Tested the new personal guard (PG) feature.
Some obs:
(1) KG, love it.
(2) have stuck to mostly patrolling the ‘wealth with them. Sometimes, they die too easily. Not sure if I’ve poorly modded the stats, the bad guys got lucky with a one shot kill, or PG don’t recharge HP. A level 4 trooper (PG) got cut down after taking light fire... much lighter relative other battles the NPC survived.
(3) Kelly’s Brahmin can be assigned to an outpost in a way wasn’t able to do with NPCs/companions. Same goes for the dog. so, the cow and dog are treated differently. would be great if there were some code that could be applied to 2 legged critters
(4) the armory updates worked well with outfits when the units came back to the outpost. But, the same not true of weapons. Uncertain where the failure is.
(5) was able to thwart several attacks on vassal with PGs. then, after some hidden timer expired, SS-C just straight up gave vassal away... literally a minute or so after having left the vassal with the PGs and companions. Not a fan of this config. The in-person vassal defenses should be enough to keep the place in lieu of guard-in-residence. If this isn’t the design intent and if guard-in-residence is a desired, timed requirement, then UI should be like settlement quests: The vassal guard-in-residence quest gets listed, and stays on list until it’s completed or expires. Upon expiry, it resolves with current alert (auto forfeiture of vassal). If the auto forfeiture extends beyond assigning a single guard (and is a def calculation) then a build-guard-defense quest (like in Sanctuary and elsewhere) would be appropriate.
(6) sometimes, the PGs get stupid and rather than wait for another NPC to pass a path bottleneck, they walk way around (this includes walking the long way around buildings)... sometimes getting killed. Not sure if anything can be done. If not, makes stealth squad near impossible to implement
(7) PGs seem to have a deadly allergy to water. Just had a PG die stepping into pretty shallow water. If companions should be able to swim so should the PGs. Good grief it’s annoying walking from Peabody House to Poseidon Energy and your level 4 PG dies in shallow (knee high) water. Mind you before we fast traveled to Peabody, I ran everybody through the decontamination arch.
(8) wish you could see PG health (can’t target) and apply stimpaks. Also, would like to use decontamination arch (rad scrubber) on them and/or radaway (guessing they’re not immune to radiation since I didn’t make any of NPCs immune).
(9) wonder if PG squad can leverage Pack Attack mod AI or equivalent. my PGs seem to die before more advanced tactics could be used (eg flanking).
(10) probably connected to (6). Took PGs into ArcJet. It was a disaster once we left the atrium/lobby. The PGs unlike the companions didn’t snake through hallways. Instead they magically teleported to the 2nd floor. Couldn’t see what happened but they appeared to engage the synths. Even though 3 out of 4 were level 4, they died. Had to replay and leave them outside :-(
(11) not sure what status the PG are supposed to have. i have 4 PGs assigned but not all display with a green assigned icon. shouldn't a status be assigned as a default once an NPC is picked to be a PG? if not, this should be explained (better)
(12) turned the auto build feature on for vassals and put Codsworth in charge of the vassal (tenpines). no construction. no buildings. not even enough beds for the working settlers. something's off or in need of improvement. might be too fancy but making some investment in the settlers (be it a plot in the outpost to distribute goods out... common in tributary economies) should confer some marginal benefit back to outpost
