Normally I play as a lone wolf, or whatever you want to call it, and tend to ignore NPCs. So I decided this time that I’d form a group of survivors to raid the world together. Instead I only found out another way to make me emotional.
So It’s about a year into the game and I have two followers, one that was my static spawn and the other the only non-hostile NPC I’ve come across so far. I’ve set them both up with decent armor and weapons and set out to the lab as part of my static spawns black box quest. Well what a terrible idea that was to bring her there. For some reason she thought it would be a good to walk through a turret room to cut a corner… she didn’t stand a chance. As soon as I realized what had happened I just wanted to curl up in the corner to mourn the loss.
Do you form bonds with your NPCs only to have your heart broken later on as well or are the pure meat shields for you?
Most are meat shields honestly. Although in a previous one I had one that I was rather attached too. They were quite well trained up but were overwhelmed by a group of Z’s. I miss my crafting buddy.
For most part, most NPCs I use serve as crafting and construction assistant. Rarely ever use them for combat, even for the sole task of pulping corpses. Melee NPCs get in the way of my survivor’s guns, while I don’t trust the NPCs at all to use a gun and have them shoot my survivor by mistake.
I have only started dabbling with npcs after I recently found out that they can help you craft which when I am making tools/weapons and ammunition is really useful. However I only intend to bring them into combat if I could get them to use the survivor crank rifles because of infinite ammo.
I use them early as meat shield if needed but mainly as escort in case of (it’s rather easy to be slowed and get your clothes ripped, it’s annoying). The crafting bonus is cool, especially if you have a survivor
Give them some spear; I have 6 of them atm with awl pike + survivor gear + book training, they just shred everything beside stuff that can fire (but I can snipe those things).
That also leave you with little to no pain, and allow you to wear little gear so more damage/etc. Yes, they go into your way often, but you can always just sprint in front of them and fire the one monster that can be a problem, for the rest, they are fine with training and gear.
If anything, the only problem is when you need to repair the gear they use. I sometime need to delete all the gear they have (cheating) & re give them some otherwise they would just wear the same item twice and/or remove most important gear they should use.
If you examine a companion you can resort their armor, and in that menu, you also can force them to remove any armor they are wearing (with the u key I think), that should be simpler than just deleting their gear.
As for what I feel about companions it really depends on how long I stay with them or if they end up doing something interestin
Meh, I like to collect them, and I like to do their missions (just for fun), but other than skill training/occasional crafting time bonus, I really REALLY don’t like having them anywhere other than “guard duty” somewhere safe. It’s SO annoying trying to keep them alive, and DEFINITELY don’t take them into labs or other such dangerous places - they are idiots.
You’ll get used to NPCs dying, eventually. They’re quite expendable and not worth the investment, especially if you play on high spawnrates where NPCs are dime a dozen and easily replacable. Calling NPCs meatshields is insulting, since they’re not even good at being meatshields.
Well you see, I don’t like high spawn rates because my luck, each one is a smg toting asshole who wants to help expedite the end of my game. No I’d rather keep it low and have it feel more personal with the ones I do find and risk the soul crushing feeling of loss. And personally I feel that the AI for them has come a long way, obviously still a lot more to do, but a well equipped squad of NPC’s can easily clear out a lot of z’s without help.
I initially wanted to murder my starter NPC for his sweet gear (good armor + early game crossbow), but zombies killed him before I could get geared up. It was a spitter zombie that I forgot to butcher for him, kept reviving. Still, that dude killed at least 3-4 hordes back when I was armed with 10 rocks and throwing, so I was quite sad when I realized I didn’t have anyone to protect my evac shelter anymore.
I don’t trust NPCs after one of them entered my mobile base and just looted half of my grenades while I was watching. There should not be any morale penalties for killing a thief.
