Two fundamental problems with Followers: Any fixes?

[Lampros]

I am running into two recurrent problems with Followers, and I am wondering if people know reasonable fixes - whether via vanilla settings - or mods.

First, Followers simply cannot keep up with me - especially if I travel through difficult terrain. So they essentially disappear during much of my travels; and they reappear if I stop for a long time - and sometimes not even then. And I have yet to ride a horse either, and I frankly cannot imagine run into the kind of issues I will run into once that occurs.

I have a mod that supposedly forces Followers keep up with the player's movement speed, but that does not seem to help much. I have no Follower overhauls nor custom Followers, so this seems like a vanilla limitation.

Second, Followers often will stand there and do nothing in combat - even when they are getting whipped, or even when I am getting whipped. I am just speechless; this sometimes goes on for an entire combat - sometimes even until one of us is down and out. Should they not at least fight back - or try to protect me? This is an episodic behavior, so it is not as if I have turned off some Follower setting.

And I have yet to find any mod that even addresses this.

I am a bit frustrated for two reasons. First, I do not enjoy single player RPGs, so the option to have a fully functioning Follower - even if just one at a time - makes a night and day difference. And I cannot fully utilize this function. Second, I have been able to fix most of my dissatisfaction with vanilla Skyrim through mods. And yet I cannot seem to do so with these two fundamental Follower issues.

[gnewna]

Get some better followers (Lucien, Inigo, or any of the fantastic custom framework followers) or get a mod like Nether's Follower Framework to improve the vanilla follower AI. (Do NOT use the second kind of mod on custom framework followers.) You'll still have some frustrations because it's still Skyrim, but in most cases they will work much better than vanilla.

(Your second issue does sound strange, though, vanilla followers are generally pretty happy to join in fights, possibly you have a mod that's somehow affecting them..? Dunno, but if you use Nether's, you should have a lot more control over your vanilla framework followers.)

[mistress miaura]

Hi! I use EFF - Extensible Follower Framework, https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7003?tab=description
it adds a "leaders teleportation" spell that teleports all your followers to you (If I remember right it teleports followers that were left waiting at home too, so that can be a bit frustrating). With EFF I rarely have to use the spell though, they may still get lost and lag behind but they usually catch up, and if you fast travel they will soon come running, so for instance you find a new cave, followers are nowhere, just fast travel though you are already at the marker and they should come. With EFF followers will fight with no problems, and you can also set their fighting style. (Followers not fighting even in Vanilla does sound like a bug, I thinks.)
Another, newer follower framework that sounds very very good and lot of people recommend (have not tried it myself yet) is Nether's Follower Framework https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/55653
Description says it :" has Catch Up teleport (and On-Demand Ability for player)
- Can Control distance and polling time.
- Enable a +25% Movement Boost for faster following or apply dynamic speed up."

Also, here is a very old thread with a console command to give followers higher base speed, Im pretty sure I`ve used it once in SSE https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61180933. Careful and save 1st and test it out ;D

Good luck, hope you find solutions, and happy gaming!

[Lampros]

Originally posted by gnewna:

Get some better followers (Lucien, Inigo, or any of the fantastic custom framework followers) or get a mod like Nether's Follower Framework to improve the vanilla follower AI. (Do NOT use the second kind of mod on custom framework followers.) You'll still have some frustrations because it's still Skyrim, but in most cases they will work much better than vanilla.

(Your second issue does sound strange, though, vanilla followers are generally pretty happy to join in fights, possibly you have a mod that's somehow affecting them..? Dunno, but if you use Nether's, you should have a lot more control over your vanilla framework followers.)

I am not a fan of custom Followers though for two reasons. First, most of them do not seem to fit my preferred aesthetics or Skyrim lore. Second, they tend to conflict with general Follower mods.

I will, however, think about getting something like NFF though - even though these Follower overhauls tend to come with a lot of bloat that I will never use.

As for the second issue, it may have one of my general Follower mods: I use three - one that supposedly enables Followers to keep pace with you, another that supposedly enables them to avoid traps, and yet further one that supposedly makes their stealth behavior more intelligent. None of these, however, seem to have anything to do with Follower combat eagerness though.

Originally posted by mistress miaura:

Hi! I use EFF - Extensible Follower Framework, https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7003?tab=description
it adds a "leaders teleportation" spell that teleports all your followers to you (If I remember right it teleports followers that were left waiting at home too, so that can be a bit frustrating). With EFF I rarely have to use the spell though, they may still get lost and lag behind but they usually catch up, and if you fast travel they will soon come running, so for instance you find a new cave, followers are nowhere, just fast travel though you are already at the marker and they should come. With EFF followers will fight with no problems, and you can also set their fighting style. (Followers not fighting even in Vanilla does sound like a bug, I thinks.)
Another, newer follower framework that sounds very very good and lot of people recommend (have not tried it myself yet) is Nether's Follower Framework https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/55653
Description says it :" has Catch Up teleport (and On-Demand Ability for player)
- Can Control distance and polling time.
- Enable a +25% Movement Boost for faster following or apply dynamic speed up."

Yeah, I have been looking at those two in particular, but both have a lot of bloat features that I won't use - or use much - and I am afraid of stability issues with overhauls.

But again, I may have to bite down and get one ultimately :(

[Ihateeverybody]

The followers doing nothing is a tuff nut to crack. You can try dismissing re-enlisting them. That doesn't always work.

You can try directing them to an activity such as woodcutting or grinding on the grindstone. But that is hit or miss also. Depending on what mods you have installed it could be an activity inherent in the mod.

I believe I experienced an issue with followers and the "I am glad you are here" mod. Try giving them a hug or salute and see if that clears them up. Same with Ostim if you have that . Try a kiss for that one or a Gift.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Ihateeverybody:

The followers doing nothing is a tuff nut to crack. You can try dismissing re-enlisting them. That doesn't always work.

You can try directing them to an activity such as woodcutting or grinding on the grindstone. But that is hit or miss also. Depending on what mods you have installed it could be an activity inherent in the mod.

I believe I experienced an issue with followers and the "I am glad you are here" mod. Try giving them a hug or salute and see if that clears them up. Same with Ostim if you have that . Try a kiss for that one or a Gift.

Unfortunately, the behavior where they do nothing in combat only occurs periodically. And I do not know when it will happen - so I cannot really give them a hug or kiss before getting into combat as a preventative measure! ;)

[Dirty Hippy]

My understanding is that changing their speedmult doesn't really help. Followers have some kind of baked in acceleration and deceleration that ensures they'll never follow you quite right unless you"re running at a steady pace over terrain they can navigate. You might also notice that when they finally do catch up, they tend to run right into you.

A follower or framework that has a teleport is pretty much the only way.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Dirty Hippy:

Followers have some kind of baked in acceleration and deceleration that ensures they'll never follow you quite right unless you"re running at a steady pace over terrain they can navigate.

Yes, this is the key point: It seems like they can keep up, if no difficult terrain is involved AND I am going at a slow pace. But obviously doing this the entire time I am traveling is not practical.

Originally posted by Dirty Hippy:

A follower or framework that has a teleport is pretty much the only way.

Can you recommend one that is lightweight? I don't want to get these massive, bloated Follower overhauls that will cause other issues.

[Dirty Hippy]

I'm afraid not. I just gave up on followers for the most part. I didn't find them worth the hassle no matter what combo of mods I used.