i have really high hopes for 4th game in this fantastic universe. But what about companions and stealth. I plan on running with Dogmeat, but if the AI of our companions are really bad, it can ruin the entire stealth aspect of the game, with them by your side. "The last of Us" made it work fantastic with Ellie, hoping for something like that. What do you guys think?

FF

Have a http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/elderscrolls/images/4/4b/Fishy_stick.png/revision/latest?cb=20130514235330

I have a feeling this is one of the reasons they added the Lone Wanderer perk, to help folks that has to go solo as a stealth character.

I'd hope that with 12 companions, at least two or three would be excellent with Stealth.

I've been playing Everquest 2 recently and running "solo" with a Mercenary companion (what some call "molo").... my swashbuckler can become invisible to the point I can bump up against foes in the face and they won't see me. It's a fantasy setting, so even though it's supposed to be rogue stealth,not "invisibility" I sort of roll with it.

Thing is, my companion ~doesn't~ become invisible. She just stands there, seven feet of plate-armored beauty, casually looking around as I creep amongst our foes. Sometimes the foes will even turn to look at my Companion as if to say, "Hey, there. Good thing you're not a thief who's not supposed to be here".... of course the minute I turn stealth OFF (and/or attaack) the foes will realize, "Oh, hey, you're not supposed to be here!" and attack my companion (and me).

And if there are foes that CAN see through my "sneak", and yet I am far enough away from them that they won't be alerted, and yet my ~companion~ is within their line of sight then they will aggro on us both.

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, my Smuggler had a stealth field generator which made me invisible ~and~ it made my companion invisible, too.

Since Stealth in Fallout is, I believe, supposed to be more "skillful hiding/moving" than ~magical~ invisibility (Chinese Stealth Suits excluded), it will be hard to avoid detection, I would think. And having a companion out? Looks like that would only make things worse. Especially if the Companion is clanking around in power armor or smells like a wet dog, etc.

I don't recall seeing anything about Lone Wanderer perk affecting your stealth success, although that may be because (a) having no companion inherently makes you harder to spot so no need to mention it explicitly, OR ( having a companion has ~no effect~ on your personal sneaking ability in which case having one or not is irrelevant.

#1 reason I don't travel with companions in Fallout lol

I usually leave companions just outside of a combat zone so after I've done my sneaky assassin thing, I go back and retrieve the companion so I can use them to carry more loot away.

I never used companions in FO:3 because of FO:1/2 (yeeshhh...friendly fire much!!!) but gave it a try in FO:NV. I typically pay a sneaky sniper and found they EDE and Boone meshed well with that set up. Just keep them on passive.

Yeah, it depends on the companion. They talked about having the companions match certain archetypes, so I'm sure there will be some stealthy ones we can roll with. But not all of them - unless there are perks that improve that.

When FNV first came out I had to stop using Boone because he would head shot everyone before I even saw them. Thankfully mods addressed that issue eventually.

It would be great if you could have some impact on how your companions developed and get them to complement your SS.

Say you could pick between improving two different sides of your companion every 3 levels or so.

Side might be the companion becoming more Stealth and the other might involve him becoming a better shot.

Shadowrun Hong Kong had a nice system where you could chose between two paths for your companions.

The paths involved cyberware, specialized weapons, and abilities that enhanced the path.

Say your PC was a street samurai specializing in hand to hand, rather just being a duplication your companion Street Samurai would have two paths to chose from.

Say one involving becoming better with firearms and one involving improving his hand to hand.

Since your PC was the hand to hand expert, you could have your companion follow the firearm path.

That way as your PC gained experience, your companions also gained abilities that complemented yours.

If I need to go in quiet, I'll just have them hang back with something to read.

I tried leaving my companions behind. Once. I forgot where I put them.

Pretty much. I thought NV handled it well enough. Or if I want to go total stealth, well, you probably wouldn't want a companion at all.
TLOU, as cool as it was, kinda cheesed it by letting the follower bumble around unseen until you reached a point where you'd open up (or got caught). It worked given the linear nature of that game.
I wouldn't want that anywhere near Fallout though.

yeah companions and stealth generally dont go together. Leave them behind if you are trying to sneak up on someone

Truth there. I was stalking through the cave with the Legendary Deathclaw. Suddenly I hear *pop**pop**pop**pop**pop**pop**pop**pop**pop* and turn around to see Boone standing over the Legendary Deathclaw. In a way it was cool. In a way it svcked, because that was supposed to be my triumph.

I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works but at the same time I don't have a huge amount of hope for stealthy companions. My taking along companions will largely have to do with the stealth/cover system. I've never really been a companion person but that always had to do with the lack of good companion a.i. In Skyrim it got a little better because of a patch or something.. at least they eventually crouched if you did. However, the instant they detected an enemy they'd run off to confront them.. if you were in an area filled with traps they'd often run straight into those as well.. usually getting knocked out and becoming completely useless until you defeated the rest of the enemies.

I'm hoping the different companions have different responses from enemies. I could imagine Dogmeat actually being very good for stealth players because he's just another dog wandering the wastes to a Raider, so probably wouldn't be seen as a threat until he attacks. If he doesn't attack until I do then it'll be fine.

Most likely it will be reworked from skyrim if you crouch they crouch if theres an enemie near by they wont attack them unless you attack them or they attack you.