So while I see the logic behind making companions unkillable (you're going to just reload the save if the companion dies because you don't want to lose them), I feel like it kind of breaks both immersion and difficulty a bit too much. One of my biggest complaints with NV was making companions immortal; it feels unfair to have an unkillable bullet sponge that can also dish out significant damage; its a perfectly viable strategy for me to just hide in a corner while Veronica runs around in power armor beating the crap out of everyone with a ballistic fist- if she goes down, all I have to do is mop up the one or two people she couldn't get, and bam- nothing lost.
Now I understand I could enforce a 'reload last save' policy on myself if my companion goes down, but it would be much nicer if there was an in-game option to automatically kick you back to last save-point if your companion goes down. I doubt Beth will give us this much option customization, but hopefully there will be a mod down the road for it (God I'm so excited that the Xbox is getting mods).

I think the best option would be to just down the companion for the remainder of that fight; that way, if you tried to hide while your buddy killed everything, they'd eventually get KO'd and you'd have to either heal them or finish the battle yourself.

Any kind of big thing like sending the companion away or giving them a huge debuff will eventually just motivate players to reload anyway, so the failstate has to be handled well. I really liked how Skyrim gave you reasons not to reload if you were caught committing a crime or accruing a bounty, with some of the radiant encounters that would only be triggered by publicly assaulting someone or getting a really high bounty.

But that's what I'm saying; having them be down for the rest of the fight doesn't work, precisely because you can just hide in a corner and let them do all the heavy lifting. I'm not suggesting having them be sent away or having a debuff, I'm suggesting the game does the "grey out death screen with the sad music", except it shows your buddy going down, instead of you. Then boom, autoreload last save. Your partner dying should carry the same consequences as you dying- namely, reloading the save.

Idk I like the idea on hardcoe for companions to die but it's probably better they KO. Sometimes it annoying how they get there self in dumb situations. Not enough control to have them die in the previous games

I could work with that. If it was an option or on hardcoe

Honestly, you can just enforce this on yourself. Would take, what, five second of elbow grease to revert back to the previous save...? There's no need for a hard-coded feature we can do ourselves just for the sake of "yay options".

That was what Todd said during the interview.

If "killed" Dogmeat would go down but would recover after the fight.

You could also use a stimpack on him to get him back in to the fight.

Also the other companions would be the same way.

Boy... way less load screens and Bethesda is trying to make Sole Survivor Death the only reason a player has to reload.

Should be much more immersive.

Like someone said, if your companion goes down they should only come back once the fight has ended and the threat has been eliminated.

I could see them starting out at say 50% then getting back to 100% over 10 minutes or so.

Faster if you give them or use on them some medical supplies.

But I don't want to have to personally heal every lost hit point.

It you are using Stim Packs heal over time, it can take forever to heal up Dog Meat.

Maybe they will give us an options menu so we can determine if they use medical supplies or not, or need ammo for their main weapon, or how long they take to recover.

What I would like to see is your companions demanding a share of the caps!

Not a 50/50 share but if they are risking their lives with the Lone Survivor out in the Wasteland then they deserve at least a 10 or 20% share.

Then later when you are back at home base, you could see them spend their share.
One of them might use it to buy base ball memorabilia, another on bar hopping and babes, another on improving his weapons, and another could send it home to his or her mother.

Sure would make them seem more alive.

If it was a party based game where you controlled every action of your companion and could switch to control them directly then your idea would be fine if annoying. However as it is they just do whatever they want. Why should I get a gameover if my companion runs onto a mine or is killed by a grenade because they don't know to dodge, or is bumped off a cliff because they stood too close? Make the companions less powerful and make them knocked out until the fight is over if they go down and have them crippled when they get up. Problem solved.

For me that would get annoying very fast.

I really like that the companion will just get knocked out until the battle is over. I could be completely out of Stimpaks and end up losing battles because I couldn't revive companions. At least I'll have that chance to find out. If my companion is the first to die then get kicked back to a reload I'd probably throw my keyboard across the room.

Reloading for a companion's death is a pain and I'm glad it is gone.

But having the companions kill everyone for you is also a pain.

Actually I'm kind of hoping there is some mechanic to keep the companions in F4 from pulling a Boone and just killing every thing.

I'd rather companions keep a couple of the opposition busy until I could deal with them so I get my fair share of the fight.

Now if Boone would have just kept them pinned down by killing one of them instead of just out right killing them all, that would have been better.

I would rarther my companions can die but have better AI. In fallout 3 if my companions died I left them dead. Thus why I spent most of my time alone as only fawkes could survive big fights. It was anoying however when they would die just running into the middle of the battle.

I disagree. If my companion can kill them without dying I hope they do, this could be a tactical option though.

I always leave companions that can't handle themselves in a situation back a bit from the action in F3. Sorta like how you had to have Dr. Li and her crew hang back, while traveling to the Citadel. You don't have to (unless a deathclaw falls from the sky) worry about them getting killed this way.

I do think that if the companions are essential enough to the story, that there should be some game over type of fail. Possibly with failure slides. I would hope it is a consideration for HC mode, at least.

If they have an unconscious state, that should be easy to flag an NPC going out as a "death for the game", no?