Looking to play modded Fallout 3 and FNV for the first time

[ianpwilliams]

I'm now at the stage where I have Mod Organizer installed, and I did everything following Dirty Weazel's video. I've got my mods downloaded and they are ready to be installed, and this is the proposed order for them:

 

My order

Fallout3.esm

Anchorage.esm

ThePitt.esm

Fallout Street Lights (great with Fellout) ESM and ESP ("load before Broken Steel")

BrokenSteel.esm

PointLookout.esm

Zeta.esm

CALIBR.esm

xCALIBR.esm

<---------------------------.esms from all other mods (except follower and weather mods!)

(the following all esm)

A World of Pain

Alton IL - Don't take any companions there. Activate BOTH Alton IL.esm and AltonAddon.esp

Ambient Wasteland 2

Arefu Expanded v1_7d by Azar - Azar.esm then AzarRadio.esm in load order. Keep Arefu above MMM in load order

CASM

CONELRAD 640-1240 (AzarESM then AzarRADIO ESM)

DCInteriors Project Combo Edition

Fellout (install but don't activate, then delete esp and esm)

Fellout Paradox Ignition

Flora Overhaul - use "Dead" option

Marts Mutants (install but don't activate)

MMM 6.2 Patch (install but don't activate, then delete esp and esm)

MMM Paradox Ignition

Mothership Zeta Crew

NMCs_Texture_Pack_for_FO3 - go with "Large" setting

Reykjavik

Smoothlight

Fallout Wanderer's Edition Main File.esm - Have it late in the load order

FWE Part 2

FWE Patch

Blackened mod - ONLY activate MMM.esm, MMM.esp, and the 5 MMM-DLC plugins, Do not activate the plugin labled "Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty.esp"

<--------------------------- .esms from Follower and Weather mods

Enhanced Night Sky.esm - change the .ini file

F3ProjectRealityMkI.esm

Ties that Bind

<--------------------------- .esps from other mods (except follower and weather mods!)

(the following all esp)

A World of Pain

Alton IL

Ambient Wasteland 2

Arefu Expanded v1_7d by Azar

CASM

CONELRAD 640-1240

DCInteriors Project Combo Edition

Fellout

Flora Overhaul - use "Dead" option

Mothership Zeta Crew

NMCs_Texture_Pack_for_FO3 - go with "Large" setting

Reykjavik

Smoothlight

FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp

FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.esp

FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp

FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.esp

FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp

FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.esp

FO3 Wanderers Edition - Followers Enhanced.esp (Choose BS OR Non-BS Version) (OPTIONAL)

FO3 Wanderers Edition - OTHER OPTIONAL FWE MODULES

Mart's Mutant Mod.esp

Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.esp

Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp

Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.esp

Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.esp

Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Zeta.esp

Blackened mod

<--------------------------- .esps from Follower and Weather mods

Enhanced Night Sky.esp

F3ProjectRealityMkI.esp

Ties that Bind

<--------------------------- Your merged patch

MMM DC Interiors Merge Patch

So I suppose it's a case of installing all of the mods in no particular order then? Apart from taking into account things like doing FWE part 1 then part 2 then the patch, and MMM then its patch then removing the esp and esm and replacing with Paradox, and then doing the same Paradox process for Fellout?

And then after that I need my load order as above, and then I can start to activate one by one and test by loading whichever save is relevant?

I've also downloaded BOSS for fixing errors, although it seems to be a lot less user friendly than LOOT (no doubt because it's older), so I'll need to find a tutorial video for using that.

Edited September 17, 2015 by ianpwilliams

[M48A5]

BOSS (Better Oblivion Sorting Software) sorts you load order. To fix errors you would need FO3Edit and the FO3Edit Training Manual.

 

You will also need Large Address Aware Enabler to use NMCs Texture Pack, as noted on the mod page.

 

Along with Enhanced Night Sky, I would suggest krzymar moon. It lets you adjust the size of the moon and I feel it adds something extra to the night sky.

 

Good luck with Mod Organizer.

[ianpwilliams]

I'm still not totally sure on how BOSS works with the other programs. Let's say that I install all my mods in MO (taking into account individual instructions etc). Maybe I then arrange them into the order I posted on here. I then activate mod #1 in MO. Do I then run BOSS? If so, will that rearrange the mod load order in MO, or in BOSS? Will BOSS also list warnings like LOOT does? And then I fix errors using FO3 Edit, then run Fallout using FOSE from within MO, load the appropriate save and make sure everything is ok? And then I go back to MO and activate the next mod? Is that how it works?

 

DirtyWeasel has a FO3 Edit video (although he uses it in conjunction with LOOT rather than BOSS), so hopefully that will teach me enough about how to Fix errors using that. When he was fixing errors the numbers in FO3 Edit matched the numbers in LOOT, so I'm hoping that the BOSS numbers will match too.

 

Is Large Address Aware Enabler the one that in enables 4GB for the Fallout exe? Because I've done that.

 

And I'll check that moon mod out.

 

One thing I've noticed with Mod Organiser is that there is no ArchiveInvalidation toggle button for toggling when activating texture mods. Is there a separate utility that I can download for toggling the AI?

 

Also, when I load a savegame after activating a mod (be it pre-birthday party, pre-vault door or post-vault door), will loading the savegame be enough? If the save loads OK then can I just quit and move onto the next mod, or should I move around a bit or something?

Edited September 18, 2015 by ianpwilliams

[M48A5]

When checking mods for proper function, you should actually do something the game. Move around, kill something, etc.

 

You do not need to use a load order sorting program until you have a few mods installed or you run into a problem.

 

I don't use Mod Organizer and actually after reading all the comments concerning it, I have no desire to add it to my game. I am perfectly happy with FOMM. It does everything I need it to do without any extra work arounds.

 

I have read that MO does have a built in Archive Invalidation. Just read the comments section of MO.

 

I haven't used BOSS for a few years, so I really don't remember how the log appears. It does provide a log after sorting the mods.

 

I, personally, would not use LOOT for Fallout 3. I have seen too many unworkable load sortings (I can't call them orders) caused by LOOT.

[ianpwilliams]

I'm now trying FOMM, and trying to follow this guide:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JTDYDaa2FI

 

I'm guessing that there will be some other things to take into account now that I've switched to FOMM?

[ianpwilliams]

This guy is saying to create a folder for each mod, and to unpack the data inside that folder. But I've got 53 mods, which would mean 53 folders! Is it going to be necessary to do that? If it's going to help further down the line then I can do it.

[ianpwilliams]

I'm at the stage now where I've added NMC Texture Pack to FOMM (the guy in the video did this one so I did too), and I'm about to "activate" it. Now I'm guessing that "activate" means that it wiill install it AND activate it. So if that's the case, should I be moving onto BOSS, FO3 Edit etc after activating this NMC mod? Because it sounds like it will be in use by the game once it's activated, and therefore I will need to test the game with it activated to make sure it's still working?

[M48A5]

NMC Texture pack is a texture replacer and does not have an .esm or .esp. It is just texture files. On the mod page, it is suggested that NMM be used for installation. I manually installed the files and everything works just fine.

 

I did not look at the video in the link you provided. However, I am going on the assumption that you are using 7zip to extract your files and store your downloads. That should be all you need.

[ianpwilliams]

So if NMC is only textures, is that why it is not showing in the main FOMM list even though I've now activated it (it is showing in the Package Manager)?

 

Also, when I run LOOT (I decided to go with LOOT instead of BOSS as all the tutorial videos use LOOT, so I can follow them, including this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USI73yks9Zk), the NMC mod is not showing in the LOOT list. Is that because it is textures only? Should I just go ahead and run FO3 Edit anyway, and then Fallout 3 (through FOSE) to test it, even though NMC is not listed in LOOT?

 

Also, the main files (Anchorage etc) are all showing ITM records etc, and are saying to "fix in FO3 Edit". Surely there shouldn't be anything that needs fixing for the main files should there?

Edited September 20, 2015 by ianpwilliams

[M48A5]

The only thing that will show in your load order are mods that have either an .esm or .esp. NMCs texture pack has neither. There are other texture replacers that will not have an .esm or .esp. If it is installed properly, you will not have a problem.

 

I have never, ever cleaned any of the DLCs. I put no faith in the statements that they should be cleaned. As a matter of fact, I have only cleaned one mod and the game crashed during loading. I uninstalled the cleaned mod and reinstalled the original and the game ran perfectly.

 

I do not clean mods, nor do I use the "Master Update" function of FO3Edit.

 

Good luck with LOOT. I hope you game starts and runs.