(WARNING: Companion/Weapon minor spoilers)

Ok folks,

From the very first gunfight in FNV, I knew something was wrong with NPCs and their fire rates. They shoot about twice as fast as an NPC would in Fallout 3. If you want to see what I mean, just put a Chinese Assault Rifle in Jericho's hands in F3, you will hear him fire at an unpredictable rate (pop....pop pop....pop pop pop pop...pop) and also depending on how far the enemy is, he will run up closer before shooting (and thats with a rifle).

In New Vegas, you can give a companion a 10mm pistol, and they will still fire from a long range even though they have almost no chance to hit. Worse yet, their fire rate will be as fast as is possible (pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop repeating).

This bug is why I don't put a big gun on any companion, nor give them any non-default weapons unless I have 1k ammunition to give them. They use 100 or more bullets to kill a group of fiends, and thats with or without a single shot weapon. Keep in mind, I've not opened my mouth about this until now because I thought it was a leveling issue. Right now I am level 30, Cass has 100 small guns skill and the perk from her sidequest giving her more accuracy with guns (The Vault also lists her as having 10 PE - More than me!!!). I have had her use a cowboy repeater, a caravan shotgun, All-American, Gobi Rifle, .50 caliber sniper rifle, and light machine gun and have noticed these problems every time. She has 10 strength, so it's not that either. It seems the only way to prevent a companion from wasting ammo is by giving them a weapon that's slow in between shots, such as the .50 cal. And by the way, it's not just her. I used boone for awhile and noticed the same problem, and whenever I fight NPCs the same issue happens.

I also believe that perception plays a role in this for 3 reasons:
1.) I've heard on these forums that perception is bugged, and it does not affect gun accuracy (anyone confirm?)
2.) I started my char with 7 PE, I have 9 now with intense training and the implant. 100 Guns skill. I still have trouble sniping from far distances.
3.) It's logical. If perception doesn't affect weapon accuracy, then these NPCs aren't passing distance or accuracy checks before firing, which is precisely why they fire at the distances and rates they do...a BASIC feature you would expect in a game like this, but no, they currently do not exist. They all just spray and pray.

So I'm going to give you a few ingame scenarios where I noticed this and took screenshots in anticipation of bringing this issue up on the forums:

-(Level 30) Out in quarry junction, at the distance shown in the screenshot, cass just kept firing over and over again at a baby deathclaw and missed over and over again with the gobi rifle despite the fact that it was medium range when she started shooting. I had to put the claw down because she couldn't. Screenshot here: http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6954/screenshot13xc.jpg

-(Level 30) Out in Bittersprings, I accidentally shot a NCR trooper when meaning to steal, and before loading my game I decided to have a little shootout. Cass has the Gobi rifle again, missing the NCR trooper circled in red between 10-14 times (she reloaded twice). Screenshot here: http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8510/screenshot12w.jpg

-(Level 30) Near Vault 19, I was doing some deathclaw sniping and once again she kept missing over and over again with the Gobi rifle. My .50 cal was the only reason why the both of us didn't get killed by the deathclaw (Ignore the dead deathclaw to the left, that was an earlier kill). Screenshot here: http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6897/screenshot14sj.jpg

-(Level 30) Engaging fiends around the southern outskirts of New Vegas. It was after this event I just took the rifle away from her, because it took 2 All-American magazines to kill this one guy in the rear with a pool cue running at us. Screenshot here: http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4366/screenshot0j.jpg

-(Level 30) I shot at the powder ganger's house long enough to the point that they or Cass would detect each others' presence and start firing. 3 of them wandered around unsure where the fire was coming from, one of them had a 10mm SMG and shot at us while running, the fire coming nowhere even close (I think I got hit by 1 round or something) Cass exchanged fire for about 20 seconds, hitting him maybe twice, and that guy never died until I shot him. Screenshot here: http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/9673/screenshot15eu.jpg fyi, I killed the three dead Powder Gangers.

-(Level 30) Doing the Ranger Estaban's corpse quest, and I shot the first guy who is sitting there dead on the roof. The other guy I was going to kill until I zoomed out and decided to watch instead, realizing what a great opportunity this would be to test NPC range. The fiend did not even detect us despite us shooting at him and his friend lying there dead, and Cass, with the .50 cal sniper rifle, just sat there...and sat there...and sat there...shooting over and over again and not hitting the target even once. Folks - think or say what you want. This would NOT HAPPEN IN FALLOUT 3. Screenshot here: http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8268/screenshot2xd.jpg

-(Level 30) More fiend fighting. Similar range to other encounters, she fired more than 1 magazine to take him down, at the same rate of fire as described at the beginning and the same rate of fire as all the other screenshots. You can see the guy is still standing even after casing after casing is coming out of one of the most powerful ranged weapons in the entire game, on a follower with 100 guns and 10 perception. Also, circled in green is ED-E's "accuracy." Screenshot here: http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6392/screenshot1lg.jpg

-(Level 30) I don't have a screenshot on this one but you can try it out yourself, I just remembered it. There's a group of 3 fiends sitting around a flaming barrel on the far west of the map, near the Fiend hideout, with a 'dissassembled weapons cache' nearby that looks like a footlocker. Fast travel to the Beer shack where all the cazadores are, and once you've killed the cazadores, fire at the Fiends from the cliffs overlooking the group of fiends. These guys have lever-action shotguns with regular 20 gauge rounds and THEY STILL FIRE AT YOU from that long distance.

That does it for my screenshots so far as I only decided to take them a couple days ago. This is a great game, I completely agree, but you can't deny that the developers seriously fudged up when they made a fallout game where perception doesn't affect weapon accuracy. It doesn't matter whether that's a bug or not, that's like strength not affecting carry weight, or agility not affecting action points. People take perception in fallout games because they want to be accurate - period. In this game, it does nothing, and this needs to be fixed ASAP. I don't know how it can be proven better than showing the results of a 10 PE / 100 guns character like I have here. But perception in this game is bugged and the NPCs have no checks to pass before pulling the trigger.

Fix or a mod, please.

Am I really the only one who has noticed this problem?

Well I tend to use Boone and I let him use his sniper and he seems to fire it at a steady rate (pop... pop... pop...pop...) but then again that might be because his gun is his modded Hunting Rifle and the Hunting rifle doesn't have the highest rate of fire.

I haven't had a companion long enough to notice. People kill him for no reason, so I shelved the game for now.

Edit: Never Mind.

from the time ive played ive noticed that perception does absolutely nothing for accuracy, hell i dont even think weapon health affects accuracy either.

i never take companions with me at all, i just recruit them and make them wait in the lucky 38.But in the end if i ever took a companion i never saw a purpose in giving them a different gun, they would just waste ammo and cause it to degrade with not much accomplished. i regretted ever giving boone a sniper rifle, after getting it back it was around %20 hp after only killing maybe 10 enemies, and i like to be efficient so reverted him back to endless ammo base weapon and never used another npc again to travel with me.

Highly recommend this mod for anyone who is also frustrated by this bug. Unfortunately though, it still doesn't change the fact that no checks are made whatsoever, so a guy with a shotgun and 2 PE will still fire from ridiculous lengths.

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35588

I had same grief until I found this auto-aim disabler at Nexus. Now when I put my crosshairs on a Deathclaw's head, or any critter/person from extreme range, the bullet WILL hit. This way the weapon/strength skills stays where it belongs, in VATS. It removes the bs 'real-time dice roll'.
I've found it immensly helps companions 'spray-and-pray' ammo wasting.
As for the refire rate, they fire no faster than I can. I can empty the All-American in about 4 secs, and Lucky in 2. It's all about hitting fire at the right time.

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34723

Played 4 hours with it, didn't notice much of a difference. The fire rates are the same and so is the script to fire at ridiculous distances..