Preston Garvey as a companion?

[SirTwist]

I need to rant a little here, but seriously, am I the only one who has yet to use Preston Garvey as a companion? I find him irritating, at best, and at worst, positively useless. If I could design the speech dialogues for the game, which they don't want me to do, there would be some major changes. First, I would say, I am the general of the minute men now? Okay, you want me to see what's wrong at x place, and deal with it? No, not my job description. Generals did not, and will not, go somewhere for something dubious, and risk getting shot at. Here is what you are going to do, you, me, a platoon of minute men are going to go see what this is about, and I'm going to order the men around, while you all actually fight. I'm not risking bodily injury for anything that is not finding my son, nor am I going to allow someone to stand around and do nothing except tell me about this or that. And settlement attacks? Where's the platoon of minute men I left there? What are they doing, sitting around doing absolutely nothing? Why do I need to go, when it should be a non-issue. Okay, let's gather a company up, rocket launchers for a platoon, a few fat man, and a few snipers, we are sweeping the area. When we are done, we will clear firing lanes, out to at least 1k meters, if not further, in some areas. Defenses are all the best turrets we can either make, or use from other places. Inside, we will have roving patrols, everyone armed, and we will limit what the traders can see into the place, while our traders have free access. They will be better armed. Artillery, when we get it, we will be clearing even further out. Even taking down some buildings, and eventually eliminating some potential threat areas, unless buildings can be used for manufacture of materials, goods, etc. I want volunteers that may know what they are doing, to please go in, and do what they can. This can help build up settlements, and better defenses, etc. Preston, your job is oversee all of this, and instead of calling me to report something going on, you will, personally, size up the situation, get triple the troops you might think you need, and either eliminate the threat, if outside, or if inside, take the outside threat, and wait for me. When I get there, move in slowly, leave squads to cover exits, both inside and outside, and we are going to take it slow, and work our way through this place, eliminating threat. But we are going to be careful. However, if it will help, I will talk to the people first, contact you, then you send me the forces necessary to deal with the threat.

[Moraelin]

Well, I did use him a little on the first playthrough, mainly because I didn't like the dog's constant whining and *ahem* I didn't realize at first that I can talk to Codsworth again to recruit him.

 

Lately, though, I don't even bother getting those idiots from Concord any more. Honestly, unless you want the Minutemen ending, why bother with them at all?

 

Edit: I would also add that reading the terminals in Quincy has driven my sympathy for the Minutemen way down too. While the "boohoo, only Col Hollis showed up, and they fought to the bitter end" is emotional and all, the fact is that Hollis and Preston lied to the people of Quincy that reinforcements would come. They essentially forced the town to become a warzone instead of frikken evacuating in the face of a superior force. Even the long death march to Concord could have been VERY different or even unnecessary if they had the whole group under Hollis escorting the survivors, and using the power armours they had (and lost to the Gunners) to protect those civilians, instead of going out in a blaze of glory. Their "bravery" put civilians in the line of danger, and cost a lot of the civilians they were supposed to protect their lives.

[Perraine]

So in other words ... what we have here, is just another prime example (or actually several examples) of the truly gawd awful writing done for Fallout 4?

Please, please, let's hope that the rumours (wishes?) that Obsidian are going to do another companion game (like New Vegas) for FO4, because at least THEY know how to write a good story and tell a good tale. (obviously, because Bugthesda stole wholesale from NV DLC's to make the woeful overpriced and underwhelming DLC's for FO4)

[Moraelin]

Well, good or bad writing doesn't just mean "the fairy tale I'd have liked it to be." Writing someone as an idiot doesn't mean it's automatically bad writing. If they consistently act like the idiot they're supposed to be, it can even be good writing.

 

Essentially Beth just seems to have gone for 'nobody is good' kinda story. Which, in all fairness, is not even their invention or a new thing. That doesn't make it bad writing. Good or bad writing is in HOW you write that story, not in the last minutemen being a bunch of over-idealistic idiots who wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

[Moksha8088]

So far I have used Dogmeat, Ada, Piper, Nick, McCready, Audrey (Tales from the Commonwealth), and Cait. Audrey is the most fleshed out character with the most quest aware line lines. Preston Garvey is nowhere near as cute as Piper and Cait.

[Moraelin]

On the other hand, Ada (or any other Automatron) can have more firepower than any two companions combined, and doesn't even need ammo. That beats cuteness for me.

[TheGadget1945]

You forgot "our scouts have found a promising site for a settlement" !

You get there and find it is Coastal Cottage, a shattered ruin with a huge crater next to it and immovable debris, plus overrun with Mirelurks and a Deathclaw nearby on one side with a Mirelurk Queen on the other.

How about Mahkra Fishpacking nearby, a huge undamaged building with solid walls and roof, generators and working machinery , on level ground near water ?

I decided to cut Preston some slack recently but found that he had a tendency (like Deacon) to be simply wandering around randomly when I was under heavy fire by the enemy, so I had to call it quits and dismiss him.

[TheGadget1945]

On the other hand, Ada (or any other Automatron) can have more firepower than any two companions combined, and doesn't even need ammo. That beats cuteness for me.

 

If I could make Assaultrons keep out of my face for more than 30 seconds I would only use them as companions. My current Assaultron , Trina, exhibits all their faults. Running into me at like 30 MPH, constantly getting in my way when I am trying to aim to the extent that I simply shoot regardless of whether she is in the way.

 

There's a little element of what the OP is talking about (sensible strategy) in Far Harbor where a Settler tells you about a Raider gang and then offers to come and help take them on. If they had been able to retro fit that idea into the main game it would have been really neat.

So I go to County Crossing where my 9 settlers are all in full Heavy Polymer Combat Armor and Helmets armed with maxed out Laser and Plasma rifles. The guy on Defence has a Gatling Laser and several Gauss Bubble Turrets around him. Somehow some Raiders have managed to kidnap one of them but does he volunteer to help ? No way Jose !

[Bernt]

I used Preston to get his perk. Then I fired him. Apart from his "Another settlement etc etc" he's not that bad. And a very good fighter in my opinion. But he's just WAY too much of a goody two shoes for my taste. When we had finished off that so called "sect" down in the pavilion by the river. All their belongings were red but I thought "What the heck. They wanted to rob us blind and kill us so....." But Preston went all "We really should not do that" While McCready just told me to remember that "We spilt the loot" :tongue: Haven't tried it with Piper yet though :unsure:

[cossayos]

I used Preston only once for a couple of hours. Nowadays I just recruit him to be able to ship him off to a remote settlement where he's safely out of shouting distance and the only inhabitant.