Add barbed wire to the “static” threats… 
I would like the option to repair the dog if my dog has repair kits in its inventory and I don’t.
or with the medic mod maybe have the dog heal it’s self a small amount over time if it has repair kits in it’s inventory and the medic mod slotted.
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So, a little feedback on the robodogs. I’ve been playing off and on since the update, though we took this week off since Multiplayer is jacked. We’re still testing the new patch to see how much of multiplayer is still screwed, and so far it’s not AS BAD, but they haven’t addressed most of the core issues with multiplayer, they just made it so you’re not getting dumped out of the game. You still can’t seem to earn credit towards anything while in someone else’s game, so there’s still no reason to play.
That said, the Companions. As with all the things that the devs do, the best stuff is in what they hand out for free, and the stuff you pay for is crap. DLC weapons don’t count for dailies credit, DLC modules for Companions modify how the Companion works, making it worse than the base module while giving you something that has an arbitrary timer built in, reducing its benefit to negligible. Details follow:
Modules:
Default Module: Excellent for base assaults. Combined with Rocket weapon, and half the base will be gone in no time. Anything that shoots at you or your Companion will get a rocket in the face, and half the walls will be gone as it tries to take out wall guns. Rank: A.
Spotter Module: Only marks one target at a time, reducing it’s viability vs taking the talents. Also reduces the frequency of combat engagement, reducing the usefulness of the Companion overall. Rank: C.
Medic Module: Completely destroys the combat effectiveness of the Companion, making it run from combat, run from the player, and if it engages, damage appears to be severely nerfed. Rank: D.
Scavenger: I’m continually close to cap on my storage and backpack because the game doesn’t give me enough of the right things to craft, and not enough overall to craft to keep my hoarding in check. I don’t need a Companion that polices up every piece of trash on the battlefield then doesn’t have space to carry any overflow I might get. If it only picked up ammo, or crafting mats, I might be able to reconsider it, but it picks up everything. Every last little thing that I don’t have any use for. Rank: D.
Weapons:
There are no DLC weapons for the Companion, which seems to be a good thing. God only knows how they would have screwed that up.
Machine Gun: “Fast” fire rate is slower than both a machine gun and an SMG. Kind of a fast pistol. Damage is meh, at best. Rank: C.
Shotgun: Excellent damage, expected fire rate, but can we get the Companion to stop thinking its a sniper weapon? The stupid thing keeps trying to fire at targets across the field with a close assault weapon. Rank: C.
Rocket: Slow… Slow. Slow. Slow. But decent damage, as long as you aren’t using the wrong module (see above). Takes down walls, runners, and even hunters. Not so useful against Tanks, Harvesters and Reapers, but better than the alternatives. Rank: A (C if used with Medic).
Armor:
Armor is the only thing the DLC did right.
Default armor: Good. Does it’s job, everything is basically equal to the Companion, and nothing does a huge amount of damage, but you will replace the damaged armor frequently. Rank: B.
Ballistic: OMGWTF?! Everything bullet does 1 pt of armor damage per hit. Explosives, as expected, do big damage, but still not as bad as it could be. Does not help with fire damage. Rank: A.
Concussive: Not bad. Not useful, but not bad. It’s the opposite of the Ballistic, stopping almost all explosive damage, but not so much for guns and doing better vs fire than Ballisitic. Still, explosive damage is such a minimal part of the experience, unless you’re taking a huge amount of rocket fire (and why would that be?). Highly situational to the point of not being viable. Rank: C.
Flame Retardant: If your Companion is standing in fire enough to need to armor, stop using them. Rank: F.
Options:
These are pretty well done, and I won’t bother reviewing them. They’re all a matter of personal taste, and my viewpoints won’t match other people’s, which is perfectly fine. However, as a note, I’d like to see a option for the name entries, so that we can have one or two word names for our Companions. And the second set of names (I affectionately refer to the three as Title, Adjective, and Object) should include the option “Stupid”. To go with that, the last should include “Droid”. I get why they didn’t give us the ability to put whatever name in there we want, and that is 100% on us for being the f!*@ed up little s@#!s we are, but a few options for more colorful names should have been added. Maybe even a few 80’s nicknames for nostalgia’s sake. “Doofus”, “Gnarly”, and “Radical” come to mind.
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You can. I have a one word name. Simply pick from one column.
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Or deselect, if you already selected one of a column.
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I added them to the request list…
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Today I noticed this behaviour again, a (disarmed) prototype Tank right in front of us and she ran away to chase three Runners far away. After I helped with those three, she went off to fire all over the place at two Seekers somewhere in the woods… Totally ignoring the Tank that was nice enough to stay away captured in his “in between fighting sequence”, gently stomping from one leg on the other…
I had to run after my distracted pet, catch her and redeploy her nearly right in front of the Tank to make her notice that “little” beast right in the neighbourhood…
This definitely needs some fixing about “biggest/nearest threat” or something like that.
Either be it in the AI or with some commands…
My 2 Ct. ymmv
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It only sounds like a runner if you use the FNIX Runner Voice. Otherwise, learn to differentiate your runner’s bubble mechanical voice from the semi mechanical dog vocalizations of the enemy Runners. I’m running with the Digi-Dog voice and I can tell the difference, and Digi-Dog is closer to Runner than the stock voice is.
I’ve tried the other voices and honestly I can’t tell a difference.
You should try it. It’s not hard, and if you’re losing the firefight, you’ve probably get the weight limit space to carry his 2.5kg (seriously, guys?) butt.
You’re implying that:
- I don’t do that.
- Running back into a fight to stand still for a second and pick up my companion then run away is always a valid option.
- The option to pick it up excuses its terrible behavior.
Like every other light source. Weird.
Unlike every other light source, this one keeps moving to stand directly behind me. You’ll find using your brain before you speak rather effective.
Resource sink. It will either be balanced or we’ll adjust to it and call it fine in a few months after we get used to it.
That’s why I’m bringing it up. So it can be balanced. Because it’s not.
Machine Gun: “Fast” fire rate is slower than both a machine gun and an SMG. Kind of a fast pistol. Damage is meh, at best. Rank: C.
Shotgun: Excellent damage, expected fire rate, but can we get the Companion to stop thinking its a sniper weapon? The stupid thing keeps trying to fire at targets across the field with a close assault weapon. Rank: C.
Rocket: Slow… Slow. Slow. Slow. But decent damage, as long as you aren’t using the wrong module (see above). Takes down walls, runners, and even hunters. Not so useful against Tanks, Harvesters and Reapers, but better than the alternatives. Rank: A (C if used with Medic).
Notice how you’ve also noticed that 2 of the weapons are nearly unviable, so I’m making suggestions to make them better. That’s what forums are for.
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For someone who has only just joined the forums community, you have a lot of sass, you know that? I’m going to let that slide, but I’m not sure the mods will. Try to treat your fellow forum posters with more respect.
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Mine is called scout if it comes up in conversation. I have custom dog tags made for it but just like the game names you pick through…you can’t see my runner pet’s name or the custom tags. But in conversation…It’s Scout.
I was only responding in kind. Maybe you didn’t intend to be mean to me but you were.
Thank you for that tip, Gys. I didn’t realize that you could unselect and option. Sweet.
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Btw about naming… Is it correct that once any selection is made one can’t unselect it completely anymore?
At least I couldn’t figure out to deselect the name choice completely… 
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Once one name is selected for the first time, it seems we can’t make so that no name is selected again.
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Be nice now, this is a discussion forum after all. Just pitching in 
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I’ve been loving the companion update so I went ahead and bought the DLC for it!
As for what I’ve enjoyed in specific, here is the list…
- Loved that a mission was required in order to assemble the companion.
- Love that there are emotes that can be done with it.
- Love that it’s useful in the field (pretty accurate) and the armor/weapon/paint can be updated and changed.
- Love that its name that I choose shows on the map! (Not just companion).
- Love that I can share and quick look into the companion’s inventory.
- Love how quick and easy it is to deploy and pick up.
As for things I had issue with…
- I didn’t understand that the schematics weren’t available unless you purchase the DLC. I thought for a moment that it was bugged. I was just thinking that maybe that could be a little clearer. But it makes sense, I just didn’t know. LOL!
- I had difficulty understanding how to deploy when I first assembled it. Didn’t know how to find it in my inventory - I felt maybe the instructions could have been a little clearer.
- As for setting up the emotes, I didn’t understand fully what was needed as the instructions faded from the screen before I could finish understanding that was from the Game menu. I think that maybe those instructions could be clearer or found in the mission details.
- I didn’t understand at first how the armor worked. While there were instructions on making and placing it, after it took some damage I thought I could repair it. I had to use a Reddit page to understand that repair kits would only help after added armor had failed and base health was taking damage. I was thinking maybe that could be made known somehow.
- It does at times jump to your location at random intervals and sometimes right in front of you. Its not major and doesn’t happen all the time, but a couple of times, I’ve been taking aim at a bot in the distance and it appears suddenly right in front of me! LOL! It makes me jump and ruins the shot. But again, its not all that frequent.
- I noticed that the armor health bar at the companion station seems to be a bit buggy. Maybe I’m misunderstanding how it works, but sometimes it shows no health at all, when I know what the current health was before I opened the station. Meaning, I saw it had health but went into the station to work on it and saw that it showed no health for the armor.
Here are some things I think that might improve it, but not necessary…
- I wish that when I crouched or went prone that the companion would copy said stances. I’ve seen it be able to crouch, but it doesn’t do it to copy me. Maybe even take a more quiet approach in said positions.
- I wish there was a way to mark an opponent in particular to tell it to attach. Maybe a quick button that could be used for that. I play on PC so for other platforms, that may not be so easy to accomplish.
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First of all: Good feedback.
I think the devs should hide the dlc schematics if you don’t own the dlc.
Anything else: I totally agree with you.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All of this. All of it, right here. This, all of it.
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I would like to ask for one more thing if I could. What would everyone think about adding a transfer feature from the companion to your person, that is a move all option? In other words, you could move everything the companion has to your person in once click. I personally would find that very helpful. Of course it would just be an option, I would want it to replace the system we have now, just another option to move everything at once.
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I like the Companion update, but the dog itself is sooo stupid that it is basically only good for a distraction and as an additional carry bag rather than anything else.
Those are things that really bother/piss me off:
- It keeps teleporting into your way and so many times it teleports in front of you, especially it likes teleporting in front of your motorbike when riding, so you fly over the steering bars, you get damage, bike gets damage and the newly attached armor on your dog gets wrecked as well, nice.
- It also keeps teleporting exactly to your spot when Fast Traveling, so it catapults you to the air and you play Superman for a while. At least it doesn’t harm you.
- It still keeps bumbing into me, as it is randomly running around, especially when I’m in a cover. It doesn’t have any problem pushing me in front of enemies, this is also very upsetting. Or you are walking on the pier and he bumps you into the water.
- It is blocking my way, especially in the narrow corridors of the bunkers, it just stops at the door and doesn’t move, so I need to push it away.
- It is still shooting dead enemies. I kill someone and it probably wants to make sure it is dead, so it keeps shooting at the corpse instead of shooting at the other enemies.
- It is shooting enemies through the walls, as they would be in direct line of sight, so it cannot do anything to anyone.
- It is so stupid that it steps into the fire, taking damage and squeeking, but stays there. Also, it obviously likes a barbed wire in the same way (btw, I’m not sure how the barbed wire could possibly damage it).
- It is shooting at distant enemies, dragging them into the fight instead of focusing on the enemies near by.
- It has probably configured unlimited mass or at least much higher mass than the biggest enemies, so when it is randomly running around, it kicks away corpses like they were nothing, even Harvesters and Tanks. So sometimes it flies away and you have to chase it for loot. There should be some collision avoidance configured for this.
- SMG gun is very weak, it would be good if he could at least selectively and precisely shoot off important components on the machines, so it has some effect at least.
I would suggest these improvements:
- Collision detection, so it doesn’t teleport into you, doesn’t bump into you, doesn’t bump into other things.
- Better AI, so it is not that stupid.
- Commads, as many people suggested here, like selecting a target, heel, aggressive or neutral stance, etc.
- Avoid things that could harm it, like fire or barbed wire (which should be configured to cause no damage).
- Shoot only what is alive and don’t shoot at the walls.
- Possibility to attaching new armor in the field (perhaps with a proper Engineer skill) would be a good thing.
- A bit calmer behavior, so it is not running around like a crazy dog without any reason.
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