Just thought I would share this bit comedic AI misfortune from last night:

So I am playing a mission with Nick as my companion and we had to rescue a kidnapped settler. So I find the settler and he proceeds to follow me. Or rather slowly walk at his own pace back to his settlement. Meanwhile Nick my supposed back up boom disappears. Cant find him anywhere and I just picked up a 40 pound monster modded out missile launcher and am way over encumbered. I can hear him talking but he is no where to be found. Sigh, I ditch all my recently aquired raider junk and head off. About a block and half away his voice is getting louder but i still cant find him. All of sudden there he is sitting on his ass in the middle of the road taking pot shots at a mirelurk by the water. WTF Nick laying down on the job there buddy? He wasn't injured because I couldn't stimpak him back to his feet. Nope just tired of the road and decided he'd kill a mirelurk whilst sitting on his ass.

After that I needed a break from Nick and decided take on a group of supermutants that had been causing me some trouble recently. In range of a newly found settlement I an built artillery and then decided to go full on with these guys. So I picked up Danse figuring two guys in power armor and a salvo of shells this should be cake walk. Everything was going well under the cover of darkness. We are creeping up on them to get close enough to throw up the miserably short ranged arty' smoke grenade. Just as I toss it out and the supermutants take notice of it all of a sudden Danse is like "Hey buddy you have a minute to talk" causing me to uncontrollably spin around and look at him and get stuck in some dialogue. Thanks to the short range on that damn grenade and the likely hood that i didn't notice that it probably hit a wall and bounced back at me we both take a close impact from a shell shortly followed up by a suicider coming out of nowhere with his damned grenade and blows us to hell. Yeah good timing there Danse. Or should I call you Paladin Dense? Shut the hell up you sissy and focus on the mission.

Finally I decide people are just too unpredictable. Not wanting to be alone on the road I decide to go get my trusty sidekick Dogmeat. Well of course he is your typical dog. Not on a leash he has wandered off to god knows where. Cant find him where I left him. He's probably off shagging some Mutant Hound or humping Piper's leg somewhere. Think I am going to have to build him a kennel.

Now I am alone...

Where is Cait maybe she will get high with me and Ma Murphy who is still sitting in her chair high as a kite in the corner of a dark room.

Haha.. awesome. Yeah the companions do throw some curve balls into the game play at times. Keeps the game interesting.

The AI is total crap. From crappy pathing, to the inability to find the doorway, to not being able to figure out that they're stuck because they opened the door (which should then close when somebody walks into the door in the direction that would close it), to not being able to walk AROUND a very small obstacle...

I do not use any companions because they're utter crap. All AI in games are crap, but it seems like Bethesda's AI is glaringly crappy. To the point that it is unacceptable for a SINGLE PLAYER GAME.

It is obvious that Bethesda knows how crappy its AI is, because it has to resort to teleporting them everywhere.

I mean to each his own but I don't let it get me angry. I don't think I have ever seen an AI that was much better its just a fact you have to accept in games. Not going to lie I was expecting more from a next gen console but I have also come to realize that "next gen" was mostly just a marketing gimmick that we all fell for because things dont really seem all that next gen to me. But that's another topic.

They carry all my junk, draw some fire away from me and occasionally kill stuff that's about all that I need. Sometime dumb just gets really dumb and I can't help but shake my head and laugh at them.

It would be nice if they're like the FO3/FONV's NPCs. If the player asks them to "stay", they stay at that exact spot until the player tells them to move. A follower icon on the pipboy that marks the follower's location so that the player can make the follower rejoin when he's done would be a nice addition. Sure, grant them some autonomy to defend themselves, but "stay" should mean stay. Better yet, make them stay AND crouch.

In FO4, they're like needy little children that can't obey a simple command. "Stay" means stay until the NPC misses the player. "Go there" means go there and then come back because the follower's a needy little child inside. Then, it is back to tripping all the traps, getting detected, and the player getting frustrated with the follower all over again.

The companions sometimes get stuck in the injured position, I dragged Piper around for a while like that but a fast travel got her moving again

That's some impressive sneaking perks and sniper you got there. It would be a shame if someone...alerted all the enemies on you Beep, beep, beep, beep......booom.