I was recently reading Jack London's "To Build a Fire" and this idea just popped into my head. How about dog companions not only help you in combat, but can also help you more outside of combat. Canine senses are much better than humans', so I was thinking that characters with a dog following them around can benefit from these canine senses. The dog could alert you to coming danger (animal/mutant/human threat, even environmental threat), helping you to avoid or giving you a chance to plan how you'll deal with the situation. Perhaps instead of just blatantly marking people in red or green if they are bad or good, the dog could also give the player a clue as to people's true motives. Depending on how high or how low your character's perception is will determine whether or not your character would benefit from the dog's instinct.
This idea is more for if a future game were to move away from vault dweller main characters accompanied with a Pip-Boy to tell you everything. It would be more for the average wastelander character who doesn't have a Pip-Boy or all the special equipment that the vault dweller may have (that's not to say that the wastelander can't come across a Pip-Boy, though).
It's a rough idea, but it could work, I think.
This idea is more for if a future game were to move away from vault dweller main characters accompanied with a Pip-Boy to tell you everything. It would be more for the average wastelander character who doesn't have a Pip-Boy or all the special equipment that the vault dweller may have (that's not to say that the wastelander can't come across a Pip-Boy, though).
It's a rough idea, but it could work, I think.
