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[GiglameshDespair]

The thing I dislike about the romance is that ALL of the companions do that silly "stumble all over themselves" thing the first time you flirt with them.
It was kinda cute when Piper did it because it seemed like something she would do. Less so when Cait did the same thing.

It was so funny with Danse, that I kept flirting just to fluster him.  Sorta lost interest except for the amusement factor, I guess that makes me a bad person XD
Might flirt with Nick, but IDK.  I kinda prefer him as a sarcastic wisecracking pal.  I do dig his backstory though so far.

Anyway, you know what I want? A exploding laser pistol. That would be so amaze. You know why it would be so amaze?
Because full auto exploding laser shotgun.
I mean shit, the full auto shotgun laser is ALREADY stupid overpowered, if totally uncontrollable, just add explosions and suddenly favorite weapon ever.

Honestly my combat shotgun is my best weapon for clearing rooms.  I need to buy more shells.  I forgot about scatter attachments for lasers though, I wonder if they're as good...
I didn't notice any perks for shotguns actually, I wonder if they count as semi-auto rifles?  Would help explain why it's matching said perked-up rifles.

You can't romance Nick. He's a robot skeleton.

And yeah, I think shotguns count as semi-auto rifles. Makes sense because unless you're clay pigeon shooting that's basically how you use them, and cutting two weapons into their own perk tree feels pointless.

[Sensei]

Anyway, you know what I want? A exploding laser pistol. That would be so amaze. You know why it would be so amaze?
Because full auto exploding laser shotgun.
I mean shit, the full auto shotgun laser is ALREADY stupid overpowered, if totally uncontrollable, just add explosions and suddenly favorite weapon ever.

Honestly my combat shotgun is my best weapon for clearing rooms.  I need to buy more shells.  I forgot about scatter attachments for lasers though, I wonder if they're as good...
I didn't notice any perks for shotguns actually, I wonder if they count as semi-auto rifles?  Would help explain why it's matching said perked-up rifles.

In the late game, when I got my weapon crafting perks all maxed, I tried making a full-auto scatter laser. I normally use a fully upgraded semi-auto combat shotgun, which does a ton of damage up close, but I was getting low on shotgun shells and I had like 2000 fusion cells. Even fully upgraded, I found the DPS from the automatic scatter laser pretty underwhelming. It should be noted I had like an 80% damage bonus from perks with rifles and only a 40 or 60% damage bonus automatic weapons, but still, I think that because the combat shotgun appears later in the game it just has more damage potential by a good margin than the laser gun does.

Unrelated: If you have the damage bonus on pistols from Gunslinger, and the damage bonus on automatic weapons from Commando, which one counts for an automatic pistol? Do they stack?

[GiglameshDespair]

Pretty sure gunslinger mentions "non-automatic pistols" in its blurb.
Commando just says "automatic weapons", so it and it alone will apply to autopistols.

[Sensei]

Oh yeah, now that I've loaded up the game again just now, another question:

I put Cait in some rather nice power armor, later found another companion and sent her to Sanctuary. Once in Sanctuary... she's not in her power armor. Is there a way to get it back? Is it gone for good?

[TheBiggerFish]

Try taking her with you, it might show up.

Just a guess that idling companions might not have as much persistence.

I have no clue though.

[majikero]

They probably left it somewhere on the way back. It may show up on some raider though but you have to find a new frame if you kill said raider.

Companions have a nasty habit of leaving their power armor though. Not sure about Dance leaving his though.

Stupid Preston! How can you look like an imposing Minutemen if you leave the armor in the courtyard.

[scriver]

It's not like there's anything to the romances beyond a couple different line or two and the silly "sex totally happened wink wink nudge nudge say no more" perk. I'm no big fan of Bioware's sexcuse romances but at least they try to weave it into the character rather than just having it as a side thought. It's still leaps better than Skyrim's "oh I am wearing this amulet let's get married" thing though.

As for companions in general I was pleasantly surprised. They're fairly one-dimensional but still interesting enough to not be flat, while there's plenty of tiny moments that do add to their characterization to stumble upon. Piper and Nick do have that annoying Bioware-esque "hey look how awesome this person is don't you love them" introduction/set up thing to them, but not quite as overt as Bioware does it and once past it they and the other characters don't really try to muscle in on your place in the narrative. Except literally, of course, but that's a pathfinding issue

So on the whole they struck a good balance where the companions are low key enough that they don't need any vast amount of depth to be acceptable, and there's enough around that if you do get bored by somebody there's usually someone rose not far away you can change them for. I do sometimes wish we had the chance to explore them more thoroughly, but another part of me feels if the price paid for more characterization would be worse writing then it's better to keep it at this level.

The improved quality of voice acting also helps build their character a lot compared to previous bethesda games.

Lastly I want to say that it is clear to me that Bethesda really wanted F4 to be more like Bioware or Obsidian games compared to their own older productions. This is both good and bad. I welcome the increased focus on NPCs and writing, but I'm also glad they didn't go the route of Bioware where lately it has felt as if their characters often try to steal the spotlight and like the writers often turns dialogue with them into monologues where the PC has little to no agency, as if that is what they think add depth to characters (characterization by rant, if you wish). The worst thing they got from Bioware is probably the crappy dialogue system, I really don't understand why they would do that. It's just so thoroughly crappy. Even worse is the possibility that the "only for options" rule might be hard coded. I really hope it's not, or that clever modders might be able to subvert the UI somehow if it is.

[majikero]

I wonder WHY they think it is even a remotely good system is beyond me. I blame stupid console pheasants. They can't be arsed to click a few buttons to make a choice.

[Rolan7]

You can't romance Nick. He's a robot skeleton.

Whaaaat?  I thought he was a particularly decomposed ghoul

Edit:

Pretty sure gunslinger mentions "non-automatic pistols" in its blurb.
Commando just says "automatic weapons", so it and it alone will apply to autopistols.

Yeah I checked, they thought of that.

[TheBronzePickle]

Nick's an early-model synth. His character arc goes over this several times.

As for the Bioware-ification, that seems to be a side-effect of Bioware and Bethesda games having a large amount of player crossover already combined with Bethesda's (and, really, most large developers') desire to latch on to things that catch the popular eye, even if the 'popular eye' is actually just a vocal minority of people gushing about something they've never seen before because they're either young and just getting into gaming and inexperienced or old and just getting into gaming and inexperienced.

[majikero]

If that were true then we'd see more Splatoon copycats in the future.

[Graknorke]

Splatoon wasn't Modern Warfare levels of successful though. And remember how that set off a good 5 years of spunkgargleweewee?

[Twinwolf]

I wonder WHY they think it is even a remotely good system is beyond me. I blame stupid console pheasants. They can't be arsed to click a few buttons to make a choice.

Speaking as a console peasant, I agree that the dialogue system sucks. It's somehow worse than Bioware's conversation systems.

[PTTG??]

The first and last time Bethesda made a decent dialog system was Morrowind.

[Leyic]

The first and last time Bethesda made a decent dialog system was Morrowind.

Daggerfall's is better. You can ask anyone anything (not that everyone knows everything, mind), choose your tone of voice, and there's no bribery/intimidation cycle like in Morrowind. There just wasn't a lot of story or background for people to talk about, but that's a content problem, not a system problem.

But Daggerfall is back from a time when CRPGs were actual role playing games and not action games with stats (and maybe story).