scumble on 31/12/2011 at 15:11
Yes, more dialogue and more awareness of where they've been recently. My recently acquired Solitude Housecarl came out with me and rolled out the "Ooh look! A cave!" line when we were actually walking past the lighthouse near Winterhold.
That kind of "awareness" of the AI would have saved other annoyances such as accepting a quest and having the NPC that just gave it to you ask "How's it going with finding those ingredients?" when you've just walked to the other side of the room and back again. I've actually had two NPCs do that to me in one area...
Koki on 31/12/2011 at 15:49
Why do you even let those losers tag along?
Dia on 31/12/2011 at 16:22
Well, they do come in handy when you're outnumbered.
scumble on 31/12/2011 at 17:21
As long as you don't get them killed...
Illia is the only companion I've come across who wipes out a room full of bandits before I can draw my sword, many of the others are grovelling on the floor after a few seconds.
Koki on 31/12/2011 at 20:05
Quote Posted by Dia
Well, they
do come in handy when you're outnumbered.
Not enough DPS.
Malf on 3/1/2012 at 16:01
Only had two so far, but my first companion has been my favourite; Vorstag. I think I picked him up in Markath; he was the drunk at the bar who challenged me to a fist fight. Or I might have paid him. I'm unsure. I woke up in Markarth early on in the game after having a drinking competition with Sam. I'd not been there previously, so was massively disoriented. That questline alone has been worth the price of entry :)
Vorstag was always commenting on how it would dangerous to stumble in to caves while drunk and how he should always aim for the one in the middle, something that raised a massive chuckle from me when I finally kicked off the Brotherhood questline.
He's still alive somewhere, as I've realised that he screwed with stealth too much to be of any use to me and my play-style, so I sent him home. Still, he was always fun to watch as he was pretty intelligent with his weapon choices, switching between staves and fecking great hammers as needed.
Lydia's been the second companion, and she's just DULL. Not drunk at all. She's been employed primarly as a mobile seat warmer in Whiterun.
Of companion animals, Vigilance died in a Dwemer ruin under Markarth, and my first horse became trollbait, after which I swore off them, only to be won over by Frost, who has remarkable self preservation skills. Especially when compared to other, more stupid members of his species. I swear, in my last dragon encounter, Frost ran up to it, gave it a swift kick, then scarpered. After the fight, I found him halfway down the hillside. He's probably just got lucky so far, but hey, lucky means alive.
YcatX on 3/1/2012 at 19:55
Cicero is by far my favorite. If you arm him correctly he's deadly. I chose a daedric sword (with buffed Fire and Frost enchantments) and the Sanguine Rose. Quite fun if you want him to kill everything.
You should hear what he has to say about the Butcher! I <3 Cicero!
scumble on 5/1/2012 at 21:50
The drunk guy in the Markarth tavern is a bit of a laugh. I won 200 gold off him after beating him senseless, and then asked him to come and slice up some bandits. Cosnach is the chap. He might be an old soak but he's quite tough.
On walking into this cave, he commented that he must be drunk to be seeing such things.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/72776465@N03/6643400099/" title="Sneaking foiled by goat by scumble, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6643400099_e6deb105df.jpg" width="500" height="313" alt="Sneaking foiled by goat"></a>
The goat kept getting in the way while I was attempting to be stealthy.
Dia on 5/1/2012 at 23:43
Quote Posted by Malf
I woke up in Markarth early on in the game after having a drinking competition with Sam. I'd not been there previously, so was massively disoriented. That questline alone has been worth the price of entry :)
Ahhh ... good times. ;)
Quote Posted by Malf
...only to be won over by Frost, who has remarkable self preservation skills. Especially when compared to other, more stupid members of his species. I swear, in my last dragon encounter, Frost ran up to it, gave it a swift kick, then scarpered.
The mount that has even Frost beat is
Shadowmere, but you
don't get him unless you finish the Assassins Guild quests. Now
that one really tears it up with dragons! I only wish you could attack enemies, etc., while still on horseback.
Malf on 6/1/2012 at 10:06
Frost actually got roasted by an Elder dragon last night, and so after another brief dalliance with horses and companions, I've gone back to being a lone cat. It just works so much better for stealthy types.
And yeah, Cosnach was the drunk, not Vorstag.
I picked up a couple of mages briefly, the one who wanted me to help kill her mum that was trying to transform into a Hagraven and the one who was tending the shrine of Azura, and they were fun for a bit, but again constantly made a mockery of stealth.
As an aside, it's definitely a much, much better game than Oblivion was, and the exploration and general spelunking are fantastic, but Bethesda still don't really know how to write convincing AI or enthralling dialogue. Interestingly though, I get the feeling they realise this and so have deliberately focused on getting the talky bits out of the way as soon as possible. It's hard to put my finger on my reasoning for this, but things like easily skipped dialogue and the sparsity of the conversation UI contribute to it.
