Obligatory mods list

[DeniseGray]

I know this is almost certainly something that has been brought up in the past, but I also know from experience that mods are constantly being changed and new ones are being created so I decided its probably best to create a new thread rather than search through old ones.

 

I played and beat(I think) fallout 3 a long time ago but moved on. Now, I am interested in playing it again because I like the world and I have heard that it is a game people are heavily modding.

 

First off, are there any obligatory mods that everyone should have because they almost undeniably, just make things better?

 

Secondly, since I am pretty sure I beat the game already, I am interested in new content that people have made. What are the most complete and solid add-on mods out there?

 

Thirdly, the main thing I liked about fallout 3 was just wandering around in the (seemingly alive) world, having my own house, and being totally immersed in a semi-realistic world... with that in mind are there any mods that enhance this specific aspect of the game? Seems kind of unlikely to me, but it can't hurt to ask.(Please don't hurt me)

 

Also, is it difficult to set up many of the mods? Someone told me I should use fallout mod manager because that would make things easier.. but even that looks fairly complicated. If you recommend any mods that "require assembly," please keep in mind that I have no idea what to do, though, I am pretty good at following directions.

 

If its important, I am using fresh instal of fallout 3, soon to be patched up to the most recent, without any DLC.

 

I know a lot of people who read this will think "Why doesn't she find the mods herself?" Well obviously, I could, and I have. Its just a very difficult mess and once I find something interesting, it turns out its the older version, and it isn't compatible with something else etc. Hopefully other people, more familiar with the mods, can help me out a little.

 

Thanks

[Nihilisaurus]

Auto Aim fix v1.1 is a must, makes that damned sniper work at long range (and removes the auto-aim "aiming" your shots into walls or diverting your plasma into the air behind a running target in an attempt to get a chest shot)...

 

People will shortly swarm and advocate their TC and bodymod of choice. Allow me to give the cynical viewpoint:

 

Conversions

-FWE (Fallout Wanderer's edition): Yeah, it's pretty good. Couldn't stand it yself but it adds some FO1/2 weapons, a whole load of difficulty increasing/immersion aspects (needs to eat & dring, which can be tweaked).

-FOOK (Meh) Yeah, it's kinda the same except it has 50 very similar assault rifles and a crapton of "modern" gear/weapons. It's ok, but once again I couldn't stand it.

 

Bodymods:

-As the majority of gamers are male there's a crapton of body mods out there, most of which make them nude. If you just want your females to look roughly human female shaped and can stand nude enemies if you want their armour then I'd reccomend the Type V body. If you want to perpetuate a negative stereotype about your gender then get EXnem with the giant breasts. Personally I went for Type 3 with feminine hands becasue somebody (Called Backsteppo) made the shoulders not manly.

-There are rarer male body replacers, might want to check them out. Most add huge erect penises though so be warned.

 

Other:

-Marts Mutant Mod: Thought enemies were too easy? How about a customiseable amount more, a few more types, some more sense from them (predators/prey no longer co-exist...)

-Fellout: ("What happened to that green tint in the air? It Fellout!") Removes the green tint from everything and adds some nice sky, also makes nights darker (optional)

-Enchanced Weather: It will rain, it will snow, it wll sometimes pour, other times not. Basically adds random weather, giving a sneaking bonus during storms, and the option of radioactive Rain.

-RH_Ironsights: Might not be compatible with every weapon model out there, but it works brilliantly for the "stock" ones (Mothershp Zeta's need doing). Basically, you now aim down the sights of the gun, instead of just zooming by focusing your mind and slightly pointing your weapon in 1st person.

[DeniseGray]

Auto Aim fix v1.1 is a must, makes that damned sniper work at long range (and removes the auto-aim "aiming" your shots into walls or diverting your plasma into the air behind a running target in an attempt to get a chest shot)...

 

People will shortly swarm and advocate their TC and bodymod of choice. Allow me to give the cynical viewpoint:

 

Conversions

-FWE (Fallout Wanderer's edition): Yeah, it's pretty good. Couldn't stand it yself but it adds some FO1/2 weapons, a whole load of difficulty increasing/immersion aspects (needs to eat & dring, which can be tweaked).

-FOOK (Meh) Yeah, it's kinda the same except it has 50 very similar assault rifles and a crapton of "modern" gear/weapons. It's ok, but once again I couldn't stand it.

 

Bodymods:

-As the majority of gamers are male there's a crapton of body mods out there, most of which make them nude. If you just want your females to look roughly human female shaped and can stand nude enemies if you want their armour then I'd reccomend the Type V body. If you want to perpetuate a negative stereotype about your gender then get EXnem with the giant breasts. Personally I went for Type 3 with feminine hands becasue somebody (Called Backsteppo) made the shoulders not manly.

-There are rarer male body replacers, might want to check them out. Most add huge erect penises though so be warned.

 

Other:

-Marts Mutant Mod: Thought enemies were too easy? How about a customiseable amount more, a few more types, some more sense from them (predators/prey no longer co-exist...)

-Fellout: ("What happened to that green tint in the air? It Fellout!") Removes the green tint from everything and adds some nice sky, also makes nights darker (optional)

-Enchanced Weather: It will rain, it will snow, it wll sometimes pour, other times not. Basically adds random weather, giving a sneaking bonus during storms, and the option of radioactive Rain.

-RH_Ironsights: Might not be compatible with every weapon model out there, but it works brilliantly for the "stock" ones (Mothershp Zeta's need doing). Basically, you now aim down the sights of the gun, instead of just zooming by focusing your mind and slightly pointing your weapon in 1st person.

 

 

Thanks, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

 

Your body mod section was worth a couple good laughs... I must have missed something when I skimmed the popular mods out there. I don't think that's exactly what I want to add in my first round of "essential mods," but maybe later on. Are there any out there that aim for realistic human appearance rather than.. uh... oversized body parts?

 

 

I really like realism mods like the ones you suggested, thanks.

 

With that in mind, there appear to be a lot of gun mods out there... do they actually add anything? I really like the idea of the iron-sights mod because that would add to the realistic atmosphere but if it didn't work with gun mods it might be kind of awkward to have them also.

[Nihilisaurus]

Thanks, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

 

Your body mod section was worth a couple good laughs... I must have missed something when I skimmed the popular mods out there. I don't think that's exactly what I want to add in my first round of "essential mods," but maybe later on. Are there any out there that aim for realistic human appearance rather than.. uh... oversized body parts?

 

 

I really like realism mods like the ones you suggested, thanks.

 

With that in mind, there appear to be a lot of gun mods out there... do they actually add anything? I really like the idea of the iron-sights mod because that would add to the realistic atmosphere but if it didn't work with gun mods it might be kind of awkward to have them also.

 

Most Gun mods will say if they are RH_Ironsights compatible, as a rule if ithey aren't it shouldn't really matter if you have a sensible crosshair and they don't fill the screen, it just won't look 100% right. For realistic bodies I'd say Type V, personally I use type 3 because it's a roleplaying game and screw environmental pressures there's enough body fat in this wasteland for some good figures! :P The type V has a reduced chest size which makes it more in-line with reality, I don't know about make body replacers because all the interaction I ever get with male bodies (playing a female character, for reasons of slightly smaller ballistic profile and I already played a version of myself) is making them cease to operate as aiming and triggering devices for weaponry. Then brutally dismembering all the parts to scare the crap out of the next lot.

 

As for FWE, it's not modular (the mod is one all-or-nothing tickbox) but there are alot of in-game options menus so if you choose it you're practically obliged to mess with them to get it working how you want, or it has defaults but those are for if you don't want to change things or don't feel brave enough.

 

Also, is it difficult to set up many of the mods? Someone told me I should use fallout mod manager because that would make things easier.. but even that looks fairly complicated. If you recommend any mods that "require assembly," please keep in mind that I have no idea what to do, though, I am pretty good at following directions.

You'll definitely need Fallout Mod Manager, as #1 it keeps things organised #2 it comes with the ability to apply Archive Invalidation (you need it for custom models/textures... don't ask) and #3 the logo is cooler than vault boy's face. To install a mod is usually a drag-and-drop operation, some have installers (which tell you where to direct the install in the readme).

If something doesn't work (e.g. a texture or weapon model) #1 check you have archive invalidation on (you won't believe how many people forget this and flood the forums begging for help in broken English -that they broke because they're lazy- or l33tspeak) and #2 check that assets are in the right place. (e.g. models are in /Fallout3/Data/Meshes - they'll be sub-divided in hear but as long as it doesn't go /weapons/weapons you should be ok) and #3 make sure your download wasn't corrupted.

 

Thirdly, the main thing I liked about fallout 3 was just wandering around in the (seemingly alive) world, having my own house, and being totally immersed in a semi-realistic world... with that in mind are there any mods that enhance this specific aspect of the game? Seems kind of unlikely to me, but it can't hurt to ask.(Please don't hurt me)

Attatanter's Wasteland Economy was pretty good. You also have MTC wasteland Travellers. Marts Mutant Mod also adds some life, but of the less human variety (Apart from enemies), it adds Geckos (gree, biped lizards from previous games) and small, not so aggressive scorpions, as a little backdrop compared to all the big nasty things it also adds.

 

A gentleman always helps a lady.

 

...Wait what? I'm being... Helpful? To another person? Without possiblity of some sort of personal benefit? Very English but very not me :blink: You appear to have appealed to some of my DNA and got a polite response, probably because as a contrast to everyone else on the internet you used (and correctly spelled/employed) the word please. A rarity indeed.

[tom2112]

Wow! Great advice. Thanks for the concise intel on those mods.

 

Would you mind giving a short 411 on the various Companion mods? I find myself buried in a sea of companion mods and I can't figure out what's what. Please help! (There's that magic word again. :thumbsup: )

 

I see that there are companion "systems" like Sharing and Caring and RR Companion Vault. There are also mods that will allow you to grab NPCs as companions - sort of - like Animated Prostitution. Finally there are a ton of mods that add a companion from scratch (Jessi, Kelsey, Amy Wong, etc.) and several more that turn an NPC into a companion (Lucy West, Bittercup, Clover, etc.).

 

I've loaded a whole bunch of these mods together (my goal is to have as many female companions following me around as possible! LOL :wub: ). They must conflict at some point because I get a lot of crashes and/or unexpected behaviors. So many of them come with so many options, its hard to filter out what you need to load and what you don't. Any suggestions?

 

And lastly (I know this is a tall order) any help that you can provide towards load order of common mods would be greatly appreciated - even if it is simply pointing to an already existing document on the subject. I've already figured out the .ESMs go at the top, and whatever is later in the order overrides the earlier stuff - for good or ill. Are there some other rules of thumb to guide us poor noobs? Something along the lines of "clothing mods should load after body mods after weapon mods after interface mods" - or something like that. For those reading, I just made that up. Don't think that is a suggestion.

 

Thanks in advance,

Tom

[TehBuddha]

Im not sure about the load order, I just played, got a crash messed around, played again. For me, it was basically a trial and error thing. But Im sure theres some method to it. Some/Most mods tell you whereabouts they go in the load order anyway. Well, the overhauls do.

The only companion mod I've used is 'Palanx'. Its pretty good actually, I'd reccomend it. :thumbsup:

 

Edit - Theres a list of companion mods about halfway down here

 

- http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=48755