I was thinking the other day (as I often do) about why more than one humanoid companion is not allowed (in vanilla). The same with Fallout 3, why is it such a taboo thing to have a squad of ass kickers roaming the wastes? I mean, how B.A. would it be to have Boone and Cassidy and that mexican ghoul thing following you at once? You'd have your own little A-team going on.

I suppose the point of this thread is asking why you think having more than one human follower is prohibited. My personal theory is that people in the fallout universe were exposed to so many radiation and chemicals their whole lives that they have become extremely anti-social and they could not bare the thought of travelling in a group with *gulp* strangers....

Probably because of balance.

I mean, if you had Boone, Veronica, and Cass, you probably wouldn't have to carry weapons around because they'd destroy everything.

Originals you can have more then one humanoid companion so there goes your theory and it is bad ass to have a squad of ass kickers. Play FO Tactics. I would also say its a balance issue.

:lol: Even when I just had Boone, I didn't need to carry weapons around because he would destroy everything.

yes, it might be fun to hear their dialogue exchanges, but the combat would be incredibly boring.

Even one companion I find combat becomes tedious because I prefer to take out the enemies myself.

I think it should be two companions period. I'm fine with the two companions but it should be two whether humanoid or non-humanoid.

I currently have Rex, cass, Boone, arcade, Veronica, and Ed-e. It's real fun having a crapton of followers although I wouldn't want it in the vanilla game.

Same, here hahaha. Plus the fact he cant die if you are not on hardcoe, but I like that, then I don't have to babysit him like other games with followers (I'm looking at you, Oblivion followers).

Combination of things? Game engine can't handle enough enemies to provide a credible threat to multiple companions for one. And interactions between the companions would become exponentially more complex if they could talk to each other and participate in each others' quests.

Balance, AI and giving more control over your companions I guess.

Fallout series has never been about a big party-based game. In the first and second title, you could get all companions with you, sure. But they weren't really smart in combat. Such as Ian and his SMG who would often burst shots through you or your other companions, or preferring to throw his knife instead of taking a stimpack.

If you don't have control over your companions, they die easily. If you can't tell to hide there or attack this enemy, he'll simply rush into combat like he always did in every Fallout title.

So the devs need to spend more time on the AI so that companions, if they can't be ordered in combat, work as a team. That also means working on the combat AI of opponents. More than once you see a Powder Ganger going dynamite-crazy while 3 of his friends are engaging you in melee.

Then the balance. You need to have more baddies in hostile territory so that if you have all companions, you still get a challenge. But then the issue is that if you prefer to venture alone or with 2 companions, you're in trouble. Balancing it all then makes a Black Isle/Bioware party-based RPG instead, which has never been the highlights of the series.

This time spent on working on party-based mechanics can be spent in improving the rest of the game's mechanics. Mechanics that are more "Fallout".

Agreed, could get hairy with the quests for each one popping up at the same time



sounds like you'd enjoy Enclave Commander sir....If you have a PC try it out

But by playing it you'll come to realize why these "squads" would be over-powered..nothing stands in your way :gun:

Besides balance issues, it's also because it gets crowded and laggy when you enter an interior with all of them.

This

It's got to be a resource issue. Too many characters is obviously a problem under the limitations of the game and the average machine it's supposed to run on. Not only is the player limited in the number of companions he can have and enemies he has to face, but areas that should be crowded are largely empty. Rivet City had what, a couple dozen inhabitants? The Imperial City in Oblivion had more guards than citizens walking around it's largely empty streets. Certainly if the engine and the machines expected to run it could handle more characters, they would be there for ambiance if nothing else.

It's the way Gamebryo handles NPC's. If you have lots of them following you around it's pretty easy for them to get lost spread out, and when you enter building they can get stuck inside walls, or block your way and all that jazz. The engine just isn't built to handle lost of NPC's. Same with Obliviion. I had CM partners running and woudl aften run with upwards of 4-8 companions. It really was problematic with more then 4. In FO 3 I had 6 girls running around with me and often had problems when changing cells as some would be too far out and wouldn't enter building with me. Don't even get me started on the combat AI too. IF you have that many companions plan on not shooting yourself very much cuz they always pick the time your about to pull the trigger to walk right into the back of your gun.