So I plan on making a companion mod in New Vegas and wondered what made NV companions more interesting than their Fallout 3/4 counterparts. They both had dialogue full of exposition and backstory but I can’t put my finger why the New Vegas companions have more depth

I think it is the degree of how far the game will allow you to discover a companion's personality. In Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, the game will allow you to do a companion's personal quest which lets you ask more questions to know more about them.

For example Cass is a drunk in the Mojave Outpost but when you get further in her quest you find out that she has a caravan that was hit and is looking for vengeance, that she has a soft spot for her father and that she has a bad temper when the whiskey hit.

It is the same with Cait's drug addiction, Veronica's struggle with the BOS, MacCready's tragedy and Arcade Gannon's past. This information is not presented to you immediately but rather you find it out while you travel and interact with them which makes it more interesting(at least for me).

Though I personally feel that New Vegas has better writing with their companions. I don’t know if it’s personal bias but I feel that Veronica and Arcade can’t compare to anyone in fallout 4. I can’t put my finger on why I feel they’re better

IIRC conversations between you and the FNV characters feels more personal compared to FO3 or even FO4.

When I say personal I mean they give out details from their childhood to their past relationships. They feel like people who have lived in the world they where born into. I guess when it comes to story writing for these characters, it looks like the writer created them from when they were kids up to where they are in the game instead of the other way around.

So I guess you could write the character that you plan on creating from the ground up. Decide where that character is born then just think on how they would grow up in that environment so that it has an organic personality.

Ikesoh wrote:

Though I personally feel that New Vegas has better writing with their companions. I don’t know if it’s personal bias but I feel that Veronica and Arcade can’t compare to anyone in fallout 4. I can’t put my finger on why I feel they’re better

New Vegas was Obsidian, and their companions had a different feel from anything that Bethesda is likely to do. The best comparison is between the depth of the companions in fallout 4 to those in Fallout 3 and Skyrim. When we look at it that way, Bethesda is getting _radically_ better at writing companions. There's really no comparison between Piper and Lydia, as far as effort put into their personality writing. Bethesda seems to be crashing in some areas, but this is one area that they are improved to a degree that is almost startling. Which is why Fallout 76 is, I feel, such a mistake. It leaves out what is Bethesda's "most improved" area, the one thing they're doing better and better.

@Sirdanest - "The best comparison is between the depth of the companions in fallout 4 to those in Fallout 3 and Skyrim. When we look at it that way, Bethesda is getting _radically_ better at writing companions. There's really no comparison between Piper and Lydia, as far as effort put into their personality writing."

This is a very good point. To me it's the reason why there are so many really good custom followers in Skyrim, with custom dialogue, and perhaps why there are just a few truly custom followers in FO4. Heather Casdin would be an example of a true custom follower in FO4. When playing SSE, I always tried the well made custom followers to keep from getting bored with the generic ones...even though they are quite decent.

One thing I would say helps is the subtlety of winning a companions "affection". Nothing tells you what your companion likes in NV, if you do something they like, they'll tell you, and for good reason, because you did something they [i]really[i] liked. In 4, the game will outright say if your companion liked something and it's over the smallest things. Compare Arcade's approval when you mention it's good people like him are around to help balance out the morality of science, to "Piper liked that" when you happen to pick a lock. It feels video gamy, like you're filling out a check-mark in a dating sim, where as in NV it feels like the appreciate you for making the right choice for your own sake rather than theirs.

Yeah Fallout 4 just tells you what worked, often in an out of character omniscient way,while NV shows us through the story and character dialogue.