Do Companions Steal XP?

[Sines]

So, playing an Automatron build, and it seems that sometimes, I don't get XP when my companion kills an enemy. This is a bit of a problem, as it's a very companion centric build... is this a display error, a bug or a 'feature'.

If they are actually stealing my XP, I'd like to see about a mod to fix this, as this really shouldn't be a thing... Ideally... it should be confirmed to be safe to use in the Survival Beta.

[Lisu]

You need to inclict a portion of the damage to the enemy to get exp.
If your companion oes 100% of the job, it would even seem wierd that you get more experienced from doing nothing.

[Chro]

I believe this feature was always in the game, but it feels reasonable since some robots are really powerful like a sentry bot with the mini nuke launcher and double gatling lasers

[Orno]

Originally posted by Lisu:

You need to inclict a portion of the damage to the enemy to get exp.
If your companion oes 100% of the job, it would even seem wierd that you get more experienced from doing nothing.

Not entirely true. Many times I have received random XP from Companion or Provisioner kill(s), most often when they are over a hill or otherwise out of sight, but I can still hear the fight.

The ones I don't see registering XP gains are turret kills, but TBH, there are so many ways to get XP in this game its not even worth the time to test.

[Sines]

Originally posted by Lisu:

You need to inclict a portion of the damage to the enemy to get exp.
If your companion oes 100% of the job, it would even seem wierd that you get more experienced from doing nothing.

Given that I built these robots, it still seems reasonable that I might get credit for them. Experience is an abstraction, after all. Watching my companions in combat, especially when they're my own creation, would allow me to learn through observation. Perhaps how I should tighten some of that armor, or perhaps how the gun is running a little too hot.

And from a meta perspective, it's just kind of annoying that I feel the need to 'tag' every enemy before Codsworth gets to them.

Any mods to change this? I don't think it's a good design decision from an lore or mechanical standpoint.

[Sebastian]

No they dont steal xp. Xp gain depends on different things. Level between u and the enemy. Legendary Enemy. Enemy Type ( a raider will give more Ep than a brahim:P )

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Lisu:

You need to inclict a portion of the damage to the enemy to get exp.

No you don't. You get full exp for all companion (active or inactive) and settler kills, you don't have to fire your weapon at all, or be engaged with the enemy in any way, you just have to be close enough to the battle for it to be loaded.

Not every message is displayed, especially if there's a lot of other things going on, there are actually mods that change some messages because it was so common for the game to skip them (like settlement attack messages).

[Orno]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Not every message is displayed, especially if there's a lot of other things going on, there are actually mods that change some messages because it was so common for the game to skip them (like settlement attack messages).

This is why I want a MMO style on screen activity log, to see all the stuff that is missed because the process queue gets fubared so much.

[Sines]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Originally posted by Lisu:

You need to inclict a portion of the damage to the enemy to get exp.

No you don't. You get full exp for all companion (active or inactive) and settler kills, you don't have to fire your weapon at all, or be engaged with the enemy in any way, you just have to be close enough to the battle for it to be loaded.

Not every message is displayed, especially if there's a lot of other things going on, there are actually mods that change some messages because it was so common for the game to skip them (like settlement attack messages).

So it's a display issue. If Codsworth kills an enemy I didn't even know was there, XP will be added to my bar, but the XP gain message won't display? Thus it's possible that I can gain a level without seeing why I gained that level?

[Varanus]

Originally posted by Lisu:

You need to inclict a portion of the damage to the enemy to get exp.
If your companion oes 100% of the job, it would even seem wierd that you get more experienced from doing nothing.

As other have said, I'm not so sure on that. I have noticed the same bug, where I don't appear to have gained xp. But it has happened when I personally have killed things as well. Though much much more rare than when a companion does it. Not to mention I've gotten xp from things being killed that I was a mile away from having any part of being involved in the conflict. Pretty much any time after the BoS show up and they have random patrols around the Commonwealth killing things. I have gotten xp from that, without even being in VATSable distance to the enemies being killed. Heck, once I got xp from a Behemoth killing ghouls. I was just watching from on top of a piece of bridge and not shooting anything at all.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Sines:

So it's a display issue. If Codsworth kills an enemy I didn't even know was there, XP will be added to my bar, but the XP gain message won't display? Thus it's possible that I can gain a level without seeing why I gained that level?

Sometimes the exp gain will display, sometimes it wont. Yes you can sit there and do nothing and go up levels without noticing occasionally. The opposite can also happen, you can be so far away from say a provisoner, not even know it's there, not even know it's in combat, and suddenly see exp gain messages that you can't explain at the time.

[Incunabulum]

Originally posted by Sines:

Do Companions Steal XP?

Did they make the kill? Then its their XP isn't it?

[ElanaAhova]

Originally posted by Gerlinger:

No they dont steal xp. Xp gain depends on different things. Level between u and the enemy. Legendary Enemy. Enemy Type ( a raider will give more Ep than a brahim:P )

You mean leveling up by killing brahims is a flawed strategy? :) :) :)

[Sines]

A quick test suggests that Codsworth actually is stealing my XP. I had a save point only 2 ghouls and a discovery away from leveling. Due to a glitch, I had to restart. So when I came back, I decided to let Codsworth do all the work for combat, then I'd discover the location.

No level up. Maybe it's not always the case, but he is stealing my XP.

===

Furthermore, the existence of this mod supports my claim. Basically, it lowers the damage done to an enemy before you get credit to 1.

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9314/?

This is infuriating. I was really looking forward to this playthrough, waiting to finish up with Preston for his perk and to be far enough to start making robots, and now I find that I'm going to have crippled XP gain because my custom made death machines don't count as my own actions :/ They really should have fixed this for Automatron. As it stands, non-robot companions aren't very good, and are more useful as pack mules or distractions than actual combatants. But whenever they actually get good at combat, they start taking XP from you...

Admittedly, on Survival Mode, not getting credit for every kill isn't so bad, as any situation in which it happens is one in which I stand a good chance of actually dying, and that extra survivability is more important than a few XP. But still, it's a terrible design choice that seems like it has more to do with them not knowing how to program companion kills but not NPC kills than with any gameplay balance decision.

Maybe I'll relax on the game for a bit until the GECK comes out. Should be able to get a nice stable fix to this then.

[hixym.cmt]

have your companion do 0 damage aka mod em without arms and maybe without some leg armour