General Modding question

[Blackboltz]

Hello, I am new to the computer gaming world and am thinking about getting Fallout New Vegas for the PC (windows 7 specifically). I am wondering what the dangers of using mods on my computer are. Can it just mess with it a bit? Cause the game to crash or the whole computer? And if so how many mods must be running? My mom won't want me running mods if it is a danger to our computer

 

And also I haven't read very much but how hard/easy is it in install and use (or uninstall and never use again) mods?

 

Thanks you in advance for answering these questions.

[NorthWolf]

My experience:

 

Mods aren't inherently dangerous to your computer. Worse case scenarios is that your game crashes and won't let you kill its process, requiring a hard reboot. So long as you let Windows run a disk check if it feels the need to, I've never ever had a hard reboot cause any damage. Second worse you get a corrupt save, which is just a save that can't be loaded. Save frequently, and make sure to save before you install a packet of mods so you have a restore point.

 

As for the limit on the number of mods, the real problem that crops up that might cause your game to crash is the conflicts between mods and other mods/the game itself. Worse case scenario is, again, your game crashes or a save file gets corrupted.

 

Uninstalling mods is easy. Unclick the .esp in your Data Files and it'll stop loading up in your game. Download the Fallout Mod Manager and install all of your mods as packages if you want to easily remove all files related to a particular mod... then all you have to do is deactivate the package and it'll clear out your data folder automatically.

[deu58]

The number of mods you can run depends on your machine. If you are running a low end machine with an older processor and low RAM you will not be able to run as many mods as somebody else that is running a higher end machine with high ram. Basically the more mods you are running the more ram you are going to need. There is a set number of mods that the game can use but I forget what that number is. But it is something like 200 mods.

 

Should be remembered that the more mods you have the more problems you are going to have with mod conflicts. This game is inherently buggy all by itself with no mods at all. The original bugs can be fixed pretty much by doing ini.file tweaks. Here is a link to a tweak manual for FONV.

 

http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_8.html

 

This is a combined guide for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. Make sure the game is running stable first then start adding mods. Generally more than a few people find with a new game when first playing everything seems ok and then all of a sudden the game just starts crashing for know apparent reason. In some cases the crashes will become so bad as in they become constant and you are lucky if you can play for even a few minutes before the next crash. Go through the threads in mod talk and the mod troubleshooting forum and you see lots of threads of people posting for help due to constant crashes.

 

If you start having problems like that then you can post here and there are folks around that can help you out.

Edited June 15, 2011 by deu58

[Blackboltz]

@ Northwolf: Is there any way to know if two or more mods will or will not work well together?

 

and @ deu58: Where would I find how much RAM my computer has and where would I see the number of mods I can run with that amount of RAM?

 

And thank you both.

[NorthWolf]

There's no way to really know if mods will play nicely together without some modding experience, and even then there are no guarantees... this game, though enjoyable, is glitchy, and sometimes benign modifications can entice the game to beat itself senseless and crash. However, most modifications will play nicely with each other, provided they don't both do very similar things. The easiest way to find out is test it by playing in game and making sure the mods are doing what they claimed to do and the game isn't exploding.

 

There are a few ways to check your system's RAM. Easiest is to just open "Run..." and type in "dxdiag", which will run a diagnostic of your computer. Your system RAM will be listed as "Memory: xxxx" under the first page, where "xxxx" is the amount of memory you actually have.

Edited June 15, 2011 by NorthWolf

[Blackboltz]

Thanks. And last question for now.

 

How much RAM should I have to be able to safely download and play mods?

 

I looked and it says "Installed memory: (RAM) 3.00 GB. Would that be a good amount?

[NorthWolf]

You don't need any specific amount of RAM to download and play mods safely... at worst less RAM means less stability. It might make the game crash, but it won't hurt your system.

 

Aside from that, yeah, 3GB is more than enough. You should be able to play as many mods as you'd like, pretty much.

Edited June 15, 2011 by NorthWolf

[Blackboltz]

Thank you very much for your help.

 

I assume this means you would reccomend the game :tongue:

[deu58]

 

I assume this means you would reccomend the game :tongue:

 

 

Absolutely. This is a great game but in can be a pain in the dink to get it all running at first. Not everybody has problems. Some do some don't. If you do come on back and somebody will help you out. There is a lot of stuff that can be done with this game but to much at once can be information overload and actually confuse rather than help.

 

Crank it up take it for a spin yourself and see how you like it :)

Edited June 15, 2011 by deu58

[Blackboltz]

One more question:

 

How often does a save file corrupt and how often does the game crash and you have to do a hard reboot? I know it probably depends on your computer but I have a decent computer so what are your guys's experiences?