My idea about dog.
I think, that dog can be kind of special companion. He is weak in comparsion with other mercs or enemies, but he can have one special ability. You could give him special
instruction, to wait until you will call him using dog whistle If you call him, he will
arrive into your location (
from world map) in random time (maybe depends on luck, outdoorsman, perk, distance,...). He will have ability to get to your location
without any injuries etc. (no encounters on world map), but he can be injured or killed after he arrives, of course. The point is, that he has little weight capacity, but he can bring you neccesary stuff like additional ammo, stimpacks,... . Only master of his dog could call his dog using whistle, because "dog reacts only on special melody..". So if someone else will get your whistle, he will not have ability to call other players dog. So whistle can be generic. Until there will be scout proffesion, it will be in any stores.
Example of using this ability:
1) i have dog, i give him few stipmpacks, ammo, one new gun
2) i go leveling, but i order my dog to stay in tent until i will call him using whistle
3) i find leveling location, i am killing creatures there but i got hit by many attacks/i loose or use all my ammo, so i need another ammo or stimpacks
4) i use the whistle, dog arrives in 30 seconds to my location, i take from his inventory stimpacks, ammo and i put there my broken secondary weapon and replace it from dogs inventory
5) than i order dog to leave area and he will wait on world map for me
---> so i reduce the possibility of death in encouter during my travel to resupply myself
Other dogs possibile abilities:
* bonus to sequence (at the highest level of this ability, if you meet enemy in encouter, you (and your dog) and enemy will be on other side of encouter map, so you will have much more chance to run away)
* finding specific encouters type
* bonus against thiefs
* give bonus to outdoorsman skill when you travel on world map (only bonus, not his own skill.. as a master of dog, you must know how to read you dog behaviour)
* if you are in city/encouter.. he will snarl (in some interval) when he smell player, which is in your redlist (need to connect this ability with namecolourizing text file). It will depend on distance, bud he can smell enemy even if they are in rooms. This ability is reduced, when is raining in the location.
* carry some item to friendly player in same location
* if you die in location, and your dog not, he will stay position of your corpse, attacking everyone (except friends) who will try to take your stuff
* special kind of attack on hands, so if he will get chance to bite in enemy hands, enemy will have chance to drop his weapon. This ability is reduced by advanced armors.. More advanced armor, bigger reducement. But there should be alway chance to lost any of enemy action points.
* most of theese special abilities should depend on outdoorsman or maybe new skill/perk (not only charisma) to avoid abusing army of dogs (like supermutants before wipe)
* i preffer leveling up your dog companion not depending on your level, but on his own experiences. But with higher level of dog master, you will have more special commands to your dog. If your dog dies, he will not lost all his experiences, but he will lost only experiences beteen his current and next level (so he will never lost his current abilities). When he dies, you can retrieve him back by some money, on lower levels of dogs life, or little quest on higher levels. This will avoid (i hope) abusing of many dogs.
* perfect will be, if your dog will have his own (changed of course) SPECIAL and SKILL POINTS or something like this... or, other way is, that dog will only improve stats, he is using (and there must be some cooldowns for it because of abusing)