On the PC it doesn't matter whether companions/NPCs cannot be killed, because there is still the allmighty power of the console. Every NPC can be made (un-)killable with a simple command.

In Skyrim I made every of my companions unkillable via the console because they managed to trigger nearly any trap I encountered, and I got fed up manually steering them around every one of these traps.

I'm all for immortal followers...

... but I'm still in the "should be optional" camp.

Uh, yes, of course. How is this even a question? Everyone should be killable.

Adding options for everything makes for a lot of work.

I think Bethesda deliberately avoids adding in-game options that might end up breaking the game. If they made essential NPCs a toggle, they would have to account for broken questlines and stuff for players that turn it off and kill those essential NPCs. Whereas if they just leave it to modders or console commands, most people make that choice with the understanding that it might break something important.

In NV, I liked the challenge of trying to keep them alive, including often leaving them behind, but would still reload if they died (I told myself I wouldn't, but still did).

Is that wrong?

It literally is that simple. At least in the construction kit. So I would imagine, that in the event companions are killable or immortal, a mod will shortly come out to change it. And since its so simple, and so straightforward even console folks should get it fairly fast.

In the end I am more concerned with the depth of the companions. I don't want another skyrim where the most amusing bit about my follower is how I could get them killed.

Apparently i forgot to mention this earlier too. Both Todd Howard and Pete Hines have both said multiple times in interviews that Dogmeat is unkillable. Thus kinda making this thread vain to a point.

But have hopes people! A mod will eventually be made to make it so

I didn't travel with companions in FO3 because the first time I found Dogment he was killed less than an hour later so I just sent him to wait at home on other characters. In FONV I did use the companions since they didn't die outside of hardcoe mode.

I'd like to think in F4 if we lose a companion there is a better system for finding them again than by using a mysterious terminal to reset their location or by travelling to a far away land (F:NV had the companion reset terminals, F3 had the 'load a DLC' method).

I'd also have liked to have it so if I abandoned a companion, intentionally or not, the game would track their progress as they try to get home/back to me/whatever.

I dont think that second one will happen though and the game will still mysteriously teleport your companions around.

To all of those who say that it could break the game: You know for how much time Bethesda has been making games? They should've realized how to solve these things by now. And if they didn't...lol.

I think the "break game" concern in relation to essential NPCs is more of a Quest NPC issue, rather than companions. (And if there is a companion who's integral to an important/main quest, I'd expect that they'd be essential even if the other companions weren't.)

I just remembered something. The companions in Skyrim would only accept so much friendly fire at a time before leaving your service and fighting back against you. So using them as a distraction while you firebomb them and everyone around them might not be an effective strategy for long. As for sending them into minefields, I personally hope that Bethesda heard our complaints about followers constantly setting off traps and gave them a little more trap-avoidance wisdom.

And what's weird to me is, anyone complaining about immortal companions being unrealistic shouldn't be exploiting the game like that in the first place.

Do people know something about mines in Fallout 4 that I missed? If not, then we have little reason to assume they will be any different than they were in FO3 and NV ... easily spotted and a great source of caps when easily disarmed and stashed or redeployed to kill the enemy. The whole notion that essential companions somehow turns what would otherwise be some sort of daunting challenge (yeah, right) into an exploit-fest is somewhat facetious at best.

It can be an exploit, but it can also just happen. I may be trying to keep my dog alive but it just keeps lunging at enemies I'm firing my railgun at. Now if the dog dies I either 1) write it off as terrible AI and reload, or 2) write it off as terrible AI and find a new companion. But with the dog being immortal the options are 1) write it off as terrible AI and stimpak the dog, or 2) write it off as terrible AI and just stop using companions that don't use ranged weapons.

That almost makes it sound like you prefer them to be immortal. I mean, if the AI is invariably going to be awful anyway...

Um, if your companions can't die in Fallout 4 then it would be easy to clear mine fields with your companions in Fallout 4.

I think his point was, why bother sending companions to blow through a minefield when it's so easy to just collect the mines so you can actually use/sell them? Mines were like a cash crop in the last two games.

And I always used mods that made traps ignore followers, personally, since I'd rather not deal with that.

Or that I just want better AI. But seriously if I am fighting with a dog I really have to watch out for the dog. I used to pheasant hunt a lot and we used dogs. I never shot one but I know hunters who did. Dogs also tend to get in the way when rabbit hunting and coyote hunting. (I did get some buckshot in a dog rabbit hunting once, luckily small 8 shot.)

However if the companion is human (or humanish) then I really expect them to lookout for themselves and me. I would love for this to actually happen. BUT if the companions are immortal, then exactly how hard does Bethesda have to work at making their AI realistic. I'll tell you, not very hard at all.

True, lets say making your companions run in a group of bandits or raiders and killing those NPC's then. A very easy way to clear out places with NPC's that attack you.

Exactly.

Besides, using a companion in the manner described would be an exploit, no different than savescumming or using item duplication exploits. The sort of player who would argue (in good faith as a matter of principle as opposed to just a convenient pretext for Bethesda bashing) that companions shouldn't be essential do so from the standpoint that bad things should be allowed to happen in order to give gravitas to the players actions and the events in the game. That player (the good faith one) understands that the game is about telling a story would never undermine his story by stooping to using a companion in that fashion just because he was essential.

The sort of player who would use an essential companion to clear a mindfield is the same player who would reload a save when anything bad happens in the game. The sort of player who truly wants the possibility of bad outcomes would probably never do either.

There are players who do that.

Anyways I myself do not do that, but I would like to have companions with me instead of never getting NPC's to be my companions.

I would like to explore the video game world map of Fallout 4 with my companions and clear our bandit camps and hideouts, but not have my companions be unkillable.

That's a good thing. It satisfies most players and leaves the programmers more time to focus on more important things.

Not focusing much to improve the Artifical Intelligence (A.I.) is a good thing? What?

Obsidian was able to have everyone killable in New Vegas with fail states and they only had 18 months to work on it. Bethesda should be able to do the same. They even had a whole path to the main quest for that.

I just wish there was a choice for people that wanted them like that. I mean this could have been implemented way back when if they thought to just give the user a choice. I feel that maybe the companions will fit into the quests which isn't really something I would have wanted personally.