First of all, I've been playing Skyrim for over 60 hours and have barely scratched the surface of the impressive gameworld. I'm still far from finishing the main quest. So kudos to Bethesda for making another great RPG!

The thing I have been missing the most is a better companion system. After playing Oblivion with Companion Vilja, I can't help but think Bethesda should have taken a lesson from this incredible player made jewel. For those unaware, Vilja is an incredibly detailed companion, scripted to react to the main quest, side quests, take you around for walks, she can adapt to your combat strategy, she can ride, drink, sleep, dress up on her own and she has literally thousands of lines of dialogue which allows her to feel incredibly alive. She has her own storyline, quests and personality you can develop, adding dozens of hours to your gameplay. There are also Morrowind equivalents, but I haven't touched Morrowind in ages to throw in examples. Here is her description, which proves how much a companion can do with enough development time: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28977

Now imagine if Bethesda were to implement fully realized companions, using their talented voice actors, improving the AI and adding a companion wheel to help with interaction. While Skyrim's default companions are much better than Oblivion's, they are still inferior to New Vegas in both reliability and depth. Polishing companions may not be as enticing as entirely new areas to explore and adding new gear, but they sure add a new layer of realism and sympathy toward NPC characters. Companions done right can GREATLY enhance the way you interact with the gameworld and approach each quest.
DLC could include:

1) Companion wheel (fallout style) with more companion commands:
- Guard this area: Sets a patrol route around the perimeter
- Wait here: Adds AI packages to make them sleep, eat, sit and talk to nearby people (instead of just standing there)
- Stand by: To replace the current Wait.
- This is your home now: Make the location their new home.
- Please accept this gift: Makes them wear whatever you give them, regardless of attributes
- Hold your fire: Makes them passive until your first attack.
- Silence!/Speak up!: Makes humanoids and animals be quiet for awhile (annoying dogs!)
- Use melee/ranged weapons: Makes them favor a combat style.
- Assist me!: Makes them heal or use protection spells on you.
- Search the area: Makes them loot corpses and nearby containers.
- Be careful!: Companions go into stealth mode and won't set off traps.
- Ride with me!: Companions whistle for their horses and will mount and dismount when you do.

2) Improved AI pathfinding: Companions will always use the same door the player uses, will teleport if they get stuck on geometry.

3) Improved battle strategy: Companions will not charge if outnumbered, will attempt to flee if low on health, will take cover if using ranged attacks, will avoid enemies that can easily outmatch them, drink potions, use buffs more often and will always try to stay close to you instead of running ahead.

4) Hundreds of new lines for each companion: Companions will no longer repeat themselves over and over again. They will comment on both the main quest and major side quests as dozens of additional lines for different areas of the map, important buildings, points of interest. They will comment on your progress, battle prowess, screw ups, they will warn you against dangerous critters, hazards, traps. They comment on wild life, their backstory and other NPCS. They groundwork for this is already done, it's actual content that is missing.

5) Quests: Each companion now has an extensive backstory that will continue to develop in the course of the game, each major event triggered by how long they have been travelling with you. You get to know more about them, the longer they remain on your service.

6) Knocked out state: In addition to the kneeled state, in which they can get killed, now you can revive them shortly after they get knocked out. This should help with accidental deaths, but also gives you a chance to allow them to die, should you refuse to wake them up.

7) Crafting: Companions can be ordered to go out and collect raw materials and later they will proceed to craft useful items for you.

8) Romance: Romance with companions would be a chance for Bethesda to make amends for the extremely simplistic wedding system. Since they're more refined characters, additional lines and options would be available for each companion after you get to know and befriend them. No amulet needed.

9) Extended animal companions: Given the options to be played with, fetch items, and guard the area. More dog breeds, wolf companions and perhaps other sorts of animals.

10) Better environmental awareness: If told to wait in cities, companions will dress casually, will strip their armor and weapons to sleep, will sleep, drink and dance while resting in Inns, will shop for items they like if they have gold and will visit areas of interest nearby. Companions will engage in conversation with locals and attempt to improve their skills in training areas.

11) Companions improve their skills: Companions will not only level up, but will also attempt to learn new spells, new combat moves and actively search for new equipment if given the command to loot the area.

A little bump.

Didn't vote because the only negative option is 'I don't care for Companions'.

My answer is no, I would not pay for this. It'd represent that Bethesda has sold out, by releasing a DLC to include things that should've been in the game in the first place. Especially in terms of pathfinding, issuing better commands, or giving them stances. I don't want to 'pay for a patch', even if it includes more nifty things like extra dialogue, quests, whatever. I'd rather have that stuff packaged as part of a larger, expansion pack that revamps alot of old content, in addition to adding new stuff.

No. I wouldn't pay for something that should have been in the vanilla game.

No, all DLC should be free.

Mostly what he said, depending on price I might pay for it just because whining won't do anything and scripting it myself would take too much time. I just pray they don't release horse armor again.

I hate it when people ask different questions in the poll than they do in the thread title. And when the responses they include are a limited set of detailed answers that don't cover anything but extremes.

Honestly though, that can be said about EVERYTHING.

I dont care for companions though, so I wouldnt buy it. And it does feel a little "cheap" so to speak, but the persons above me and their points are just bad, because it sorta kills all DLC ideas.

Sadly the so-called 'companion AI' is nothing of the sort. It svcks! So no. I like the op's idea, but you are asking for basically, someone other than Bethesda to do this part of the game 'properly'. And thats not gonna happen is it?

The sad thing about companions for me is, as a stealth player, they are redundant entirely. Even the 'stealth' companions as they are incapable of being stealthy with their horrible pathing!

This.

While I would favor having a little sprucing up of the Follower system, I would not pay for DLC including solely that aspect.

Todd Howard already said there would be less DLC, but they will be more meaningful.
I also imagine the developers are aware of things that could be fixed up concerning the Followers. Because of that, I also imagine that something will(if not, then should) be coupled with another larger DLC.

I would hate to wait 3+ months for new DLC only to find that it only addresses Followers.

I voted no because I do not use companions.

However, I would not be against a free update that expanded upon companion capabilities.

Dude, Bethesda has to stop developing and release the game at some point. This means things that they may want to put in the game get left out. This fact is a very good reason for DLC. Games aren't infinite. Do you think ANY DLC that a developer makes should have been included in the main game? How would this be possible? Game development has to end at some point.

Not necessarily. I consider stuff that 'should've been in vanilla' to be things related to functionality. Don't make me pay for Companions to work properly and be brought up to the same level as Fallout: New Vegas companions, an older game. And don't you dare release a 'Horse DLC' that includes horses that move faster than the speed of fat kid, and don't go crazy the second combat begins.

However, if you want to release a DLC that adds new dungeons, quests, and areas to explore...well, let's talk.

edit:

Dude. The game's been out like two weeks. They're still raking in, like, huge profits. Dude. They can take a small bullet and fix the things or finish the things they didn't have time to do before releasing the game without charging yet more money ontop of the sixty bucks I already paid.

That wouldn't really work with the amount of companions available in the game. They'd have to spend an enormous amount of time on it, and most people would rather have a DLC like Shivering Isles, myself included. It's a nice idea, but I don't think it's realistic.

To those saying "it should have been in the vanilla game", this would be a paid DLC simply because affording voice actors to work for hundreds of extra hours of dialogue is an expensive and time consuming effort. Yes, you can script companions to work better and charge nothing for that, but don't expect any free DLC containing hours of additional voice work.

EDIT: Added another option.

No one does expect that.

The whole point my original post was that they should 'fix' companions first, and then if they want to release improvements to Companions, include it as part of a larger expansion pack that revamps existing areas and adds in new ones too. 'Bite-sized' plug-ins svck.

I would pay for this because I love companions in any game. The companions in this game definitely leave much to be desired.