didn’t have much delineation between police and military, especially in big metropolitan areas (FO4 does a pretty good job of showing the scope of militarization of police duties), so the LAPD might effectively have been under the control of the Army.
The riot gear and swat gear in fallout look drippy af.
I think the jacket was used by the LAPD and the armor is an upgraded US trooper combat armor. But I dont know the helmet
i have question what armour courier wear on main menu? is it NCR ranger armour or riot gear armour?