got any good advice and strategy for companions?

[caverat749]

guys i need some tips for my crew, what to invest their points to make them better, currently (until a new update will make it otherwise) roaming the wastelands with Fidel, Hexogen, the dog and the girl (is she a permanent companion or just an unfinished quest and a packmule atm?) .
atm,i'm using hegoen for rifle/automatic guns, Fidel with a pistol and the dog (since he dies fast is he starts attacking) with the girl (equipped with a qualitative cuirass, since runs not shoot) as decoys to draw fire
again, any reccomendations on the build/ gear/strategy?

[nottrusted]

Hi there,

You should release the girl in KZM, that gives a good chunk of exp. Pay attention in the conversation and check the outskirts regulary after releasing her, or you will probably miss a usefull chef that provides food for your team.

For team building tactics:
To be honest , in the current form, without the ability to have full control over the companions, I don't see much use in them.
Sure they can carry stuff, catch some bullets and deal some limited damage in easy fights, but on the other hand in really tough fights they die like flys, or have to be healed up with lots of rescources afterwards.

For gear, its the obvious; get a Bulletproof Vest for everyone and a fast Assault rifle(VAL, AKMS, M16, preferably without close range penalty. Pistols seems rather useless to me, they spend to much time to run to their targets because of the low range.
Sniper rifles and heavy machine guns cost high ammounts of AP to fire and you better stand behind them or expect to catch some friendly fire ;)

In general it seems, the higher your level and the level of encounters is, the less usefull are the companions.
Just had a Slaver encounter at level 14, 8 enemies in a circle, 4 of them with heavy machine guns, 2 rifles, 1 assault and one melee.
With all companions set to run, only the Dog died, mostly because he can't use stims.
If the companions would run away in a direct line instead of back and forth, the enemys would get less chances to shoot while chasing them and you get more time to deal with them.

If we had full control over the companions, that would be a complete different story.
Concentrate fire , switch weapons, use grenades, move out of LoS etc. etc. would make fights more intresting.
At least adding an option to change orders for each companion in fight (Berserk,Attk, run, heal) would help to make fight outcomes less random.
However I stick with "Companions run" for encounters, or "wait" when exploring an area.

regards
Arb

[caverat749]

hmmm regarding the girl, thought i'll get a pop-up messasge when entering KZM or reaching the farms just outside the walls, i'll keep my eyes for that cook

Good points, overlooked the stims aspect must had a brain fart or something, cause the enemy always used the strategy, i'll just equip some on them, thanks a ton Arb.
The last bit is what i currently use (setting them to run/wait), especially when noticing that in the current state of the game (waiting for a update, more than i wait my paychecks) it's more economical to just let them run around like headless chickens and pray to the all mighty Ktullu that the enemy npc won't drop them in the first 2 rounds or they won't trigger everything before i set up

For the pooch it would be nice if we could put it in a kennel in Red fighter or find some way to get more medkits - it would be funny if we could put a bag and he just uses the stims we put in, like an emergency pack :))
For pistols i used a Mark-19, it has a decent damage-range ratio, but i'll get more assault rifles as soon as the caravans have them in their inventories, i recently found a bug that the shopkeepers in KZM reduce the prices they are willing to pay for your stuff, the weapons seller will only pay 1 ruble for everything so can't barter only cash and my funds are under 2-5k atm and can't "reserve" guns-items at the shopkepper - that would be a cool mechanic

[nottrusted]

The girl actually joins you again after a while and becomes the chef in your basement. Just don't forget to check her out in KZM and talk to her a couple of times

Probably one minor thing to add, if you have different weapons with simmilar dmg/range/ap cost, have a look at the armor piercing value of the ammo. Later on enemies wear good armor, so that could tip the fight in your favour.

p.s.
<< - it would be funny if we could put a bag and he just uses the stims we put in, like an emergency pack :))>>
I remember an old comic strip with a dog like this, that had a small barrel around his neck with some sort of healing liquor inside...^^

[caverat749]

yeah, finished upgrading the bunker and got her as the cook, it was quite a nice twist, although i kinda like her tagging along, oh well, at least she's safe at the home base

i'm hauling special ammo atm, although it will be tricky getting gunpowder for the smith so he can make the normal one - any tips on that?

oh yeah, yeah, i know what you mean the saint bernard watching over the mountains :)))

[Genyosha]

check scavengers and caravaners, they sell gunpowder almost all the time, and check the ammo guy in the city once a day he also has like 10-15 every time

[caverat749]

any suggestions for the pooch does investing points in survival or ...martial arts work for him, maybe he should have his own skills since autmoatic weapons or lockpicking is out of the question - he's not a bear :)))

[nottrusted]

Originally posted by caverat749:

any suggestions for the pooch does investing points in survival or ...martial arts work for him, maybe he should have his own skills since autmoatic weapons or lockpicking is out of the question - he's not a bear :)))

I went with Martial Arts, but I'm still in doubt how usefull it is...

First I piled up a lot of SP without spending them, then made a save and did some testing.

- Sneak, doesn't seem to work as expected. Enemies from all over the locations attack in fight (opposite to fighting without companions with high sneak skill). However, the devs promised to look into it in the future.
- Survival, coudn't notice any difference
- 1rst Aid, thought that medkits would do more healing when used on him, but doesn't seem so.
- Martial Arts, probably the only usefull, but hard to tell. When fighting bigger groups and he starts running towards them, they focus fire on him and he's dead before doing much if any damage.

Like you suggest, I would prefere to see a different skill set for the dog too.

Some thoughts about skills:
- Intimidate or Growl, could work like the "Strength" skill check, to convince people in conversations.

- Sprint, to make him move faster (more tiles crossed per AP spend). To counter the disadvantage of being pure melee and the need to approach targets first.

- Bite or Teeth, just more damage and acuracy

- Claw or Paws, the ability to jump at enemies and knock them down, the more skill the more chance to trigger.

- Carnivore, an ability (maybe disgusting ^^) to heal from successful attacks by eating the flesh of enemys. Probably also healing more hit points, when feeding him meat after a fight (similar to 1rstAid)

- Finesse, a skill that increases the chance to bypass armor (similar to armor piercing), by biting at exposed bodyparts.

- Thick Hide, a skill that increases his armor rating, or damage threshold (flat dmg reduction).
Atm his armor rating seems somehow bugged. When opening the character panel it shows shifting values. Sometimes it is at 15 armor then 25armor then back to 15, not sure what is causing this.

In general for companions, I would like to suggest that they should get the same exp from finishing quests like the main character.

One thing I would really like to see for companions in general is: Add some buttons to give orders without starting a conversation (In and out of fights)!
Atm you can't change orders in fight at all and while exploring, it's kinda annoying to have to run back across the whole map to make them following you again, when you ordered them to wait.

regards
Arb

[caverat749]

ufff miss the 4th companion's carrying capacity and fact that i could have a second decoy (with the dog) on the battle field:))))
i would like a command like MELEE with the dialogue like - "let's save up ammo", or "we need to be silent", again the global sneak skill would help
also a command like DON'T FIRE AT US COMRADE, WE ARE NOT COWARDS get a clear line of fire first so it avoids collateral damage from friendly fire

alsoooo a big improvement would be the button to take all - give all, that would reduce a lot of hassle not just for companions but for containers too, transferring is difficult when you got more stuff

Originally posted by nottrusted:

Like you suggest, I would prefere to see a different skill set for the dog too.

Some thoughts about skills:
- Intimidate or Growl, could work like the "Strength" skill check, to convince people in conversations.

- Sprint, to make him move faster (more tiles crossed per AP spend). To counter the disadvantage of being pure melee and the need to approach targets first.

- Bite or Teeth, just more damage and acuracy

- Claw or Paws, the ability to jump at enemies and knock them down, the more skill the more chance to trigger.

- Carnivore, an ability (maybe disgusting ^^) to heal from successful attacks by eating the flesh of enemys. Probably also healing more hit points, when feeding him meat after a fight (similar to 1rstAid)

- Finesse, a skill that increases the chance to bypass armor (similar to armor piercing), by biting at exposed bodyparts.

- Thick Hide, a skill that increases his armor rating, or damage threshold (flat dmg reduction).
Atm his armor rating seems somehow bugged. When opening the character panel it shows shifting values. Sometimes it is at 15 armor then 25armor then back to 15, not sure what is causing this.

In general for companions, I would like to suggest that they should get the same exp from finishing quests like the main character.

One thing I would really like to see for companions in general is: Add some buttons to give orders without starting a conversation (In and out of fights)!
Atm you can't change orders in fight at all and while exploring, it's kinda annoying to have to run back across the whole map to make them following you again, when you ordered them to wait.

regards
Arb

nice one for the dog , also maybe add skills like:
-pack leader (especially with animals/mutants, intimidated enemies may flee during combat, even if it's for a short while) 1-2 turns
- decoy - makes enemies follow him and attacks only when cornered or when low on health (1/3 life bar) could work in conjunction with carnivore; in towns conversation it could increase your pick pocketing chance

[nottrusted]

Originally posted by caverat749:

alsoooo a big improvement would be the button to take all - give all, that would reduce a lot of hassle not just for companions but for containers too, transferring is difficult when you got more stuff

This! and in more detail: Let us insert a number when moving stacks !

Atm when you want to move items, lets say: 300 bullets out of a stack of 600 into a container/ trade screen, you only have the option to put 1, all , or click 300 times on the increase/decrease buttons. Would really help if we could insert a number directly.

[caverat749]

oh yeah i forgot to write about that , thanks for pointin it out, they also know about the stacking guns issue, but it would help so much to avoid scrolling or to just know how many rifles, AK or pistols you actually have stashed
also the ability to ask your companions to swap weapons if they still have AP (like a gun and a pistol/knife) so many times the enemies just healed themselves because the death blow didn't come in time
i fear that sometimes certain features may cause more problems or make possible huge bugs, not to mention the coding work put in every new tweak