I found a survivor, completed a mission and took him with me, he was strength 6 so he couldn’t carry many things and he was barely dressed. Also he has only his clothes and his crossbow in his inventory. So I took him to a sports shop and a military thing eiht many MANY sweet equipment. Gave him a better weapon, armor, and a bag. Also some equipment.
I had no base, I was surviving like a nomad. He was my companion for a few days and saved me and bla bla bla. But apart from killing monsters that got too close to us, he did not do much more. He told me a few times that he was thirsty, hungry or tired. So I gave him few times food and drinking water, and set up a tent so we could sleep (he is SO sleepy).
We went through some adventures, met more survivors but I noticed something. I will tell you later.
He kept asking for water and food and rest, I was finally building a base and I saw he was helping me. So he is definitely useful.
But I’m done with sgaring all my water and food with him.
Can’t he take his own water bottles, full them with water and potabilize it himself when we (rather me) raid a house?
I mean, I think I can make a great base, and I will like to introduce people. But can’t NPCs go to raid by themselves or find their own water? Cause I don’t wanna be the babysister of a comunity of lazy big babies.
Can I order them to find supplies or make them take items when they are following me?
When I saw those survivors they had a profession. Can I make a survivor have a profession? Cause this survivor/friend/baby looks terrifying. He looks just like a soldier.
Can he survive by his own? Or if I stop feeding him and tell him to stop following me he will die? I would like to make him settle in my base but I want him to survive, not by being fed by me.
Well, last time I played with NPCs, if you ordered them to stay in one spot they would guard that location and not require any food, water, or rest, since you probably wouldn’t be around to baby them.
As long as they’re following you, however, you’ll need to take care of them, and the AI isn’t advanced enough yet to take care of itself (find their own supplies, not fall asleep during raids). I remember they would sometimes pick up loot on their own, but it was just random as far as I remember.
There should be a mod included in the experimentals that removes NPC needs entirely since it can be such a hassle. If you don’t use that mod, I would recommend only having one or two NPCs following you around for raids. Alternatively, to ease micromanagement you could try giving your NPCs a gallon jug of clean water when they’re thirsty plus a ton of some cheap, nutritious, and low volume food that doesn’t expire. Your best options are probably granola, meat jerky, smoked meat, meat aspic, fruit leathers, and vegetable aspic.
Finally, I have no idea if this would work, but once you find an atomic coffee maker you could try having them drink atomic coffee. This would either do nothing, greatly reduce NPC sleepiness, or make things worse by preventing them from sleeping until they get a debuff from lack of sleep.
Turn on the mod “Disable NPC needs”. Let us know if you have trouble finding the mod, it’s installed in the base game.
Even without needing to eat and drink, NPCs still require a bit of micro in terms of equipment and trying to keep them from dying to monsters. If you’re super nice you can read weapon skill and dodging books with them to raise their skills. Even if you’ve already read a book, if the NPC is with you he will benefit from the book if it can raise his skills.