Forum:Weapon Range has a meaning to companions?

I always hated Boone's annoying machette when something was at close range, despite a hunting rifle in the face being better. So I decided to get over it and share my weaponry and ammo with him manually every time I entered a cave. I mean whats the point of having both a unique and modded hunting shotgun that are both pretty much the same? :P After giving Boone a Dinner Bell and going through a cave I forgot to remove it. Back outside before realising it and trying to snipe a group I heard a hunting rifle shot and turned around to see him using his hunting rifle.

I did quite a lot of testing after that by dragging enemies from long distance with a rifle and having them run up to us. Aswell as simply getting up close and personal by walking straight into them. It seems when an enemies range value is shorter or exceeds that of the best DPS weapon equipped an companion will switch to a different weapon that will do the trick. I'm not entirely sure if this is caused by the actual weapons range or just a set value of "if enemy is close use weapon type X/Y/Z" sort of thing. But I'm 99% sure it is after giving several different rifles, machine guns and shotguns. You can actually make boone hold on to the Anti-Materiel in very close quarter battles due to the super short minimum range. Another good example is that he will use a service rifle until the enemy is a bit closer then swap to a Light Machine Gun if given both and ammo. And the range of switching from a service rifle or hunting rifle to the LMG is indeed slightly larger then he would switch to a shotgun ingame from what I saw.

They will switch at the start when you aggro something that is either at a very long or short distance aswell as during the actual fight. You can aggro a deathclaw from long range for example and boone will unload rifle shots at it until it's very close and switch to Dinner Bell as soon as it enters shotgun range. Still preferring best DPS but being smart about distance at the same time.

One thing to note is how the companion actually checks DPS with different ammo types. I believe they will check a weapons base DPS and use it according to that at first. Despite a weaker weapon being superior due to better ammo. It will not switch to the high powered weapon with crap ammo if already having the weak one equipped with good ammo due to the different bullets already being loaded into the weapon and showing superior DPS after that. Would need to be confirmed and I will do so when I have time.

Maybe a good idea to enter this info on the companion page and mention range on the weapon page for each weapon type aswell? I'm a newb when it comes to editing wiki, I simply read it and find stuff out then usually keep it to myself since it will appear on the wiki eventually. And I'm just likely to break entire pages. :| But so far not a single comment about companions being smart enough to switch from sniper to shotgun on any fallout website! Only comments about how they hate that damn machette and think boone is bugged. --PvtNiss 18:06, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

Great find! I can confirm that this is true... Decided to give Boone a few different weapons and he uses them all accordingly! Picks off the raider down the road with his rifle, switches to shotgun when we go inside the building next to us full of raiders. This definitely should be added to the companion page. Lingling23456 00:20, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

I tested it a bit more but it seems they always look at a weapons base DPS, even if you give them a weapon with superior ammo resulting in it being better. I gave boone a banged up Anti-Materiel that normally has 55 DPS, 63 I think with Hand Load rounds I gave him. Aswell as a 56 DPS Hunting rifle with regular rounds. No matter what he would continuously switch to the hunter rifle despite a Match .50 Cal being better.

Furthermore they aren't smart enough to use proper ammo. I gave boone weapons with normal and AP rounds that I knew would not penetrate a Securitron's DT unless loading the AP rounds. He would just use normal ammo (First in the list) and whine about needing a bigger caliber. He also never switched to a weapon that would have punched through with normal ammo. They're smart about the guns standard DPS vs it's range but that's about it. Still quite nice in my opinion, a Slug loaded shotgun does such amazing wonders. Especially since companions seem to load up shotguns and lever actions in a single go instead of bullet per bullet. --PvtNiss 02:06, November 9, 2010 (UTC)

Might just be me, but saw Boone using a lever action shotgun at sniper range against legionaires at Ranger Camp Charlie. 98.19.168.25 03:37, November 10, 2010 (UTC)