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Okay, I'm not trying to be obnoxious here.

The title was just to get the attention of Dagmar, who I gather has enormous respect on this website. Fear not! I'm not challenging this. I just wanted Dagmar's input on the trials I've been doing to compare housecarls and other followers. I'm an engineer and I'm used to doing trials that eliminate all variables except the one I'm focusing on. I did this with respect to Lydia and Frea (refer to my post entitled 'Frea versus Lydia in: death to the stormcloaks')

My first test seemed to completely overturn the idea that housecarls (Lydia) were better than any opposition (Frea).

I was not entirely happy with my first experiment though, because it only tested tanking with a follower against conventionally armed opponents (Weapons and armour).

I have repeated the trials at Moldering Ruins. At first I tried to get figures for the action outside the ruin but there were far too many random variables to make sense of the data without running dozens of tests with both Frea and Lydia. I settled for the fight inside the ruin. This tested how the pair fought against a Volikhar master vampire and his thrall, so the duel was against opponents wielding serious magic. Again it was at level 78 and on master difficulty. The basis of the experiment was just as it was in the previous post.

I timed three runs for both Lydia and Frea, equally armoured and with weapons tempered to the same degree. Both wore daedric armour. Lydia had a daedric shield and a daedric sword; Frea had a pair of stahlrim war-axes.

Each contestant had to kill the vampire and thrall, timed from the moment that the first offensive magicka was hurled at yours truly.

Here are the results...

Frea: 20 seconds, 19 seconds, 21 seconds.
Lydia: 30 seconds, 37 seconds, 32 seconds.

Once again, I conclude that Frea beats housecarl when given the same standard of equipment that suits their skill-set.

If I got you right, Dagmar, you are arguing the opposite based on statistics.

How is it then, that in real time, in genuine Skyrim scenarios, that I have found completely the opposite of what you are suggesting?.....or have I misunderstood?
 
Sinikal, I agree completely with what you say.

I didn't see this as a big deal, either. I choose my followers more by how much I like their dialogue or how much I need one at the time.

The only reason I posted this was that a whole raft of people seemed to be fixed on which was better and were arguing about it, nastily at times. I hoped that a few facts might take the heat out of the debate.

Also, if I'm right, new players ought to be given the facts and if they're struggling, getting the right follower would be very useful.
 
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Morgan

Well-Known Member
Sadly (because I too love statistics and data-wallowing) the Creation Kit obviates such tests. You can easily look at or modify the actual stats and AI behavior assigned to any NPC in the game. If you still want to observe performance differences between any single stat, go in and create a copy of Lydia or whoever, then change just that element.
 

Mercutio

Assistant Regional Manager
A dead follower is a good follower
 

DrunkenMage

Intoxicated Arch-Mage
Okay, I'm not trying to be obnoxious here.

The title was just to get the attention of Dagmar, who I gather has enormous respect on this website. Fear not! I'm not challenging this.

That respect belongs to me.

I just wanted Dagmar's input on the trials I've been doing to compare housecarls and other followers. I'm an engineer and I'm used to doing trials that eliminate all variables except the one I'm focusing on. I did this with respect to Lydia and Frea (refer to my post entitled 'Frea versus Lydia in: death to the stormcloaks')

Your trials use information that wasn't even part of the game at the time. Frea and the Dragonborn DLC wasn't even released for another year after the discussion took place.

Again it was at level 78 and on master difficulty.

Frea has no level cap, Lydia is capped at 50.

How is it then, that in real time, in genuine Skyrim scenarios, that I have found completely the opposite of what you are suggesting?.....or have I misunderstood?

Simple. You're running a test with variables and scenarios that weren't available at the time.

Frea dual wielding gives her greater damage out put, she also has bleeding damage perks for the axes. Lydia sword and board could possibly tank longer, but never reach the same level of damage as Frea is dealing with two war axes constantly on the offence. Hitting faster and more often at high damage, it explains why she's dropping folks quicker.

Prior to the DLC, and before certain glitches were patched fixing leveling of companions. Housecarls made the best melee followers due to the fact their level was generally higher than most followers who capped at 30-40 and they have a solid skill set. They were tanky, could last longer and hit better than most.

The only reason I posted this was that a whole raft of people seemed to be fixed on which was better and were arguing about it, nastily at times. I hoped that a few facts might take the heat out of the debate.

That debate was years ago, I think the heat is out of it. (I'm assuming you're referring to the threads from early 2012).
 
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