Held off playing this until mods were well established - advice on wha

[dlthorpe]

Hi all,

 

Ok first off thanks for reading, I am only posting because ive been reading about mods for the last few days every evening to choose what to do here. So before I get into all that, is there another post I should just go for someone asking the same thing as me? I pretty much just want to follow a guide for multiple mods and get them loaded correctly.

 

Basically I am only starting the game now because of my experience with Oblivion. I loved Oblivion and I modded the hell out of it. But it was only when I had pretty much completed the thing did I discover a massive overhaul mod called OOO. As my one and only run through the game was about 200 hours long I decided I wouldn't be going through it again with OOO. So knowing Fallout 3 was arriving and would follow a similar pattern I have avoided playing it until now.

 

So im looking at mods that will change the game to make it simply amazing. I have found the following to be of particular interest...

 

FOOK - FallOut 3 Overhaul Kit

FWE - FO3 Wanderers Edition

MMM - Marts Mutant Mod

XFO - Fallout 3 Balance Overhaul

Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch

 

Now obviously there are compatability issues with mods and thats where I think something called FOIP comes in. In particular im looking at this URL for that.

 

The main thing that is confusing me are all these mods sound great, each one says its compatiable and provides esp (CP's) files for that. But there doesnt seem to be a central place which tells me how to use them all together except maybe the FOIP URL.

 

I also have The Pitt, Operation Anchorage and Broken Steel. And to add more confusion there are further esps for the above mods to get these DLC mods working.

 

I would love it if someone can just reply saying they are already setup with these mods and show me the load order for your files. I just want to set it up and go for it!

 

So questions...

 

Q: Are XFO and FWE effectively two mods for the same thing - meaning I would only want one of them? If so, which do you use? XFO seems more popular?

 

Q: Does anyone have a similar setup and can give me your load order?

 

Q: As Broken Steel is new should I be waiting until these mods properly support them? Although if triggering Broken Steel is a quest only, i doubt ill do that until ive finished the main quest so it could be quite a while until i get to it.

 

Q: My current load order looks like this. How does it look?

 

[X] Fallout3.esm

[X] ThePitt.esm

[X] Anchorage.esm

[X] BrokenSteel.esm

[X] CALIBR.esm

[X] FOOK.esm

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod.esm

[X] XFO_full_Preconfig_STANDALONE.esp

[X] addon_compendium_for_XFO.esp

[X] Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esp

[X] Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Operation Anchorage.esp

[X] Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - The Pitt.esp

[X] FOOK.esp

[X] FOOK - Additional Power Armor Training.esp

[X] FOOK - Free Play After MQ.esp

[X] FOOK - The Pitt.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - FOOK.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - Increased Spawns.esp

[X] Mart's Mutant Mod - XFO + FOOK.esp

 

Q: XFO has a "Addon Compendium for XFO Fallout 3 Balance Overhaul" mod which seems to be for compatability. Should I be using this as well as the FOIP "Mart's Mutant Mod - XFO + FOOK.esp" mod?

 

Q: I couldnt find the FOOK - Anchorage.esp but think I need it, do I need it and where can I get it?

 

Q: I have not included any the supplied XFO "FOOK" mods as the XFO site says "the FOOK esp and the MMM - FOOK esp are from v1_1b. Versions after v1_1c will not be compatible with my FOOK patches.". Is that right or should I include it?

 

Q: As you can see I have not looked at other mods like the Babes ones, or anything recommended by XFO, FOOK, etc. When I do, where do I place them in the load order?

 

Thanks a million to anyone who gets this far and is feeling kind :)

 

D.

[Tadaa]

Q: As Broken Steel is new should I be waiting until these mods properly support them? Although if triggering Broken Steel is a quest only, i doubt ill do that until ive finished the main quest so it could be quite a while until i get to it.

 

Yes, the Broken Steel is new, and the balance overhaul mods don't support it yet, but you might be able to get XFO work corretly, because of the formability which alloys player to choose what ever they wish for their game, but on other hand it seems that XFO is pretty much dead mod, so there might be no updates. Personally im gonna wait a few weeks, maybe even a month before I give Fallout 3 an another run. If you havent played Fallout 3 yet, then you should be able to enjoy it even without the mods, there's less problems in vanilla Fallout 3 than in Oblivion

[dlthorpe]

Thanks for the reply. Any comments about my other Q's! :)