Help with Skyrim Followers?

[Pirakahunter788]

I've been having a few issues with Aela. When I first brought her into my party, she was a blast to have around. I sneak around a bit, and when we'd get into a fight, she'd take the blows while I did either shots with my bow from farther away, or gave her a hand up close. Sure, she'd trip a few traps here and there, but nothing a few steps to the side and healing hands couldn't fix. However, I've come across a problem.

Aela will no longer do anything normally. She refuses to attack any enemies, regardless if they're using her back to sharpen their swords on. Her pathfinding has gone to s#!*, so she regularly gets stuck on things, or fails to actually keep up with me. I'll climb up a mountain, come toe to toe with a dragon, and spend the next few minutes killing it, then she decides to appear shortly after. Other times I drop down a cliff or steep rock face, and she'll just teleport right behind me. I don't understand why this is all happening now, especially with the amount of time she's spent with me. Any clues as to why this is happening, and if there's a way to fix it?

Also, how do followers gain infinite arrows? I know of their default follower arrows, but I read in several places that if you give them some arrows, or they get shot with them, they will use those arrows, and their supply will be infinite. Any basis on this?

 

[Mekado]

I've been having a few issues with Aela. When I first brought her into my party, she was a blast to have around. I sneak around a bit, and when we'd get into a fight, she'd take the blows while I did either shots with my bow from farther away, or gave her a hand up close. Sure, she'd trip a few traps here and there, but nothing a few steps to the side and healing hands couldn't fix. However, I've come across a problem.

Aela will no longer do anything normally. She refuses to attack any enemies, regardless if they're using her back to sharpen their swords on. Her pathfinding has gone to s#!*, so she regularly gets stuck on things, or fails to actually keep up with me. I'll climb up a mountain, come toe to toe with a dragon, and spend the next few minutes killing it, then she decides to appear shortly after. Other times I drop down a cliff or steep rock face, and she'll just teleport right behind me. I don't understand why this is all happening now, especially with the amount of time she's spent with me. Any clues as to why this is happening, and if there's a way to fix it?

Also, how do followers gain infinite arrows? I know of their default follower arrows, but I read in several places that if you give them some arrows, or they get shot with them, they will use those arrows, and their supply will be infinite. Any basis on this?

Not sure about the follower AI acting up but as far as the infinite arrows go it's like this; NPC's don't "use" arrows (as in they don't lose any when shooting them) so giving Aela say 1 ebony arrow will result in her having an infinite supply of them (still only 1 in inventory, but it'll never go down to zero)

NPC's also use the strongest arrow available to them at any moment, like if you shoot someone who was shooting iron arrows with an ebony arrow, he'll use the ebony arrow you just shot at him and shoot back at you (indefinitely) with theses.

 

[SpartakRB]

I know what you mean, I've started to get annoyed with my followers and now find myself looking behind every few metres to check whether they're still behind me! Aela I find to be absolutely useless as a follower in fairness.

I'm still really annoyed that I lost Marcurio - for a while we were the Lewis & Clark of Skyrim, exploring the map and kicking arse together (well, more like throwing enemies across the room with lightning bolts in Marcurio's case). Then I lost him in Markath, got run out of town for solving a conspiracy in a subplot worthy of '24', and he's nowhere to be seen since!!

 

[Pirakahunter788]

Not sure about the follower AI acting up but as far as the infinite arrows go it's like this; NPC's don't "use" arrows (as in they don't lose any when shooting them) so giving Aela say 1 ebony arrow will result in her having an infinite supply of them (still only 1 in inventory, but it'll never go down to zero)

NPC's also use the strongest arrow available to them at any moment, like if you shoot someone who was shooting iron arrows with an ebony arrow, he'll use the ebony arrow you just shot at him and shoot back at you (indefinitely) with theses.

It seemed like whenever I gave her arrows of any kind, usually in stacks of over 100, she would start using them up. Now I had heard that Aela has a technical "limit" of 12 iron arrows. Any arrows put into her inventory that exceed twelve only get used up to a certain point, and then she would switch over to her default ones as if she "ran out" of the ones I gave her. Considering I never thought of giving her less than twelve arrows at any one time, that may have been the problem.

 

[Pirakahunter788]

I know what you mean, I've started to get annoyed with my followers and now find myself looking behind every few metres to check whether they're still behind me! Aela I find to be absolutely useless as a follower in fairness.

I'm still really annoyed that I lost Marcurio - for a while we were the Lewis & Clark of Skyrim, exploring the map and kicking arse together (well, more like throwing enemies across the room with lightning bolts in Marcurio's case). Then I lost him in Markath, got run out of town for solving a conspiracy in a subplot worthy of '24', and he's nowhere to be seen since!!

While Aela didn't disappear when I did the Markarth Conspiracy questline, she did disappear a few times. Most of them were her getting stuck behind a door or her pathfinding would bug out, so when I would leave the area, she would end up waiting for me to come back for her. I would then have to figure out where I last remember her being with me, and go back to fetch her. Also due to the traps in some dungeons, like the swinging blades, she would get shoved through the wall the blades slide between, and would force me to reload the area. But otherwise, no "permanent" disappearing acts so far.