It is frustrating how most of your companions ruin your ability to sneak. I don't want all companions to be proficient in sneaking, but they should have some sort of command where they follow far behind you. Currently you either have to accept companions ruining your surprise attack, or have them wait far away. This is incredibly aggravating, especially considering a simple solution would be having having a follow close/follow far toggle.

There are a few sneaky companions, but most are warriors in heavy armor with low sneak skills. More companions capable of sneaking would be nice, but I think the best solution would be the follow close/follow far toggle.

What do you guys think? Discuss!

Agreed. The worst part is when some of them crouch with you, only to see an enemy, stand up and charge straight at them.

Usually I leave them at the beginning of the dungeon. Upon entering combat they usually start running in your direction so that if you are unable to clear out all the enemies quickly they will arrive just in time to assist you.

Sometimes I'll send them into a room first to draw out all the baddies. Then I sneak in behind them and stabbity stab!

Or you let them take aggro and you sneak in and WHAM! Right in the back!

Yes, agree, it would be nice to have a follow close/far toggle. However, I don't know how high of a priority this would be considering that there are other stand-out issues talked about in the forums. I mean, how much more content can we expect the devs to include in the game by a release date?

From an RP standpoint, most of my characters agree ... it's better for companions to just stay in the cities or safe areas because Skyrim is a dangerous place. My character can only equip a companion and cast "heal other" spells so much before something goes wrong. Sure, it's not adventuring for the companion ... but it is practical.

A "follow at a distance, but come quick if you hear fighting" command would be cool.


One time in Bloodlet Throne, this vampire was chasing Faendal and I positioned myself in her path, slightly to the side and hidden behind a rock, and hit her with a dagger for 15x damage. lol

I don't really mind the mechanic. I am playing a sneaky character (currently level 47 with stealth in the high 70's) and have Erik the Slayer as a follower, suitably equipped he is relatively stealthy (at least enough for her to get a couple of shots off with her bow before the enemies rush past her to attack him). It's not dishonorable to shoot a bandit in the back, is it?

If I was RPing a different character I might not take a follower, but it fits for my current character.

I prefer to be alone when I'm a stealthy character. I didn't like the thieves guild quests where you had followers. They were cramping my style.

My god, this is the longest I've had a thread without negative spam replies to my ideas!

I limit followers to "only if I am forced". I like to sneak into position, use Atronachs to clear out groups while I lounge far away in a dark corner somewhere and then strike only when a baddie somehow makes it through that and finds me. I'll get myself to a place they can't follow me to and wipe them out while they try to reach me in vain. Followers just screw my method all up, rushing into hopeless battle; alerting enemies and giving away my position; getting ni my way when I am trying to melee... their just a pain, so they can wait in town while I do the heavy work - unless a quest requires them to accompany me.

I think that's because unlike the other points you've tried to make, everyone (probably including Bethesda) knows their follower AI svcks and needs to be improved if they want to compete with modders.

They should of looked a Oblivions popular follower mods. They had fantastic commands. tsk tsk.
I remember one in particular. Vilja.

or at the very least New Vegas.

The stupid AI pales in comparison to that slight push you recieve when they run up on you... every... single... time...

I can't wrap my head around why Bethesda didn't at least include the option to change companion following distance, since it was present in Fallout 3. The options introduced into New Vegas being exempt makes some sense since it wasn't exactly their game. From a design standpoint though, something as simple as this just doesn't seem like an option you'd keep to a particular game series in an attempt at a preservation of game style. Skyrim wouldn't seem any more like Fallout with it than without it.

If this were added, it could (hopefully) fix both this and the pathing issues when roaming outside. Companions stopping in their tracks every 50 feet or when you turn your head away from them is just so so tedious.

Going with Mercer was a great way to get my Archery and Stealth up because he would charge in to like 4 Draugr Death Lords and some other Draugrs and continuously get knocked down while I hid. When he got back up I'd fire off some arrows, hide, he'd get knocked down, get back up again...

i've never had a problem with them 90 sneak they run up attack i sneak behind and stab of topic aren't you still being held captive by cancer Mr Snippy? and how do you have access to a computer

Well obviously if your follower has a lower sneak level than yours... its not gonna work. A light armoured follower or one of a class with a higher base sneak skill would be better.

Or if you do the Dark Brotherhood quest line, you can get the Jester guy who has a good sneak skill level.

Are you seriously gonna keep making these...

In the short amount of time (10 hours or so) that I've actually used a companion, they have never ruined my sneaking. Granted all I used was Lidya and she was a damn good archer, but yeah, I broke sneak before her everytime.

Is anyone surprised follower AI is terrible? Did anyone truly expect anything better?

Nice trolling thread title too OP.

I do want better companion AI, but it's gamesas we're talking about, also a wider selection of classes of companions would be cool too. Oh yeah and more depth please too? I wouldn't mind seeing NV follower depth to at least a few of them.

I thought ED-E was the most endearing FNV companion, and I didn't have a clue what he was saying....

God, I got sick of some of their repeated phrases too.

Ok, this time around I really don't know what you are talking about

No follower has ever ruined my sneak attacks, if I can't be seen neither can them. After a successful sneak attack they stand up and charge only if the enemy has detected ME, i.e. the eye lid is full open, otherwise they just stand still. No idea what you people are talking about, perhaps it happens only if your sneak level is low? I haven't had any follower with me until I mastered Sneak.

Yeah they have ruined many sneak attempts, which is a problem because having a companion is the best and only non-cheating way to infinitely produce free arrows (Give one arrow to companion, they get infinite ammo of that type, collect all the arrows from enemies and ground).

However as a PC player i use the "tai" command on them (toggles off ai processing, they won't do anything until it's toggled on again) which allows me to move and attack as if i was alone. I usually just freeze the companion at the entrance of the dungeon and clear it myself.

Another problem with companions is messy fighting and getting in the way. They sometimes will stand right in your path, and unlike most games you cannot slide them out of the way. They run into traps even if you avoid them (they might follow you around a trap, but they won't jump over one). You can choose to take out a target from a distance, but they will run up to them and melee - getting in the way of shots almost every time. And when you are meleeing with them (ganging up on an enemy) they tend to position themselves in the way of you strikes. So far the worstin that regard is Shaowdwmere, and to a degree any horse - and don't even think about doing the Storm Call shout with a horse around (especially Shadowmere). Lightening loves the horse, and the horse reacts as if you have attacked it - following and fighting YOU.