I was playing around with some follower mods over on the steam workshop and noticing that there were so damn many of them that just added new followers that fit for the makers personal play style. So many more of them simply changed or edited some existing ones into a similar pattern. this sorta gave me an epiphany, what if I didn't need to do all that work to get the exact one I wanted? what if I could have one that formed up to my gameplay without having to mod the hell out of the game?

I was thinking it mite work similar to how we create our own characters, so basically just reusing the same creation options and possibly the same menu entirely. (I know there is a cheat to do so with any NPC, so this seems doable.) but then once you had their appearance handled, it would be simply a matter of picking their skills and perks. I was thinking some special menu editing would handle the skills Via the same perks and skills menu we use for our characters, for the skill management. this also seems plausible based on the fact that I see no reason they mite need different skill and perk management.

then once all that is complete, you simply equipped and properly attired them. this would mean several upgrades to the follower A.I. but lets face it that needed work anyway. the games vanilla A.I. is currently about as intelligent as my dog on cocaine.

I think for ultimate control of the follower, they would need to be rigged to wear what we gave them, and not whatever they seem to think is best. additionally they need to be settled up to let the player choose what combat spells and abilities they can use. they currently just equip and use what they had regardless of player input. (which is almost always configured to be whatever the original game designer originally set them to use as their default, and this usually ends up being the things they started with.)

combat is just about as equally intelligent as well. they hold their own in melee up in the enemy face, just don't expect them to heal you, if support gameplay is your thing. that will also need some improvement as well, but other than dealing with the tedium of using control mode, (nice feature BTW but just doesn't work well when being distracted in your own combat.) I think we could create a menu setup to make some simple behavior models so we don't need to micromanage them either.

I'm thinking perhaps something that involved Lydia, (she has a wonderfully neutral female name, could fit with just about any race, and still feel unique enough to custom fit your play styles.) but I'm more inclined to open any other idea candidates as well.

so what does anyone else think, Is it possible? would you play more if followers were at least smarter?

Ever tried http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15524? It handles follower management similar to your desires. Or if you just want to use a custom follower that has a own personality, custom voice and a well done custom follower system try http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/26393.

Eh in theory it should be possible. It'd probably require script extender. For example, a more useful companion http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20787 as a starting point might be a good idea.

For oblivion there was a companion system that came with a ring, once the ring was equiped, it put you in the character selection screen, where you filled out name/race/looks. After that was done those values were assigned to a npc. I am not sure how it was all managed, but since it was done once...