Fixing to play for 3rd time. Seeking mod suggestions.

[Asterra]

(I originally posted this in the wrong forum, so my apologies.) Well I guess this must be my favorite game of all time because I've spent over a hundred dollars on multiple copies of it and I'm ready to go at it again, despite having done pretty much everything there is to do, twice. This post may be a little long-winded.. shrug. I like talking about this game.

My second time around, I really modded it up. But my personal preference is to avoid adding anything to the game that breaks canon*. For example, extra quests, buildings, weapons, perks, followers, etc. But cosmetic stuff? Absolutely. All for it. That said, I never did quite tweak the game the way I would have liked, and I'm hoping that now, over a year later, new developments have made such matters more simple.

*(I have made a handful of exceptions to my canon rule. Namely: Disable Anti Cheat Minute, because let's face it: Game saves are a fact of how the game works, and the anti-cheat minute just wastes the player's time. And Save Cass, because I agree that there needed to be a way to proceed with the Van Graffe quest line without arbitrarily having to murder an innocent.)

The big one: I definitely want a better sky and the removal of the orange tint. Even a year ago, there were plenty of mods which addressed these things. But I never found one that really worked without issue. Standalone orange tint removal patches seemed to only reduce the orange tint. The likes of Nevada Skies gave prettier clouds, but with bugs, a curiously non-defeatable weather system (in spite of the menus), and a really inexplicably non-defeatable darkening of the night. Believe me, I tried all I could to make Nevada Skies work for me and it never panned out. Solve it with lamp posts, you say? No - that treads on the breaking of canon that I mentioned.

Now I'm on the lookout for what's new. I randomly stumbled upon the following already:

"Interior Lighting Overhaul" which really looks like it'd be worth a look.

"Wasteland Flora Overhaul" Again, remarkable. I'll try the Dead Wasteland setting as it sounds to be true to the original look, but will likely stick with the no-ESP one since I don't want trees that never used to be there.

"Fallout New Vegas Redesigned 2" Looks to be a lot of modifications to existing characters' faces. Could be worth a look, but probably cannot use since I definitely plan to use other model mods.

Those are all new to me. After taking a look at the various mods I used before, I see they're mostly minor tweaks, like removing Ed-E's buzz, fixing some small bugs, keeping hair when wearing radii, etc. Noteworthy was the visual overhaul called Poco Bueno. It really seemed to make a difference, even if I didn't like how it turned roads charcoal black. I also toyed with Conelrad 640-1240, until the music drove me up the wall. ;p But really, it was a fantastic piece of work. Also intend to use one or another body retexture/remodel mod.

So what am I missing? Is there something better than Poco Bueno now? A good, realistic sky mod that doesn't toss in pitch-blackness and sandstorms for the heck of it? A night sky replacement with enough detail that stars look like stars instead of glitter? (Maybe FONV's engine just doesn't allow it.) Sorry for the wall of text.

Thanks in advance!

[Ladez]

Project Reality lets you choose your preferred weather so you will never experience rain or sandstorms. It also has an option for how dark the night should be, but unfortunately I found even the lightest setting to be a bit too dark. Curiously, it also has the option to disable darker nights, but that has no effect whatsoever. Could be that I'm misinterpreting what that option is supposed to do though.

 

Western Sky has a clear option between a regular and a darker night. It also includes some pretty annoying sandstorms though, so that might be a dealbreaker.

 

That is pretty much the only two weather mods I've had experience with.

 

As for the night sky, try Mojave Nights. It includes textures for stars and moon, and lets you choose the size of the moon upon installation with FOMM.

 

Other than that, take a look at Weapon Retexture Project, EVE, Enhanced Blood Textures and NMC's texture pack.

 

You might also want to try one of the ENB presets out there. Personally I don't like them, but it might be just the thing for you.

[Asterra]

> Project Reality lets you choose your preferred weather so you will never experience rain or sandstorms. It also has an option for how dark the night should be, but unfortunately I found even the lightest setting to be a bit too dark.

This. For bob's sake, I don't see why they can't just leave well enough alone. ;p That makes three mods (NSkies and Fellout being the others) that can't just kill the orange, change the sky, and that's it.

> Western Sky has a clear option between a regular and a darker night. It also includes some pretty annoying sandstorms though, so that might be a dealbreaker.

I was actually specifically considering Western Sky, since all I really want is better detail in the sky (day and night) and I thought this mod's purpose was just that. But the screenshots tell a different story, with extreme saturation and pastels everywhere, really changing the way the game looks. Didn't even know it added sandstorms. ;p

> Other than that, take a look at Weapon Retexture Project, EVE, Enhanced Blood Textures and NMC's texture pack.

Gonna try out the Weapon Retexture Project this time around. Gave it a pass before because it does change the way weapons look, rather than merely trying to improve the detail. For textures, last time I seemed to have gone for Poco Bueno. No idea why I didn't use Ojo Bueno, which I will be trying to use this time. NMC's pack is an amazing achievement for one person, but looks to be serving a different purpose. With pretty much every texture being as different as possible from the originals, the goal of the pack must be to give a completely different visual experience to the player.

> You might also want to try one of the ENB presets out there. Personally I don't like them, but it might be just the thing for you.

I have tried to look into these and frankly I must not know what I'm supposed to be seeing. ;p

The good news is that I may have been pointed in the direction of a fix to the orange tint. If I use Imaginator, it should override the orange setting. The question remains whether one has the option to leave it at that. Ie, no tint. I won't be able to try it out until the weekend. What remains, then, is better daytime skies, without unwanted baggage like dark nights or weather or performance hits. The vanilla sky is distractingly lazy.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Asterra