This stuff may have been hashed over in the past, dunno, haven't been reading here constantly, just off and on the past couple weeks. Anyways, two things about your companions that I would love to see changed (or made options):

1) Make it so that they don't automatically go into Rambo "CHARGE! KILL!!!" mode the second an enemy goes into red 'CAUTION' mode. There is simply no need for this, and I can't for the life of me figure out why it was set this way by default. If it was supposed to help the player, it most surely does NOT. I've gotten into more trouble, and killed, and my best plans screwed, and a lot of potential fun turned into un-fun stupidity, due to this happening. If they were set to sit still and NOT get all Rambo during caution periods, than more often than not, the enemies will give up looking and go back to picking their noses or playing pinochle, which is exactly what sensible stealth players want. You don't want your companions going nuclear every time you stealthily pick off some vermin and it's buddies start looking around and thinking "huh? whu? what was that??" You want them to wait until there is no option left but to attack. If I want a bunch of mobs charging me, I want it to be because *I* initiated it, not my brain-dead companions. Going Rambo AFTER the enemies hit 'DANGER!' mode, fine. That's what you want. Devs, could you please either change this, or at least put in a game option for the player to change it, if we want? Mucho needed, that one.

2) Make it so that any companion can pack ANY armor piece, regardless of faction. I understand they apparently go through a 'can i wear this?' check whenever you try to pass them an armor, and if it's a faction they get all emo over, they refuse to wear it. Fine. Don't wear it, you idiot... SO PUT IT IN YOUR PACK THEN AND HAUL IT FOR ME BECAUSE I TOLD YOU TO, AND SHUT UP! Jeebus. All you would have to do is change the code from identify armor > can i wear it? > no > drop on ground... to identify armor > can i wear it? > no > put it in my pack instead of wearing it. Major annoyance when you're on a long haul, and need caps bad, and you gotta keep running back to town early because your silly companions are too good to pack some heavy armors for you (I'm looking at you, Boone, you Legion-hater...). And the same goes for non-human companions too... why should ED-E or the dog have any moral concerns about packing any particular faction's armor in their pack? Come on. This really needs fixed too, thanks in advance!

1): Change them to Passive then.

They are on passive. That is the default passive behavior. As sson as a mob enables the 'caution' flag, boom! They go Rambo. The only difference between passive and aggressive, is that on aggressive they go Rambo as soon as a mob comes into their awareness range, regardless of how it's flagged.

They're your companions and they're protecting you. They can't be sure if you saw the enemies, or are just busy squatting behind a bush to take care of some business, so they attack.

But yes, I think most agree that a 3rd "do not attack until I've fired a first shot/take actual damage" option, or something like that, would have been nice.

I figured it was probably set that way so that total n00bs would have a way to figure out they were being attacked, before they were dead on the ground . That and the stupid, annoying music that ED-E plays whenever he goes Rambo. But, after a few hours learning the ropes, there really should be no need for either of those annoyances, anymore.

Unless you are already an overpowered Rambo yourself, or you just like charging headfirst and upright into every dangerous situation, you use stealth when you approach those red markers on your map. Anyone who's spent any time in stealth mode without companions along (although this is NOT my preferred style), knows that you can get away with a whole lot more when you don't have them auto-attacking on every caution flag. Caution means an enemy hasn't locked onto you yet, and only *suspects* you're out there, and maybe the direction they thought they heard/glimpsed you from. They are not in attack mode at that point. They are in 'Huh? Whatwazzat?' mode. If you just hold still, or maybe slip out of sight behind a boulder or drop below the rise you're on, they will often lose you altogether and go back into finger-up-butt mode, letting you get in another shot at them from stealth. If they fully spot you, and get a lock on you, then your stealth indicator goes from CAUTION, to DANGER!'. Pretty obvious, that. That is when companions need to be set to auto attack- when the enemies have fully spotted you and are actively attacking you. Not before. Caution- NO! Danger- YES!

Having them attack on your first shot? Not so good if you are trying to pick enemies off from stealth, and stay undetected afterward. Same with having them attack after you've taken damage... if it's a Deathclaw comin' at me, I want them intercepting it before it gets to me, not waiting till I get swatted over the next hill in pieces. No, the best method is just to set them to autoattack when mobs leave caution mode and enter danger-attack mode.

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41396 and it's recommended compatible tie-in mods should solve most of your behavior issues with companions.

Specifically settings that deal with your passive behavior complaints: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/images/41396-1-1303270709.jpg

How come I can Search the Nexus for hours and never come across these things? Don't need it right now, but *bookmarked for future reference*

not really behavior but just found today that when you give them a modded weapon they dont have the mods when they use them.i wanted boone to use a silent sniper since he was charging about on kamakaze missions while im tryin to be stealthy i at least wanted his shots to be silent.also the way they they repeat their
same dialogue over and over again is really annoying.i know there has to be some limit but they seem to have only 2 or three lines most of the time while they are walking with you and the lines themselves are annoying.like when boone says "whats your problem when you fire a shot".my problem is the damn deathclaw running at me.also when you walk past a room with an enemy in and they hear you and go into caution companions stop and stare at the wall and wont move until the enemy thinks no ones there which sometimes takes forever and sometimes you cant get in that room staight away to waste the guy so you have to carry on without
them or knock them unconcious and carry them away.and the last thing i can think of i just discovered today.not sure if this is just in one place but in vault 3 where its flooded i swam down but he couldnt dive under the ceiling so he just got stuck there i came back on myself hoping hed just get back out and i could tell him to wait for me but he just stayed there swimming against the wall.in the end i had to shoot him unconcious,drag him out,wait for him to wake up and then tell him to wait.
there is definitly to much of the environment that they dont understand how to move through or around.i cant imagine a trained soldier being like boone stumped by water or some rocky terrain

Heh, yeah this one sort of flew under the radar considering what it does. It's replaced several companion-related mods and self-edits to the game files I was using as it does things far more elegantly and robustly than what I found or created on my own. It did have a thread in the mods section a few weeks back btw, but it didn't get much attention in there either for some reason:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1180183-relz-classic-companion-configurator/

if you select talk to them and tactics you can tell them not to attack unless you engage the target,i dont because sometimes they have snuck up on me without me knowin but you can do it

The dialogue wording is misleading. It's the exact same option as "Passive" in the Wheel. Everything in the Wheel has a dialogue counterpart method to activate it, in case you feel like talking to them to give orders is more role-play realistic than clicking a Wheel. Or something. :happy:

Thanks, downloaded the CCC mod, giving it a test run now. Which of the other suggested mod-lets is it that allows your companions to put any faction's armor in their pack?