So I found some Power Armor that I can't use (yet) and I put it in the inventory of one of my companions. The companion says "I can't use that.", which is fine. The next day I load up my game and no Power Armor!?!?!? So I go back to where I found it and it's on the ground, I try to put it back into my companions inventory and boom, ground.

What the hell? My companions should never and I mean NEVER, under any circumstances, drop the items that I give them. Seriously, what is wrong with Obsidian?

-JJ

They can't use it, so it's of nu use to them. Makes sense that they would drop it.

They probably couldn't figure out how to prevent the NPC from equipping a faction armor if the faction armor has higher DT than what they are wearing.

That behaviour is hardcoded, and a forced unequip wouldn't work since it would just put them in a loop.

They might have been able to work around it, but they didn't. The weirdest thing is Ed-E, Rex and Lily have the same behaviour.

I think companions are unable to wield faction specific armour. Check if the armour you tried giving is called BROTHERHOOD T51-b Power Armor. I believe the only PA you can equip followers with is the T45-d, which is slightly heavier and slightly less resistant.
Nevertheless I agree. Companions should never, EVER, drop items you give them, regardless if they like it or not, they should at least carry it for you.

They usually can't wear faction armor. I think they can't wear faction armor that your not idolized by or something similar because I can have my followers wear NCR and Brotherhood armor but not Ceazars armor. I know what you mean because it gets pretty annoying killing a lot of ceazars troops and can't spread the weight of their armor around. I just feel liike screaming at my companions telling them that I don't want you to wear it just carry it. They treat it like their allergic to it.

Are you insane? My mules should carry what I give them and keep their mouths shut.

Also, it has nothing to do with what faction the armor belongs too, you can't equip Power Armor without training. What it really comes down to is that my companions are tossing my loot when they should be humping it around like the mules they are. They should certainly never ever drop my stuff on the ground, regardless if they can use it or not.

-JJ

All Followers have PA training by default (since perks don't apply to NPCs).

They can't wear faction armor from factions they don't belong to.

Boone can wear NCR armor, Veronica can wear Brotherhood Power Armor, Arcade can wear armor from his faction.

See, that's where you're wrong - they're not mules.
They are companions.
Obsidian has taken these decisions so that the player cannot give anything with faction affiliation to companions to carry.
You want mules?
Maybe someone can make you a mod.
Regards

I understand what the OP is saying. I'm fine with them not wearing something, but it is a bit weird that they won't even carry such items, especially Rex & EDE. So yeah, seems like there must be a tech reason for the droppage.

But it's ok...I carry the faction armor, my companions can carry the weapons/misc stuff.

Gee, thanks for the oh so nice term of endearment <_<

Companions are what the names imply. Companions. You take them with you for the added bonus of having someone with you, not because they are your slaves. The fact that they have somewhat a will of their own is a nice feature in my opinion.

ED-E can't wear ANY armor. Seem to be missing the point. Not asking them to WEAR it, I want them to carry it.

Are you insane? There aren't any mules in the game, so there's your first problem.



But your companions don't need that training, thus it has everything to do with faction. There's your second problem. Boone or Cass will throw Brotherhood armor on the ground and refuse to touch it, while Veronica will put it on and wear it. What's that you were saying about faction irrelevance?



What it really comes down to is someone thinking this is Dungeon Siege 2 and that their companions are naught but pack mules, which is incorrect- and the problem isn't with the game but the player's comprehension thereof.

Really? That is so weird. In Fallout 3 only Star Paladin Cross could wear Power Armor because she had the training. So you're saying they are dropping my loot because it belongs to a specific faction? That is a much dumber reason for tossing my loot on the ground.


I don't know what Ed-E or Rex have to offer besides being mules. They aren't really companions, not much use in a fight, and shouldn't be associated with any faction.

-JJ

No, it really doesn't make any sense. They have no use for scrap metal either but they won't drop it if you give it to them. And they're willing to carry everything else you give them, it's just armor that they're not able to wear, usually faction armor, though power armor qualifies if they don't have power armor training too, and really, I don't mind if they refuse to wear the armor of factions they don't belong to, even though it kind of strikes me as a bizzare choice. It seemed to me that the entire point of the faction armor system was to let players disguise themselves as members of other factions, and if players can disguise themselves, why shouldn't they be able to disguise any companions traveling with them, but that's beside the point. I'm also fine if companions without power armor training being unable to wear power armor, I guess it's not unreasonable that if the player needs proper training to use power armor, companions would too, I'd be perfectly fine with these things if the companions just refused to wear these armors, but they don't just refuse to wear them, you try to give them these armors to hold, and they drop them as though they were radioactive.

I blame it on lazy programming, or incompetent programming, either one is something I could see New Vegas suffering from, judging from the amount of bugs in it. Because if the programmers were doing their job properly and were people who deserve to be given it, I'm sure they could have come up with a better way to keep companions from wearing armor they shouldn't be able to. It's made even worse by the fact that companions who can't even wear armor at all still do it. So maybe just having them drop armor they can't wear with a message telling you they can't wear it really was the best Obsidian could come up with, but was there really any excuse for it to apply to companions who can't wear armor at all? Am I expected to believe that they couldn't have added a line of code to the script that makes it so the dropping of armor thing only applies if the companion could wear that armor? Because I have a hard time believing that.



If they're not going to help me, then I have no reason to take them with me, simple as that. And they do offer some help, which is why I don't just leave them where I found them, or in the Lucky 38, as soon as I've finished their quests, but their ability to be helpful is limited somewhat by the fact that they always do something they have no reason to do.

And this isn't them having "A will of their own." This is bad programming causing companions to do something that doesn't make sense. If they had "A will of their own", they'd sometimes refuse to follow the orders you gave them if they didn't like them. And in any case, even if it was them "having a will of their own", which it isn't, it's just programming that makes fictional constructs behave in a semblance of how a real person, or dog, or robot, might act, but regardless, that sort of thing is fine until it starts getting in the way of me enjoying the game, and when characters who are supposed to help me don't do so, even though there's no logical reason why they wouldn't (And I certainly see no reason why companions should be willing to carry armor even if they're not going to wear it, but drop it instantly if it has the symbol of a faction they're not a member of on it.). It's not like we're talking about characters from one faction refusing to offer you service because you're hostile to that faction, it's just companions dropping armor they can't wear.



Actually, I'm pretty sure I recall all companions that could wear armor could wear power armor in Fallout 3. I do seem to recall giving Charon power armor and having him wear it, at least, though what I heard is that it's not like this in New Vegas, but I can't speak from personal experience, since the only time I tried to give power armor to a companion was with Brotherhood armors, so I'm not sure if they would do the same if it were non-faction power armor.

But in general, companions won't carry armor of factions they don't belong to, this can be most easily observed with Legion armors, since if there are any Legion companions, I haven't met them. It also happens with armor from other factions, though, for example Boone doesn't seem to mind NCR armor, probably because he served in the NCR before, but all the other companions I've used just drop it. And companions that can't wear armor, like ED-E, Rex and Lily, won't carry any faction armor at all.



I fail to see how there's anything wrong with thinking companions will be helpful to the player, seeing as, other than the quests associated with them, there really isn't much motivation to take them with you. Sure, some of them have the occassional interesting comment to say, but that isn't worth much when you're talking about characters who literally have nothing to say, like ED-E and Rex, or once you've heard all they have to say and all that's left is to repeat the same, in some cases annoying, comments they they always say. Now admitably, some of them can be pretty helpful in a fight, like say, Boone (TOO helpful, I'd say, so I really don't want to travel with him.) But others really just serve as meat shields, for your enemies more often than you, and even the perk that reduces friendly fire damage doesn't help with that, I figure that if they're stupid enough to run right into my bullets, they deserve to get shot, the problem is that when my bullets hit them, they don't hit the target I'm trying to shoot, which is the enemy, of course. So really, when you get down to it, being pack mules is all some companions are good for, unless you want their perks, I guess.

That's a very good point actually, I was just about to post something very similar.

-JJ

I just edited out the section that makes Ed-E, Rex and Lily drop the armors.

It was a bit lazy, but there is a reason for most companions. NPCs equipping the best armor and weapons is part of the core AI of the game. It would have taken effort to overcome it.

As it stands, companions don't need disguises since they receive the same reputation as you do when you switch armors. They could have expanded it, but you still would have had some restrictions:

Ed-E, Rex and Lily couldn't have worn any faction armors for obvious reasons.

Raul would have had to be restricted to Full body/full head armors (but not Power armor), plus NCR Ranger armor.

Cass and Veronica couldn't have worn Legion armor (and a female PC wearing Legion armor makes no sense). Cass also shouldn't have been able to wear power armor.

Arcade should have been able to wear anything.

Boone should have been able to wear anything except Legion, Great Khan and power armor.

They all should have been able to carry any armor, but that would have meant altering the core AI.

Several companions will refuse to wear factional armor for any faction other than their own. For example, Boone will not wear Legion, Khan, BoS or any other armor.

I agree that it svcks that you can't have companions at least carry factional armor. It's probably an artifact of their armor/apparel mechanism anyway, where they'll equip whatever apparel you give them if it's the strongest. Should have the ability to place it in their inventory, but not equip it.

Trust me, that doesnt stop me from turning companions into companion mules.

Courier: "OH THIS 45-50 POUND OBJECT SURE IS HEAVY....IF ONLY SOMEONE ELSE WOULD CARRY THIS LIKE A GOOD PACK BRAHMIN"

Companion: "-sigh- Yeah yeah, just give it to me and lets get this over with."

:blush2:

NCR armour isn't power armour...the servos and such are taken out, or so it says in-game.

Portage is just part of the game mechanic.

thta's messed. nuff said, but I agree. if your companion can not use power armor, it's of no use to them.

Sorry, but they're mules first, companions second, to claim otherwise is wishful thinking, the game asks too much pack-rattery of the player for this not to be the case. Which is why their refusal to carry stuff grates.

I want gun wielding pack brahmin that wear power armor. FEAR my battle cattle!!!

It's semi [censored] that ED-E and Rex do the same thing - just plain lazy programmers

Anyone can wear Arcade's "faction" armor.

Which one? There's a set guarded by some Deathclaws, a personal set for him and a general set for his friends.

But, now that you mention it I didn't see a disguise script for his faction so you're certainly right. I guess I just never tried it on anyone else.

Veronica is the only one that can wear outfits from two disguise factions. Just mentioned as a curiousity.