Limit to one trained animal/creature at a time, but you could access an already trained Yao Guai, Gecko, Ram, etc in a shop, after buying it from the trainer/shop keeper. Problem solved regarding "training". Once it dies, you're free to buy another one.

The fact the Merchants in Fallout 3 had a Yao Guai trained and walking with him as protection proves it's possible. Just a matter of Obsidian being clever or willing enough to add the "feature".

That is a remarkably sound and stable idea.

Here's hoping it's offered in the game, or as a DLC later on for FNV... Would be nice to have a trained Death Claw like the ones in Fallout 3, though they were more like area guards than companions, even with that death claw device in the DLC Broken Steel.

Not a bad idea. I'd be all for having to stable what you buy, or tame, or trap, or control, or whatever. It'd also be funny to see what happens upon entering a casino with some big animal. Just like they temporarily confiscate your weapons, I could see the casino managers / guards putting your animal in a big kennel or something until you leave. Another possible trade-off in the matter of having an animal that's considered "too cheap" or "too powerful". It would be banned from a lot of buildings and some cities. Obviously there's no contest in a fight between a deathclaw and a dog, or a bighorn and a dog, and therefore drawing a line in combat usefulness, but bringing your deathclaw companion to the vegas strip is understandably not socially acceptable, whereas I'm sure that most of the denizens of New Vegas don't mind you bringing your german shepherd or whatever it is that's at least somewhat normal in comparison. Also, I'm sure that while some animals out there may not be the smartest things around, that could possibly come into play somewhere. Like a smarter animal (Probably a dog, once again) knowing to avoid traps and avoiding hazards and having a dogmeat-esque ability to fetch what you want it to on command, where a deathclaw would be the ultimate in combat animal companions but instead of being cautious and vigilant, it'll just sprint in there and try to eviscerate everything during combat situations. Also, you'd have to feed it a sh*t ton more in hardcoe, if the "feeding your companion animal in hardcoe mode" thing is established.

yes that and or buying a robot like a robo brain or an other military mr. handy

One more thing to add to my ridiculously long post. I like the idea of having a scavenger-ish npc out there that sells the already-trained animals to you. Differing prices, speech-checks, and barter skills all come into play, like an ordinary store, and it's more convenient in terms of replacement as opposed to a humanoid follower death. If it dies, instead of it dying forever, you can just buy another similar one. It eliminates the need to come up with the method of taming that I'm sure that some people wouldn't like, it eliminates the need to put perks into having an animal follower, and it just makes the most sense. If anyone remembers the traveling robot merchant that sold Sergeant RL-3 from FO 3, it would probably be similar to that, only much bigger and in the form of an actual caravan.

Solid points RightCH. :lightbulb:
And yes, owning that Mister Gutsy style robot is a good example of a merchant offering a tough companion beyond your dog. Karma played a role in acquiring it of course, but for mutant animals, that probably shouldn't be a factor unless it's a death claw, which requires an "evil" approach/karma maybe, if they go down that road.

Oh,and make the animals quite expensive....
If you buy a Big Horner/other big things with 25 caps,that's too much......
That idea...I agree with it!! :thumbsup:

I'm in a rush so I didn't read through the whole thread but I'd like taming to be a skill. (We need new skills, can't just rehash the same one's in every game)

Without turning FNV into a "Raise a Pet" simulation, what would be some suggestions that could tame the beast enough to make it loyal beyond an enhanced animal friend perk?

Only reason I mention it is because a few Fallout fans said the training would be an issue, and instead, the suggestion to purchase one "companion beast" at a time was raised.

$$ Already Trained Companion Beasts: Only one or two beast companions at a time. When they die, buy a replacement from the "Pet" Shop merchant: (prices are just ideas)
-Death Claw: 10,000 Caps
-Mutant Ram: 3,000 Caps
-Yao Guai Bear: 2,000 Caps
-Mole Rat: 200 caps
-Dog: $1000 caps
-Other: Price varies

Imagine instead of a weak dog, you could have a Yao Guai companion like the Merchant in Fallout 3 had?

Bah, so other people can tame animals but I can't?
Me not like.
Me want skill.
Me also want skill for knitting, arm wrestling and masseuse.

Here's a great idea, how about no to taming wild animals? Taming animals would eliminate the true fun and danger of the game. For Christ sakes this is Fallout not Neopets!

Why would it eliminate the true fun? Just don't tame them?
And there should be a limit to one animal so after taming one what's to stop another one from having your leg as lunch?
And no deathclaw (or bigger) taming.

Good one.

Let's say they had the time to program the game so we could train an animal like "Pokemon" or something, would it be something worthwhile or are there better and more interesting things to do in the Fallout World the creators want us to focus on?

Spoiler----- FO3: There was Elder Gunny (name?), who "trained" us to use Power Armor in FO3. But to call that training is a stretch, as it happened without any amount of detail/black screen. Instantly, you knew power armor seconds later. I was actually hoping to at least walk around the room for a few moments.

Actually a fade to black would work, maybe we'd need some tools with us, a tranqualizer perhaps?
After shooting the animal with it we walk up to it and press the use button and a screen pops up if we want to try to tame it.
And then it fade's to black.
When it fades back either the animal is a companion or it's hostile again and will attack you, this time however, tranqualizers don't work and the only option is to kill it.

I dunno, something like that.

I think buying one from a specialized caravan is probably the easiest way to put it into the game. Also, we were told that in order to recruit most all of the humanoid followers we'd have to do a quest in order to get their loyalty. The thing that should divide animal followers from humanoid followers should probably be convenience. If you want a really, really good long-term humanoid follower that has some nice bonuses and speech options, then you have to go through a challenging quest or quest chain in order to recruit him / her / (it?). It would make sense for an animal follower to be much easier to get, because instead of having to do a quest line you can just buy it or tame it or something. I kinda like the tranquilizer idea. Maybe you have to find, for example, a yao-guai protecting some young yau-guai's, and you have to use a tranquilizer dart on the young one, kill the rest, and either have to train it yourself or have to pay and hand it off to a trainer guy that trains it for you, then you just come back to him later and it's, well, trained. Also, if you think it's a game ruiner, then just don't do it.. I'd rather have the option and just be able to choose not to be able to do it then having none of the NV players have the option.

If you don't feel like reading the entire top of the post, here's the shortened version: Humanoid followers - harder and less convenient to get, but better because they're able to use weapons and stuff, obviously. Animal followers - Easier to get, but not as long-term as humanoid followers because they die easier. Should be either bought from a caravan of some sort, or tranquilized when it's younger and then tamed by you or someone else.

I'd really like to see this in the game when it comes out. Keep replying and maybe it'll get noticed somehow.

It would be nice to have more than one animal to choose from as a companion, but taming a wild animal seems kind of difficult to implement. You could probably have one as a temporary follower, but you wouldn't really be able to give them commands. I'd rather just be able to have a selection of animal followers to choose from than tame one myself.