The companion AI is fubar. I have them set on passive, yet every time they see an enemy they charge off and most of the time get themselves killed. I'm tired of babysitting them, but often you need them along on certain quests, and when they are in DESIRED combat, they're often very useful. How about it?

If it ever happens again, tell them to wait. And then either take the enemy out quietly or let it pass by.

When I use Boone, he tends to pull out his gun and start walking towards the enemy. The second I tell him to wait, he disengages.

Make a poll and I'll vote for it. Make a petition and I'll sign it. With you 110%.

This only happens with the pets for me, but sometimes they even go hostile against neutral NPC's. Taking Rex into hoover dam or ED-E into the NCRCF (i'm idolized by powder gangers so they are friendly there) is always a toss up as to whether everyone immediately starts shooting.

In passive they will still attack things that aggro to you so if a enemy has seen you they will attack. If your sneaking though and the enemy has not spotted you yet they won't attack till the enemy knows your there.you don't have to fire first for them to attack in passive only be seen by the enemy.

I vote yes... The companion wheel is pathetically underpowered (other than to instantly heal companions via stimpaks in hardcoe mode)... Why wouldn't such a highly touted new feature NOT include such a stalwart option of squad control as "ATTACK ONLY WHEN ATTACKED"?

i lost Rex ... forgot where i told him to stay and now hes lost forever. please patch that

Allowing us to bring up the companion wheel WITHOUT clicking on the companion would go a long way to fixing these problems... Nothing worse than trying to find and click on your companion in the middle of a fierce battle JUST to tell them to use a stimpak.

I agree with thread starter and this ^, i am sure at least some of the devs have played this, and fallout 3 on the PC, probably most of them have, i know it's not that hard to add something like a DK_BulletTime activator.

go into the inventory, click it, then the companion wheel pops up when you look away from the pipboy, the way they advertise the wheel i was shocked this was missing tbh....

actually i might have to try to learn slightly more about the geck and do it myself if some1 hasn't already.

for those that dont know this, you could probably teach a monkey to use the geck, it really is that easy and user friendly.

This would be so useful !

Feels like they spot an enemy miles away and whilst your still hearing the "uh-oh" Veronica is off in the distance bashing in some NCR guys your trying to be friendly with.

I have tried this since you replied and this does not work for me. I swear Boone and Rex are suicidal.

They really need some kind of line of sight restriction when set to passive, whenever I take them indoors (like into a vault) it's just a non-stop mad dash to even keep up with them. svcks big time. Not very passive when my companion is going down three flights of stairs to fight something.

During gameplay (I'm on Hard difficulty with hardcoe mode), if there is an enemy showing as a red pip on the compass, both Boone and Rex will seek them and attack, even if they have not been spotted. I realize the enemies in the game can use sound to identify where you and your companions are, but I would really like the option to have them hold off on the attack until the enemy is in view and actually attacking either me or the companion, not just when they're looking for me.

Exactly, and well said.

second this motion!

I agree with you guys here, i do like the idea of companions but i really only use them for pack mules and for 2 buffs, ED-E's and Boones. The others are not really all that impressive. My biggest issue so far is that even with them set to passive, set to stay back, when i am creeping around looking for the right angle to bust a melon i can not tell you how many times i have killed my own companion as i am in scope mode and the companion will creep clip into my character and get shot by me as i try to take out an enemy at range. Stay back means stay back, passive should mean do nothing until either the player does, or the creature actually attacks the player. With high sneak even if a creature sees me i can still sometimes by not moving, sliding back behind an object, closing a door, cause them to loose aggro, right up until the passive companion charges out in front (totally in the way i might add) stirring up a hornets nest.

Any more i just use ED-E and i use it as a pack mule, I park it at the begining of every level only returning to it as i need to offload items i intend to sell or keep. It seems a shame to waste the effort to put the companions in the game, program the companion wheel yet leave out some simple functionability and it should not be up to the mod community to fix this issue. Although i will agree it is a mixed bag waiting the corporate wheels to grind slowly, getting some effite executive to authorize after many lengthy meetings the funds, and the scope of the changes, when a modder can do in 20 minutes what would take the developer weeks to decide to do.

I do agreee OP the companions are a bit difficult to control but even with the inconsistencies of behavior, the reloads necessary to go back to a point in the game before the companion got lost beyond retreival, the limited ability to set a home base for companions (i should be able to send them to where i want not just thier original pick up point or the Lucky 38), the lack of ability to outfit them as you choose (i wanted to put all companions in Dirty Pre war bussiness ware but they will not wear it, i was going for the "Pulp Fiction" look), in spite of all these minor issues, in all honesty, it sure does beat no companions at all.

Asai

The, err, enthusiasm of my companions did annoy me at first but now I think it quite fun, 'Oh you two. What are you up to now?'. Reminds me of playing an MMO where your party has already started the Rambo routine before you can even ask about any plan. Very realistic, lol.

When sneeking your companions will enter aggressive mode as soon as 'Caution' appears on the screen, at this point you have perhaps a few seconds to reset the aggression by taking whatever action is necessary to return to the 'Hidden' state.

Of the companions I've tried, Ed-E appears to be a law unto himself: his attack on a travelling merchant was totally unexpected, his attempt to solo an entire and friendly to me NCR base was not so unexpected but did require a re-load, hehe. I think Cass should also be a bit random like this, one too many whiskeys and her temper should flare

It wouldn't be a problem if the "don't enage until I engage" option actually meant they didn't attack until you did.

It also would help if they healed themsleves during a fight.

Finally it would be fantastic if you didn't have to run up and "use" your companion to communicate with them because it svcks to have to chase after a melee companion trying to stop them running off to another level of the map because you or they detected enemy movement out of sight.

In short, the companion wheel didn't fix anything.

I don't want an auto-healing companion and I kinda like having to dash close to heal them (feels like trying to rush over to help a fallen comrade), but count me in on a vote for the "don't attack unless either the PC or yourself takes actual damage" AI option, as well as a "don't do anything at all but sit here, ever" Wait option.

Nothing like sneaking around Quarry Junction with Veronica, lining up a shot on a Deathclaw with the AMR, and then hearing the pop-pop-pop of her highly ineffective 10mm pistol giving our position away. And yes, I'd given her a laser rifle but she always goes back to the peashooter.

I wish I could keep the companions on a leash so that they never move more than ten feet away.

one I would like to see return from fallout 2:

distance leash, like stay close to me.

The worst part is that even if I set Rex to passive AND tell him to wait somewhere, he will still charge in once I'm attacked, even if it's away from where I left him. I swear this must be a bug because in Fallout 3 telling them to wait actually meant they would stay where they were no matter what, at least for the temporary companions.

Works pretty well if you are in 'sneak' mode...

It's the same gripe people had about Dogmeat in F3, with the same answer...

Yep, I stopped bothering with companions because of this. At first I did the tell them to wait thing and just used them to carry stuff. But I didn't like reducing them into little more than a pack brahmin. So now I just don't bother.

A don't attack unless damaged command would solve it (damaged because even if they are attacked, fired at or chased you don't want them to respond unless they're actually taking damage).

Then I could take my companion through Scorpion Gulch instead of trapsing all the way around and what a glorious day that would be. Or take them into a dungeon without them running off down a corridor chasing a rat or something.