User blog comment:MarkvA/Skyrim's Most Wanted Features and Fixes/@comment-216.255.172.127-20111206155137/@comment-174.51.86.207-20111207165623

Maybe a better AI for the companions of ranged characters. In the open wilderness, the companion will rush straight forward, either killing or getting killed before my mage-bow character can strafe far enough to get a clean shot that won't hit the companion. In dungeons, the companion is a CONSTANT shield for the hostiles, because she will not rush a room and then break to the side so that there is a clean shot from my character.

I would not need to rez my companion at all if they would stay out of the way. (via '~" console command) I have played many hours of video games, and even humans as young as 5 years old understand to stay out of their teammate's line of fire.  I have not ever seen that basic of a self preservation instinct put into an Elder Scrolls AI.  (Even the high-tech companion mods for Oblivion possessed this flaw, and were only saved by the "essential" flag that Oblivion has.)

Maybe even a varied set of companion AIs, perhaps such that some companions will say that they work best with archers, ie maybe a line like: "My name is John, I like to charge in and have an archer hiding in the bushes... Bandits don't know what hit them." or... "I will never companion to another mage, damn fireballs!"