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Companions - Immortal vs Unconscious


gahnzz

Immortal vs Unconscious  

87 members have voted

  1. 1. Which do you prefer?

    • I prefer my companions to be immortal - regardless of situation.
      3
    • I prefer the risk of companions dying - helps with immersion.
      32
    • When they drop in battle, they stay down until combat over (a la Mass Effect)
      52


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After reading CrzyFool's article, I was wondering what the stance was on the whole immortal companion thing. Personally, I enjoyed it in FONV when a story-dependent character died. Not only did it help me realize the scope of my actions, but it also affected my play style. I'd have to adapt and find a different way to solve a particular problem or puzzle. It just strikes me as exploiting to send a companion to attack a mob so the PC can sneak by knowing that they companion will just pop back up at the next load screen.

 

I get the whole unconscious thing, but it really breaks immersion for me to have them pop up after 5 second down to resume the fight.

 

The best solution I've seen was for Mass Effect where companions drop for the duration of the battle. It really impacted strategy to make sure the crucial party members survived even if I dropped.

 

Thoughts?

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Well in FONV in regular mode they were immortal but on hardcore they could die. At first I played on regular and I didn't care that they didn't die. I wasn't taking advantage of it or anything. But after a couple of playthroughs I tried hardcore and well, I haven't played on regular ever since. It's as if FONV was made for hardcore! Including companion death.

 

second vote for me.

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Just so you guys know its confirmed that companions CAN die .. Dave's companion was a quest giver so he was immortal for a different reason. :thumbsup:

But I voted for mass effect style .. It makes sense though it still leads to exploits.

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It'd be ideal if they went the D&D route. When a companion falls unconcious they revive as long as you take the time to revive them. If you leave them unconcious for too long, or if enemies find them while still unconcious and attack them more, they die. Unconscious people would die when their hp gets to -100 or whatever size of numbers Skyrim uses for health.

 

Actually, that sounds like a great mod! Somebody wanna' make that for me?

Edited by Rennn
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Although I'm pretty sure most of them can die, I say it depends heavily on how well-developed they are. For instance, Boone would destroy virtually everything you threw at him, almost to the point of being a walking cheatcode, but Veronica had various bugs due to the melee programming. In vaults, where she is supposed to shine, she'd often detect an enemy a few rooms away, crouch and do nothing until an enemy got close enough or I dragged her to them.

 

Mass Effect's system works very well in those games because everything is centered around Shepard. While companions survive anyway, Shep has a much harder time dealing with multiple enemies by himself and must not die, unless you want a game over screen. Fallout works well with both systems, IMO: On hardcore, you even have to sleep and drink, so survival is already a high priority. Having companions permanently die means that you'll have to compromise your own survival to help them out at times, which teamwork is all about. For the more casual player, the other option works well, as you can leisurely stroll through the story and go exploring without risking their lives. Depending on character and situation, it could be very problematic to juggle characters around on hardcore, whereas regular modes allows you to bring anyone you want without being too concerned.

 

Skyrim doesn't feature tiny spaces like vaults, as far as I know, so I'm pretty sure the AI will work decently. However, as CrzyFool notes in his article, it would be nice with a higher degree of control, but a mod will probably address that within days of release. Fallout generally worked well with the command system, so it's a little odd they didn't implement it fully here. The biggest problem I see with the current system (where they can die) is mages: If the guy isn't specced correctly and you have fairly limited control over him, he might just bugger off and fight something he shouldn't and get cornered or run out of mana. Mages generally aren't fans of getting hit by large weapons, so it'll be interesting to see how this works out.

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