I feel this "feature" of hardcoe mode was a bad call, the companion Ai is not smart enough to survive a mortal life in a combat situation, I've seen Rex run about not hitting anything while on aggressive mode and I've seen Cassidy put away her shotgun and pull out a combat knife when faced with a robot sentry. They don't heal themselves you have to be standing next to them to heal for them. Certain enemies in the game are particuarily dangerous and that is a good thing but while my enemies are getting significantly stronger my companions are still handicapped by poor AI.

You spent a lot ofr time putting companions in the game and then you make them mortal in hardcoe mode, which essentialy means don't bother bringing them along unless you are happy for them to die. I love playing New Vegas and I love hardcoe mode but this feature was a mistake. Companions are supposed to enhance your gameplay thats why you made them, trying to protect them from themselves is not game enhancing.

If they just dropped unconcious like normal mode the AI programming wouldn't be a major problem, as it is now I just don't want to take a companion because then I'll have to either accept their death or keep reloading and nursemaiding them through every fight.

hardcoe mode is hardcoe for a reason. People die, its just fact. If they were kept essential then you could pretty much hang back and just let your companion handle all the fighting with no fear of losing them, this way you have to get in and actually fight to keep them alive. Annoying, yes, but necessary to the gameplay style. Should the AI be updated, yeah, but no AI is perfect at this point.

while I can understand where you're coming from.. And believe me, i do with some of the stupidity I've seen... I'd say it's one of the things that actually makes 'hardcoe' live up to it's name. since most of the rest is so easily manageable (food, water, sleep, crippled limbs, ammo weight). None of those REALLY give that much more of a challenge.

One quick 'fix' for at least the human-companions... If they're not a close-combat type char. DON"T GIVE THEM A MELEE WEAPON.... Even at point-blank, Boone's sniper rifle is disgustingly accurate. but in trying to lighten my load some, I gave him a combat knife.. BIIIIIIIIIIIG Mistake ™.

Hence why you don't make them mortal. It's complete nonsense to put them in the game and have them die so easily, the AI isn't up to the job so the game shouldn't expect it to be. If they fell unconcious instead of dying and required you to clear the area of enemies before they would get back up it would be no easier then it is now BUT you could form some kind of attatchement to your companion because they arn't worthless characters that drop dead all the time....you know how sometimes new recruits drafted into veteran military units during wars, none of the veterans want to get to know the new guys because they are afraid of them dying soon...it's like that except in a game you are supposed to get to know your companions.

I agree. But the current system makes it more intense, though. I was deep inside this cave and suddenly Bonne was completely overwhelmed with Nighstalkers. I had to whip out my Riot Shotgun and in pure desperation kill those buggers before he was killed. I saved him with one last "clip" of health left on his health bar. That was quite a feeling, I tell you. I actually cared and was happy he made it.

In their current incarnation, I can agree with the OP. hardcoe mode or not, babysitting wasn't what I signed on for with hardcoe. The AI should be smart enough to stim itself when it has one quarter of it's health remaining and it's surrounded by giant radscorpions. It'd also be nice if it knew to not pull out their automatically equipped combat knife (ya know, the one you can't remove..) to try and hurt something with a DT higher than mine in power armour.

If the AI were smarter, the dying companions would be just fine. Unfortunately, your average Legion Recruit has more brains than Veronica or ED-E does in most situations. Boone and Arcades seem to be the only companions that I've gotten so far with two brain cells to rub together. I do like the frantic feeling of "holy crap!" when my minions get surrounded by Cazadores and I have to save them but it does get tedious that they aren't even smart enough to stim themselves in emergency situations..

My hope is that the modding community comes through on this for the PC version (which I'm picking up in the near future because of the mod-ibility.) Those of us on the 360 will just have to suffer, I suppose.

I like the survival aspects of hardcoe, but I don't like playing armed escort to companions so as I'm on the PC I just set them to essential as I recruited them.

Is charisma your dump stat? Are you using Veronica?

your companions died very easily in FO1/2. generally, you would have to tell them to wait somewhere safe before going into a dungeon or assaulting a raider camp

I do wish we could give them stimpaks and set them to automatically use them at 'X' hp.

I also wish there was a hold/charge selection with them. Hold means they wouldn't take off and got commando style (Boone did the in Repconn Test Site while set to passive) and charge so the melee companion will engage after I engage (Veronica has a tendency to stand right by me while I shoot things that are fairly close range). What really gets me is they seem to have this desire to set off every damn trap, even appearing to go out of their way to do it. Maybe I'm just a little trap paranoid after I walked too close to some traffic cones on the highway, but I look for them, they try to set them off.

In hardcoe they need to have the possibility of death, sure they could be a lot smarter, but they could also be far worse.

I'm in 2 minds on this. I've yet to set my companions to essential...but I swear I am never taking anyone in Vault 34 with me again; ED-E and Veronica, both set on passive, both set on ranged...both storm off in different directions to fight enemies on a different floor on many occasions leading to death and, yes, reload.
If there were a faster command UI for them that didn't involve talking to them it would be fine, but I grin and bear it when on hardcoe...however I'm currently playing softcoe on this pplaythrough to get to know them better

Admittedly, the companion AI is pretty bad, and could use some work, but I actually prefer that the companions can die in hardcoe mode.
Normally AI partners are cheap and easy way to save ammo and other supplies, since they can't die at all. hardcoe mode, you have to use more supplies to keep them and yourself alive.
They could use some additional commands like the previously mentioned "use stimpak at X health" one and passive mode should also actually make them passive.
Still, it's better than having immortal allies. Now if I could stop Rex from killing himself...

In hardcoe mode, your companions are essentially package mules and last-resort meat shields. And the odd critter killer to save you the effort.

Before a dangerous encounter, I always tie my companion to a tree stump or so and go and take the monster on my own.

That's how I use them

By the end of the game, ALL of my companions were dead.

But they did their part and carried my loot so I'm happy ^^


Besides, if they weren't killable, you'd never get those awesome moments; like when I was doing the Arizona killer, the rangers were storming the building. My companions were falling all around me, but so were the rangers, and the floor was littered with bodies at the end. All those cool moments: your companion walks around a corner, and collapses as a ranger blows her head off with a shotgun, and then you come right after, and blow his head off xD