Having fun but....

[Exodus19]

I love this game so far but I have two big complaint. The companion AI is really basic. It's frustrating because I'm playing on SuperNova difficulty so when they die they die. I don't accept this so I'm reloading the game and it's a huge pain in the ass. I have to babysit them, tell them to move to cover, tell them to run away, etc. Just please think about adding some behavior that makes them run away when their health gets low.

Second thing is fall damage in this game is way to high. You can also cripple yourself from the smallest of jumps. Lets work on that eh? Once again a huge pain in the ass on SuperNova given the limitations that difficulty puts on you.

Other than that I'm having a lot of fun. This game is HILARIOUS! Good stuff.

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Fall damage isn't that bad in my experience, although the difference between "half of my health" and "instant death" is fairly small. The problem with the amount of damage that does a momentary crippling effect and a fall that does no damage to you can be the exact same height (I jumped over a ladderway 5 or more times and took fall damage on one where I traveled further horizontally but no more distance vertically) so the fall damage isn't quite where I can judge whether or how much fall damage I'll take just by eyeballing heights even after playing through the entire game (Really though, the distance travelled horizontally doesn't matter, vertical falling is what builds your momentum until you reach terminal velocity.)

That said, companions in Supernova really need a bit of work, they're WAY too stupid to be trusted to even watch out for themselves. Supernova should have some revive item for companions, even if it's on a long cooldown like the companion perks and the perk for your inhaler to work on downed companions that would be so much less annoying than having to reload because a companion went crazy. Even if it's never available in the loot tables, and you have to get it specifically from merchants for 1000 bits or something steep...

[rainharder]

Companions are OK, you don't need them much in combat anyway. 

Edited October 28, 2019 by rainharder

[LWHockey]

Just checking but have you tried setting their combat style to Defensive or Passive? I find my companions live longer when I do that.

[Delaron]

I have them on defensive stance and ranged weapons. They still get into silly trouble when engaged in combat. A inhaler item or first aid check with a timed window to pick them up after a fight would be a welcome change since they dont take cover or retreat on low health. 

[DekarServerbot]

15 hours ago, Exodus19 said:

I love this game so far but I have two big complaint. The companion AI is really basic. It's frustrating because I'm playing on SuperNova difficulty so when they die they die. I don't accept this so I'm reloading the game and it's a huge pain in the ass. I have to babysit them, tell them to move to cover, tell them to run away, etc. Just please think about adding some behavior that makes them run away when their health gets low.

Second thing is fall damage in this game is way to high. You can also cripple yourself from the smallest of jumps. Lets work on that eh? Once again a huge pain in the ass on SuperNova given the limitations that difficulty puts on you.

Other than that I'm having a lot of fun. This game is HILARIOUS! Good stuff.

so you are playing the fire emblem approach of reloading everytime one of these humanlike companions die?

[Ommamar]

I agree companions aren't the smartest but I don't understand why people want to start out the game on the hardest difficulty with very clearly explained penalties and stuff you have to manage before really seeing how the game and systems work.

I did see a perk to both increase and decrease the aggro companions will produce, I have not tried them so I can't speak for how effective they are.  You can also increase the durability of companions through your skills, their perks and giving them better equipment.  They will probably still do dumb things if you don't micromanage them but they would be more likely to survive.

A couple changes I could think of is allow players to customize the difficulty so they can choose different option such as I want to worry about food , water, and sleep but not have the penalty of losing my companion if they die.  Another thing that is kind of amazing is that in quite a few of the older RPG games you could get pretty specific on how the party members you had gathered reacted to things.  Such as dictating what attack they used at what range and when to use the attack, when to heal, when to retreat from combat and where to retreat to.  All this was allowed through scripts you could choose or if you wanted to go extreme actually write out in a text document that you could insert into the game.  Somewhere and for some reason that idea seems to have died out or at least I haven't seen it in any modern games I have played.

[Mister Holdout]

I would suggest just play without companions. You can supposedly do a lot of damage with a high sneak skill, so focus on being a solo sniper. Make sure you get all the relevant perks to bolster your damage output. By being a lone wolf, you won't have to worry about companions getting in the way and making exploring more difficult. 

You could also invest into a Charisma build and make your companions as strong as possible. In New Vegas, your companions could do the fighting for you even on the highest difficulty setting. Not sure if the same applies with this game.

Also, I agree the falling damage is a bit much. The devs should probably tone it down just a tad in an upcoming patch. 

[mazeltov]

At first the falling damage seemed excessive, then I realized I had just been spoiled by ELEX's awesome jetpack. Fall damage is about normal for Fallout-type games.

[Frag Maniac]

Set companion AI to Ranged and Defense. This way they will fight with ranged weapons and retreat when rushed. Also, buff their armor whenever you can.

There are no saves on Super Nova, but a workaround is to fast travel to your ship before tough encounters, as it will create an autosave you can reload if things go bad, such as losing a companion.

Edited October 28, 2019 by Frag Maniac