I don't know if this has been discussed before, but Obsidian missed a perfect opportunity for DLC companions with Honest Hearts. Not only do players really want to bring a companion back from the DLC's, but Follows-Chalk's companion quest would have synchronized perfectly with the concept. In fact, all that would've needed to be done would be changing his "civilization ending" to an ending where he leaves Zion with the Courier. I can't understand why Obsidian didn't do this, it just seems too perfect.

Because the Mojave is hardly civilized. He's going to California.

It's definitely civilized in comparison to Zion, and he learned of civilization from the Lonesome Drifter, who lives in the Mojave.

Slideshow says he heads West, not South.

He does when we meet him. Follows-Chalk said he moves from place to place singing songs for places to rest so the Mojave is just where he ended up while he was looking for his father. Also he's originally from Montana.

This is hypothetical, of course had Obsidian decided that you be allowed to take Chalk as a companion the ending slide would not be the same.

Nevertheless it shows he's aware that the Mojave Wasteland is a lawless hellhole full of people worse than the white legs.

At least pc will have mods ^_^ I don't like the look of those tribals in the mojave though...it just has a Zion feel..not mojave

I think this would have been easy for them to do:
The Courier: "So you want to leave and see the world huh? How about coming along with me back to the Mojave after all of this?"
Follows-Chalk: "Oh I don't know, I think I should figure out the outside world on my own."
1* The Courier: "[Speech 60] You're sure about that? The outside world has eaten up and spat out many before you."
Follows Chalk: "You make a good point but I've survived the dangers of Zion and White Legs I'm sure I can manage whatever beasts are sent at me."
The Courier: "It isn't the wildlife you should be worried about, it's the people, they aren't all honest folks who want to help and many will manipulate you and cause you harm"
Follows Chalk: "Well... I am excited to see about the outside world... But you do make good points... Okay, if we both survive this then we will meet up back at the Mojave and you can show me the world."

2* The Courier: "[Black Widow] You know, I could use a strong man by my side who can protect me."
Follows Chalk: "Wow, I, um, heh, my words seem to be lost off my tongue, I guess I could do that for you seeing as how you convinced Joshua Grahamm to allow me to explore the world. We'll meet back at the Mojave if we both survive this."

3*The Courier: "[Survival 60] Tribals are very good at living off the land and hunt, but they are not as good to interact with people, you won't survive the "civilized" world."
Follows Chalk: "What do you mean by that? We cannot interact with people? I am speaking to you right now are I not?
The Courier: "You may be able to speak our language but you do not understand our culture, how are people deceit and stab each other in the back for the slightest things"
Follows Chalk: "Oh... I don't know, maybe I should just stay with the Dead Horses, I don't want to get killed in your world from something I cannot understand."
The Courier: "You can still go to the civilized world, but do it with me, I'll help you understand my world and you'll help me understand the wasteland better."
Follows Chalk: "I do wish to see the world, and if we can exchange our knowledge with one another to both survive then it would serve us both greatly. Alright, if we both survive this we'll find each other in the Mojave.

Could've worked right?

What is it with all you guys?
Fallout 1 and 2 didn't even have add-ons.
Then Fallout 3 gives us add-ons but no companions added.
Then Fallout: NV gives us companions specific to add-ons and now you moan can't take the companions back to the main game?
What will you moan about if FO4 gives you this feature? :whistling:

Benjamin, Desmond, Elliot, Paulson and Somah would beg to differ.

Oh yeah you're right of course. Though none of them would follow you "freely" like the two tribal companions? You only had them for specific quest.

But you're right anyway. Carry on moaning

Yes, but it has too much of a "street" feel to it and the engine cannot allow that long of a dialogue choice for the Courier.

I frankly don't understand why Obsidian didn't (yet?) do this. I can understand the devs not creating, for example, a pet Yao Guai. This way they'll have something new to introduce in future installments. In this case though, we already have access to the companions we'd like (Dean, The Merge, Follows-Chalk, Joshua) but not in the locations we'd like. I really can't understand the reasoning behind that. For Dean especially. What, he got eaten by a coyote halfway to Vegas or something? Why isn't he there?

I believe the issue has always been that companions' AI/scripting does not work when crossing from one world map to another. This is why we've never been able to bring companions along to DLC in NV or FO3.

Why do they have to "come with us" ?
Can't they just pop up in Vegas at a reasonable place and allow us to recruit them there?
That way they just have to script it so that after the DLC, they disappear from the DLC area, but the script recreates the companion at an appropriate place in the Mojave.
With the ending slider saying of course that "Bla bla bla, bla bla bla, bla bla, bla, bla bla bla, X went to the Mojave to bla bla bla".

Yeah, they can even have him be a "different" NPC with a different ID, like post upgrade ED-E, or just De-spawn him from Zion and spawn him in the Mojave. I see no reason why they could not do this.

To those arguing in favor of this: where, other than the disneyland-esque Vegas strip, is the Mojave civilized? As in, where are there cities?

Well no cities, but many towns are not much worse off than rural towns in America, although you could argue that isn't "civilization"

Goodsprings is not much worse off than it was pre-war after you save it from the Powder Gang.
Primm likewise.

Novac is a quiet little town but it has plenty of creature comforts, I mean it's a motel!

Hoover Dam isn't a city but it's pretty civilized, and the BOS bunker is also civilized. Also, you can show him the NCR and the Legion, which are two different ideas of civilization.

Westside and Freeside aren't really civilized, but they are urban sprawl, albeit in decay, like Detroit today(Again, is that really civilization?). Plus, once he's in the Mojave he always has the option to go to the NCR via the Mojave outpost.

If they had made him a companion they could have an ending slide for the MAIN game once you beat the final mission that says that he went to the NCR after his travels with you, then decided that civilization was crap no matter what it was and moved back to Zion.

My game glitched and Cass came with me to Zion, and there was no issues with her AI or whathaveyou. At least I think it was a glitch, though I'm not sure, seeing as I'm on the PC and I do have several mods running, though none that are supposed to affect DLC.

EDIT: Also, she was talking during the slideshow about being glad she doesn't have to drag a caravan around, even though the DLC has you join a caravan, so I thought it was pretty funny.

As anyone who has poked about in the GECK and tried to make a companion mod will know, the game's scripts do explicit checks for the vanilla companions on a one-by-one basis in several locations like this:

if VNPCFollowers.bBooneHired == 1			...elseif VNPCFollowers.bCassHired == 1...elseif VNPCFollowers.bVeronicaHired == 1...

Examples would be removing weapons when getting frisked at a casino, making companions wait when you go up to the Lucky 38 Penthouse to see Mr House, and so on. An extra companion would have to be added to each of the scripts which work in this way, and there are quite a lot of them. Also, since only one mod/DLC can change a script at a time it would never be possible to add more than one new companion. There are ways around it which modders use but I'm guessing the devs probably think it would be more trouble than its worth.

I'm too busying beastin' with Boone

He is my most favorite companion now.

I prefer his talk than Radio :hehe:

:cryvaultboy: the down side is this if you have a pc you can change alot of things or somone will write a mod etc but if your an xbox freak :celebration: you are stuck with what ever they put out. i just think we should get a few more things to pick from? and on the topic about missed things look at all the homes buildings etc that are all boarded up we could have went thru or made a home in so along those lines i am with you :flamethrower:

I like it the way they are now to be honest, as they are apart of that particular setting, and rather upset the spoils. I'd ratehr see something where, instead of the companion travelling with me, they have there ambitions within the game/DLC and you can travel back to see this, or you see a particular happening within the later stages of the game.

Eg.. If Follows-Chalk wanted to start a family, later on in the game, you travel back to Zion and see that he has settled with a wife/lover and they have there home, if its a couple of years futher advanced in the game, they actually have a child..
or, if he wants to explore the Mojave, you may see him at a random encounter, or at a town, or you may see his dead body somewhere..