As always in Bethesda games, there's minor flaws that will irritate you. But you look past them because the total game experience is just amazing.

But in Fallout 4 the thing that irritates me more than ever is the followers IA, and I can't look past it anymore. Fallout 4 have the worst followers I ever seen in a Bethesda game.

Followers have always been irritating, but you could stand them.

In previous games I've played (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, New Vegas) the followers usually either stay behind you, or they run towards the enemy like headless chickens.

But in Fallout 4 they do not stay behind you, nor run off, they place them self right in front of you. Blocking your sight and aim.

I do know they are ment to draw fire, and be 'meat shields' for you, but blocking your sight is just putting you in more danger since you can't shoot the enemy because of the follower. I want to be able to aim at my enemies, not to aim up my followers ass..

In previous games, I liked to have the followers company, but in Fallout 4 I can't wait to unlock the followers perk, so I can dump them as the trash they are.

There will soon be mods to fix such problems, but it's really sad that Bethesda have made such crappy followers, which should be an important part of the game experience.

A small thank you Bethesda for an mediocre game experience, and very big thank you to the moders that will fix such flaws in the future..

I love how the moment you try to talk to them to trade something they run away.

New Vegas isn't a Beth game, but yeah, I agree with everything you've said. It is frustrating, the constant vying with your follower to get a clear view. Fortunately, this will be fixed with mods soon enough.

for me non of the 2 are good, =P. Followers AI is a problem is most game, and i dont mean just Bethesda game. DA companions AI is mess up too, having healing or caster running to melee and getting kills. I still looking for a game with a good companion AI.

AI in Bethesda games was newer great. In their defense, programming AI in massive open world game is very difficult.

That said, AI in Fallout 4 is the best I saw in Fallout/Elder Scrolls series and I truly enjoy Dogmean as a companion. You can see that lot of work went in to that character. Yes followers do run in to your way, which is something to be expected. You can't program AI that will be able to predict your intentions. However they do so less often then in previous games. Also when they do, they tend to go out of the way unlike in previous games.

I also like that they are programmed to stay slightly in front of the player in normal mode and behind the player in sneak mode. Or so they seem. With Dogmeat this works excellently. It's exactly what you would expect dog to do.

My only complain is terrible command interface. If there was simple key shortcut which would gave orders to companions directly, without need to click on them and select them (there is just one companion anyway), commanding them would be much easier and fluid. In combat you don't have time to clicking on them all the time you want to issue command. What I end up doing is to select companion before expected combat and then maintaining selection through engagement. But that screws targeting reticle and interferes with iron sights.

I would also like to see Dragon Age Origins style interface for customization of their behavior. Even if it would be more simplified. That's not something too difficult to program, especially since AI behavior is set as series of "if / then" anyway. All you need to do is to make it dynamic and create interface for player to access it. Or part of it.

You guys do realize that AI is a misnomer, there is no such thing. It's just code.

No way??? Just code? Wow..

Dude, no one likes a smart ass. Especiallyt those who tries to be one, and don't succeed doing that..

Speaking of people trying to be a smart ass, you mistyped "AI" ....which is ironic.

LOL! I did in deed. But I was not a smart ass about it though.

When I'm trying to use cover I'm fighting my companion for the same spot. When I say "f it" and go guns blazing out in the open I'm shooting my companion in the back more often than enemies. When I'm trying to backpedal and shoot companions are right behind me. When I'm trying to strafe around and quickly collect some loot they suddenly want to stand next to me. Want to trade some things and NOW they don't want to stay close enough to talk to. Hate to say it but pistol whipping companions so they get out of my way is a very common thing in FO4. I had none of these problems in Skyrim and I drug Lydia around everywhere.

True. Maybe Bethesda should keep letting Obsidian make these games..

In every game there are flaws that irritate you, as in books, movies, and life in general. Just saying its not exclusive to Bethesda games.

Yeah that can be discussed in the Fallout series discussion part of the forum. You'll find a crowd there that wants the same.

Never said anything else..

Can't really speak to the human followers because I've only briefly tried Piper and Preston and got tired of them judging every little tomato I swiped from the marketplace . . . My latest character is a Lone Wanderer type so really only Dogmeat.

I agree he is an amazingly well-done 'entity;' amazingly lifelike dog and based on one forumites comments his zipping and darting behavior really does reflect how German Shepherds tend to behave. He carries a reasonable amount, he generally obeys stealth code of ethics (and the rare times he doesn't are excusable as every dog has his day right?), he is indestructible, which is nice because he tends to get in over his head a lot and fall of of skyscraqers and the like. . . I noticed that (compared to say, Faendal or Lydia in Skyrim) he is MUCH less prone to come charging right behind me when I step into a small room or closet or other cul de sac to grab loot or just look around. That right there is a huge improvement. He also seems to understand how to be stealthy which is an improvement over Skyrim vanilla followers.

His main foibles:

1. Whenever I want to trade with him he seems to run away. I have to tell him "Here boy! Come HERE!" and point right at the ground, and then only AFTER he has run over can I then point my cursor at him and have him NOT turn and run. It almost seems like, whenever the distance between player and Dogmeat is under some threshold, having the cursor point in his general direction and moving toward him causes him to turn and run.

2. He has a lot of trouble getting out of my way sometimes, especially when I am going through doorways.

3. He occasionally gets up to close to me when I'm skulking about sniping enemies at a distance and I am focused on the distance and trying to move backward or sideways and he is just standing there blocking me.

You're just unlucky OP. I almost never have trouble with companions.

Guy above me (sorry I'm a [censored] quoter) on your number 3 issue with Dogmeat, that's normal dog behavior you're focused on something important he doesn't understand so he's gotta poke you for attention!

Pretty straight forward with Dogmeat. Tell him to go look for enenmies, wait for him whimpering, then engage....Naaah just kidding.

It does get absurd tho, how close he follows you, only to run away when you want to interact with him Usually he will block path (doorways being a specialty of his!) or run off and pull a dozen enemies in the vicinity *sigh*

However, since he is the only companion I've played with so far (Lone Wanderer perk, dunno if it stills work tho) I feel kinda bad leaving him behind, since he followed me almost from the beginning and onwards. I will, however, use the first mod that disables collision with companions, to save me some stress and a keyboard Anyways, Dogmeat suits me fine, as I am usually a lone wolf, and would rather not have other humans traveling with me (I used ED-E in NV for example)

But yes, a better AI would be fine, altho I think a no-collision mod is the way for me

Exactly the same issues as I got.

Until now I've put up with the followers since I wanted their perks, but I no longer thinks the perks are worth it.

My favorite follower is Dogmeat, he's the least annoying one of those I had so far. But I'm thinking of getting the wanderer perk just so I can go without followers.

And if you think Dogmeat is in the way, just wait for the human(oid) followers, they make Dogmeat shine.

Give them melee weapons and they go up many tiers of usefulness, even more so if you give them a real treasure of a baseball bat. They stop hovering over you and go in neck deep in bullets to send things flying.

The way Dogmeat runs off to engage enemies is actually great compared to the other followers. They will usually just stand/crouch in front of you acting stupid while they block your aim trying to shoot the enemies..

Now that's a great tip. I will try this in deed. Thanks.

Well, to be precise, it's not even code, it's more a menu system of check boxes, conditions and cell/target locations - though ultimately everything is converted to machine code of 1's and 0's.

I actually love followers in Fallout 4. Usually I just have one specific person for back-up/help in combat situations and tell him to wait when sneaking but now? I can literally work with my companion as part of a team! For example, with my sneak character... I'll tell him to attack the lone guy, which will attracting the "snipers" attention, giving me room to get up to my targets and take them out. Or I can even work with my companion to stun-lock a Deathclaw! (That was hilarious). Heck, even general firefight when a raider or maybe a gunner is trying to ambush us, I'll direct my follower on them while I take out the central group. Or, even direct my companion around the field quickly and to target certain enemies (from behind) while I am in the middle, in Power Armor, absorbing all of the enemy's damage, killing the biggest targets.

To top it all off, most of the followers are pretty great and have unique personalities. I enjoy listening to them and their thoughts as we work together.