Fallout 4

[RumHam]

As far as the dead cats go, sounds like you did the wasteland a favor.  Cats are the worst.

Hey man, I dunno about you but in all my wandering through the wasteland I've been attacked by dozens of dogs but never once by a cat!

[briantw]

Hey man, I dunno about you but in all my wandering through the wasteland I've been attacked by dozens of dogs but never once by a cat!

Obviously that's because cats aren't smart or strong enough to survive in the wasteland.

Also, you can have a dog companion but not a cat.  

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

 

Anyone else done the quest "USS Constitution"? Made me laugh.

[KiDisaster]

 

Anyone else done the quest "USS Constitution"? Made me laugh.

Yeah, that's probably my second favorite quest line so far. Silver Shroud is my favorite. 

Best thing about it is its the only quests I've found so far where special stats actually mattered. Having high Int made the quests easier. That was really nice since this game made Special matter a whole lot less overall. The weapon you get at the end is pretty cool too but I don't have points in heavy weapons so it doesn't do much damage compared to my regular guns. 

[Werthead]

Just started the Silver Shroud quest.

Have people been mixing the companions? I usually never do in Bethesda games, but then the companions are shit in most of their games. I started off with Dogmeat but then I swapped him out with Piper. I've turned down Cait, Curie and Strong although they all seemed promising. Hanging out with Preston or Danse feels a bit like going for a beer with your boss you don't really like, so no. I haven't done the Nick Valentine quest yet because I've seen quite a few people say he's the best companion in the game. I've maxed out Piper's loyalty so I might do the Valentine quest and swap him out for Piper.

[briantw]

Just started the Silver Shroud quest.

Have people been mixing the companions? I usually never do in Bethesda games, but then the companions are shit in most of their games. I started off with Dogmeat but then I swapped him out with Piper. I've turned down Cait, Curie and Strong although they all seemed promising. Hanging out with Preston or Danse feels a bit like going for a beer with your boss you don't really like, so no. I haven't done the Nick Valentine quest yet because I've seen quite a few people say he's the best companion in the game. I've maxed out Piper's loyalty so I might do the Valentine quest and swap him out for Piper.

I've just been rotating through them to get their perks and, for the ones that have them, quests.  Beyond being a pack mule and offering the occasional comment, who you drag along doesn't seem to matter all that much.

[briantw]

Double post.

[Gears of the Beast]

Pfft give me Charon over every Fallout 4 companion any day. 

[Werthead]

Charon (and Fawkes actually) were okay, but the NV companions were much better. Boone was a frigging psychopath and Lily's story was completely tragic.

FO4's companions are a lot more present in the game than either, even if their story arcs are not as cohesive as NV's. They actually talk to you and, more surprisingly, they talk to other characters, chime in with their opinions on certain quests, will get jealous of other companions, interact with scenery etc. You can even romance some of them, although that's weirdly inappropriate since from your POV your significant other got iced just days ago.

In fact I'd say screw settlement building, the companions are the single most dramatically improved aspect of the game to FO4 from the previous Bethesda titles. They're a long way from Lydia creepily walking around and saying just the same three things over and over..

[Fez]

FO4's companions are a lot more present in the game than either, even if their story arcs are not as cohesive as NV's. They actually talk to you and, more surprisingly, they talk to other characters, chime in with their opinions on certain quests, will get jealous of other companions, interact with scenery etc. You can even romance some of them, although that's weirdly inappropriate since from your POV your significant other got iced just days ago.

Depends on how long you play the game. I've only explored maybe a quarter of the map, and the in-game calendar has it being about a month since I unfroze. Considering how much further away from Sanctuary the rest of the locations are, the amount of time that passes when fast-traveling, and the fact that I still have some quests to complete at the locations I have found, I think that if you fully explore and do everything in the game (not counting the infinite generic quests you get from Preston, the BoS, and others) it could easily be six or seven months by the time you approach the end game.

I think that's still a little early to be romancing someone else after your SO is murdered, but at least its not Gertrude/Claudius timeline anymore.

Of course, this may be moot since I'm not sure how to unlock anything with the companions. I always have them and they chime in with their dialog and a couple have started longer conversations with me, but I haven't unlocked any quests or romance options. It could be that I'm just switching up who I am with too often (and I seem to have bad luck with always having a companion disapproving of whatever I'm doing at that moment) for things to start triggering.

[KiDisaster]

You can even romance some of them, although that's weirdly inappropriate since from your POV your significant other got iced just days ago.

Yeah, well, my son just got kidnapped too but that's not stopping me from wandering around collecting comic books and asking everyone I meet if they've got paying gigs for me to go do with all this time I've got on my hands. Good old Bethesda syndrome  

The romances in this game are shallow enough to make Bioware's look deep though, and that's quite an achievement. 

[Gears of the Beast]

In fact I'd say screw settlement building, the companions are the single most dramatically improved aspect of the game to FO4 from the previous Bethesda titles. They're a long way from Lydia creepily walking around and saying just the same three things over and over..

I could not disagree more. Ignoring Skyrim (because who fucking cares), Fallout 3's companions were integrated into the world MUCH better.

First of all Fallout 4 just throws companions at you. The game forces Codsworth and Dogmeat into your face within seconds of leaving the vault. It totally fucks up the immersion from the get go. Whereas in Fallout 3 companions are only earned as a reward for for a substantive amount of exploration/experience *on your own*, even Jericho in Megaton can't be recruited without a bunch of caps and negative karma. Compare Dogmeat in the two games. The player will only get Dogmeat by exploring in some random scrapyard that I don't even think is marked on the map in Fallout 3. Whereas in Fallout 4 the dog is literally forced on the player, if you choose to ignore him the game will just say 'fuck you, we're pretending you took dogmeat anyway'. The Fallout 3 approach is both less intrusive and more immersive as it rewards exploration and gives the player the feeling that they're traversing the Capital Wasteland as opposed to the feeling that 'the world has been created specifically for you, look here's a dog for no reason'. 

Secondly the companions in Fallout 3 actually make sense and don't create a weird dissonance between what the player is doing and what is happening in the world. The Capital Wasteland is scattered with a few NPCs whose place in the world is actually consistent with becoming the player's companion. I've already compared dogmeat and dogmeat so I'll compare some other companions that I think illustrate this point. Jericho and Piper: Jericho is an old ex-raider who's settled down but wants to get out there for some action again, agrees to join the player for 1000 caps if the player has sufficiently negative karma. Piper is an active and passionate journalist living with a younger sister who offers to join the player for literally no reason. Cross and Danse. Cross no longer fights for the brotherhood and now advises Elder Lyons, when the player meets her she reveals that she knew the player's father and helped contribute to his efforts with the water purifier. She states that she would like to join the player so she can contribute to the completion of his work. In Fallout 4, Danse recruits the player into the BoS and then despite the fact that he has a pretty important position and the Brotherhood is ramping up for war, asks to be the player's companion for no fucking reason.

I think Nick Valentine is a fantastic character but his implementation as a companion makes no fucking sense. He's running a detective agency, helps the player sort his shit out and then is inexplicably ready to throw his life away and follow the vault dude around. And if you choose to not take him as a companion (maybe because like 3 hours into the game half the major characters have offered to be your companion) he just goes to one of your settlements and just stands there like a fucking idiot. Thus a great character is ruined and immersion is totally broken.  And I'm sure that eventually if you keep him as a companion you get some interesting side quest that I'm missing out on, which is a negative not a positive because that means he could easily just be an awesome character that's implemented into the mainstory and has a cool subsequent sidequest. As opposed to an awesome character that says 'hey look at me, I was put in the game for you, can I follow you around?'. So I think the fact that the companions are completely immersion breaking kinda overrides the fact that they might be "more present in the game". I'm a random vault guy who's been frozen for 200 years...few days later half the major characters in the Commonwealth are ready to fuck everything else and follow me around. 

Thirdly, companions are immortal. It's fucking stupid. It was stupid in NV but at least they died in hardcore so now it's *really* stupid. This is the major pitfall of tying hugely important content to companions. It just fucks the game. It exaggerates all the the problems I've been talking about and then some. Immortal characters should be avoided wherever possible. I want to murder Preston Garvey because I'm playing an evil character and he's an annoying fuck with a dogshit questline? Too bad, he's a potential companion. In my opinion it also totally fucks the combat. This is me encountering a Deathclaw with a companion in Fallout 3 "No no, fuck don't kill Charon he's awesome and carrying half my shit!". This is me in Fallout 4 "Yes yes, go for my immortal companion - nothing bad will happen and I'll avoid damage while filling you with bullets". It's fucking stupid. Companions are one of the major downfalls of Fallout 4, it's gone from a minor part of the game implemented well to a major part of the game implemented horribly. And yet people act as though companions are some great innovation and it really grinds my gears. 

 

[Muttering Bill]

Have people been mixing the companions? I usually never do in Bethesda games, but then the companions are shit in most of their games. I started off with Dogmeat but then I swapped him out with Piper. I've turned down Cait, Curie and Strong although they all seemed promising. Hanging out with Preston or Danse feels a bit like going for a beer with your boss you don't really like, so no. I haven't done the Nick Valentine quest yet because I've seen quite a few people say he's the best companion in the game. I've maxed out Piper's loyalty so I might do the Valentine quest and swap him out for Piper.

I have been running with Cait since I got her.  Some of the other companions are tempting.  Codsworth is hilarious in the few interactions I've had with him.  Strong and Valentine both seem like they'd be fun.  Got Piper up to nearly unlocking her personal quest.  But...  Nope, can't leave Cait behind.  I gave her a bowler and she's adorable in it.  Love the comments other NPC's make about her.  "She looks like she'd stab me in the eye with a screwdriver."  Or something to that effect.    And so far she's the only one that doesn't have a problem with me stealing anything and everything I can.  I've got her personal quest unlocked but haven't gotten to doing it.  Would be rather hypocritical of me.

I've got so many quests to do that I don't know what I should be doing anymore.  So mostly it's just wandering around, and going inside places on a whim.  Maybe I'll take on the Silver Shroud next since it seems to be well reviewed around here.

 

Edit - I will agree with Gears regarding the companions in general.  They fit into the world much better in FO3.  It's really out of place that Piper and Valentine and Danse would leave their jobs just to wander around with you.  Even Cait, supposed to be sort of like picking up Charon, but just not executed that well.

And them being immortal.  I've tried killing Preston and Dogmeat just to get rid of them, and been very disappointed that they just get up in after a minute.  They don't even stay mad at you.

One of my favorite moments in Skyrim came from having my companion (and wife) dying.  I could have easily reloaded a save to get her through the fight, but decided to make it a character building moment.  It shaped the rest of the game, and made that character feel more real.

[KiDisaster]

Strong is annoying as shit. I sent him to Red Rocket to live by himself cause I got sick of his same three dialogue lines he repeats CONSTANTLY whenever I'm in Sanctuary, and how he gets upset every time I get into my power armor. 

Codsworth, Curie, Cait & Valentine are the bros.

[Muttering Bill]

I haven't met Curie yet.

Strong seemed like he'd be decent.  But I don't really spend much time at home base (Red Rocket), so I haven't noticed him being too repetitive.

[Fez]

GotB,

Suffice to say, I completely disagree with your disagreement. Firstly, I've never had must of the companions go back to the settlement. Whenever I'm not using them, Danse goes back to the BoS, Piper goes back to Diamond City, Hancock goes to Goodneighbor, and Valentine goes to the next main story objective (because he's fucking awesome). Characters like Codsworth, Dogmeat, Cait, and Strong go to Sanctuary, but it makes sense for them to (particularly Strong, who is trying to learn more about humans). I don't know about the other companions, because I don't have them. So they still feel integrated in their world.

Secondly, dying companions is annoying as hell. I played hardcore mode in NV, and they died all the time and so easily that I always just reloaded when it happened. Its so nice for them to just go down for the count when they lose their health.

And finally, we have different definitions of rewarding experiences I guess. I'm totally fine with getting a couple companions right off the bat; Codsworth in particular it even makes sense for him to be there. I'd rather be struggling to get equipment and quest objectives, not companions.

[KiDisaster]

I haven't met Curie yet.

Strong seemed like he'd be decent.  But I don't really spend much time at home base (Red Rocket), so I haven't noticed him being too repetitive.

In fairness all the companions are repetitive. They all have their handful of phrases they say pretty frequently in combat and when you're just out exploring. For some reason Strong just always seemed to be the loudest and most annoying whenever I was back at base. 

@Fez - How do you make them go back to their original locations? The only options I have (to send them to) when I switch to another companion are the settlements I control. Except for Valentine, he goes to the next objective like you said. 

[RumHam]

I don't really have an issue with the companions opting to join you for no real reason. It doesn't really make sense but for better or worse the game world basically revolves around your character. Pretty much every major event centers around you, and factions basically don't do anything plot-wise unless you lead the charge. So it just seems par for the course. 

I do think they should be killable though. The developers should have been able to find a balance between "dying too easily" and "totally indestructible." Super Mutant Suiciders would be so much more threatening if this were the case. 

Strong is annoying as shit. I sent him to Red Rocket to live by himself cause I got sick of his same three dialogue lines he repeats CONSTANTLY whenever I'm in Sanctuary, and how he gets upset every time I get into my power armor. 

Man you're really not helping him find the milk of human kindness by exiling him to a gas station. He is the worst though. He doesn't even like it when I pick locks. 

[Fez]

@Fez - How do you make them go back to their original locations? The only options I have (to send them to) when I switch to another companion are the settlements I control. Except for Valentine, he goes to the next objective like you said. 

I also only have those options, and I always select Sanctuary Hills. But the ones I mentioned never go there when dismissed, they wander back to their set locations.

[Werthead]

How to fix the walls of the Castle.

Cool.