Seriously. Why do you simply watch me walk off? Sometimes you wait until I'm far enough away that I think you're going to throw a football to me, then something sparks in your tiny, tiny brain and you start running to catch up. Other times you just won't move - staring right at me, as if to say "I'm not moving another inch until you walk all the way back to me first." Other times I've seen you run around in circles as though you're desperately trying to find a way to my position that saves you the trouble of having to walk up a hill so shallow your grandmother could have done it while giving birth to your mother, who apparently dropped you on your head, often, at a young age.

Then there's the matter of combat. Sometimes I see you simply wade through enemies. Other times I've seen you fall to your knees after one measly hit from a not-particularly-fearsome foe - Falmer, even. I'll pass over the fact that you're foolishly insisting on using that miserable bow you seem to treasure, rather than the ebony bow enchanted with electricity that I myself customized for your personal use, so that I can instead focus on your clumsiness in battle, which seems to border on the suicidally inept. Do you understand how many times I've had to reload a previous save cast a Spell Of Great Undoing, simply because you chose the exact moment of my swing or shield bash to dart between me and the enemy? I'm not even a wizard, and I don't particularly care to deal in magic beyond the occasional healing spell, and yet you are forcing me to repeatedly cast this rather unsettling spell (tampering with time, no less!) more times than I care to even think about.

Get your act together, woman. You can carry a decent amount of loot - you are, as you so cheerfully remind me, swoooooorn to carry my burdens, and I swear you're emphasizing the word "burdens" a little more every time you mention it - you're better at spotting enemies at a distance than I am (as opposed to even the most flippin' obvious of trap triggers, of course) and while you seem to have trouble with lowly Falmer and various smallish Dwarven automata, I've also seen you take a chunk out of a Centurion or Dragon. So shape up. I don't want you embarrassing me in front of Balgruuf, who I half suspect knew your, shall we say idiosyncrasies[/i] when he assigned you to my service.

I swear, sometimes I think the only reason I keep you around is because, as Charlie Wilson said, you can't teach...well, you look good in that suit of steel plate armor, and we'll leave it at that.

Yeah, that's women for you.

Lydia is very annoying. Especially when you ask her if you can trade some things with her. All followers do the stop and start walking thing. My Favorite follower is Erandur.

Also, Lydia - when I say sneak, you [censored] sneak. Got it? I know you sneak about as well as a mammoth in clogs, but at least take a knee and refrain from jumping into combat until I do.

This is why I prefer to adventure solo.

The followers are always trailing behind, and then when I stop, they trip over me.

They are also bad at path finding. When outdoors, I can't just jump over obstacles or "climb" mountains, because they can't follow. Once, when trying to find the path up to a dragon lair, I got attacked by another dragon, all because I had to take a detour so Aela wouldn't get lost or stuck.

If Bethesda could implement some kind of tactics system, like in Dragon Age, for followers, it would be a big help. You could tell your follower what, when, how, not attack at all, or when to sneak and etc.

Lydia always follows close to me, however Aela has serious path finding issues, probably as she stays at more back she has to pathfind over longer distances, she is also more afraid of jumping down.

lmfao

never really used her much.... first couple characters she died defending me from some assassin or thug attack (I seem to have an effect on people ) and subsequent characters I just got annoyed with her and ditched her for the first new companion I got (except my assassin.... who rolled solo until getting a proper sneaking DB initiate as a companion... I was getting most kills with backstab daggers and companions ALWAYS messed that up.)

Lydia doesn't belong in the battle field. She belongs in the kitchen making food for the dragonborn, and to keep up with the housework.

That was really the only thing I really liked about DA

It was damn well done though.... course, they didn't have crazy terrain to pathfind either... so that would probably still be an issue.

I usually end up just ditching my follower over mountains... the catch up eventually when I get to a dungeon and that's when I usually want em at my back anyways..... save the random dragon counters ofc.... lol

I never use Lydia anymore, she's just not good enough.

I agree totally with the OP.

I especially love the "I see you are fighting that enemy so let me just step in between you real quick like while you are building up a power attack so you can hit me in the back"-feature.
The "falling way behind and then running up to and into you"-feature I think is intentional since she is bound to the player with an invisible rubber band.
And they always choose the crappiest item in their inventory because they don't want to damage the nice presents you keep giving them.
BTW why are guard's helmets so extremely popular?! You can give a follower (like Lydia that normally uses heavy armour) a nice, improved ebony helmet, but as soon as you give them a guard's helmet (light armour) to carry they always wear that! interesting choice...
Not to meantion the whole "I level up with you (i.e my level number increases from 5 to 6) but my stats won't improve unless you are on a PC and can use console commands to fix it" feature.

I hope Bethesda take a loooong hard look at followers for the next patch. They deserve it.

vD

Ha, nice one OP. I've sure been there.

There's a couple of spots on the Whiterun to Solitude road that she always freezes on if I stop there....trouble is, they are also encounter points at times, so I've taken to galloping the horse like a wild thing to get through them.

The bow issue is a cracker...give her a good melee weapon and a top level bow, and she sticks with the imperial one. Take the melee weapon off her, and she uses the good bow, but you can guarantee she'll decide to go melee with her plain old steel sword. Shields are another matter entirely...I gave her the targe of the blooded, and she litterally alternated between it and her inherent one for no rhyme or reason...I ended up giving her ysgrammar's, and at least she's staying with it.

Because she kept either bashing me or getting bashed by me in melee, I gave her a ring of +40% archery...that seems to have kept her at bow range for nearly all combats, but you still have to wait for her to catch up afterwards.

I decided several PC-games ago that I rather play solo, than with AI companion.

The only companions I take on Skyrim are the ones that I'm forced to take. Like having to go with someone to a cave, or releasing a trapped NPC and escorting to a city. I still remember the quest about going with a guy to a cave to get a tree... what a nightmare. I think I never loaded my game so many times in one trip.

Maurice... the who tried to fight a giant with a dagger. And got me killed more times than he got himself killed. After a hour of failed adventuring, I just reloaded my game at the temple and left him where he was.

Lydia + boethiahs calling = FREEDOM!

See, I like Lydia. She carries loot, she isn't afraid to fight anything, and like I said she can take a chunk out of a dragon or a Dwemer Centurion. But then I've also seen weaker opponents like Dwemer Spider Workers and Falmer just knock her to her knees with one shot.

I'm also mystified as to why she dies when she accidentally gets hit by a single one of my shield bashes.

Spiders eating my brains is like spiders eating Nicki Minaj's ability to rap. Bring it on.

I was threatening Lydia, not you! You don't work for me, and you aren't swwWWWOOOOOOORRRRrrrrn to carry my burdens!

i was playing yesterday, getting mad at lydia again, when, i started kicking her [censored].

my daughter asked me, "why are you doing that?"

Admit it OP, your a control freak. Lydia is a strong independent woman. So what if she stopped to look at the flowers. Just let her be, believe me, she will catch up with you. She too is capable of wild magic. Not only does she know the Spell of Outworldy Sense, and will find her way to you no matter where you will go. But also she is capable to cast a Spell of Magic Transportation and will appear near you the moment you go through any door, or just when the combat starts. No worries. Also have you tried paying attention to HER moves? She shouldnt be the one doing everything. After all, she already does carry lots of burdens. Sadly Lydia is not exactly a master in sneaking. Give her selfcrafted(thats very important) muffle boots and some sneaking gear.


Do all this and life will shine again.

I have the same problems. Makes me wish I had the console (i'm on the PS3) so I could take away her standard weapons. The game has been pretty stable for me, but the one place where I curse Bethesda's name is the programming for the companions. I don't recall it being this bad on New Vegas.

And when you dismiss her, Lydia just eats bread in my house in MY room. And her sword makes clinking noises as she constantly stands up and sits down. Drives me crazy. And the game won't let me move the table or chairs or anything. If I had the console I might delete the table and chairs in the room.

new vegas companions, as a system, dominates skyrim.

it's not even worth putting this game in their category.

There is a "fix" for the levelling problem on consoles. It involves a Wabbajack if I recall correctly.

Edit - Great post OP. Got a few laughs from me for sure.

After the 4th time he got killed I reloaded to a point before I got the quest, ran to the cave, ran back to whiterun, got the quest, and fast traveled to the cave with him. I generally don't like fast traveling if I can at all help it.

Lydia has a nice orchish bow of fire, she likes it, but I haven't up graded her sword yet.