In FO3 and FO:NV, they're injured unless there's a stimpak in their inventory which they only use during combat. I think if their limbs are damaged, it stays that way for the rest of the game. Maybe not instant heal, but heal over time?

This is a good topic.

I'm for a little bit of slow healing over time for everyone.

I remember seeing some NPC in F3 and FONV have to fight off some raiders and get hurt bad.

The poor NPC would remain badly hurt for the rest of the game.

Felt bad for them.

And it was immersion breaking since people should heal over time.

Say .5% per hour day while out exploring and 1% per hour for being home resting.

Double it if you sleep.

So 8 hours sleep would heal 8% of your hits if you were camping out and 16% if you were home.

That is enough to handle little stuff, but not be game breaking.

Now companions that get "knocked" out, I'd be all for them having them be at half hit points after they wake up.

Another immersion breaking situation is having your companions instant heal after every combat.

You could either hit them with a stimpack or let them heal slowly over time (perhaps at a faster rate than the Sole Survivor).

It would be nice if they could heal themselves if they had the stimpacks and other medical supplies.

Also I'd say using one stimpack would heal them all up or if you are using stimpack heal over time, that you can just hit them with multiple stimpack and the stimpacks healing time combines together.

Not sure I want to mess with companion's damaged limbs.

I would prefer the PC had to heal them using a first aid kit, or a stimpack, and health regenerates at a few points per day; but I don't expect that at all. I don't even expect the option to use stimpaks on them like all the rest of the numbered Fallout games.

Didn't they say that they cannot die? (So what's the point of healing them?)

Well if they didn't totally autoheal every time, it would feel more realistic and you could choose to heal them so they don't go down fast in the next combat or you could head home and heal up.

That's why if they healed to half, it would be a good balance.

Even if you are out of medical supplies they can still be useful, but they are not Wolverine.

Except that they are. As I understand it, the player cannot lose their NPCs ~~that makes them meat shields, and removes any incentive to waste meds on them. (Which I find sad, seeing as both Fallout, and Fallout 2 not only required player intervention with giving meds, or manually healing NPCs, but also allowed for crippling injuries, that had to be treated, and permanent death if they were not taken care of... And that meant a loss of NPC's quest, skill facility, and/or as combat allies.)

I honestly find it insulting that they made the dog, and other NPCs immortal. It means that players can ignore them ~yet keep them; and it says [to me] that their expectation of the player is rather low.

I hated the Wolverine effect.

But there is a big difference between having a companion pull a Wolverine and autoheal 100% every time and having one heal 33% or 50%.

Maybe if they have limb injuries, then you need to apply a stimpack.

A companion won't be much of a meat shield if they are at one third or half hit points with crippled limbs.

And with a leg injury they would have trouble keeping up.

I would say that limb injuries (and head concussions) should not be heal-able by a stimpak. I cannot even imagine how ~they imagine the player character healing their skull with a hypo.

In the rest of the series, Stimpaks were for base hitpoints only, and did nothing to correct crippling. Crippling could mean anything... like glass or metal slivers in the eye, or a dislocated shoulder; that's not healed by a drug. They need to fix that IMO, by not having stimpaks be healing potions.

It's sad IMO, but likely fixable via mods to correct the NPC flags. Fixing stimpaks might be more difficult.

One issue is that you can apply a stimpack on a downed companion during combat.

One stimpack to do a Wolverine is too powerful.

So I hope it won't insta heal the companion to 100%.

I can understand they don't want to bog things down and using the stimpack stands in for the Sole Survivor doing more serious medical treatment.

I think if they have hardcoe mod it would be a great place to have companions only heal part way up and require real medical attention for crippled limbs.

I like the 'just knocked out' because I found the followers in FO3 useless in other games they have a health bar and you can see they are in trouble and help them but in FO3 they where down before you knew it and it's time to reload , so I never bothered with them meaning I missed any quests or dialogue they had

How many NPCs do you get into a fight with and leave alive? I can't think of any unless it was interrupted by cinematic game-play (part of a quest).